It’s been over a year since Elon Musk acquired X still called Twitter, yet many people still refer to the social media platform as Twitter. This begs the question – why does the old name Twitter persist even after a new brand identity has been established?
When Musk took over Twitter in late 2022, one of his first moves was to announce that the company would be renamed X. The new name was meant to signify a new direction and identity for the platform under Musk’s leadership. However, changing the name of such an established brand like Twitter was always going to be an uphill battle.
“Brand names become ingrained in the public consciousness over time. Twitter had been around since 2006, so people were just accustomed to calling it by that name,” said Sara Lane, a branding expert at BrandingBusiness. “It takes a lot of time and consistent messaging before a new brand name replaces the old one in common usage.”
Part of the issue is that the old Twitter brand was very distinctive, while the new X name is non-descript. “Twitter conjures up imagery of a bird and the concept of tweeting or chirping. But X is just a letter. It’s the ultimate generic placeholder name,” said Lane. “It doesn’t have any semantic association that people can grasp.”
The visual branding also plays a role. Twitter’s iconic blue bird logo is recognized globally. X uses the letter X in various fonts and colors as its brand mark. “The Twitter logo has much more instant recognition value, which makes the name stick in people’s minds,” said Lane.
Musk’s intentions with the rebranding were also somewhat unclear. Did X represent a clean break from Twitter? Was it meant to be an evolution of the platform? Or simply a placeholder name until something better came along? This ambiguity meant people held onto what they knew – Twitter.
“If the new name was part of a broader rebrand and repositioning of the platform, with an explanatory marketing campaign, it might have had a better chance of overtaking Twitter in the public consciousness,” said branding consultant David Johnson of Branding & Marketing YOU. “But the X rebrand was somewhat arbitrary without a compelling reason for the public to adopt the new terminology.”
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There are also practical factors at play. Platforms like Apple and Google did not update the name of the Twitter app on their app stores to X. So for users, it is still listed as Twitter on their devices. Media headlines also continue referring to Twitter when reporting on developments at the company. These reinforcements entrench Twitter as the de facto name. c
“As a brand name spreads organically through the public lexicon, it takes on a life of its own that can be hard for a company to control,” said Johnson.
Interestingly, the situation is not unprecedented. When Google reorganized under a new parent company Alphabet in 2015, the name Google stuck around. The Google brand had become too entrenched as the noun referring to searching online.
Could X eventually replace Twitter in common usage? Possibly, but it may require a long-term concerted effort.
“It took decades for Google to displace generic terms like ‘search the web’ in public vocabulary. X won’t completely overwrite Twitter overnight, but a sustained marketing campaign emphasizing the new brand could ultimately pay off,” said Lane.
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For now, X is still working through its Twitter identity crisis. The ghost of the old brand continues to linger, even as the company forges a new path forward. The public reckoning of names often moves gradually, cautiously, and occasionally in defiance of official decrees. For those frustrated by the slow adoption of X – patience may be the only option.
“What’s in a name? That which we call Twitter by any other name would still be as tweetable,” joked Lane. “But over time, the X identity will likely stick if the company remains committed to it.”
