Brand Name Origins

[bewolf]

Adobe - came from name of the river Adobe Creek that ran behind the
house of founder John Warnock.

CISCO - its not an acronym but the short for San Francisco.

Google - the name started as a jokey boast about the amount of information
the search-engine would be able to search. It was originally named 'Googol',
a word for the number represented by 1 followed by 100 zeros. After founders,
Stanford grad students Sergey Brin and Larry Page presented their project to
an angel investor, they received a cheque made out to 'Google'

Hotmail - Founder Jack Smith got the idea of accessing e-mail via the web
from a computer anywhere in the world. When Sabeer Bhatia came up with
the business plan for the mail service, he tried all kinds of names ending in
'mail' and finally settled for hotmail as it included the letters "html" - the
programming language used to write web pages. It was initially referred to
as HoTMaiL with selective upper casing.

HP - Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard tossed a coin to decide whether the
company they founded would be called Hewlett-Packard or Packard-Hewlett.

Intel - Bob Noyce and Gordon Moore wanted to name their new company
'Moore Noyce' but that was already trademarked by a hotel chain, so they
had to settle for an acronym of INTegrated ELectronics.

Microsoft - coined by Bill Gates to represent the company that was devoted to
MICROcomputer SOFTware. Originally christened Micro-Soft, the '-' was
removed later on.

Motorola - Founder Paul Galvin came up with this name when his company
started manufacturing radios for cars. The popular radio company at the time
was called Victrola.

Xerox - The inventor, Chestor Carlson, named his product trying to say 'dry' (as
it was dry copying, markedly different from the then prevailing wet copying).
The Greek root 'xer' means dry.

Yahoo! - the word was invented by Jonathan Swift and used in his book 'Gulliver's
Travels'. It represents a person who is repulsive in appearance and action and is
barely human. Yahoo! founders Jerry Yang and David Filo selected the name
because they considered themselves yahoos.

[bewolf]

Adidas- from the name of the founder Adolf (Adi) Dassler.

Amazon - Founder Jeff Bezos renamed the company to Amazon (from the earlier name of Cadabra.com ) after the world's most voluminous river, the Amazon. He saw the potential for a larger volume of sales in an online bookstore as opposed to the then prevalent bookstores. (Alternative: It is said that Jeff Bezos named his book store Amazon simply to cash in on the popularity of Yahoo at the time. Yahoo listed entries alphabetically, and thus Amazon would always appear above its competitors in the relevant categories it was listed in).


Apple- For the favourite fruit of co-founder Steve Jobs and/or for the time he worked at an apple orchard. He was three months late in filing a name for the business, and he threatened to call his company Apple Computer if his colleagues didn't suggest a better name by 5 p.m. Apple's Macintosh is named after a popular variety of apple sold in the US. Apple also wanted to distance itself from the cold, unapproachable, complicated imagery created by the other computer companies at the time had names like IBM, NEC, DEC, ADPAC, Cincom, Dylakor, Input, Integral Systems, SAP , PSDI, Syncsort and Tesseract. The new company sought to reverse the entrenched view of computers in order to get people to use them at home. They looked for a name that was unlike the names of traditional computer companies, a name that also supported a brand positioning strategy that was to be perceived as simple, warm, human, approachable and different. Note: Apple had to get approval from the Beatle's Apple Corps to use the name 'Apple' and paid a one-time royalty of $100,000 to McIntosh Laboratory, Inc., a maker of high-end audio equipment, to use the derivative name 'Macintosh', known now as just 'Mac'.

BenQ- Bringing ENjoyment and Quality to life.

Blaupunkt- Blaupunkt (Blue dot) was founded in 1923 under the name Ideal. Their core business was the manufacturing of headphones. If the headphones came through quality tests, the company would give the headphones a blue dot. The headphones quickly became known as the blue dots or blaue Punkte. The quality symbol would become a trademark, and the trademark would become the company name in 1938.

BMW- Abbreviation of Bayerische Motoren Werke (Bavarian Motor Factories).


-BP- Formerly British Petroleum, now "BP" (The slogan "Beyond Petroleum" has incorrectly been taken to refer to the company's new name following its rebranding effort in 2000).

-Bridgestone- Named after founder Shojiro Ishibashi. The surname Ishibashi (??) means "stone bridge", i.e. "bridge of stone".

-Canon- Originally (1933) Precision Optical Instruments Laboratory the new name (1935) derived from the name of the company's first camera, the Kwannon, in turn named after the Japanese name of the Buddhist bodhisattva of mercy.

-Coca-Cola- Coca-Cola's name is derived from the coca leaves and kola nuts used as flavoring. Coca-Cola creator John S. Pemberton changed the 'K' of kola to 'C' for the name to look better.

