List of company name etymologies - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Page 1 of 38

List of company name etymologies

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is a list of company names with their name origins explained. Some origins
are disputed.

Contents Top · 0–9 · A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

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20th Century Fox – Film studio; formed in 1935 through the merger of William
[1]
Fox's Fox Film, and Twentieth Century Pictures.

23andme – Using the 23 pairs of chromosomes that make up each person's
[2]
genome, the company helps individuals make sense of their own genome.

37signals – Web development company; named for the 37 radiotelescope
signals identified by astronomer Paul Horowitz as potential messages from
[3]
extraterrestrial intelligence.

3Com – Network technology producer; the three coms are computer,
[4]
communication, and compatibility.

3M – from the company's original name, Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing
[5]
Company.

7-Eleven – Convenience stores; renamed from "U-Tote'm" in 1946 to reflect their
[6]
newly extended hours, 7:00 a.m. until 11:00 p.m.

A
[7]

A&M Records – named after founders Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss

A&P – from Atlantic & Pacific in Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company, a U.S.-
based supermarket chain.
[8]

A&W Root Beer – named after founders Roy Allen and Frank Wright

ABN AMRO – in the 1960s, the Nederlandsche Handel-Maatschappij (Dutch
Trading Society; 1824) and De Twentsche Bank merged to form the Algemene
Bank Nederland (ABN; General Bank of the Netherlands); in 1966, the
Amsterdamsche Bank and the Rotterdamsche Bank merged to form the Amro
Bank; in 1991, ABN and Amro Bank merged to form ABN AMRO.

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Accenture – from "Accent on the future". The name Accenture was proposed by
a company employee in Norway as part of an internal name finding process
(BrandStorming). Before January 1, 2001, the company was called Andersen
[9]
Consulting.

Acer – Born as Multitech International in 1976, the company changed its name to
Acer in 1987. The Latin word for “sharp, acute, able and facile”

Adecco – named from the merger of Swiss staffing company Adia with French
[10]
staffing company Ecco.
[11]

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

Adobe Systems – from the Adobe Creek that ran behind the house of co-founder
[12]
John Warnock.

Ahold – a holding company of Albert Heijn and other supermarkets. For its
100th anniversary in 1987, Ahold was granted the title of Koninklijke ("Royal" in
Dutch) by the Monarchy of the Netherlands, changing its name to Koninklijke
[13]
Ahold (Royal Ahold).

Ahlstrom - named after founder Antti Ahlström
[14]

Akai – named for its founder, Masukichi Akai.
[15]

Akamai – from the Hawaiian word akamai meaning smart or clever; the
[16]
company defines it as "intelligent, clever and cool".

AKZO – named from the 1969 merger of Algemene Kunstzijde Unie (AKU) and
[17]
Koninklijke Zout Organon (KZO).

AKG Acoustics – from the company’s original name, Akustische und Kino-Geräte
(Acoustic and Cinema Equipment)

Alcatel-Lucent – Alcatel was named from Société Alsacienne de Constructions
[18]
Atomiques, de Télécomunications et d'Electronique. It took over Lucent
Technologies in 2006.
[19]

Alcoa – Aluminum Company of America.

Aldi – portmanteau for Albrecht (name of the founders) and discount

Alfa Romeo – the company was originally known as ALFA, an acronym for
Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili. When Nicola Romeo bought ALFA in
1915, his surname was appended.

Alstom – set up as Alsthom in 1928 by Société Alsacienne de Constructions
Mécaniques and Compagnie Française Thomson-Houston, it changed the
spelling to Alstom in 1997.

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AltaVista – Spanish for "high view".

ALZA – from the name of the founder Alex Zaffaroni.

Amazon.com – founder Jeff Bezos renamed the company 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 (as
opposed to a bricks and mortar) bookstore. (Alternative: Amazon was chosen to
cash in on the popularity of Yahoo, which listed entries alphabetically.)

AmBev – American Beverage Company, the largest Brazilian beverage company
and fourth in the world. In 2004 it merged with Interbrew to create Inbev, which
in turn purchased Anheuser-Busch in 2008 to form Anheuser-Busch InBev.

AMC Theatres – American Multi-Cinema: the company pioneered multi-screen
[20]
cinemas.

AMD – Advanced Micro Devices
[21]

AMKOR – AMericanKORea

Amiga Corporation - The original developers of the 16-bit Amiga computer
chose the name, which means a 'female friend' in Spanish and Portuguese,
because it sounded friendly, and because it came before rivals (Apple Inc. and
[22]
Atari) alphabetically .

Amoco – AMerican Oil COmpany – now part of BP

Amstrad – Amstrad Consumer Electronics plc was founded by Sir Alan Michael
Sugar in the UK. The name is a contraction of Alan Michael Sugar Trading.

Anheuser-Busch InBev – Formed by the 2008 purchase of Anheuser-Busch by
InBev. Anheuser-Busch was named for the company's original founder, Eberhard
Anheuser, and his later partner Adolphus Busch.

AOL – from America Online. The company was founded in 1983 as Quantum
Computer Services.

Apache – according to the project's 1997 FAQ: "The Apache group was formed
around a number of people who provided patch files that had been written for
[23]
NCSA httpd 1.3. The result after combining them was A PAtCHy server."

Apple – For the favorite fruit of co-founder Steve Jobs and/or for the time he
worked at an apple orchard, and to distance itself from the cold, unapproachable,
complicated imagery created by other computer companies at the time – which
had names such as IBM, DEC, Cincom and Tesseract

Apricot Computers – early UK-based microcomputer company founded by ACT
(Applied Computer Techniques), a business software and services supplier. The
company wanted a "fruity" name (Apple and Acorn were popular brands) that

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included the letters A, C and T. Apricot fit the bill.

Arby's – the enunciation of the initials of its founders, the Raffel Brothers. The
partners wanted to use the name Big Tex, but were unsuccessful in negotiating
with the Akron businessman who was already using the name. So, Forrest said,
"We came up with Arby's, which stands for R.B., the initials of Raffel Brothers,
although I guess customers might think the initials stand for roast beef."

Arcelor – created in 2001 by a merger of Arbed (Luxembourg), Aceralia (Spain)
and Usinor (France) with the ambition of becoming a major player in the steel
industry.

AREVA – named from the region of Ávila in northern Spain, location of the Arevalo
abbey. Arevalo was shorted to AREVA.

Aricent – communications software company name created in 2006 by combining
two words "arise" and "ascent".

ARM Limited – named after the microprocessor developed by small UK company
Acorn as a successor to the 6502 used in its BBC Microcomputer. ARM originally
stood for Acorn Risc Machine. When the company was spun off with backing
from Apple and VTI, this was changed to Advanced Risc Machines.

Arm & Hammer – based on the arm and hammer of Vulcan, the Roman god of fire
and metalworking. It was previously the logo of the Vulcan Spice Mills in
Brooklyn. When James Church, the son of Church & Dwight founder Austin
Church, came to Church and Dwight from Vulcan Spice Mills, he brought the logo
[24]
with him.

ARP – company that made analog synthesizers in the 1970s, named after founder
Alan Robert Pearlman.

Artis (zoo in Amsterdam) – from the Latin phrase, Natura Artis Magistra, or
Nature is Art's Teacher

Asda – Asda Stores Limited was founded as Associated Dairies & Farm Stores Ltd
in 1949. However the formation of the Asda name occurred in 1965 with the
merger of the Asquith chain of three supermarkets and Associated Dairies; Asda
is an abbreviation of Asquith and Dairies, a large UK supermarket chain that is
now a subsidiary of Wal-Mart.

ASICS – an acronym for Anima Sana In Corpore Sano, which, translated from
Latin, means "Healthy soul in a healthy body". Originally the citation is mens sana
in corpore sano, but MSICS does not sound as good.

Ask.com – search engine formerly named after Jeeves, the gentleman's gentleman
(valet, not butler) in P. G. Wodehouse's series of books. Ask Jeeves was shortened
to Ask in 2006.

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Asus – named after Pegasus, the winged horse of Greek mythology. The first
three letters of the word were dropped to get a high position in alphabetical
listings. An Asus company named Pegatron, using the spare letters, was spun off
[25]
in 2008.

Aston Martin – from the "Aston Hill" races (near Aston Clinton) where the
company was founded, and the surname of Lionel Martin, the company's founder.

AT&T – the American Telephone and Telegraph Corporation officially changed its
name to AT&T in the 1990s.

Atari – named from the board game Go. "Atari" is a Japanese word to describe a
position where an opponent's stones are in danger of being captured. It is similar,
though not identical, to "check" in chess. The original games company was
American but wanted a Japanese-sounding name.

