A famous one is Tempo, a manufacturer of tissues. Our version of Sellotape is Tesafilm. There is a brand of lovage seasoner called Maggi, I don't think that even has a recognisable "normal" name.
There is a popular soft drink in southern Germany which is made by mixing cola with orange soda. The most popular brand for this, at least in Bavaria, is "Spezi" which is also the universal name for this drink in Bavaria.
Selters for sparkling water, and Lego for pretty much every kind of block building (except for the company that had bigger blocks but I fogor the name lol)
Mack is certainly a word like this. It means "gas station" but comes from a company called "MACK" after the founders surnames (Mathiasson, Andersson, Collin and Key) founded in 1916 and made gas pumps. These gas pumps became so dominant on the Swedish market that the word "Mack" soon became a synonym of gas station, and still is today.
If I asked someone for chocolate milk and they brought me anything but O'boy, I'd spit in the glass and leave. NOTHING tastes better. I've tried many off-brands and cheap knockoffs and they all taste like a chemical spill.
The French producer BIC has been so succesfull in selling their ball pens that in French a bic (note that capital letters of the brand are even dropped) has become de facto the most common word for "ball pen" instead of the original word stylo-bille.
Off topic but seeing the word poubelle unlocked a new memory for me. I'm Russian and I love Sum 41. When I was in my senior year of high school, I found a song of theirs named Ma Poubelle, which was entirely in French, and the tune was super catchy so I wanted to learn French to understand what it meant. Young me thought that it was probably a love song lol.
While not exactly name of a product, I like that a sweatshirt is called "mikina" because there used to be a lot of them with a Mickey Mouse picture edit: ugh, found out that's probably just false etymology. Many sources say that "mikina" most probably comes from brand Miki I've never heard of.
Donut is really just the generic name, but someone in Spain managed to copyright it in the sixties, so I'm not sure it really counts. It's like if someone in the US decided to start selling turrón and named their brand Turrón™.
Some people say fixo or fiso instead of celo. And the flus flus is also known as flis, chis chis, and a lot of others. There are polls quite often about it in different websites. Also "túper" for Tupperware.
Celofán for the thin translucent foil to pack food in it Közért for smaller grocery shops Mirelit for frozen food "Kóla" in some areas seems to be the generic word for bubbly sugary drinks and other adjectives are used for precision like "szőke kóla" "blond cola" for fanta. For a long time I tought that this is just a joke, but then I heard it used IRL.
Some other drink related ones, but I think they are more local to Vienna: obi for apple juice, Cappy for orange juice. But tixo and Uhu are indeed super common
We often say Pampers instead of "diaper". Pampers was (one of) the first brand of disposable diapers in Bulgaria and the name sticked. If you ask my mom she would say that "pampers" is a disposable diaper and "diaper" is a cloth diaper.
In Germany you have things like Tesa for transparent sticky tape, Uhu for glue sticks, Edding for permanent markers, Tempo for tissues, Labello for lip balm, Pril or Fit for dish soap depending on whether you're west or east German, although I doubt any of them are as universal as coke in the US, they're just rather common. Also foreign brands like Tupper for household food containers, Pampers for diapers, and previously Sony's Walkman and Discman brands for all portable cassette or CD players. Also I think we pretty commonly call all orange soda and lemon soda Fanta and Sprite respectively, however we refer to coke by Cola so the brand name doesn't apply here.
Now I'm wondering how many of those are truly just regional things. Most of these I know, but others I've never heard. Thats interesting! (Btw those I never heard being used are Pritt and Unimog)
Ireland Vacuum cleaner - hoover and verb to hoover Sellotape Biro - ballpoint pen Tayto - crisps Jcb - I don't know what it is, on building site bucket at front Stanley- knife with disposable blades
I didnt know that Mocio was a brand, we use Mocho (I guess that same sound) as a noun. But we use the most common Fregona (Spanish invent as side note xP)
The German brand "Tintenkiller" is completely unknown in Flanders as a brand, but it has become the standard word for ink erasers. I assume it is/was a popular brand in Germany at least?
In Norway the liquid detergent you use to wash dishes is often just called "Zalo", regardless of brand. And since there is no "z" sound in Norwegian, that sounds like "salo". Which might be a little odd for Ukrainians who find themselves in Norway these days....
In Ireland there’s a brand of potato crisps called Tayto. It would be fairly common for people to say they are eating a packet of Taytos even if they’re eating another type of crisps.
A famous one is Tempo, a manufacturer of tissues. Our version of Sellotape is Tesafilm. There is a brand of lovage seasoner called Maggi, I don't think that even has a recognisable "normal" name.
