This paper aims to reveal modes of signification in house-names on Mumbai’s residential buildings, seen (simultaneously) in the choice of names and display typography. Their visual characteristics are pragmatic or symbolic, depending on the semiosis that underlies the meanings of the building’s names. 

This interplay between house name (word) and display (typography) on a building together creates a ‘name-sign’, and presents two modes of signification: 

Firstly, some building names pseudo-signify, as no direct rule of signification is evident. They represent a patron’s aspirations, and meaning is related only to the interest of preserving his/her own name on the building as posterity. The typographical ‘name-sign’ formulation communicates the denotata (that signifies the mundane labelling of the facade or declaring its location). 

Secondly, some buildings celebrate a metaphoric signification in their names. These significations are often obscure to the location or inhabitants. Such buildings envisage connotata through their ‘name-sign’ display (that signifies some other ideas/beliefs/memberships beyond the local context of the building). 

We conclude by analysing these two modes of significations in the ‘name-signs’. The insights developed help us understand local and period contexts for Mumbai’s buildings, the governing modes of significations and the respective visual features of the display typography.