The alleged secrets behind our most sought-after brands

Many of us use the same products and shop in the same stores every single day. Have you ever found yourself wondering what life might be like if they didn’t exist? Perhaps you’ve taken a moment to wonder what the world would be like if they were called something else? That’s right; we might have once had to call our favorite brands something entirely different. It can be easy to feel as though these companies have been around forever, but they all started from somewhere – and sometimes the ideas that got their name off the ground are unbelievable.
Starting a company isn’t all about market research and creating the ultimate commercial. Sometimes, we need a catchy name that makes us stand out from the rest of the crowd, and one that people won’t forget in a hurry. However, the unbelievable stories behind some of the world’s biggest brand names prove that the first choice might not always be the best. In fact, the journey to naming the company might sometimes behalf of the fun.

BlackBerry

It once felt as though everyone had a BlackBerry cell phone, but what was it that gave the company its name? It turns out that it was a bid to rebrand their firm that saw the change.

The phones were once known as Research in Motion until a marketing firm noticed that small buttons on the phone resembled the little bumps found on blackberries. It wasn’t long before the name stuck – and the rest is history!

Twitter

Even the creator of the site, Jack Dorsey, needed more than 140 characters to explain the name of his new website as he uploaded a number of tweets to tell the story. Twitter was once supposed to be an SMS messaging service for people. Jack sought inspiration for the name from the dictionary, as it can mean short bursts of inspiration.

The creator tweeted how he was setting up his “twttr,” but the texting code was already taken. Jack was forced to put the vowels back into the name and admitted that he “lost out web 2.0 cool” as a result.

Google

Believe it or not, but Google was once supposed to be named Backrub instead. Yes, the search engine could have been so different from the one we know now. However, the owners realized they needed a new name, so they settled on Googol instead. This is the number one followed by 100 zeros as a nod to the number of results they could find.

That was until the developers accidentally misspelled the name and wrote Google instead. The company decided to stick with the change, and it wasn’t long before they went down in search engine history as a result – all thanks to a mistake.

Starbucks

Many businesses find inspiration for their ideas from other sources, and Starbucks is no exception. The company knew they wanted the name to start with ‘st’ as it commanded attention. However, they soon were stuck. One of the founders of the chain, Gordon Bowker, was busy reading Moby Dick when he noticed something.

There was a character named Starbuck. Gordon pitched the name to the board where everyone agreed to add an ‘s’ to the end. Now, Starbucks still has the mermaid on the side of their cups to pay honor to the novel that once inspired their entire name.

Yahoo!

David Filo and Jerry Yang were once two Ph.D. students at Stanford University when they decided they wanted to create a search engine. All they needed was a name and soon settled on Jerry’s Guide to the World Wide Web. It was to the point, but it wasn’t the catchy name they both craved. The pair eventually decided to use an acronym instead.

The full name of the company? Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle. The tongue-in-cheek name has been shortened to Yahoo ever since, with many never learning the website’s full name. We really do learn something new every day!

Reebok

Many celebrities have endorsed the company, but where did it all begin? The business was once a small shoe store before it grew to a multi-million dollar business. The company knew they wanted to change their name, and enlisted the help of one of the founder’s grandsons to help.

It wasn’t long before he stumbled upon the Grey Rhebok, an antelope found in South Africa. His grandfather was so impressed that the name immediately stuck.

eBay

Believe it or not, but eBay was once the name for an umbrella company that oversaw four different sites, including one about the Ebola virus, one about travel, a shipping site, and AuctionWeb. It wasn’t long before AuctionWeb’s popularity grew and many media outlets began to wrongly refer to it as eBay instead.

Although the company tried to correct the mistake, they later embraced the name and officially changed the company to eBay in 1997.

Pepsi

Pepsi is one of the few companies that has grown to become recognized all around the world. However, it once belonged to Brad and was named Brad’s Drink as a result. Pharmacist Caleb Bradham created the recipe before selling it across North Carolina.

It wasn’t long before people everywhere wanted a cup of the good stuff. The growth of the company paved the way for a name change, and Pepsi was the first to catch on.

IKEA

Many of us have homes filled with IKEA furniture. Have you ever wondered where the brand’s name came from? The company was created by none other than 17-year-old Ingvar Kamprad.

The teen looked for inspiration for the name before settling on the initials from his name, as well as the first letter of his childhood farm named Elmtaryd and the first letter of his hometown Agunnaryd. Putting them together has made one of the most recognizable company names.

Subway

Sometimes, it takes a few tries to find a name that sticks. This was just what Dr. Peter Buck needed to do. To start, the sandwich chain was named Pete’s Super Submarines. Although he loved his work, the name wasn’t right.

Sadly, Doctor’s Associates Inc., a name to honor Peter’s doctorate degree, was no better. It was third time lucky when Peter finally fell for the name Subway and rebranded the company for the final time.