Also Fön for a hairdrier, Flex for an angel grinder, Kärcher for high-pressure cleaners, Duden for a dictionary
Labello for a chapstick (but I think this is also a brand name)
In Austria tape is almost universally called „Tixo“ - a popular brand of tape.
Also felt permanent markers are called "Edding".
iirc the odd naming we use for mobile phones (Handy) derived from some Motorola Handie Talkie radio used in the military.
And Q-tips for cotton swaps and "o.b." for tampons
Additionally, Zewa for kitchen (paper) towel
Also: ohropax for ear plugs
A lot of especially older people also call dishwashing soap "Spüli", which is a brand name as well, though the brand itself does not exist anymore.
There is a popular soft drink in southern Germany which is made by mixing cola with orange soda. The most popular brand for this, at least in Bavaria, is "Spezi" which is also the universal name for this drink in Bavaria.
Here in the US we would call it Scotch Tape (a real popular brand of sellotape)
Selters for sparkling water, and Lego for pretty much every kind of block building (except for the company that had bigger blocks but I fogor the name lol)
Kaba for chocolate milk
Oboy
Funny that you have tops/topz, in Norway it's the same story but with q-tips.
Mack is certainly a word like this. It means "gas station" but comes from a company called "MACK" after the founders surnames (Mathiasson, Andersson, Collin and Key) founded in 1916 and made gas pumps. These gas pumps became so dominant on the Swedish market that the word "Mack" soon became a synonym of gas station, and still is today.
Styrofoam is generally called Frigolit in Sweden.
If I asked someone for chocolate milk and they brought me anything but O'boy, I'd spit in the glass and leave. NOTHING tastes better. I've tried many off-brands and cheap knockoffs and they all taste like a chemical spill.
Same in Netherlands with Chocomel
Mack (gas station) Termos (heat retaining flask)
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Borotalco = talc powder
We can add: Scottex and scotch.
tetra pack and post it is same here too
Kleenex for tissues
Cotton fioc = cotton swabs
Rimmel and Post-It are also true for Portugal.
Rimmel is also for Romania. Crazy how things move around
Ah yes, in the UK we tend to use the term "Post-It Notes" to refer to any sticky notes.
also Hag for decaf coffee
I'd add also Nutella for every chocolate cream.
Also “dremel” for power tools, sometimes
Mi hai aperto un mondo
Minipimer = immersion blender
Much the same in the UK, particularly your "Googling it" example.
Also:
Travelator - moving walkways
In the US, if someone asked for Jif, we’d give them some Peanut Butter
Is it still Jif in the UK? It got renamed to Cif in the Netherlands at some point. 20 years later and many people are still calling it Jif!
JCB - (UK) Excavator
I'm adding:
Spa - sparkling water
Tipp-ex - whiteout (the Witeout brand in itself is another example for 'correction fluid')
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Luxaflex - Window blinds
obligatory
pendrive - USB stick; żyletka - razor blade (Gillette); jacuzzi - hot tub; termos - thermos; rower - bicycle; neska - instant coffee (not very common lately)
also cpn for gas station
Another one: elektroluks : vacuum cleaner
haha many of them apply to romanian too.
My parents often says "PlayStation" when they mean any console
The French producer BIC has been so succesfull in selling their ball pens that in French a bic (note that capital letters of the brand are even dropped) has become de facto the most common word for "ball pen" instead of the original word stylo-bille.
In the UK a lot of people call a ballpoint pen a "biro" for similar reasons.
I did not expect to learn the etymology of the Romanian word pubelă on Reddit this morning. Thank you!
In Germany, Rotring introduced the
Off topic but seeing the word poubelle unlocked a new memory for me. I'm Russian and I love Sum 41. When I was in my senior year of high school, I found a song of theirs named Ma Poubelle, which was entirely in French, and the tune was super catchy so I wanted to learn French to understand what it meant. Young me thought that it was probably a love song lol.
Pritt -glue stick
Jif/Cif - liquid abrasive
Wait kruimeldief is a brand name?
Roomba for vacuum robots.
chiclets - bubblegum
Lambreta and Vespa for scooter
I have
Tempo
Uhu for any sort of adhesive that's used in handicrafts.
Izguglaj meaning Google it, Selotejp - sticky tape, Paloma - paper tissue, Pampers - diapers, Smoki - peanut flips, Nes - instant coffee, Fanta - all orange soft drinks, Neskvik - cocoa powder..
