For India’s top property developers, the art of naming a residential project has evolved from whimsical flourishes to calculated strategy. Builders, once prone to exotic but meaningless monikers, are increasingly crafting titles that resonate with location, design, and target clientele. The transition reflects a maturing market, where Mumbai’s Prestige Nautilus aims to signal status, while DLF’s floral series, like The Dahlias, seeks to establish a recognizable brand.
“Naming a project involves intensely debated discussions. A project name needs to be a potential differentiator, describe the product or location and set the context. The best names are the ones rooted in the design of the project,” said Smarajit Mishra, head of marketing and strategy at Brigade Group. Hence, Brigade Icon in Chennai’s Mount Road because of its ‘iconic location’, and Brigade Altius (Latin for higher) that soars 43 floors high in the southern city.
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Names such as these make the first connect with a potential customer, lending a unique identity to projects. In a sector where landmarks are built on brand recognition, a project’s name is not merely a label but a calibrated instrument of sales.
Bengaluru-based Prestige Group recently launched its ultra-luxury project in Mumbai called Prestige Nautilus, pricing homes at ₹40-50 crore. According to the company’s marketing and branding head Prithwish Kotian, the name adds value to the sea-facing property, has a Western touch and would identify as a status symbol for buyers.
“Without a name, you cannot create a landmark. So, we choose the names carefully. A number of factors are considered for a project name, including who is the end user, how a sales person can sell it to the customer, and how easy it is to remember. In joint venture projects, the partners also chip in with their suggestions. The final call on a name is taken by the management,” Kotian added.
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India’s residential property market has been on a roll, with a strong focus on high-end developments. In general, developers pick names that roll off the tongue–not too many syllables, easy to pronounce and recall. However, project names tend to become fancier as they go upscale. They are also catering to a wider customer base with growing numbers of non-resident Indians.
Some developers also follow recurring themes. A few of DLF’s luxury projects in Gurugram–The Magnolias, The Camellias, and the recently launched The Dahlias are named after different flowers. Similarly, many of Bengaluru’s Sobha Ltd’s projects are named after gemstones–Amethyst, Emerald, Sapphire and Pearl.
The way a project is named is evolving too. Anuj Puri, chairman and founder of property advisory, Anarock Group, says projects were named fairly randomly earlier. Anarock Creative Agency, part of the group, is appointed by many developers to engage in the naming process.
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“I think real estate names are more meaningful these days and are true to a project. Developers appoint external agencies and deploy their full marketing force to name a project appropriately,” he said.
Inspired by the Japanese philosophy of growth and harmony, Bengaluru-based Assetz Property Group recently launched Ren & Rei, a boutique project with 218 homes, costing ₹1.8 crore and above.
Sunil Pareek, executive director, Assetz says the naming process begins when a project is being designed. As a signature, it almost always uses the ampersand (&) sign in its project names–38 & Banyan, in which 38 homes were built around an old banyan tree; Earth & Essence with an al-fresco theme.
For The House of Abhinandan Lodha, which sells branded plots, project location is key. The company launched The Sarayu, a hot-selling plotted project in Ayodhya, named after the Sarayu river on the banks of which the city is built. Its project Aero Estate in Khopoli was inspired by the new, upcoming airport in Navi Mumbai.
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Chief executive officer Samujjwal Ghosh said the company chooses names that capture the essence of the brand and the unique proposition of a project.
“For a relatively less-known location such as Anjarle in Maharashtra, we picked Tomorrowland, because it is a location that will shape up in the future,” says Ghosh.
Developers also choose simple, pedestrian names even to create a product name as a brand. That’s how Prestige City as a brand was created for the developer’s large, mixed-development projects across cities.
“The intent is to keep it true to the project and simple. We start with a codename for a project, and then a couple of weeks before the launch, we finalize a name,” Prestige Group’s Kotian said.