ATI – Array Technologies Incorporated

ATS – Auto Technik Spezialerzeugnisse, a German company producing light alloy
wheels and motor parts, which ran its own Formula 1 racing team in the late
1970s and early 1980s.

Audi – Latin translation of the German name "Horch". The founder August Horch
left the company after five years, but still wanted to manufacture cars. Since the
original "Horch" company was still there, he called his new company Audi, the
Latin form of his last name. In English it is: "hark!".

B

B&Q – from the initials of its founders, Richard Block and David Quayle

Bang & Olufsen – from the names of its founders, Peter Bang and Svend Olufsen,
who met at a School of Engineering in Denmark.

Bally – originally Lion Manufacturing, the company changed its name to Bally after
the success of its first popular pinball machine, Ballyhoo.

Banesto – from Banco Español de Crédito (Spanish Credit Bank)

BAPE - A Bathing Ape is a cult clothing company founded by Tomoaki "Nigo"
[26]
Nagao in 1993. The name is derived from a Japanese saying, "A Bathing Ape In
Lukewarm Water", which Nigo says is "a reference to the young generation being
[27]
spoiled, pampered and too complacent."

BASF – from Badische Anilin und Soda Fabriken. Anilin and Soda were the first
products. Badisch refers to the location in the state of Baden, Germany (Black
Forest region).

Bauknecht – founded as an electrotechnical workshop in 1919 by Gottlob

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Bauknecht, and now a Whirlpool brand.

Bayer – named after Friedrich Bayer, who founded the company in 1863.

BBC – British Broadcasting Corporation, originally British Broadcasting Company.

BBVA – Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria.

BCC Research – from the company's former name, Business Communications
Company.

BEA Systems – from the first initial of each of the company's three founders: Bill
Coleman, Ed Scott and Alfred Chuang.

Ben & Jerry's – named after Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, who founded an ice
cream parlor in 1978 after completing a correspondence course on ice cream
making from Pennsylvania State University. The company, Ben & Jerry's
Homemade Holdings, Inc. was later taken over by Unilever.
[28]

BenQ – Bringing Enjoyment and Quality to life

BHP – Broken Hill Proprietary, named after the town of Broken Hill, where BHP
was founded (now BHP Billiton)

BIC Corporation – the pen company was named after one of its founders, Marcel
Bich. He dropped the final h to avoid a potentially inappropriate English
pronunciation of the name.

Black & Decker – named after founders S. Duncan Black and Alonzo G. Decker.

Blaupunkt – Blaupunkt ("Blue dot") was founded in 1923 under the name "Ideal".
Its 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 – Bayerische Motoren Werke (Bavarian Motor Factories).

Boeing – named after founder William E. Boeing. It was originally called Pacific
Aero Products Co.

Bosch – named after founder Robert Bosch. Robert Bosch GmbH (full company
name) is a German diversified technology-based corporation.

Bose Corporation – named after founder Amar Bose.

BSNL – from Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (India Communications Corporation
Limited).

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.)

BRAC – Bangladesh Rural & Advancement Committee, world's largest NGO (non

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governmental organization).

Bridgestone – named after founder Shojiro Ishibashi. The surname Ishibashi (石
橋) means "stone bridge", or "bridge of stone".

Brine, Corp. – sporting goods company named after founder, W.H. Brine. It was
taken over by New Balance in 2006.

BT – formerly British Telecom (from BT Group, formerly British
Telecommunications plc.)

Bull – Compagnie des machines Bull was founded in Paris to exploit the patents
for punched card machines taken out by Norwegian engineer Fredrik Rosing Bull.

Burroughs Corporation – founded in 1886 as the American Arithmometer
Company and later renamed after the adding machine invented by William Seward
Burroughs. The company took over Sperry Corporation and became Unisys.

Bultaco – Spanish company of motorcycles, which disappeared in the 1980s. Its
name is based on the name of its founder, Paco Bultó.

BHEL – Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited, a government of India company.

C

CA – Computer Associates was founded in 1976 as Computer Associates
International, Inc. by Charles Wang

C&A – named after the brothers Clemens and August Brenninkmeijer, who
founded a textile company called C&A in the Netherlands in 1841.

Cadillac – named after the 18th century French explorer Antoine Laumet de La
Mothe, sieur de Cadillac, founder of Detroit, Michigan. Cadillac is a small town in
the South of France.

CAE – originally Canadian Aviation Electronics

Campagnolo – from the name of its founder, Tullio Campagnolo.

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

Caprabo – Catalan supermarkets, founded by Carbó, Prats and Bonet.

Carrefour – chain of supermarkets and hypermarkets which started with a store
near a crossroads (carrefour in French) in Annecy.

Caterpillar – Originally Holt Tractor Co, merged with Best Tractor Co. in 1925. A
company photographer exclaimed aloud of a Holt tractor that the tracks'
movement resembled a caterpillar moving along the ground. The name stuck.

Cathay Pacific Airways Limited – The airline was founded on 24 September 1946

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by American Roy C. Farrell and Australian Sydney H. de Kantzow, with each man
putting up HK$1 to register the airline. They named it Cathay Pacific because
Cathay was the ancient name given to China; and Pacific because Farrell
speculated that they would one day fly across the Pacific.

Casio – from the name of its founder, Kashio Tadao, who had set up the company
Kashio Seisakujo as a subcontractor factory.

CBS – Columbia Broadcasting System

Celera – inspired by ‘celerity’ or swiftness (in decoding the human genome), with
[29]
"era of the cell" a secondary meaning.

CGI Group – from the first letters of Information Management Consultant in
French (Conseillers en Gestion et Informatique).

Chevrolet – named after company co-founder Louis Chevrolet, a Swiss-born auto
racer. The company was merged into General Motors in 1917 and survives only as
a brand name.

Chello – a Dutch internet service provider, its name was originally pronounced
'say hello' (in Dutch the letter C at the beginning of a word is pronounced 'say').
This didn't catch on and now it is pronounced "cello" (as in the stringed
instrument).

Chrysler – named after the company founder, Walter P. Chrysler.

Ciba Geigy – CIBA, named from Chemical Industry Basel (after Basel in
Switzerland), merged with a company named after its founder Johann Rudolf
Geigy-Merian. It became Novartis (below) after a merger with Sandoz.

CiCi's Pizza – from the first letters of the last names of the founders of the
franchise (Joe Croce and Mike Cole).

Cigna – CIGNA was formed in 1982 through the combination of Insurance
Company of North America (INA) and Connecticut General (CG). The name is
[30]
combination of the letters of the predecessor companies, CG and INA.

Cincom – originally called United Computer Systems, which was similar to several
other software and services companies of the day. Two of the three founders
visited Philco (Philadelphia Company), and this inspired them to create a new
company name derived from Cincinnati (where it was based) and Computer (its
business).

Cisco – short for San Francisco.

Citroën – named after André-Gustave Citroën (1878–1935), a French
entrepreneur of Dutch descent. He was the fifth and last child of the Dutch Jewish
diamond merchant Levie Citroen and Mazra Kleinmann (of Warsaw, Poland). The
Citroen family moved to Paris from Amsterdam in 1873 where the name changed

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to Citroën.

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

Coleco – began as the Connecticut Leather Company.

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

COLT – from City Of London Telecom

Comcast – from communications and broadcast.

Compaq – from 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.

COMSAT – a contraction of communications satellites. This American digital
telecommunications and satellite company was founded during the era of U.S.
President John F. Kennedy era to develop the technology.

ConocoPhillips – formed from the merger of Conoco (from Continental Oil
Company) and the Phillips Petroleum Company.

Copersucar – Brazilian production cooperative in sugar and alcohol, its name is a
contraction of Cooperativa de Açucar e Álcool.

Corel – from Cowpland Research Laboratory, after the name of the company's
[31]
founder, Dr. Michael Cowpland.

Cosworth – automotive engineering company named after company founders
Mike Costin and Keith Duckworth.

CPFL – Companhia Paulista de Força e Luz (São Paulo Company of Light and
Power), one of the largest in Brazil, based in Campinas.

Crabtree & Evelyn – toiletry company named after gardener John Evelyn, and the
tree that bears Crabapples

Cray – supercomputer company named after its founder, Seymour Cray.

CRC Press – originally Chemical Rubber Company

Cromemco – early microcomputer company in Silicon Valley (circa 1975–198?)
founded by two PhD students who once lived at Stanford University's Crothers
Memorial Hall (a dormitory).
[32]

Cutco – Cooking Utensils Company.

CVS – originally Consumer Value Stores. CEO Tom Ryan has said he now

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considers 'CVS' to stand for "Customer, Value, and Service".

D

Daewoo – company founder Kim Woo Chong called it Daewoo which means "Great
House" or "Great Universe" in Korean.