Facebook

Mark Zuckerberg was so confident about his site to connect students at Harvard that the creator of Facebook actually dropped out of college. Did you know that it was once called The Facebook instead?

As well as cutting his time at college short, Mark opted to cut the name of his company, too. The site transformed into one of the biggest social media sites on the planet and opted for a one-word company name instead.

Best Buy

Sound of Music was supposed to be the stereo store of the future. Unfortunately, disaster struck in 1966 as the company started to struggle, and the area was soon in the middle of a tornado warning.

Sound of Music held a ‘tornado sale’ to shift their inventory. Amazingly, the sale was advertised as the best buys anyone could find. The sales skyrocketed, and it influenced Sound of Music to change their name and give things one more shot.

Nike

The swoosh and the name might be two of the most recognized things in sporting apparel, but it wasn’t always that way. That’s right; Nike was once named Blue Ribbon Sports until the company teamed up with Onitsuka Tiger, a Japanese shoemaker.

The business already had the swoosh logo, however, they wanted to use Nike as it is the name of the Greek goddess of victory – more fitting to the message they wanted to send.

Amazon

Although Jeff Bezos is now the wealthiest person in the world, he almost had Cadabra to thank. Jeff wanted to pioneer the world’s largest online bookstore and thought that using a shortened version of the spell ‘abracadabra’ was a catchy name.

Sadly, lawyers started to believe the name was Cadavra instead. Jeff was less than impressed, so changed the company to Amazon to represent the largest river compared to his even larger ambitions. It was the perfect trade.

Adidas

Adidas is another of the leading names in sports apparel. Many believe that the name of the company stands for All Day I Dream About Sports, but it turns out that could all be a lie.

The business is actually a combination of the first and last name of the creator, Adolf Dassler. The acronym is just a happy coincidence. The three stripes were later added to the company to symbolize an upward climb to the top.

PayPal

‘Confidence’ and ‘infinity’ were the two words that combined to make Confinity – the original name of PayPal. The company hoped to start a program that dealt with complex online codes and would run their new software on Palm Pilots.

However, just one year after the launch of the business, the company began to allow people to make payments to their pals. Get it? It was this simple addition that soon led to a new branch – and name – for PayPal.

AOL

Many people needing to get online in the ‘90s would have headed to AOL to check all their latest emails and browse the web. What if they had to call it Quantum Computer Services? That was the case until 1991 when the company decided to swap one mouthful name for another as they rebranded as America Online.

People soon started to refer to the company as AOL. They realized this was much easier, and officially changed the name in 2006.

7-Eleven

Many of us dream of a Slurpee at the end of the day. The brand is now so famous that they hold Free Slurpee Day every year on 7/11. However, the company was once named Tote’m Stores.

The grocery store owners kept the name for 20 years until the late 1940s when they opted for 7-Eleven instead as the store was open from 7 am until 11 pm. The issue? Many of the stores are now open all around the clock.

Six Flags

Texas was once controlled by six different countries: the United States, the Confederate State, The Republic of Texas, Mexico, France, and Spain. The theme park was named Six Flags Over Texas in Arlington as a tribute to the state’s history as well as the full name of their first park.

It wasn’t until the park began to spread across the nation that the theme park decided to shorten the name and stick to Six Flags instead.

Apple

Nowadays, Apple is one of the most recognized names on the planet. Many believed that co-founder found inspiration from Apple Records, the label run by the Beatles, as he was so in love with the band. However, it turns out there’s another reason after all.

Apparently, Steve was picking apples in Oregon when the fruit inspired the name choice. It’s reported that co-founder Steve Wozniak was the one who worried about the similarities to Apple Records.

Lego

Before it was those plastic cubes making the floor so painful, Lego was once made from wooden blocks instead when carpenter Ole Kirk Christiansen founded the company.

It’s said the Danish carpenter was inspired by the saying Leg Godt, which translates to Play Well. It took many years for the name to stick, but the simplicity of the design and the versatility of the blocks meant that it wasn’t long before Lego was sold around the world.

The Gap

Teenagers and parents not getting one another is something that has been around for many years. That’s where The Gap saw a gap in the market. Doris and Donald Fisher wanted to grab the attention of teenagers and young adults.

They decided to name their store The Gap as they wanted to signify the generational gap between teenagers and their parents. Now, it seems as though they’ve spread out across all kinds of generations instead.

Skype

The invention of Skype was about to change the internet as people could message and video chat with one another all thanks to this service. The company was first named Sky Peer-to-Peer until the owners decided they needed something snappier.

Skyper was next on the list. Sadly, the domain name was already taken. There was nothing left to do but drop the ‘r’ and hope that Skype would be just as successful. Thankfully, it all paid off in the end.