【正文】 spoken linguistic elements of any product. A legally protected brand name is called a proprietary name. A powerful brand name embodies a unique set of values and hence personality. A successfully designed brand name can bring about enormous value in a real sense, which is invisible wealth of a pany. Therefore, brand name is of more and more importance in “global village” and the right and suitable meaning of a brand can be an enduring advantage. Formation of Brand Names From the perspective of the linguistic structures, brand names can be mainly divided into proper name brand names, the mon word brand names and the coined word brand names.(He Chuansheng,1997) However, there are some similarities and differences in the formation of Chinese and English cosmetic brand names. Proper Names Using a proper name especially a person’s name can create a sense of amicability between the product and the consumers. A good name will inspire the consumers to think about the image under that name. Take some brand names for example, “Charlie” in English has the longstanding image of being a confident but warm little girl。 “大寶”in Chinese is an adorable nickname for a male who is the family members’ darling. When personal names are used as brand names, distance between the modities and the consumers could be shortened while the sense of intimacy could be established. In such a delightful and cheerful state, consumers would be inspired to be better informed about the products, if interested and satisfied, they will purchase. Thus, a very successful sale could be fulfilled as the brand name fully performs its fundamental function. Common WordsCommon words will add more amicability and friendliness in the products and names provide the denominators and translators more choices. Usually, the mon words used in Chinese and English brand names include adjective and noun. The brand names formed by mon nouns have symbolic and metaphor functions. Products with these names possess the characteristics of these words or objects, for example, “Ivory” can make you skin smooth and white. The cosmetic brand names formed by adjectives or adjective plus noun can show a very direct description of the main characters of the product. Coined Words When certain qualities, characteristics and functions are taken into consideration, coined words can be created. Since they are coined, they are unique and novel as there is not much possibility that another similar one will appear. Many English brand names are created by means of lexical methods, such as shortening, pounding, blending, affixation, etc while the Chinese brand names tend to use word group. Shortening is the simplified form of the original words. For example, “SR”, a brand name of toothpaste, is formed by acronym, that is, to use the initials of the ingredients of the product (Sodium, Ricinoleate). Compounding is a popular and crucial way of forming English and Chinese cosmetic brand names. By pounding, two or more words are together to show the feature, quality and function of the product, so pound brand names can illustrate the characteristics of the products from multiperspectives. Examples are: “Body Flower” stresses its function of making the body full of the fragrance of flowers. “Head amp。 Shoulders” stresses its function of moistening the hair and making it soft and easy to b. Different from English, Chinese is the ideograph language. So word groups can be formed by putting characters together. Usually, certain words have good connotations are frequently used. Names of plants and animals are often used as brand names. Chinese cosmetic brand names have a preference of the pretty images of some of them which can arouse the interest and bring good association, such as“蜂花”(cosmetic),“紫羅蘭” (cosmetic)and “佰草集” (cosmetic).The abovementioned have attached great importance to the point that they are pure, natural and environmentally safe products by using the raw material from the outside world and the consumers can get the essence of the flowers and herbal extract by using them. Characteristics of Brand Names A brand name is the name of a product, which is a mark or a symbol that can be used to define a certain product. The goal of a brand name should aim at setting up a good image in the market, arousing consumers’ favorable association and purchasing desire. Thus the language used in brand names must have some features of its own. Brevity Brevity is a basic requirement of a good brand name, which means brand names should concise in spellings and pronunciations to make them eyecatching and easy to remember. According to an investigation, Chinese brand names consist of mainly two or three characters, and 70% of them (including Chinese versions of foreign ones) are twocharacter construction, 29% are threecharacter construction, only about 1% are more than five characters. Name a few as examples, “立白”(washing powder), “碧浪” (washing powder), “汰漬” (washing powder), “雕牌” (washing powder), “奧妙” (washing powder), “海爾”(electric appliance), “雙星”(sports product).Whereas most English brand names are made up of one to four syllables on most occasions. Brand names such as “Benz” and “Ford”(cars) consist of one syllable。 Brand names like “Sony”(electric appliance) and “Kodak”(film) are posed of two syllables。 those like “Accustom”(watch) and “Adidas”(clothing) are made up of three syllables。 “Electrolux”(appliance) prises four syllables. In addition, most of these syllables consist of sonorous vowels and consonants with less friction, making the brand name easy to pronounce and remember. Elegance As far as elegance is concerned, it means that both brand names and their rendered versions should have favorable association but avoid unpleasant connotation that may offend customers to arouse consumers’ purchasing desire. For example, the Chinese version “金利來” for the English brand name “Goldlion” is