Brand names like Astra, Vento or Freixenet are just three representatives of a new and powerful lingua franca that is understood in the remotest corners of the world. Over 10 million trade names are registered around the globe. Modern man comes into contact with an average of 300 product names every day. Traditional onomastics has been strangely uninterested in this subject although it is so firmly rooted in everyday experience, the obvious reason being that there appears to be something not quite respectable about trade names as a subject of academic inquiry. Despite the odium attaching to product names, the present study has set itself the task of combining linguistic and sales-economic perspectives to forge an 'econymic' approach to the study of this phenomenon with a view to portraying the enticing world of product names as an area of modern advertising communication that is as functional as it is creative.