Marketing strategies play a major role in building the company and its name in the market. The name and the logo of a brand can either break or make the company. There are numerous roads to finalize a name for the brand.
Most company names have a story behind them and they will make you believe in your idea as well. So, are you ready to pitch your start-up idea?
7 Eleven
The United States of America is filled with 7 elevens. This store is now synonymous to its famous Slurpee. It is so freaking popular among people that now 7th of July is now considered as Free Slurpee Day. However, before we reached this level of sugar high, the store had a different name.
The store was established with the name Tote’m Stores. 20 years later, the store was named according to its working hours and that is 7 am-11 pm. The trick worked and there are over 60,000 stores all over the world. The Slurpee has actually changed the timings of some of these stores. They work 24*7 now!
Nintendo
The company was established by Fusajiro Yamauchi in Kyoto, Japan. Nobody had thought that a playing cards company which was a small business would turn out to be a revolutionary in the future. This one is as technical as it could get. The electronic and video game company has its origin in Japan and the name is Japanese too.
“Nin” means “entrusted” and “ten-dou” means “heaven. The concept behind the name is to leave luck up to heaven.
Pepsi
This carbonated drink was introduced in the market in the year 1893. The drink was first marketed as Brad's Drink, it was renamed as Pepsi-Cola on August 28, 1898, and then as Pepsi in 1961.
If we tell you the reason behind the name of this brand, you will call it the best example of irony. The name Pepsi is derived from one of our digestive enzymes, Pepsin. It is because initially this drink was marketed as a healthy drink that helps if you are suffering from indigestion.
Starbucks
For all the coffee lovers, Starbucks is their second home. You will find all coffee addicts lying around here with their laptops or their lovers. However, the story behind the name of the brand is quite lame. It is like one of those brands which had no intention of putting effort and named it after something you liked.
Have you read the novel Moby-Dick? Well, the founders of Starbucks were fond of the character called Starbuck. They thought the name was relatable to the romance of high seas, the way coffee was traded back in the day.
Adobe
You must have come across Adobe products like Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Reader, Adobe Acrobat, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Flash, Adobe Dreamweaver, etc. Does all of this sound familiar? Well, we assume you use one of these in your daily life. However, have you ever thought what the exact meaning behind the name Adobe is?
The co-founders of the company worked in Palo Alto and it is near Adobe Creek. They wanted to name the company after something relatable and this seemed apt to both of them.
Reebok
Recently, Reebok has used all ways to reach new heights. The brand has got some big names like Ariana Grande, Gigi Hadid, and Gal Gadot on board. It seems like Reebok is on a reboot mode right now.
The name that was initially decided for the brand was J.W. Foster and Sons. Sounds like the name of a local store, isn’t it? The grandson of the founder of the brand had similar thoughts. He thought the name didn’t sound modern enough. He then came across a book in which he read about an antelope called the Grey Rhebok. The idea was passed on to grandfather and the rest is history.
Coca-Cola
None of our pizzas would taste the same without this favorite drink we have. However, the origin of the name is not as cool as its name. The ingredients of the drink were used to name this companion of pizza!
Coca leaves and Kola nuts are the two ingredients that were used to make the carbonated drink. You may thank these two ingredients for the flavor and the name of the brand. The “K” of Kola was later changed to “C” because the founder thought it looked better in the logo.
Amazon
What would we do without this amazing website most of us love? Amazon is one delivery we want to get at least once a week. Its delivery is smooth but coming down to one name was not as smooth as you think.
The company was initially named as Cadabra but the founder Jeff Bezos thought it sounded like Cadaver, so he reconsidered the name. He wanted the name of his company to start with an “A” because then the name would appear on top in search. Moreover, he wanted his company to be as large as the Amazon River. He wanted to relate to the length and exoticness of the river.
IKEA
For a long time, people thought IKEA is a Swedish word that nobody understood but that isn’t true. This furniture brand is named by the founder who was seventeen at that point of time. So, you can get that the name has to be lame.
The name is basically an acronym for his name, his farm and the village he grew up in. Ingvar Kamprad, Elmtaryd, Agunnaryd; we hope it makes sense to you now.