DAF Trucks – from 1932 the company's name was Van Doorne's Aanhangwagen
Fabriek (Van Doorne's Trailer Factory). In 1949 the company started making
trucks, trailers and buses and changed the name into Van Doorne's Automobiel
Fabriek (Van Doorne's Automobile Factory).

Daihatsu – the first kanji from "Osaka" (大坂, the kanji is here pronounced dai)
and "engine" (発動機, the first kanji is hatsu). Engine manufacturers were listed on
the Tokyo and Osaka Stock Exchanges, and their names shortened to the first
kanji. (The company listed on the Tokyo exchange is Tohatsu.)

Danone (Dannon in the U.S.) – Isaac Carasso in Barcelona made his first yoghourts
with the nickname of his first son Daniel (DAN-ONE)

Datsun – first called DAT, from the initials of its financiers Den, Aoyama and
Takeuchi. Soon changed to DATSON to imply a smaller version of their original
car, then (as SON can mean "loss" in Japanese) again to DATSUN when they were
acquired by Nissan.

Debian – project founder Ian Murdock named it after himself and his girlfriend,
Debra.

DEC – Digital Equipment Corporation, a pioneering American minicomputer
manufacturer founded by Ken Olsen and taken over by Compaq, before Compaq
was merged into Hewlett-Packard (HP). It was generally called DEC ("deck"), but
later tried to rebrand itself as Digital.

DEKA – named after its founder Dean Kamen, developer of the Segway, iBOT,
HomeChoice Dialysis and other products.

Delhaize – named after its founders, Jules Delhaize and his brothers, who
originated from Charleroi (Belgium). They opened the first European self-service
"supermarket" in Ixelles/Elsene, a Brussels borough.

Dell – named after its founder, Michael Dell. The company changed its name from
Dell Computer in 2003.

Denning & Fourcade, Inc. – interior designer company named after its founders
Robert Denning and Vincent Fourcade in 1960.

DHL – named after its founders, Adrian Dalsey, Larry Hillblom, and Robert Lynn.

Digg, Inc.- Kevin Rose's friend David Prager (The Screen Savers, This Week in

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Tech) originally wanted to call the site "Diggnation", but Kevin wanted a simpler
name. He chose the name "Digg", because users are able to "dig" stories, out of
those submitted, up to the front page. The site was called "Digg" instead of "Dig"
because the domain name "dig.com" was previously registered, by Walt Disney
Internet Group. "Diggnation" would eventually be used as the title of Kevin Rose
and Alex Albrecht's weekly podcast discussing popular stories from Digg.

Digi-Key – electronic component distributor whose name is derived from founder
Dr. Ronald Stordahl's amateur radio telegraphic keyer, the "IC Keyer Kit", which
utilized digital integrated circuits.

The Walt Disney Company, named for its co-founder Walt Disney.

Dixons – commonly-used abbreviation for DSG International plc (Dixons Stores
Group), a UK-based retailer. The company was founded in 1937 by Charles Kalms
and Michael Mindel. When opening their first photographic shop in Southend,
they only had room for six letters on the fascia, and chose the name Dixons from
the phone book.

DKNY – Donna Karan New York.

Dow – named after its founder, Herbert Henry Dow.

Duane Reade – named after Duane and Reade Streets in lower Manhattan, where
[33]
the chain's first warehouse was located.

Dynegy – the Natural Gas Clearinghouse changed its name in 1998 to reflect its
self-described traits as a dynamic energy company. "Dynergy" had already been
taken by a German health foods company.

E

EA Games – EA is from Electronic Arts. The company was founded in May 1982 as
Amazin' Software and changed its name to Electronic Arts in October the same
year.

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.

EDS – Electronic Data Systems, founded in 1962 by former IBM salesman Ross
[34]
Perot. According to the company history: "He chose Electronic Data Systems
from potential names he scribbled on a pledge envelope during a service at

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Highland Park Presbyterian Church in Dallas."

Eidos – named from a Greek word meaning "species". The company became well-
known for its Tomb Raider series of games.

Eletropaulo – One of the largest Brazilian companies in electricity generation and
distribution, its name derives from Companhia de Electricidade de São Paulo.

Embraer – Brazilian aircraft manufacturer, its name is an abbreviation of Empresa
Brasileira de Aeronáutica (Brazilian Aeronautics Company).

EMBRAPA – Brazilian state agricultural research and development company, its
name is an abbreviation of Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária
(Brazilian Agriculture Research Company).

EMBRATEL – an abbreviation of Empresa Brasileira de Telecomunicações
(Brazilian Telecommunications Company). Brazil's largest telecommunications
company, it was a state monopoly until 1992 when it was privatized and sold to
MCI, then later resold to Telmex.

EMC Corporation – named from the initials of the founders, Richard Egan and
Roger Marino. There has long been a rumor that another partner provided the
third letter (C). Other reports indicate the C stands for Company. EMC adopted
the EMC² notation to refer to Einstein's famous equation, E = mc².

EMI – formerly Electric and Musical Industries Ltd.

Emporis – Empor comes from the German and means "aloft, rising". One of the
world's largest providers of data concerning buildings.

Equifax – Equitable and factual

ESPN – Entertainment and Sports Programming Network

ESRI – Environmental Systems Research Institute, the first geographic
information system (GIS) software company founded by Jack and Laura
Dangermond in Redlands, California, in 1969

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

Esso – the enunciation of the initials S.O. in Standard Oil of New Jersey.

Exxon – a name contrived by Esso (Standard Oil of New Jersey) in the early 1970s
to create a neutral but distinctive label for the company. Within days, Exxon was
being called the "double cross company" but this eventually subsided. (Esso is a
trademark of ExxonMobil.) Esso had to change its name in the U.S. because of
restrictions dating to the 1911 Standard Oil antitrust decision.

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FAS – abbreviation for Foras Áiseanna Saothair (Labour Facilities Foundation).

Fás means grow in Irish.

Facebook – name stems from the colloquial name of books given to newly
enrolled students at the start of the academic year by university administrations
in the US with the intention of helping students to get to know each other better.

Fair Isaac Corporation – named after founders Bill Fair and Earl Isaac.

Fazer – Finnish food company named after its founder, Karl Fazer.

FCUK – French Connection United Kingdom.

FedEx – abbreviation of Federal Express Corporation, the company's original
[35]
name.

Fegime – abbreviation for "Fédération Européenne des Grossistes
Indépendants" (European Federation of Independent Electrical Wholesalers).

Ferrari – from the name of its founder, Enzo Ferrari.

Fiat – acronym of Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino (Italian Automobile Factory
of Turin)

Finnair – from "Finland" and "air". Originally called "Aero Osakeyhtiö", which led to
its international flight code, "AY".

Firestone – named after its founder, Harvey Firestone.

Five Guys – American restaurant chain founded by "five guys" — Jerry Murrell and
his four sons. The "five guys" would later become the Murrell sons, after Jerry and
[36][37]
his wife Janie had a fifth son two years after opening their first restaurant.

Fluke – named after its founder, John Fluke, Sr.

Ford Motor Company – named after its founder, Henry Ford, who introduced
automobile mass production in 1914.

Forrester Research – from the family name of the mother of the founder George
Forrester Colony.

FranklinCovey – named after Benjamin Franklin and Stephen Covey. The company
was formed from the 1997 merger of FranklinQuest and the Covey Leadership
Center.

Fuji – named after Mount Fuji, the highest mountain in Japan.

G

Garmin – named after its founders, Gary Burrell and Dr. Min Kao.

Gartner – named after its founder, Gideon Gartner, who left the firm in 1992 to
start Giga (named from Gideon Gartner).

Gatti's Pizza – Gatti was the maiden name of Pat Eure, wife of company founder

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Jim Eure.

GCap Media – named after the merger of the GWR Group and Capital Radio
Group in May 2005. GWR was launched in 1985 after the merger of Radio West
and Wiltshire Radio.

Genentech – from Genetic Engineering Technology.

GEICO – from Government Employees Insurance Company

Glaxo – a dried milk company set up in Bunnythorpe, New Zealand, by Joseph
Edward Nathan. The company wanted to use the name "Lacto" but it was similar
to some already in use. Glaxo evolved and was registered on 27 October 1906.
GlaxoSmithKline was a 2000 merger of Glaxo Wellcome and SmithKline Beecham.

Glock GmbH – named after its founder, Gaston Glock.

Goodyear – named after the founder of vulcanization, Charles Goodyear, the
Goodyear Tire and Rubber company was founded by Frank Seiberling in 1898.

Google – an originally accidental misspelling of the word googol and settled upon
because google.com was unregistered. Googol was proposed to reflect the
company's mission to organize the immense amount of information available
online.

Grey Global Group – an advertising and marketing agency supposed to have
derived its name from the colour of the walls of its first office.

Grundig – named after its founder, radio dealer-turned-manufacturer Max
Grundig, in 1945.

