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Shakespeare once said and I quote, “What’s in a name?” Little did he know that we were about to enter the world of corporate business flooded with brands and logo designs. With the evolution of the concept of branding, everything sells with a name and a logo design. You don’t buy shoes, you buy Nike or Adidas. You no longer believe in drinking water, you prefer drinking Aquafina. You don’t eat a hamburger; you purchase one with a McDonald’s logo on its wrapper.
We are accustomed to guessing acronyms whenever we hear one. But later, it usually turns out it’s not what we thought of. Like CISCO does not stand for anything, it’s just derived from San Francisco. Sometimes, brands are named after weird things, but all have a history behind their etymology.
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1. Google – The accidental name:
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Yes, Google Inc can also make mistakes. In fact its name was evolved out of a typo. Originally named “Backrub”, the company was being changed to ‘Googol’, a word for the number represented by 1 followed by 100 zeros. The name was spelt incorrectly as “Google” in 1998 and it stayed.
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2. Apple – The inspiration:
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| Consider the famous Apple story, with its famous Apple logo. Although the name and logo design have no such connotation to the core purpose of the business, it still has an interesting history. Apple is considered to be the fruit that provoked Newton into inventing gravity. Hence Apple for Apple Inc is an inspiration for constant invention and development. |
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3. Adidas- Not what we think:
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| Honestly speaking, how many of us really know the meaning of Adidas? I’m sure you must be thinking “All Day I Dream About Sports” right? Well folks, it isn’t. The name Adidas is actually derived from the name of the founder Adolf (Adi) Dassler. |
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4. Adobe Systems – The River:
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| Adobe, the proprietor of magnificent software used by logo designers everywhere, was originally named from the Adobe Creek River that ran behind the house of co-founder John Warnock. |
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5. Caterpillar – The Resemblance:
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| Caterpillar Inc was originally a merger between Holt Tractor Co. and Best Tractor Co. in 1925. A company photographer exclaimed audibly from a Holt tractor that the tracks’ movement bears a resemblance to a caterpillar moving along the ground. Thus the name came into existence and stayed. |
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6. Coca-Cola – The Ingredients:
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| One of the strongest brands in the world, Coca-Cola name is derived from the coca leaves and kola nuts used as flavoring. Coca-Cola maker John S. Pemberton altered the ‘K’ of kola to ‘C’ to make the name resonant and consonant. |
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7. Hotmail – HoTMaiL:
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| The name "Hotmail" was selected out of many options that end in "-mail". As it was based on the HTML – the markup language used to create web pages, to emphasize this, the original type casing was "HoTMaiL". This was later reverted to Hotmail. |
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8. IKEA – A Complex Name:
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The IKEA acronym has a very interesting history behind it. It is a combination of the first initials of Swedish founder Ingvar Kamprad plus the first letters of the names of the property and the village he grew up. This formed Ingvar Kamprad Elmtaryd Agunnaryd, abbreviated as IKEA.
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9. Mercedes – Daddy’s Little Girl:
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| Most of might know the meaning behind Mercedes Benz logo. But the famous car brand was originally named after Emil Jellineks’ daughter, Mercédès Jellinek. Emil Jellineks was the man behind the engine designed by Wilhelm Maybach and Gottlieb Daimler and officially had his daughter’s name on it. Mercedes was actually his daughter’s nickname. |
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10. Häagen-Dazs – Foreign Branding:
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| No guys…this does not derive from any of the North Germanic languages and Scandinavian for that matter. It is simply two fabricated words meant to look Scandinavian to the American eye. This is part of a branding strategy known as foreign branding. The owner Mattus was of the idea that Denmark was famous for its dairy products and had a positive image in the U.S. |
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11. Nike – Sign of Victory:
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| Alright, so the Nike logo was designed in $35, but it really goes with the name. The company has adopted its name from “Nike – the Greek goddess of victory”. No wonder a ‘swoosh’ was happily accepted by Nike, as it accurately signals a sign of victory. |
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12. Toyota – The Lucky Charm:
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Although the name was derived from the founder’s name Sakichi Toyoda, it was changed via a logo design contest for a resonantly sounding name. The new name was imprinted in eight Japanese letters, a number that is believed to be lucky in Japan.
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If you know a mystery or exciting facts about other famous brands, do share them with us.
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1.audi 2.amazon 3.myspace 4.coca cola 5.blackberry 6.caterpillar 7.disney...
September 20th, 2010 at 4:29 pm
I loved to read the stories behind the famous brand names/logos and how they were born
Thanks for the post.
September 20th, 2010 at 5:42 pm
The Adidas founder’s last name was Dassler, not Dassle as originally reported above. There also should be a period after the name Warnock in the Adobe item.
September 21st, 2010 at 4:36 am
@P.F.Bruns…thanks for pointing out the typos. The errors have been fixed.
September 21st, 2010 at 7:58 am
Funny thing about the Häagen- dazs name is that most danes think it’s German or Dutch. The name doesn’t sound danish at all.
(oh, I’m a dane btw)
September 21st, 2010 at 8:06 am
How about how Post was an escaped patient of the Kellogg sanitarium only to steal their cereal recipe the Kelloggs had invented to feed the patients.
September 21st, 2010 at 7:15 pm
Apple – The inspiration
Was when steve jobs asked his partners a name , they did not respond, so he just went ahead with this..
September 21st, 2010 at 11:26 pm
I heard that Apple wanted to appear before Atari in the phonebook. Or at least that created a selection which they picked from.
Or maybe I dreamt it.
September 22nd, 2010 at 12:51 pm
häagen dazs doesn´t sound german ether, not even close.
it´s fascinating that a brand NOBODY knows to pronounce correctly becomes a worldwide succes… well, maybe that´s why
September 25th, 2010 at 4:45 am
Apple Computer was named after Apple Corps, the Beatles record label because the Steves were fans of the Beatles.
October 2nd, 2010 at 10:02 pm
[...] How famous brands were named – The Unknown Stories!! [...]
May 8th, 2011 at 5:54 am
WONDERFUL Post.thanks for share..
May 11th, 2011 at 6:34 am
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August 18th, 2011 at 9:34 am
AQbout the Adidas one: The brother of Adolf Dassler known as Rudolf Dassler was the founder of the company named as RuDa which was further renamed as Puma.
February 24th, 2012 at 4:31 am
Hi! Great post!