Sometimes we get asked how we come up with the names for our fixtures and hardware.  And sometimes we don’t.  For the dozens of customers who are dying to know, here is a little background information.

For lighting fixtures, we name them after Portland and Oregon streets, neighborhoods and parks.  We have a list of about 2,000 names to reference.  Sometimes the name really fits the fixture.  For example, the Rose City is one of our best selling fixtures.  It just so happens, it was given the nickname of our fine city.  Very fitting, I think.  There are other times when we love a name and wait for the right fixture to come along that just seems to fit.  An example would be the Bullfinch.

The aptly named Bullfinch

Since I started working at Rejuvenation over two years ago, every single time we needed to name a fixture, Tony, our Lighting Product Manager, had that on the list.  Every time he brought it up, we all shot him down.  It just didn’t fit anything we were working on at the time.  That is until we began development of the Gas Cage Family of Industrial fixtures.  Finally, Bullfinch had a fixture that was worthy of the bold, distinct name.  It is also in good company with the Leadbetter, Ironside and Rockwell fixtures in the same family.

But, when it comes to our Mid-Century Modern Lighting, we threw all of that convention out of the window.  We name those fixtures for Satellites.  It just works better.

Hardware, on the other hand, we name after Oregon explorers. I know, I know, you Portlandians know that many of the landmarks and street names in and around Portland are named for Oregon explorers.  So how is this different from Lighting you ask?  Sometimes, unfortunately, it is not.  Meet Davis the light fixture and Davis the interior door set.  Oops!  Lucky for us, one mounts on the ceiling and one mounts on a door.  Both highly useful items, but hardly interchangeable.  But I digress…

A little over two years ago, we decided to introduce a new line of switch plates.  The original series, made from forged brass, did not have a name and we needed a way to easily differentiate the two types, besides just referring to one as forged and one as stamped, a description that does not mean much to most people.  We decided they each needed a proper name.  It was clear to us that it should be a pair of names that go together, like Abbot and Costello (NOT Oregon explorers, by the way).   The obvious choice was Lewis and Clark!  It was obvious for a few reasons.  First, Lewis and Clark were probably the most famous pair of explorers.

Lewis Pushbutton Plates

But a little less obvious and more of an inside reason for our decision was that there was some controversy surrounding Meriwhether Lewis’ death.  Some believe it was suicide and others believe he was murdered.  In either case, we thought it fitting to name our pre-existing, forged- brass switch plate line Lewis and the new, stamped brass line, Clark, because we were not sure if Clark would complement our Lewis collection or kill it.  We are happy to report that it complements it nicely.  Besides, I always thought Clark lived a little in Lewis’ shadow, I mean we never refer to them as Clark and Lewis.