Gulfstream Aerospace – named after the Gulf Stream current that starts in the
Gulf of Mexico and crosses the Atlantic. The company traces its origins to the
Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation, which was sold and renamed in
1985.

H

Häagen-Dazs – Name was invented in 1961 by ice-cream makers Reuben and
Rose Mattus of the Bronx "to convey an aura of the old-world traditions and
[38]
craftsmanship". The name has no meaning.

Haier – Chinese 海 "sea" and 尔 (a transliteration character; also means "you" in
Literary Chinese). Portion of transliteration of German Liebherr 利勃海尔.

H&M – named from Hennes & Mauritz. In 1947, Swedish businessman Erling
Persson established Hennes, a ladies' clothing store, in Västerås, Sweden.
"Hennes" is Swedish for "hers". In 1968, Persson bought the Stockholm premises
and inventory of a hunting equipment store called Mauritz Widforss. The

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inventory included a collection of men's clothing, which prompted Persson to

expand into menswear.

Haribo – from the name of the founder and the German home town of the
company: Hans Riegel, Bonn.

Harman Kardon – named after its founders Dr. Sidney Harman and Bernard
Kardon.

Harpo Productions – production company founded by Oprah Winfrey. Harpo is
Oprah backwards.

Hasbro – founded by Henry and Helal Hassenfeld, the Hassenfeld Brothers.

HBOS – UK-based banking company formed by the merger of the Halifax and the
Bank of Scotland.

HCL – Hindustan Computers Ltd, Indian software company founded by Shiv
Nadar.

Hess Corporation – named after its founder Leon Hess.

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

Hispano-Suiza – a former Spanish luxury automotive and engineering firm; its
name - literally meaning "Spanish-Swiss" - refers to Spanish origin of the
company and Swiss origin of its head engineer Marc Birkigt

Hitachi – old place name, literally "sunrise"

HMV – from "His Master's Voice", which appeared in 1899 as the title of a painting
of Nipper, a Jack Russell terrier, listening to a gramophone.

Hoechst – from the name of a district in Frankfurt.

Honda – from the name of its founder, Soichiro Honda.

Honeywell – from the name of Mark Honeywell, founder of Honeywell Heating
Specialty Co. It later merged with Minneapolis Heat Regulator Company and was
finally called Honeywell Inc. in 1963.

Hospira – the name, selected by the company's employees, is derived from the
words hospital, spirit, inspire and the Latin word spero, which means hope. It
expresses the hope and optimism that are critical in the healthcare industry.

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 markup language used
to write web pages. It was initially referred to as HoTMaiL with selective upper
casing. (At one time, if you clicked on Hotmail's 'mail' tab, you would have seen
"HoTMaiL" in the URL, but since Hotmail is now Windows Live Mail, it is no longer

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there.)

H&R Block – after the founders, brothers Henry W. and Richard Bloch (with
"Bloch" changed to "Block" to avoid mispronunciation).

HSBC – Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation.

HTC Corporation – A contraction of its original corporate name, High Tech
Computer Corporation.

Hyundai – connotes the sense of "the present age" or "modernity" in Korean.

I

IBM – named by Tom (Thomas John) Watson Sr, an ex-employee of National Cash
Register (NCR Corporation). To one-up them in all respects, he called his
company International Business Machines.

ICICI – Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India.

ICL – abbreviation for International Computers Limited, once the UK's largest
computer company but now a service arm of Fujitsu, of Japan.

IG Farben – Interessen-Gemeinschaft Farbenindustrie AG was so named
because the constituent German companies produced dyestuffs among many
other chemical compounds. The consortium is most known today for its central
participation in the World War II Holocaust, as it made the Zyklon B gas used in
the gas chambers.

Iiyama – manufacturer of monitors and TVs named after the Japanese city, Iiyama.

IKEA – a composite of the first letters in the Swedish founder Ingvar Kamprad's
name in addition to the first letters of the names of the property and the village
in which he grew up: Ingvar Kamprad Elmtaryd Agunnaryd.

InBev – the name was created after the merger of the Belgian company Interbrew
with Brazilian Ambev

Inditex – a Spanish group named from Industria de Diseño Textil (Textile Design
Industry).

Infineon Technologies – derived from Infinity and Aeon. The name was given to
Siemens's Semiconductor branch (called Siemens HL or Siemens SC/SSC) when it
was spun off.

Ingenico – electronic payment device manufacturer based in Paris and named
from the French Ingenieux Compagnie (Ingenious Company).

Intel – Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore initially incorporated their company as N
M Electronics. Someone suggested Moore Noyce Electronics but it sounded too
close to "more noise". Later, Integrated Electronics was proposed but it had

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already been taken, so they used the initial syllables (INTegrated ELectronics).
To avoid potential conflicts with other companies with similar names, Intel
purchased the name rights for $15,000 from a company called Intelco. (Source:
Intel 15 Years Corporate Anniversary Brochure)

Ittiam Systems – an Indian company named from the famous philosophical
[39]
dictum: "I think therefore I am" (Cogito, ergo sum).

Infosys – An Indian software major. "Information Systems"

J

J2TV - from television and film production company formed by Malcolm in the
Middle actor Justin Berfield and producer Jason Felts.

JAL – from Japan Airlines

Jat Airways – founded in 1927 as "Aeroput" (Airway in Serbian). From 1947, it was
known as JAT (Jugoslovenski Aero Transport). After the break-up of the former
Yugoslavia (and after Federal Republic of Yugoslavia changed its name to Serbia
and Montenegro), the company kept the name, Jat, but not as an abbreviation.

JBL – from James B Lansing, an electronics designer

Johnson & Johnson – Originally a partnership between brothers James Wood
Johnson and Edward Mead Johnson in 1885, the addition of brother Robert Wood
Johnson I led to formal incorporation as Johnson & Johnson in 1887.

JVC – Japan Victor Company (Victor Company of Japan, Ltd) was founded in 1927
as a US subsidiary, The Victor Talking Machine Company of Japan, Limited. JVC
developed the VHS video cassette format.

K

Kalev - after Kalev, the character from Estonian mythology and national epic
Kalevipoeg.

Kawasaki – from the name of its founder, Shozo Kawasaki

KFC – short for Kentucky Fried Chicken. It is popularly believed that the company
adopted the abbreviated name in 1991 to avoid the unhealthy connotations of the
word 'fried'. The rumor that it was because the Commonwealth of Kentucky
trademarked the name "Kentucky" is false. Commercials in the early 2000s tried
to imply that the abbreviation stands for "Kitchen Fresh Chicken", but in 2007
KFC decided to return to the original "Kentucky Fried Chicken" branding (although
the corporate name remained KFC).

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Kenwood Limited – named after Kenneth (Ken) Wood, who founded this
kitchenware company as Woodlau Industries in the UK in 1947. It is not related to
Kenwood Electronics, which started as Kasuga Radio Co in Japan in 1946 and
became Trio Corporation in 1960.

Kenworth Truck Company – Kenworth Truck Company was formed in 1923 and is
named after the two principal stockholders Harry Kent and Edgar Worthington.

Kia Motors – the name "Kia" (起亞) roughly translates as "Rising from Asia" in
Hanja.

Kinko's – from the college nickname of founder, Paul Orfalea. He was called Kinko
because he had curly red hair. The company was bought by FedEx for $2.4 billion
in 2004.

Kodak – Both the Kodak camera and the name were the invention of founder
George Eastman. The letter "K" was a favorite 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.

Komatsu – Japanese construction vehicle manufacturer named from the city of
Komatsu, Ishikawa, where it was founded in 1917.

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 – named from the surnames of the founders, Tsutomu Katoh and Tadashi
Osanai, combined with the letters "rg" from the word organ.

KPMG – from the last names of the founders of the firms which combined to form
the cooperative: Piet Klijnveld, William Barclay Peat, James Marwick, and Reinhard
[40]
Goerdeler.

Kroger – American supermarket chain named after its founder, Barney Kroger

KUKA – founded in 1898 in Augsburg, Germany as Keller Und Knappich
Augsburg, it shortened its name to KUKA. Today, it is a manufacturer of
industrial robots and automation systems.

Kyocera – from Kyoto Ceramics, after Kyoto in Japan.

L

Lada – from the name of a Slavic goddess, and used as a trading name by Russian

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automobile manufacturer AvtoVAZ (fghigfj in Russian). VAZ is derived from

Volzhsky Automobilny Zavod.

Lancôme – began in 1935, when its founder, Armand Petitjean, was exploring the
ruins of a castle, Le Chateau de Lancôme (Loir-et-Cher) while vacationing in the
French countryside. Petitjean's inspiration for the company's symbol, a rose, was
the many wild roses growing around the castle.