Wendy’s
The chicken nuggets of this food outlet are synonymous to its name, Wendy’s. We obsess about this food chain because we can’t give up on Dave’s Double and Junior Bacon Cheeseburger. The history behind the name is not as complicated as you may have thought of. It’s simple and full of love.
The owner of the brand, Dave Thomas was overflowing with love for his daughter at the time he set this brand up. Consequently, he named the brand after his daughter, Melinda’s nickname, Wendy.
Virgin Atlantic
This British airline was set up in 1984.
Like all the people who step into start-ups, the founders of the brand, Richard Branson and Nik Powell considered themselves new to the concept. In short, they considered themselves a virgin in the arena of the start-up. Branson, the co-founder has explained that the V of the logo is an expressive tick that is the approval seal of the brand, Virgin Atlantic.
Atari
Established in 1972, the company has been owned by several entities. Starting with arcade games, this company went ahead to define the electronic entertainment industry in 1970-80s.
The story behind the name of the company is as simple as a video game. Atari is a Japanese word used in the game “GO” when the opponent’s pieces are in danger. So, probably they had set their eyes on an opponent when the company’s idea was incepted.
Nabisco
A biscuit company was made in 1898 by merging New York Biscuit Company and the American Biscuit and Manufacturing Company. Over 100 bakeries merged to make National Biscuit Company, later called Nabisco.
In 2000, the Philip Morris Companies, Inc. took over Nabisco and took it under the hood of Kraft Foods, Inc. The name behind this brand is just acronym to National Biscuit Company.
SONY
We are aware of numerous brands that are difficult to pronounce. Unlike all of those, Sony is the name that is the easiest to pronounce and the intention of naming this brand was exactly that.
“SONY’ has been derived from a Latin word Sonus that means sound. They choose this word because it is easy to say in most parts of the world.
Adidas
People are trying to put their brand ahead of everyone. In the case of shoes, Adidas is among the top trending brands. We are sorry to break your myth that ADIDAS doesn’t stand for “All Day I Dream About Sports”.
The brand has been named after the founder, Adolf Dassler. Get it? No? Well, the ad turned to Adi and Dassler gave its Das to make a brand called Adidas. The three stripes came later into the scene. Three stripes in increasing order mean growth and moving ahead.
Nokia
We remember the era of Nokia when everyone had a phone and that belonged to Nokia. Maybe Nokia wasn’t able to make good enough smartphones but has a special place in our heart. After all, our first phone was of Nokia, isn’t it?
Now, coming back to the track, the name of Nokia – the brand came from the Nokia town situated on the banks of the Nokianvirta River. Boring stuff! DUH!
Arby’s
For all the people who believe that it is an acronym to “Roasted Beef”. Unfortunately, that’s entirely false. The actual reason behind the brand is the initials of its founders, the Raffel Brothers, Leroy, and Forrest Raffel.
Sorry to burst your bubble full of beef, but the name of the brand isn’t derived from one of your favorite meals. This restaurant that was first established in Ohio used to serve limited options like roast beef sandwiches, potato chips, and soft drinks.
Sega
The company which deals in video games and mobile phones started off as a coin-operated game company in Hawaii. It was initially called Standard Games. The company then moved to Japan and was later renamed as Service Games.
SEGA is short to the latter one and is a Japanese term. The Japanese multinational video game developer and publisher company is headquartered in Tokyo.
eBay
It is a company that was initially named Echo Bay Technology Group. The founder Pierre Omidyar was trying to book a domain under this name but the domain echobay.com was already registered for a gold mining company. After thinking it through, Omidyar registered the domain ebay.com. We hope you don’t need us to tell you that eBay is short to the whole name.
eBay is definitely the second-best name that suits the brand.
Volkswagen
Volkswagen was set up in the 1930s. It was established on the request of the country's leader, Adolf Hitler. This German brand of cars is known for the cars that give you all the comfort and in not-so-high price. The name is a German word that means “People’s Car”. Well, it sounds logical. A middle-class man can definitely buy cars of this brand. One may have to buy it on EMIs but it definitely is “People’s Car”.
