Where Company Names Come From

Company BrandingEver wonder how companies come up with their names?

FortyMedia.com, a business blog lists a collection of well-known company names from Wikipedia and their origins. Choosing a good name can be important to a business. So, it's interesting to learn what was the inspiration for a well-recognized company's name:

Here's a few of my favorites:

7-Eleven: this chain of convenience stores started in 1927 as U-Tote’m (so called because customers “toted” away their purchases). In 1946, U-Tote’m became 7-Eleven to reflect the stores’ new, extended hours: 7am until 11pm, seven days a week.

Apple: for the favourite fruit of co-founder Steve Jobs and/or for the time he worked at an apple orchard.

Arm & Hammer: the founder’s name was Armand Maccabee. The word maccabee is a biblical Hebrew name that translates to the English - hammer.

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: named from the digestive enzyme pepsin.

Starbucks: named after Starbuck, a character in Herman Melville’s whaling novel, Moby-Dick.

eBay: Pierre Omidyar, who had created the Auction Web trading website, had formed a web consulting concern called Echo Bay Technology Group. “Echo Bay” didn’t refer to the town in Nevada, “It just sounded cool,” Omidyar reportedly said. Echo Bay Mines Limited, a gold mining company, had already taken EchoBay.com, so Omidyar registered what (at the time) he thought was the second best name: eBay.com.

LEGO: combination of the Danish “leg godt”, which means to “play well.” Lego also means “I put together” in Latin, but LEGO Group claims this is only a coincidence and the etymology of the word is entirely Danish. Years before the little plastic brick was invented, LEGO manufactured wooden toys. 

You can read more from this list that I found from the always interesting website Presurfer.

Michelle
Featured Blogger
AmericanInventorSpot.com

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