-Colgate-Palmolive- Formed from a merger of soap manufacturers Colgate & Company and Palmolive-Peet. Peet was dropped in 1953. Colgate was named after WilliamColgate, an English immigrant, who set up a starch, soap and candle business in New York Cityin 1806. Palmolive was named for the two oils (Palm and Olive) used in its manufacture.

-Compaq- From "comp" for computer, and "pack" to denote a small integral object; or: Compatibility And Quality; or: from the company's first product, the very compact Compaq Portable.

-Daewoo- The company founder Kim Woo Chong called it Daewoo which means "Great Universe" in Korean.

-Dell- Named after its founder, Michael Dell. The company changed its name from Dell Computer in 2003.

-DHL- The company was founded by Adrian Dalsey, Larry Hillblom , and Robert Lynn , whose last initials form the company's moniker.

-eBay- Pierre Omidyar, who had created the Auction Web trading website, had formed a web consulting concern called Echo Bay Technology Group. " EchoBay" didn't refer to the town in Nevada, the nature area close to Lake Mead, or any real place. "It just sounded cool," Omidyar reportedly said. When he tried to register EchoBay.com, though, he found that Echo Bay Mines, a gold mining company, had gotten it first. So, Omidyar registered what (at the time) he thought was the second best name: eBay.com.

-Epson- Epson Seiko Corporation, the Japanese printer and peripheral manufacturer, was named from "Son of Electronic Printer".

-Fanta- was originally invented by Max Keith in Germanyin 1940 when World War II made it difficult to get the Coca-Cola syrup to Nazi Germany. Fanta was originally made from byproducts of cheese and jam production. The name comes from the German word for imagination (Fantasie or Phantasie), because the inventors thought that imagination was needed to taste oranges from the strange mix.


-Fiat- Acronym of Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino (Italian Factory of Cars of Turin).

-Fuji- From the highest Japanese mountain Mount Fuji.


-Hitachi- Old place name, literally "sunrise"

-Honda- From the name of its founder, Soichiro Honda.

-Hyundai- Connotes the sense of "the present age" or "modernity" in Korean.

-IBM- Named by Tom Watson, an ex-employee of National Cash Register. To one-up them in all respects, he called his company International Business Machines.


-IKON- Copier company name derived from I Know One Name.

[bewolf]

-Kawasaki- From the name of its founder, Shozo Kawasaki

-Kodak- Both the Kodak camera and the name were the invention of founder George Eastman . The letter "K" was a favourite with Eastman; he felt it a strong and incisive letter. He tried out various combinations of words starting and ending with "K". He saw three advantages in the name. It had the merits of a trademark word, would not be mis-pronounced and the name did not resemble anything in the art. There is a misconception that the name was chosen because of its similarity to the sound produced by the shutter of the camera.

-Konica- It was earlier known as Konishiroku Kogaku. Konishiroku in turn is the short for Konishiya Rokubeiten which was the first name of the company established by Rokusaburo Sugiura in the 1850s.

-Korg- Formed from the surnames of the founders, Tsutomu Katoh and Tadashi Osanai, combined with the letters "rg" from the word organ.

-LG- Combination of two popular Korean brands Lucky and Goldstar. (In Mexicopublicists explained the name change to the public as an abbreviation to LÃnea Goldstar Spanish for Goldstar Line).

-Mazda Motor- From the company's first president, Jujiro Matsuda . In Japanese, no syllables are ever stressed and some inner syllables are virtually skipped. Thus, Matsuda is pronounced "Matsda". To make the name fly better outside of Japan, the spelling was changed to Mazda.

-McDonald's- From the name of the brothers Dick McDonald and Mac McDonald, who founded the first McDonald 's restaurant in 1940.

-Mercedes- This is the first name of the daughter of Emil Jellinek, who worked for the early Daimler
company around 1900.

-MGM- Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was formed by the merger of three picture houses Metro Picture Corporation, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer Pictures. Goldwyn Picture Corporation in turn was named after the last names of Samuel Goldfish and Edgar and Archibald Selwyn.

-Mitsubishi- The name Mitsubishi (??) has two parts: mitsu means three and hishi (changing to bishi in the middle of the word) means water chestnut, and from here rhombus, which is reflected in the company's logo.


Mozilla Foundation- From the name of the web-browser that preceded Netscape Navigator. When Marc Andreesen , founder of Netscape, created a browser to replace the Mosaic browser, it was internally named Mozilla (Mosaic-Killer, Godzilla) by Jamie Zawinski.

-Nero- Nero Burning ROM named after Nero burning Rome.

-Netscape- Named by first marketing employee Greg Sands, in a panic when the Universityof Illinoisthreatened to sue the new company for its original name, Mosaic. Netscape then paid Landor $50,000 to design a logo.

-Nike- Named for the Greek goddess of victory.

-Nikon- The original name was Nippon Kogaku, meaning "Japanese Optical".

-Nissan- The company was earlier known by the name Nippon Sangyo which means "Japanese industry".

