Applying brand names to international markets remains a challenge to multinational corporations. Consumers’ sociolinguistic backgrounds shape their responses to brand names. This paper uses a sociolinguistic approach as a conceptual framework in understanding brand naming and translating in the Chinese market. The approach promotes that sociolinguistics a) recognizes linguistic competence, b) advances symbolic values imbedded in linguistic forms, and c) renders attached social valence to cultural scrutiny. Three brand‐naming cases in China are presented for discussion, which may benefit multinational corporations on brand decisions involving Chinese consumers.

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