Yet those are among the best types of names: easy to remember and, at the time, likely with no negative or bland connotations.
One of the most interesting "branding" episodes came from the OMB and Census Bureau in the late 70's. People who came from the Spanish Speaking nations of Latin America had to be "named" because the new civil rights legislation required such persons to be enumerated.
So, to avoid any negative connotations, they took an old, almost archaic term, "Hispanic" and which referred to the origins of the Spanish language and the early Spanish nation.
They defined "Hispanic" as referring to anyone who came from nations where Spanish was spoken, even if many such people spoke Quechua or Náhuatl or other indigenous tongues. And since there are people in those nations who are, racially, Black, Indigenous, Asian, white and everything in between, the term was defined as a culture, not a race.
Of course, even back in the 70's there were many millions of people inside the US already who spoke Spanish or whose parents or ancestors did. They were classified as Hispanic, too.
The broad definition was so vague that the Census takers in Puerto Rico in 1980 and 1990 who called on my door classified me as "Hispanic" because I sad "¿Quién es? instead of "Who's there" when they knocked.
But, as defective as the term is and as vague as its boundaries are, the name stuck.
That is how brands and definitions are determined.
