Now it turns out that the names are quite well-thought out.
Ikea product names follow a system: because the company's founder, Ingvar Kamprad, is dyslexic, he found that naming products with proper names and words made them easier to identify.
Sofas, coffee tables, bookshelves, media storage and doorknobs are named after places in Sweden (Klippan, Malmö); beds, wardrobes and hall furniture after places in Norway; carpets after places in Denmark and dining tables and chairs after places in Finland. Bookcases are mainly occupations (Bonde, peasant farmer; Styrman, helmsman). Bathroom stuff is named after lakes and rivers.
Kitchens are generally grammatical terms, and kitchen utensils are spices, herbs, fish, fruits, berries, or functional words such as Skarpt (it means sharp, and it's a knife). Chairs and desks are Swedish men's names (Roger, Joel); materials and curtains are women's names. Children's items are mammals, birds and adjectives (Ekorre is a set of children's toy balls; it means squirrel). So now you know.
I was just wondering, having read that, whether there was an implicit Swedish imperialism in using the names of neighbouring countries for furniture; a kind of claim on territory.
;-)
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