LCL – from Le Crédit Lyonnais. The name change occurred after the bank was
involved in a major financial scandal where evidence disappeared in a mysterious
fire.
[41]

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.

Lenovo Group – a portmanteau of "Le-" (from former name Legend) and "novo",
pseudo-Latin for "new". This Chinese company took over IBM's PC division.

Level 3 Communications – "Level 3" is a reference to the network layer of the OSI
model.

LG – from the combination of two popular Korean brands, Lucky and Goldstar. (In
Mexico, publicists explained the name change as an abbreviation to Linea
Goldstar, Spanish for Goldstar Line)

Lexmark – in the 80's, IBM wanted to spin off its printer and typewriter
businesses. Their main productions facility was in Lexington and the code name
was Lexington Marketing.

Lionbridge – the word "localisation", which is the service this company offers, is
often shortened to L10N. That is the first letter of the word and the last letter of
the word, with 10 letters missing in between, hence L 10 N, which looks like lion.
Bridge is the second part of the word as translation 'bridges' gap between people
and markets that do not have a common language.

Lionhead Studios – games studio named after Mark Webley's pet hamster, which
[42]
died a week before the company was founded. Webley worked for Bullfrog,
and co-founded Lionhead with Peter Molyneux, Tim Rance and Steve Jackson in
July 1997. Microsoft bought the company in April 2006.

Lockheed Martin – Aerospace manufacturer, a combination of Lockheed
Corporation and Martin Marietta, which is a combination of Glenn L. Martin
Company and American-Marietta Corporation.

LoJack – "LoJack" (the stolen-vehicle recovery system) is a pun on the word
"hijack" (to steal a vehicle).

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Longines – In 1862 the new company "Ancienne Maison Auguste Agassiz, Ernest
Francillon, Successeur" was born. At that time watchmaking in the area used the
skills of people working outside the "comptoir d'établissage", often at home. In
1866 Ernest Francillon bought two plots of land on the right bank of the river
Suze at the place called "Les Longines" and brought all of the watchmaking skills
under one roof. This was the first "Longines factory".

Lonsdale – boxing equipment manufacturer named after the Lonsdale belt, a
boxing trophy donated by the English Lord Lonsdale.

L'Oréal – In 1907, Eugène Schueller, a young French chemist, developed an
innovative hair-color formula. He called his improved hair dye Auréole.

LOT – LOT Polish Airlines. "Lot" in Polish means "flight".

Lotus Software – Mitch Kapor named his company after the Lotus Position or
'Padmasana'. Kapor used to be a teacher of Transcendental Meditation technique
as taught by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

Lucent Technologies – a spin-off from AT&T, it was named Lucent (meaning
"luminous" or "glowing with light") because "light as a metaphor for visionary
thinking reflected the company's operating and guiding business philosophy",
[43]
according to the Landor Associates staff who chose the name. It was taken
over by Alcatel to form Alcatel-Lucent in 2006.

Lukoil – From the first letters of the three companies that merged to form the
Russian oil giant: Langepasneftegaz, Uraineftegaz, and Kogalymneftegaz, plus
the English word "oil".
[44]

Lycos – from Lycosidae, the family of wolf spiders.

M

Maggi – food company named after its founder, Julius Maggi. It was taken over by
Nestlé in 1947 and survives as a brand name.

MAN – abbreviation for Maschinenfabrik Augsburg-Nürnberg (Augsburg-
Nuremberg Machine Company). The MAN company is a German engineering
works and truck manufacturer.

Mandriva – new company formed from the merger of Mandrake Linux and
Connectiva Linux

Manhattan Associates – named from Manhattan Beach, California, where the
company was founded, before it moved to Atlanta, Georgia.

Manugistics – Manufacturing + Logistics, a supplier of supply chain
optimization software.

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Manulife Financial - founded in 1887 as Manufacturing Life Insurance Company

Mars – named after Frank C. Mars and his wife, Ethel, who started making candy
in 1911. Their son, Forrest E. Mars, joined with Bruce Murrie, the son of a
Hershey executive, to form M&M Ltd (from Mars & Murrie). Forrest took over the
family business after his father's death and merged the two companies in 1964.
After retiring from Mars, Inc. in 1993, Forrest founded Ethel M. Chocolates,
named after his mother.

Masco Corporation – from the names of the founder Alex Manoogian, Screw and
Company. Masco Screw Products Co. was founded in 1929.

Mast-Jägermeister AG – Named for founder Wilhelm Mast and its main product,
Jägermeister (German for "hunt master") liqueur.

Mattel – a portmanteau of the founders names Harold "Matt" Matson and Elliot
Handler.

Maybach-Motorenbau GmbH - It was founded in 1909 by Wilhelm Maybach with
his son Karl Maybach.

Mazda Motor Corporation – the company was founded as Toyo Kogyo, started
manufacturing Mazda brand cars in 1931, and changed its name to Mazda in
1984. The cars were supposedly named after Ahura Mazda, the chief deity of the
Zoroastrians, though many think this explanation was created after the fact, to
cover up what is simply a poor anglicized version of the founders name, Jujiro
Matsuda. This theory is supported by the fact that the company is referred to only
as "Matsuda" in Japan.

MBNA – originally a subsidiary of Maryland National Corporation, MBNA once
stood for Maryland Bank, NA (NA itself standing for National Association, a
federal designation representing the bank's charter).

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

MCI Communications – Microwave Communications, Inc. The company later
merged with Worldcom to create MCI Worldcom. The MCI was dropped in 2000
and the acquiring company changed its name to MCI when it emerged from
bankruptcy in 2003.

Mercedes – from the first name of the daughter of Emil Jellinek, who distributed
cars of the early Daimler company around 1900.

Merillat Industries – named after Orville D. Merillat, who founded the company in
1946.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) – Film studio formed from the merger of three
other companies: Metro Picture Corporation, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation,

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and Louis B. Mayer Pictures. Goldwyn Picture Corporation in turn was named
after the last names of Samuel Goldfish, and Edgar and Archibald Selwyn.

MFI – from Mullard Furniture Industries. The original company was named after
the founder's wife, whose maiden name was Mullard.

MG Cars – from Morris Garages after co-founder William Morris. Under Chinese
ownership, the company says: "We want Chinese consumers to know this brand
[45]
as 'Modern Gentleman'."

Microlins – from Microcomputers and Lins, a Brazilian city where the company
was founded by José Carlos Semenzato

Micron Technology – computer memory producer named after the microscopic
parts of its products. It is now better known by its consumer brand name: Crucial.

Microsoft – coined by Bill Gates to represent the company that was devoted to
microcomputer software. Originally christened Micro-Soft, the '-' disappeared
on 3/2/1987 with the introduction of a new corporate identity and logo. The
"slash between the 'o' and 's' [in the Microsoft logo] emphasizes the "soft" part of
[citation needed]
the name and conveys motion and speed."

Midway Games – derived from the name of an airport on the southwestern part of
Chicago.

Mincom Limited – Mincom was founded in Brisbane, Australia in 1979. Currently
the largest software company in Australia and the fourth oldest ERP company
globally. The company initially created software to specifically assist mining
companies and the name Mining 'computing.

Minolta – Minolta was founded in Osaka, Japan in 1928 as Nichi-Doku Shashinki
Shōten (日独写真機商店; literally: Japan-Germany camera shop). It was not until
1934 that the name Minolta first appeared on a camera, the Minolta Vest.

MIPRO - stands for MIcrophone PROfessionals. MIPRO is a manufactuer of
wireless microphones.

MIPS – originally stood for Microprocessor without Interlocking Pipeline Stages.
When interlocks where added to a later implementation, the name was redefined
to not be an acronym but just a name. (The name also connotes computer speed,
by association with the acronym for millions of instructions per second.)

MITIE – an acronym for Managamenet Incentive Through Investment Equity

Mitel – from Mike and Terry's Lawnmowers, after the founders Michael Cowpland
(see also: Corel) and Terry Matthews, and the company's original business plan.

MITRE – Massachusetts Institute of Technology Research Establishment (however
The MITRE Corporation asserts that its name is not an acronym)

Mitsubishi – the name Mitsubishi (三菱) has two parts: mitsu means three and

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hishi (changing to bishi in the middle of the word) means diamond (the shape).
Hence, the three diamond logo. (Note that "diamond" in this context refers only
to the rhombus shape, not to the precious gem.)

Morningstar, Inc. – The name Morningstar is taken from the last sentence in
Walden, a book by Henry David Thoreau; "the sun is but a morning star"

Motorola – Founder Paul Galvin came up with this name when his company (at the
time, Galvin Manufacturing Company) started manufacturing radios for cars.
Many audio equipment makers of the era used the "ola" ending for their products,
most famously the "Victrola" phonograph made by the Victor Talking Machine
Company. The name was meant to convey the idea of "sound" and "motion". It
became so widely recognized that the company later adopted it as the company
name.