We say Edding for sharpie which is also its own brand
Karma and Wafky are synonyms for gas water and air heaters
Jar for dishwashing liquid
Also "oxeroxovat" = to copy (from the copiers) is sometimes used, although it's less common nowadays
While not exactly name of a product, I like that a sweatshirt is called "mikina" because there used to be a lot of them with a Mickey Mouse picture edit: ugh, found out that's probably just false etymology. Many sources say that "mikina" most probably comes from brand Miki I've never heard of.
Brano is a door closer
Spain:
Donut is really just the generic name, but someone in Spain managed to copyright it in the sixties, so I'm not sure it really counts. It's like if someone in the US decided to start selling turrón and named their brand Turrón™.
Some people say fixo or fiso instead of celo. And the flus flus is also known as flis, chis chis, and a lot of others. There are polls quite often about it in different websites. Also "túper" for Tupperware.
We also use Kleenex in France, interesting to see that this term is shared with our neighbors
Good ones! (but I don't fully agree in the Google one for Spain). Also Roomba, Post-It, Jeep, Photoshop, papel Albal, Fairy or even Petit-Suisse.
Bambas for sneakers/trainers
Bimbo means a girl who is vain airhead in English lmao
In Belgium, we say "hey do you have a Bic?" for any ballpoint pen
🇭🇺
Labello is a lip balm, not sure why you would put it on your cheeks? Probably cheaper to use Vaseline for that.
Szilvia (paper towel), though maybe it's just my family.
Celofán for the thin translucent foil to pack food in it Közért for smaller grocery shops Mirelit for frozen food "Kóla" in some areas seems to be the generic word for bubbly sugary drinks and other adjectives are used for precision like "szőke kóla" "blond cola" for fanta. For a long time I tought that this is just a joke, but then I heard it used IRL.
In France I remember of:
hah, fridzsider exists in hungarian too, but was simplified to frigó.
I'll add Nutella (unfortunately) and Kleenex.
first which came to my mind:
Labello = lip balm
Some other drink related ones, but I think they are more local to Vienna: obi for apple juice, Cappy for orange juice. But tixo and Uhu are indeed super common
That I can remember:
Scotch for adehesive tape.
Some in Latvian:
We often say Pampers instead of "diaper". Pampers was (one of) the first brand of disposable diapers in Bulgaria and the name sticked. If you ask my mom she would say that "pampers" is a disposable diaper and "diaper" is a cloth diaper.
Everyone knows "keds" as rubber soled shoes or "zilette" as razor blade.
In Germany you have things like Tesa for transparent sticky tape, Uhu for glue sticks, Edding for permanent markers, Tempo for tissues, Labello for lip balm, Pril or Fit for dish soap depending on whether you're west or east German, although I doubt any of them are as universal as coke in the US, they're just rather common. Also foreign brands like Tupper for household food containers, Pampers for diapers, and previously Sony's Walkman and Discman brands for all portable cassette or CD players. Also I think we pretty commonly call all orange soda and lemon soda Fanta and Sprite respectively, however we refer to coke by Cola so the brand name doesn't apply here.
There are a lot:
Gore-Tex for any type of waterproof membrane
Now I'm wondering how many of those are truly just regional things. Most of these I know, but others I've never heard. Thats interesting! (Btw those I never heard being used are Pritt and Unimog)
None of the things you listed are exclusive to the US at all.
In Slovakia we use to google too, also lot of materials other people mentioned (teflón, tetrapak etc). Another ones are (product: brand):
Ireland Vacuum cleaner - hoover and verb to hoover Sellotape Biro - ballpoint pen Tayto - crisps Jcb - I don't know what it is, on building site bucket at front Stanley- knife with disposable blades
JCB - excavator Stanley knife - box cutter.
Austria:
Zip (which are "cerniere lampo" in italian but don't even have another word for them in english))
I didnt know that Mocio was a brand, we use Mocho (I guess that same sound) as a noun. But we use the most common Fregona (Spanish invent as side note xP)
The German brand "Tintenkiller" is completely unknown in Flanders as a brand, but it has become the standard word for ink erasers. I assume it is/was a popular brand in Germany at least?
In Norway the liquid detergent you use to wash dishes is often just called "Zalo", regardless of brand. And since there is no "z" sound in Norwegian, that sounds like "salo". Which might be a little odd for Ukrainians who find themselves in Norway these days....
Estonian
A fridge should be called a "réfrigérateur" in french but we mostly call them "frigos" because of a former Frigo brand who made them
Quite a lot but some of them are outdated, people stopped calling them by the manufacturer nowdays.
In Ireland there’s a brand of potato crisps called Tayto. It would be fairly common for people to say they are eating a packet of Taytos even if they’re eating another type of crisps.
Every gas-powered water heater in Poland is a "