What's In A Name?

Fragrance names have gone the way of abstract poetry - difficult to decipher or even to interpret but are such titles necessarily the best medium for a nose's message? 

- Bryan Goh

One day in 1989, Aimé Guerlain invented a fragrance called Jicky that was abstract in both formula and name. It was not based on a single note - which was a norm of that time and its moniker was widely interpreted as carnal according to the era's lingo, instead of its original meaning as a tribute to his nephew named Jacques. Such fragrances - as esoterically named as they are enigmatic in scent - have always been big in the niche community no matter how strangely they roll off the tongue. Demeter Fragrance's Funeral Home, Etat Libre d'Orange's Sécrétions Magnifiques and Air Aroma's Scent of a MacBook Pro - there is still some context to the confusion.

According to David Benedek - the founder of the French Brand BDK Perfumes, which has head-scratching scent names like Rouge Smoking (Red Smoking) or Gris Charnel (Carnal Grey) - "naming a perfume is something easy and hard to do at the same time. Firstly, what is important to me is that people can understand and feel the inspiration behind my scents."