The short answer: A disc's name usually has two parts: the plastic and the mold. The mold is the shape of the disc and decides how it flies. The plastic decides how it feels in the hand and how long it lasts. Everything else in the name is extra, such as a player, a series, a tournament or an effect in the plastic.
What is a mold?
The word mold is meant quite literally. It is the mould the disc is made in, and it gives the disc its shape: how wide the rim is, how deep it is and how the top curves. That is why two discs from the same mold fly almost the same, even when they are made in different plastics. Every mold has its own name, such as Teebird, Buzzz or River.
How to read the name
Here are some names from our own shop, split into the parts they are made of:
Plastic goes by many names
Every manufacturer has its own names for its plastics, and sometimes the name is several words. Prodigy uses numbers: 300 is their base plastic, 400 is their most popular premium plastic and 750 is a firmer version. Discmania rates the stiffness of its putters as Flex 1, 2 and 3, where Flex 1 is the softest. Latitude 64 adds Orbit when the rim is a different colour from the rest of the disc. MVP, Axiom and Streamline belong together and share the same plastic names, such as Neutron and Proton, across the three brands. You can read more about plastics in Which plastic should your disc be made of?
Some discs do not have the plastic in the name at all. That goes for many of Discraft's Tour Series discs, where the player and the year fill up the name. The plastic is listed in the product description instead.
When a small suffix means a different disc
Watch out for letters and numbers at the end of a mold's name. At Discraft, SS means "Super Straight", so a Zone SS flies straighter and with less fade than a regular Zone, while OS means overstable. Innova's Leopard3 is a flatter, faster version of the Leopard. The names look alike, but they are different molds and they fly differently.
Players, series and tournaments
Many discs carry the name of a player on the manufacturer's team. It can be a signature disc or part of a yearly series like Discraft's Tour Series, where each year brings new players and new art. Other editions are made for a particular tournament, or are a first run, meaning they come from the first production of a new mold. Usually it is the same mold underneath, so it flies like the regular version but looks different.
The names often follow a theme
Most manufacturers name their molds after one or a few themes, and once you know the theme it is easier to guess which brand a disc comes from:
- Streamline: flight, such as Pilot, Runway, Jet and Turbulence.
- MVP: physics and electronics, such as Volt, Ohm, Photon and Reactor.
- Axiom: feelings and states of mind, such as Envy, Crave, Panic and Wrath.
- Westside: myths and the medieval, such as King, Queen, Sword and Sorcerer.
- Dynamic Discs: law and order, such as Sheriff, Judge, Jury and Felon.
- Kastaplast: Swedish words, such as Berg, Falk, Stål and Järn.
- Latitude 64: several themes at once, such as weapons like Claymore and Dagger, gemstones like Diamond and Ruby and virtues like Grace and Hope.
- Discmania and Prodigy: letters and numbers, where the letter shows the type, such as FD for fairway driver at Discmania and D for distance driver at Prodigy.
How to find what you like
If you have a disc whose shape and flight you like, search for the mold's name. That way you find the same disc in other plastics and editions. If you have a disc that feels great in the hand, search for the plastic's name and try other molds in the same plastic. If you are unsure what is the mold and what is the plastic, you can look the mold up in the PDGA's list of approved discs, where every approved mold is listed with its manufacturer and name.
To learn what the four numbers on a disc mean, read What do the numbers on a disc mean? And to see which discs we recommend when you are buying new ones, read Which disc golf discs should you buy?