Mozilla Foundation – from the name of the web browser that preceded Netscape
Navigator. When Marc Andreesen, co-founder of Netscape, created a browser to
replace the Mosaic browser, it was internally named Mozilla (Mosaic-Killer,
[46]
Godzilla) by Jamie Zawinski.

MVC – from Music and Video Club, the name of a UK-based entertainment chain.

Mustek – Taiwanese electronics manufacturer with name derived from Most
Unique Scanner Technology.

MRF – from Madras Rubber Factory, founded by K M Mammen Mappillai in 1946.
He started with a toy-balloon manufacturing unit at Tiruvottiyur, Chennai (then
called Madras). In 1952 he began manufacturing tread-rubber and, in 1961,
tyres.

N

Nabisco – formerly The National Biscuit Company, changed in 1971 to Nabisco.

Napster - The service was named Napster after Fanning's hairstyle-based
nickname.

NCR Corporation – from National Cash Register.

NEC – from Nippon Electric Company.

Nero – Nero Burning ROM named after Nero burning Rome ("Rom" is the German
spelling of "Rome").

Nestlé – named after its founder, Henri Nestlé, who was born in Germany under
the name "Nestle", which is German (actually, Swabian diminutive) for "bird's
nest". The company logo is a bird's nest with a mother bird and two chicks.

Netscape – Originally the product name of the company's web browser ("Mosaic

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Communications Netscape Web Navigator"). The company adopted the product

name after the University of Illinois threatened to sue for trademark infringement
over the use of the Mosaic name. Netscape is the combination of network and
[citation needed]
landscape.

Nike – named for the Greek goddess of victory.

Nikon – the original name was Nippon Kogaku, meaning "Japanese Optical".

Nintendo – Nintendo is the transliteration of the company's Japanese name,
nintendou (任天堂). The first (nin) can be translated as to "entrusted"; ten-dou
means "heaven".

Nissan – the company was earlier known by the name Nippon Sangyo which
means "Japan Industries".

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.

Nortel Networks – named from Nortel (Northern Telecom) and Bay Networks.
The company was originally spun off from the Bell Telephone Company of Canada
Ltd in 1895 as Northern Electric and Manufacturing, and traded as Northern
Electric from 1914 to 1976.

Novartis – after the Latin expression "novae artes" which means something like
"new skills".

Novell – Novell, Inc. was earlier Novell Data Systems co-founded by George
Canova. The name was suggested by George's wife who mistakenly thought that
"Novell" meant new in French. (Nouvelle is the feminine form of the French
adjective 'Nouveau'. Nouvelle as a noun in French is 'news'.)

O
[47]

OCZ – play on the word Overclockers.

Oracle – Larry Ellison, Ed Oates and Bob Miner were working on a consulting
project for the CIA. The code name for the project was Oracle. The project was
designed to use the newly written SQL database language from IBM. The project
was eventually terminated but they decided to finish what they started and bring
it to the world. Later they changed the name of the company, Relational Software
Inc., to the name of the product.

Ornge – new name (2006) for Ontario Air Ambulance, chosen to reflect the
orange color of its aircraft. It was intended to provide a unique branding but the
ornge.com misspelling was already used by an advertising portal.

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Osram – from osmium and wolfram.

P

Paccar – from Pacific Car and Rail.

PCCW – originally Pacific Century Development, the company's English name was
changed from Pacific Century CyberWorks Limited to PCCW Limited on August 9,
2002. It owns Hong Kong Telecom.

Pamida – U.S. retailer founded by Jim Witherspoon and Lee Wegener, it took its
name from the first two letters of the names of Witherspoon's three sons: Patrick,
Michael and David.

Pemex – An abbreviation of the full name of the state-owned Mexican
oil/gasoline company, Petróleos Mexicanos (Spanish for Mexican Petroleum).

Pennzoil – formed by a merger of South Penn Oil (Penn), a former Standard Oil
subsidiary, and Zapata Oil (zoil).

Pepsi – named from the digestive enzyme pepsin.

Petrobras – An abbreviation of the Brazilian oil company's full name, Petróleo
Brasileiro (Portuguese for Brazilian Petroleum).

Philco – from the Philadelphia Storage Battery Company. The pioneering U.S.
radio and television manufacturer was taken over by Ford and later by Philips.

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

Pixar – from pixel and the co-founder's name, Alvy Ray Smith. According to the
biography "The Second Coming of Steve Jobs" by Alan Deutschman, the 'el' in
pixel was changed to 'ar' because 'ar' is frequently used in Spanish verbs,
implying the name means "To Pix".

PMC-Sierra – PMC from Pacific Microelectronics Centre, a research arm of BC Tel,
and Sierra from the company that acquired it, Sierra Semiconductor, presumably
so named because of the allure of the Sierra Nevada mountains to members of a
California-based company.

Porsche – car company named after founder Ferdinand Porsche, an Austrian
automotive engineer. The family name may have originated in the Czech name
"Boreš" (boresh).

Prada – an Italian high fashion house named after the founder Mario Prada, who
founded Prada in Milan 1914.

Procter & Gamble – named after the founders, William Procter, a candlemaker,
and James Gamble, a soapmaker, who pooled their resources after marrying two

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[48]
sisters. The company was founded in Cincinnati in 1837.

ProfSat – Brazilian satellite-based education company, meaning Professional
Sateliite.

PRS Guitars – named after its founder, Paul Reed Smith.

Psion – UK computer company named by its founder, South Africa-born Dr David
Potter, from Potter Scientific Instruments Or Nothing.

Q

Q8 – the acronym for these gas stations sounds like Kuwait, that is, the letter Q
followed by the number 8. It is the abbreviation for Kuwait Petroleum
International Limited.

Qantas – from its original name, Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial
Services.

Qimonda – Qimonda carries different meanings and allows associations in
different languages. "Qi" stands for flowing or breathing energy, and it was
thought that the combination of the English word "key" and the Latin "mundus"
would be intuitively understood in the Western World as "key to the world".

Quad – an acronym for Quality Unit Amplified Domestic. Quad Electroacoustics
was founded in 1936 by Peter Walker, and was formerly called the Acoustical
Manufacturing Company.

Quark – named after an atomic particle. The word quark originates from
Finnegans Wake by James Joyce.

Qualcomm – Quality Communication

QVC – Quality, Value and Convenience

R

Rabobank – Raiffeisen-Boerenleenbank, a combination of the two cooperatives
that merged to form the company.

RAND – Research ANd Development.

Raytheon – "Light of the gods". Maker of missiles such as Patriot, Maverick,
Sidewinder and Tomahawk, among other military technology.

RCA – Radio Corporation of America.

Reckitt & Colman - named from the merger of Reckitt & Sons with J&J Colman in
1938. Colman's, best known for its mustard, was founded by Jeremiah Colman in
[49]
1814. Isaac Reckitt founded Reckitt & Sons in 1840.

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Reckitt Benckiser – consumer goods giant named from the merger of Britain's
Reckitt & Colman and the Dutch company Benckiser NV in December 1999. The
latter was named after its founder, Johann A. Benckiser.

Red Hat – while at college, company founder Marc Ewing was given the Cornell
lacrosse team cap (with red and white stripes) by his grandfather. People would
turn to him to solve their problems and he was referred to as that guy in the red
hat. By the time he wrote the manual of the beta version of Red Hat Linux he had
lost the cap, so the manual included an appeal to readers to return his Red Hat if
found.

Reebok – alternate spelling of rhebok (Pelea capreolus), an African antelope.

REO Motor Car Company – car manufacturer founded in 1904 by Ransom E. Olds,
and named from its founder's initials. Later, the rock band REO Speedwagon took
its name from one of its trucks, the REO Speed Wagon.

Repsol – name derived from Refinería de Petróleo de eScombreras Oil
(Escombreras is an oil refinery in Cartagena, Spain) and chosen for its euphony
when the, then, state-owned oil company was incorporated in 1986. Previously
Repsol was a lubricating-oil trademark.

Research In Motion – from the phrase "poetry in motion", which company founder
Mike Lazaridis had seen used to describe a football player.

Rickenbacker – named after co-founder Adolph Rickenbacher, with the spelling
anglicised. The company started as the Electro String Instrument Corporation in
1931.
[50]

Robeez – baby-shoe company named after the founder's son Robbie (Robert).
Robeez was taken over by Stride Rite in 2006.

Rolls-Royce – name used by Rolls-Royce plc and Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, among
others. In 1884 Frederick Henry Royce started an electrical and mechanical
business, making his first car, a Royce, in 1904. He was introduced to Charles
Stewart Rolls on 4 May that year. The pair entered into a partnership in which
Royce would manufacture cars to be sold exclusively by Rolls, and the cars would
be called Rolls-Royce.

