What's in a Name? Nominal Scaffolding and the Psychological Infrastructure of Shared Market Cognition

Why do people continue to say “X, formerly Twitter” rather than simply “X”? This article develops Nominal Scaffolding Theory to explain how names support shared market cognition by stabilising reference to a market entity over time. The theory shifts brand naming research from evaluation to reference. It argues that names matter not only because they influence preference or communicate meaning, but because they help actors identify the object of market judgement before that judgement is formed. Formal names, former names, and nicknames are theorised as nominal anchors through which a market entity remains recognisable across change and across communicative settings. These anchors can allow present encounters to be connected with prior knowledge under a continuing referent. The theory also explains why renaming, competing labels, and name similarity can weaken nominal scaffolding by disrupting shared reference. The article contributes a referential account of brand naming and shows why naming stability is part of the psychological infrastructure that supports coordinated market judgement.