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Hi English Learners and Teachers

I'm looking for the shortest possible terms to describe:

  1. product name given by manufacturer (at this moment I have "Manufacturer Name/Model" but maybe there is something better?)

  2. product name on the purchase invoice (at this moment I have "Invoice name", but maybe there is something better?)

  3. product name that we use in company (at this moment I have "common name", but I'm not sure if this is the best term to describe it)

Why do I need this?

I'm programmer and I'm using english for variable names etc (internally in my software). Usually my knowledge of English is enough for me, but this time I have some very similar form fields and I would like to name them properly. At this moment I'm working on software that helps to manage equipment used in our company.

Employees got used to naming some tools their own way (like "Green battery operated lawnmover", "Orange chainsaw", "Tiny wire cutter", "Bob's laptop" etc. and sometimes they may have no idea what is "Bosch EasyMower 18V-32-200" mentioned below).

In the supply department people use names given by manufacturer (for example "Bosch EasyMower 18V-32-200"), because they have to replace lost and worn out tools, contact the service etc.

If that was not enough, there is also the finance department, which is interested in the name given by the seller, appearing on the invoice, which usually is diffrent than name given by manufacturer (for example "Bosch lawnmover 18V-32-200 with battery").

It may turn out that for the accountant "Bosch EasyMower 18V-32-200" and "Bosch lawnmover 18V-32-200 with battery" are completely different things, because second is with battery :)

So this is why I need so many terms for names.

EDIT:

For No. 3 I have found few words in Cambridge Dictionary, that translated from my native language seem to be OK:

conversational, informal, vernacular

What about these words?

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    +1 and thumbs way up for such a clear question!
    – gotube
    Commented Sep 29, 2022 at 1:39

2 Answers 2

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product name given by manufacturer (at this moment I have "Manufacturer Name/Model" but maybe there is something better?)

"Manufacturer Name/Model" seems fine to me, even "model name" might work.

product name on the purchase invoice (at this moment I have "Invoice name", but maybe there is something better?)

This is also fine, the only other alternative I can think of is "purchase name".

product name that we use in company (at this moment I have "common name", but I'm not sure if this is the best term to describe it)

"common name" doesn't sound right, maybe try "general name".

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product name given by manufacturer
"make and model" or "model name"

product name on the purchase invoice
This isn't a distinction commonly made, so I'd just make one up and leave a comment in the code and hints in the UI for what it means. Your choice of "invoice name" seems reasonable to me.

product name that we use in company
Again, this isn't a common concept, but I suggest "in-house name". "Common name" sounds like "Coke" as distinct from "Coca-cola", or "South Korea" as opposed to "Republic of Korea", which is not what you're after.

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  • Quick tip, I'm not sure if "in-house name" is suitable, might seem fine but maybe "general name" is slightly better? :3
    – DialFrost
    Commented Sep 29, 2022 at 1:43
  • @DialFrost What's wrong with "in-house name"? How will anyone know that "general name" means "Bob's laptop" and not "Coke"?
    – gotube
    Commented Sep 29, 2022 at 1:57
  • But "invoice name" looks for a bit wrong for me, because it may be understood as "name of the invoice", if the invoice had a name.
    – Kamil
    Commented Sep 29, 2022 at 20:39
  • @Kamil I don't know how to keep it shorter than "product name on invoice" without losing clarity. At some point, you just accept that variable names don't communicate everything perfectly, you find a balance between short and concise, and fix any imbalance with a docstring like "/* the name of the product as it appears on the invoice */".
    – gotube
    Commented Sep 29, 2022 at 21:43

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