RSA Security – formed from the first letters of the family names of its founders
Ronald Rivest, Adi Shamir and Len Adleman.

S

SAAB – founded in 1937 in Sweden as Svenska Aeroplan aktiebolaget (Swedish
Aeroplane Company); the last word is typically abbreviated as AB, hence SAAB.

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Sabre – Semi-Automatic Business Research Environment.

Saku Brewery - after the village in Saku Parish, Estonia, where the company was
founded.

Samsonite – named from the Biblical character Samson, renowned for his
strength.

Samsung – meaning three stars in Korean.

Sanyo – meaning three oceans in Japanese.

SAP – SystemAnalyse und Programmentwicklung (German for "System analysis
and program development"), a company formed by five ex-IBM employees who
used to work in the 'Systems/Applications/Projects' group of IBM. Later, SAP was
redefined to stand for Systeme, Anwendungen und Produkte in der
Datenverarbeitung (Systems, Applications and Products in Data Processing).

SAS – Scandinavian Airlines System, the flag airline carrier of Sweden, Norway
and Denmark.

SAS Institute – originally an abbreviation for Statistical Analysis System.

Sasol – Suid-Afrikaanse Steenkool en Olie (Afrikaans for South African Coal and
Oil).

SCB – from Standard Chartered Bank. The name Standard Chartered comes from
the two original banks from which it was founded – The Chartered Bank of India,
Australia and China, and The Standard Bank of British South Africa.

SCO – from Santa Cruz Operation. The company's office was in Santa Cruz,
California. It eventually formed Tarantella, Inc. and sold off its operating system
division to Caldera Systems (a spin off from Novell), which is based in Utah.
Caldera changed its name to The SCO Group (at which point SCO no longer stood
for anything).

Saudi Aramco – the Aramco name was derived in 1944 when California Arabian
Standard Oil Company (Casoc) changed its name to Arabian American Oil
Company. The Saudi government purchased the company in 1980, and changed
[51]
its name to Saudi Arabian Oil Company or Saudi Aramco in 1988.

SEAT – an acronym from Sociedad Española de Automóviles de Turismo (Spanish
Corporation of Touring Cars).

Sealed Air – from the "sealed air" found in its most notable product, Bubble Wrap.

Sega – Service Games of Japan was founded by Marty Bromley (an American) to
import pinball games to Japan for use on American military bases.

Seiko – Seiko, now referred to in katakana as セセセセ("seiko"), was originally named
in kanji as 精工(also
精工 "seiko"). The two characters were taken from the phrase 「精
精
工場」, the company's vision which roughly translates
精密セ時計セ生産セ成功セセ工
巧セ精

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to "a factory（工場:kojyo）that successfully（成功:seiko）produces（生

産:seisan）exquisit（精巧:seiko）and precise（精密:seimitsu）watches". –
According to Seiko's official company history, titled A Journey In Time: The
Remarkable Story of Seiko (2003), Seiko is a Japanese word for "exquisite" or
"minute" (both spelled 精巧), as well as a word for "success" (spelled 成功).

Sennheiser – named after one of its founders, Fritz Sennheiser.

setcom – software engineering and testing for communications, an international
group of companies active in the field of wireless test solutions.

SGI – Silicon Graphics Inc.

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 Dutch Petrol
Society Plc. and the Shell Transport and Trading Company Ltd. merged their
operations. 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 importing Japanese shells when they set up an
oil company, so the oil company was named after the shells.

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

Six Apart – company co-founders Ben and Mena Trott were born six days apart
(in September 1977).

Skanska - from Aktiebolaget Skånska Cementgjuteriet (Scanian Cement Casting
Company)

SKF – from Svenska Kullagerfabriken AB, a Swedish manufacturer founded in
1907. See also Volvo.

Skoda Auto – the car company was founded in 1895 and originally named Laurin
& Klement after its founders, Vaclav Laurin and Vaclav Klement. It was taken over
by Škoda Works, an industrial conglomerate, in 1924, and adopted the Škoda
name from Emil Škoda. Škoda Auto was split off after World War II and is now part
of Volkswagen.

Skype – the original concept for the name was Sky-Peer-to-Peer, which morphed
[52]
into Skyper, then Skype.

Smart – Swatch + Mercedes + Art

Smilebit – former Sega development studio named from what they hope to make
you do (smile), and the smallest unit of computer information (bit). The company
developed Jet Set Radio.

Smeg – acronym based on the Italian towns where the original enamelling factory

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was located in Guastalla, Italy.

SNK – Shin Nihon Kikaku, Japanese for Plans for a New Japan.

Sony – from the Latin word 'sonus' meaning sound, and 'sonny' a slang word used
by Americans to refer to a bright youngster, "since we were sonny boys working
in sound and vision", said Akio Morita. The company was founded as Tokyo
Tsoshiu Kogyo KK (Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation) in 1946,
and changed its name to Sony in 1958. Sony was chosen as it could be
pronounced easily in many languages.

Sorcim – "Micros" backwards. Sorcim was the original publisher of the SuperCalc
spreadsheet in 1980. It was taken over by Computer Associates.

SPAR – originally DE SPAR, from Door Eendrachtig Samenwerken Profiteren
Allen Regelmatig (Dutch, meaning "All will benefit from united co-operation").
"De spar" in Dutch translates as "the fir tree", hence the fir tree logo. As the
company expanded across Europe, the name was shortened by dropping the
article, "DE".

Sperry – company founded by Elmer Ambrose Sperry (1860–1930), originally as
Sperry Gyroscope Company. Sperry took over Univac, and eventually was itself
taken over by Burroughs. The merged companies became Unisys, from United
Information Systems.

Spiratone - from the last name of founders Fred Spira and Hans Spira. The
company was founded as Spiratone Fine Grain Laboratories. The "tone" suffix was
common in the photographic industry (an example cited by Fred Spira is
Royaltone) at the time of the company's founding in the 1940s.

Sprint – from its parent company, Southern Pacific Railroad INTernal
Communications. At the time, pipelines and railroad tracks were the cheapest
place to lay communications lines, as the right-of-way was already leased or
owned.

SRAM Corporation – named from its founders Scott King, Stanley Ray Day, and
Sam Patterson.

SRI International – from Stanford Research Institute, established by the trustees
of Stanford University, California

Stanley Works – name created to reflect the merger of Stanley's Bolt Manufactory
of New Britain, Connecticut (founded by Frederick Trent Stanley) and the Stanley
Rule and Level Company (founded by his cousin Henry Stanley).

Starbucks – named after Starbuck, a character in Herman Melville's novel Moby-
Dick

Stellent – coined from a combination of the words stellar and excellent.

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STX – pronounced as the word "sticks" because, when first founded, STX
manufactured only lacrosse sticks

Subaru – from the Japanese name for the constellation known to Westerners as
Pleiades or the Seven Sisters. Subaru was formed from a merger of seven other
companies, and the constellation is featured on the company's logo.

Sun Microsystems – its founders designed their first workstation in their dorm at
Stanford University, and chose the name Stanford University Network for their
product, hoping to sell it to the college. They didn't.

SuSE – from Software und System-Entwicklung (software and system
development). The company was bought by Novell for its Linux distribution.

Suzuki – from the name of its founder, Michio Suzuki.

T

Taco Bell – named after founder Glen Bell.

Talgo – from "Tren Articulado Ligero Goicoechea-Oriol" (Spanish for
"Goicoechea-Oriol Light Articulated Train"), Goicoechea and Oriol being the
founders of the company.

TAM Airlines – named from Transportes Aéreos Marília (Marilia's Air Transport).
Marília is a city in São Paulo state, Brazil.

TAP Portugal – from "Transportes Aéreos Portugueses" (Portuguese Air
Transport).

Tata Group – conglomerate named after Jamshedji Tata, considered "the father of
Indian industry".

Taxan – made-up name chosen partly because Takusan is a Japanese word for
many or much and was considered propitious, but mainly because the head of
the company, in the U.S. at the time, Tak Shimizu was known by everyone as
Tak-san.

TCBY – Originally, the company's name was "This Can't Be Yogurt", but a lawsuit
from a competitor named "I Can't Believe It's Yogurt!" forced TCBY to create a new
backronym for its initials....The Country's Best Yogurt

TCL – from Today China Lion. Derived from literal translation of "今日中国雄狮"
from Chinese to English.

TCS – from Tata Consultancy Services, from India's Tata Group, named after
founder and legendary industrialist Jamshedji Tata.

TDK Corporation – from Tokyo Denki Kagaku (Tokyo Electronics and Chemicals).