-Nokia- Started as a wood-pulp mill, the company expanded into producing rubber products in the Finnish city of Nokia. The company later adopted the city's name.

-Pepsi- Pepsi derives its name from (treatment of) dyspepsia, an intestinal ailment.

-Philips- Royal Philips Electronics was founded in 1891, by brothers Gerard (the engineer) and Anton (the entrepreneur) Philips .

-Qantas- From its original name, Queensland And Northern Territory Aerial Services.

-Reebok- Another spelling of rhebok (Pelea capreolus), an African antelope.

-SAAB- Founded in 1937 in Swedenas "Svenska Aeroplan aktiebolaget" (Swedish Aeroplane Company) abbreviated SAAB.

-Samsung- Meaning three stars in Korean.

-Sanyo - The Japanese translation is disputed, although the Chinese name is "??" (literally, "Three Oceans").

-SEGA- "Service Games of Japan" (SeGa) Founded by Marty Bromley (an American) to import pinball games to Japanfor use on American military bases.

-Sharp- Japanese consumer electronics company named from its first product, an ever-sharp pencil.

-Shell- Royal Dutch Shell was established in 1907, when the Royal Netherlands Petrol Society Plc. and the Shell Transport and Trading Company Ltd. merged. The Shell Transport and Trading Company Ltd. had been established at the end of the 19th century, by commercial firm Samuel & Co (founded in 1830). Samuel & Co were already successfully importing Japanese shells when they set up an oil company, so the oil company was named after the shells Samuel & Co were importing.

-Siemens- founded in 1847 by Werner von Siemens and Johann Georg Halske: the company was originally called Telegraphen-Bau-Anstalt von Siemens & Halske.

-Suzuki- From the name of its founder, Michio Suzuki.

-Tesco- Founder Jack Cohen, who from 1919 sold groceries in the markets of the London East End, acquired a large shipment of tea from T. E. Stockwell and made new labels by using the first three letters of the supplier's name and the first two letters of his surname forming the word "TESCO".

-Toshiba- Was founded by the merger of consumer goods company Tokyo Denki (Tokyo Electric Co) and electrical firm Shibaura Seisaku-sho (Shibaura Engineering Works).

-Toyota- From the founder's name Sakichi Toyoda. Initially called Toyeda, it was changed after a contest for a better-sounding name. The new name was written in katakana with eight strokes, a number that is considered lucky in Japan.

-Vodafone- Is a multinational mobile phone operator with headquarters in the United Kingdom. Its name is made up of VOice, DAta, TeleFONE. Vodafone made the UK's first mobile call at a few minutes past midnight on the 1 January 1985.

-Volvo- From the Latin word "volvo", which means "I roll". It was originally a name for a ball bearing being developed by SKF.

[lor]

Wolfie, It looks like you often have alot of time, like me. Did you sit down & look all that up? I'll have to think of or find one to add. :)

raine

(Lorraine)

[lor]

-Frigidaire- this company name got it's name from what the product represents...frigid-air

-Jello- this product helps name describes it (but the spelling is different)...gel

-Kleenex- this cleans

-Bandaid- this discribes it...a band used to aid a wound

[bewolf]

Did you sit down & look all that up?

No Lor, I didn't look them up... I copied and pasted from another site I go to. And the poster there copied and pasted it from somewhere else... It seems to be going around the web

Wolfie

[lor]

Bewolf, I didn't look them up either. I knew them from years ago ;)

[katecamp]

Hi there

That's quite a good list. I worked for Hitachi.

Hitachi, we were there when they came up with their tag line "Inspire the Next", no one ever understood it.

LG, somewhere before/after Lucky Goldstar, was Life's Good

Duracell, well that one I know for sure. My Father and two others came up with the name after Mr. Mallory sold the company

[lor]

Nabisco ~ NAtional BIScuit COmpany

Sunoco ~ SUN Oil COmpany

I remember these two from childhood too. I figured out Nabisco after I found out where Sunoco came from. There is a SUN Oil factory on the other side of town

[lor]

LOL ---- Hi again

I was watching a show on the History channel today & learne about another name.

Atari ~ A term that means "Go", in Japanese
(the co. was started by a man in California)

[lor]

I was looking for info. on my maiden name & found a guy with this co. has the same last name. I got info. on this co that explains the name.


Anheiser-Busch ~ the brewery was established (in Bavaria in 1852) by Eberhard
Anheuser and in 1864 his SIL, Adolphus Busch joined the group. Anheuser ended up handing down the brewery to Busch

[Nana4&cntn]

This was a learning experience!!! I too have too much time on my hands and have filled some of it with being a court appoint
kathyed guardian for 7 developmentally disabled/mentally ill folks. I was a social worker prior to being disabled. I have to tell you this was very mind provoking. I honestly couldn't come up with a name origin if wanted too.

Thanks all, I enjoyed it