SPELLING SPREE: “Can you please spell ‘Gabbana?’”
If this question by Anne Hathaway’s character in “The Devil Wears Prada” was used to great comic effect, a study released by Joor on Wednesday shows she’s not alone in her befuddlement at fashion names.
Using a keyword exploration tool from online analytics tools provider Ahref to determine how and how often names were inaccurately spelled, Joor curated a list of the most misspelled global fashion names.
The company’s experts said naming a business was “a critical decision that can significantly impact its popularity and success,” but if this ranking is anything to go by, even being a household name doesn’t mean a brand is safe from having its moniker mangled.
Overall, whether a name contained double consonants or not seemed the biggest stumbling block for users, who forwent them for Bottega Veneta, Dolce & Gabbana or felt they were needed for Mulberry and Elie Saab.
Taking the lead for most misspelled name is sportswear giant Adidas, which racked an average of 556,000 wrong spellings every month out of a grand total of 16 million global searches, mostly centered on the placement and number of Ds in the brand, closely followed by Chanel and its 408,700 times of being designated “Channel” or “Chanell” out of 3.2 million searches.
Fellow French luxury houses Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior also made an appearance in fourth and eighth place in this top of typos ranking. Versace took fifth place as search engine users got creative, starting with the phonetic “Versache” to attempts such as “Vercase” and “Versaci.”
Also featured in the ranking were Swiss watchmaking brand Tag Heuer, Calvin Klein and Cartier. Likewise stumping users were Jimmy Choo’s last name, as well as the first names of Vivienne Westwood and, more surprisingly, Alexander McQueen.
As for French designer Simon Porte Jacquemus, his last name was more often misspelled than accurately written.