Tesco – founder Jack Cohen – who sold groceries in the markets of the London

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East End from 1919 – acquired a large shipment of tea from T. E. Stockwell. He
made new labels by using the first three letters of the supplier's name and the
first two letters of his surname.

Teva Naot - outdoors shoe company is named after the modern Hebrew word for
'nature' (pronounced "tehvah")
[53]

Texaco – from The Texas Company U.S.A.

THX – from Tomlinson Holman Crossover, the name of the technology's inventor
and the audio technology of a crossover amplifier. It may be a backronym, as the
technology is owned by George Lucas's company, and he directed THX 1138.

TIBCO Software – The Information Bus Company. The company was founded by
Vivek Ranadive as Teknekron Software Systems in 1985.

Tim Hortons - Canadian fast food doughnut, sandwich and coffee shop named
after founder and hockey player Tim Horton. In Canada Tim Hortons is
nicknamed "Tim's" and "Timmy's".

TNT N.V. – Thomas Nationwide Transport, an Australian company which was
acquired by the Dutch postal company in 1996; the postal company renamed
itself TNT in 2005.

Toshiba – named from the merger of consumer goods company Tokyo Denki
(Tokyo Electric Co) and electrical firm Shibaura Seisaku-sho (Shibaura
Engineering Works).

Toyota – from the name of the founder, 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.

Triang – operating name for Lines Bros Ltd, which was founded by William, Walter
and Arthur Edwin Lines. Three Lines make a triangle
[54]

Tucows – an acronym for The Ultimate Collection Of Winsock Software.

TVR – derived from the first name of the company founder TreVoR Wilkinson

Twinings - named after founder Thomas Twining, who set up a tea-shop on the
[55]
Strand in London in 1706.

Twitter - social networking and microblogging service. The name was derived
from the original idea 'Twitch', which didn't bring up the right imagery.

U

Ubuntu Foundation – named from a Zulu word (ùɓúntú) that translates as
"humanity to others".

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Umbro – Umbro was founded in 1924 by the Humphrey (Umphrey) Brothers,

Harold C. and Wallace.

Unilever – name created to reflect the merger of Margarine Unie and Lever
Brothers, agreed in 1929. Lever Brothers was named after its founders, William
Hesketh Lever and his brother, James.

UNIMED – Brazilian cooperative of physicians, meaning União de Medicos
(Physicians' Union)

Unisys – from United Information Systems, the new name for the company that
resulted from the merging of two old mainframe computer companies, Burroughs
and Sperry [Sperry Univac/Sperry Rand]. It united two incompatible ranges. The
new-born Unisys was briefly the world's second-largest computer company, after
IBM.

Unocal Corporation – the Union Oil Company of California, founded in 1890

UPS - United Parcel Service of America, Inc.

UUNET – one of the industry's oldest and largest Internet Service Providers,
named from UNIX-to-UNIX Network.

V

Vaisala - named after founder Vilho Väisälä

Valtra - from Valmet Tractors, where Valmet is the name of a Finnish state-
owned company (originally Valtion Metallitehtaat - English: State Metalworks)

Varig – Largest international Brazilian airline, its name is an abbreviation of
Viação Aérea Rio-Grandense, because it was founded in the state of Rio Grande
do Sul.

Verizon – a portmanteau of veritas (Latin for truth) and horizon.

Virgin – founder Richard Branson started a magazine called Student while still at
school. In his autobiography, Losing My Virginity, Branson says that when they
were starting a business to sell records by mail order, "one of the girls suggested:
'What about Virgin? We're complete virgins at business.'"

Vodafone – from Voice, Data, Telefone. Vodafone made the UK's first mobile call
at a few minutes past midnight on 1 January 1985.

Volkswagen – from the German for people's car. Ferdinand Porsche wanted to
produce a car that was affordable for the masses – the Kraft-durch-Freude-
Wagen (or "Strength-Through-Joy car", from a Nazi social organization) later
became known, in English, as the Beetle.

Volvo – from the Latin word volvo, which means "I roll". It was originally a name

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for a ball bearing being developed by SKF.

W

Wachovia – from the Latin version of the German wachau, the name given to a
region in North Carolina by German settlers because it reminded them of a river
near their home in Germany. Many companies founded in or around Charlotte,
North Carolina have Wachovia in their name.

Waitrose – upmarket UK supermarket chain originally named after the founders,
Wallace Waite, Arthur Rose and David Taylor. The Taylor was later dropped.

Wal-Mart – named after founder Sam Walton

Wang Laboratories – from the name of the founder, An Wang, the inventor of core
memory.

Wells Fargo – From the founders of the original Wells Fargo company, Henry Wells
and William G. Fargo. (When Norwest purchased Wells Fargo in 1998, it chose to
retain the Wells Fargo name.)

Wendy's – Wendy was the nickname of founder Dave Thomas' daughter Melinda.

Weta Digital – special effects company co-founded by Lord of the Rings director
Peter Jackson. 'Weta' are a group of about 70 species of insect found in New
Zealand, where Weta Digital is based.

W H Smith – founded by Henry Walton Smith and his wife Anna in London,
England, in 1792. They named their small newsagent's shop after their son
William Henry Smith, who was born the same year.

Williams-Sonoma – founded by Chuck Williams in Sonoma, California.

Wipro – from Western India Palm Refined Oil Ltd Wipro Technologies. The
company started as a modest Vanaspati and laundry soap producer and is now
also an IT services giant.

WWE – World Wrestling Entertainment, formerly World Wrestling Federation (WWF).
It changed its name after a court case brought by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF),
which is now called the World Wide Fund for Nature.

Worlds of Wonder – founder Don Kingsborough wanted an eyecatching stock
symbol, and Worlds Of Wonder provided WOW. The company went bankrupt in
1988.

WPP – Global advertising and marketing company. Originally called Wire and
Plastic Products.

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Xerox – named from xerography, a word derived from the Greek xeros (dry) and
graphos (writing). The company was founded as The Haloid Company in 1906,
launched its first XeroX copier in 1949, and changed its name to Haloid Xerox in
[56]
1958.

Y

Yahoo! – The word Yahoo was invented by Jonathan Swift and used in his book
Gulliver's Travels. It represents a person who is repulsive in appearance and
barely human. Yahoo! founders David Filo and Jerry Yang jokingly considered
themselves yahoos. It's also an interjection sometimes associated with United
States Southerners' and Westerners' expression of joy, as alluded to in Yahoo.com
commercials that end with someone singing the word "yahoo". It is also sometime
jokingly referred to by its backronym, Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle.
[57]

YKK – zipper manufacturer named from Yoshida Kogyo Kabushikikaisha (Yoshida

Company Limited) after the founder, Tadao Yoshida. The letters YKK were
stamped onto the zippers' pull tabs.

Yakult – Official claims state that the name is derived from jahurto, an older form
of jogurto, the Esperanto word for "yogurt". However, it has also been claimed
that the name is derived from the fact that the product was developed from
ancient Mongolian practices of culturing yak's milk in a sack made from a yak's
stomach - the combination of Yak and Culture in English giving the product name
as "Yakult".
[58]

Yoplait – from the merger of Yola and Coplait in 1965.

Z

Zend Technologies – a contraction derived from the names of Zeev Suraski and
Andi Gutmans, the two founders.

Zuse – pioneering German computer company named after its founder, Konrad
Zuse (1910–1995). He built his first computer in his parents' living room at the
end of the 1930s. Zuse was taken over by Siemens AG. The name is now
supposedly echoed by SuSE (Software und System-Entwicklung: "Software and
system development").

See also

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List of companies named after people

List of oldest companies

Lists of etymologies

References
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4. ^ 3Com | Investor Information | Investor FAQs
5. ^ History
6. ^ 7-Eleven: About – History
7. ^ Archival Collection
8. ^ http://www.rootbeer.com/textonly/roots.html
9. ^ The Long View: Putting An Accent On the Future
10. ^ Company History – Adecco – the world leader in human resource solutions
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24. ^ Steve Ettlinger,. Twinkie, Deconstructed: My Journey to Discover How the Ingredients
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28. ^ BenQ Corporation | Introduction: International Directory of Company Histories
29. ^ http://www.identityworks.com/spaeth/majorcase/celera.htm

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30. ^ CIGNA Company History

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as a three-store health-and-beauty chain that took the name of the two streets that
bounded its lower-Broadway warehouse."
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38. ^ Häagen-Dazs | Company | History
39. ^ Ittiam l About Us l Identity
40. ^ http://www.kpmg.co.uk/about/history/index.cfm
41. ^ "Lego.com About Us – Lego Company – The Lego Group". Lego Group. 2007.
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44. ^ Gobbling Up Sites and Web Surfers, Lycos Chooses to Aim Much Higher
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56. ^ The History of Xerox
57. ^ The History of Yahoo! – How It All Started...

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58. ^ A Bit of History

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