As students of the metaphysical we at the Daily Mantra can often be accused of apophenia. That being said, after nearly two decades of buying furniture at IKEA, we failed to spot any pattern within the seemingly bizarre and random names they gave their furniture. We're surrounded by “Billy” and “Magiker” bookcases, and write on a “Galant” table top while illuminated by “Fado” lamps, but we saw no rhyme or hidden reason in their names.
Fortunately the boffins at Wikipdeia have spent a lot more time pondering this great mystery than we have, and have discovered the cipher to crack the secret Da Vinci-esque code. Apart from some notable exceptions, such as “Ivar” shelves which are named after their designer, the basic formula is as follows:
- Upholstered furniture, coffee tables, rattan furniture, bookshelves, media storage, doorknobs: Swedish placenames (for example: Klippan)
- Beds, wardrobes, hall furniture: Norwegian place names
- Dining tables and chairs: Finnish place names
- Bookcase ranges: Occupations
- Bathroom articles: Scandinavian lakes, rivers and bays
- Kitchens: grammatical terms, sometimes also other names
- Chairs, desks: men's names
- Materials, curtains: women's names
- Garden furniture: Swedish islands
- Carpets: Danish place names
- Lighting: terms from music, chemistry, meteorology, measures, weights, seasons, months, days, boats, nautical terms
- Bedlinen, bed covers, pillows/cushions: flowers, plants, precious stones; words related to sleep, comfort, and cuddling
- Children's items: mammals, birds, adjectives
- Curtain accessories: mathematical and geometrical terms
- Kitchen utensils: foreign words, spices, herbs, fish, mushrooms, fruits or berries, functional descriptions
- Boxes, wall decoration, pictures and frames, clocks: colloquial expressions, also Swedish placenames
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