How Famous Brands Got Their Names
The stories behind the names scrawled across storefronts and stitched into labels tell us more about human nature than any business textbook ever could. Some brand names emerge from profound inspiration, others from pure happenstance, and a surprising number from what can only be described as creative desperation.
These aren’t just marketing decisions—they’re tiny windows into the minds of inventors, entrepreneurs, and dreamers who somehow convinced the world to remember their particular combination of syllables.
Nike
The athletic giant draws its name from Greek mythology, where Nike was the goddess of victory. She is commonly depicted with outstretched wings, carrying a wreath or palm branch as a symbol of her triumph.
The Ancient Greeks would probably not be surprised to find out that Nike beat out brands like Louis Vuitton and Ralph Lauren to become 2015’s most valuable apparel brand. Nike didn’t always have a victorious name nor the telltale swoosh.
When the company was founded in 1964, it was called Blue Ribbon Sports — which was probably too long to neatly fit a swoosh underneath. There’s something beautifully straightforward about naming your company after the goddess of winning when your entire business revolves around helping people win.
Apple
While Steve Jobs may have been a notoriously complicated man to his co-workers and friends, his design choices were all about streamlined simplicity, even down to the name of the computer company he co-founded with Steve Wozniak in 1976. While Jobs was a longtime fan of Japanese tech companies like Sony, the catalyst for Apple’s namesake was hardly high tech.
During Jobs’ fruitarian period, in which he consumed an all-fruit diet, he visited an apple farm and inspiration struck. That’s it.
No grand metaphor about knowledge or temptation—just a man on a fruit diet who thought “Apple” sounded clean and friendly (and would appear near the top of phone book listings, which actually mattered back then).
LEGO
The toy company name combines the Danish words “leg got” or “play well.” When it came time for Ole to name his company, he settled on something very simple: the Danish words “leg godt.”
That translates roughly to “play well.” He combined the words into the now-iconic “LEGO,” that was that.
He thought it looked good, sounded good, and was easy to say across nearly any language. Sometimes the best names are the most obvious ones—a toy company called “play well” feels almost too perfect to be true.
Starbucks
The founders of Starbucks originally wanted to name their coffee empire after the ship in Herman Melville’s the Pequod. Thankfully, they realized “Hey, let’s go grab a venti at Pequod’s” didn’t roll off the tongue.
Starbucks, the leading coffee company in the world, draws its name from an unusual source: the chief mate in the classic novel, Starbucks. The name “Starbucks” is easy to remember and say and evokes a sense of exploration and quality, making it an ideal match for an innovative brand.
It’s no wonder that Starbucks has become a household name and a symbol of excellence in the coffee industry. The literary connection adds a certain gravitas to your morning caffeine ritual (though most customers probably aren’t thinking about whaling expeditions when ordering their half-caf soy macchiato).
IKEA
More than just a name, IKEA represents its founder’s roots. (I)ngvar (K)amprad’s humble beginnings at his farm, (E)lmtaryd, in the village of (A)gunnaryd, instilled values of simplicity and efficiency in the company.
It’s also an acronym—because even the name requires some assembly. The letters stand for founder Ingvar Kamprad, his family farm Elmtaryd, and his hometown Agunnaryd.
So yes, your end table was named after a Swedish man’s childhood memories. According to an article in the Guardian, because Kamprad is dyslexic, he found that naming products with proper names and words made them easier to identify.
Sofas, coffee tables, bookshelves, media storage, and doorknobs are named after places in Sweden (Klippan, Malmö); beds, wardrobes, and hall furniture after places in Norway; carpets after places in Denmark, and dining tables and chairs after places in Finland. Bookcases are mainly occupations (Bonde, peasant farmer; Styrman, helmsman).
Bathroom stuff is named after lakes and rivers.
Amazon
The company was originally incorporated in Washington state under the name Cadabra, Inc. It was a play-on-words of the magical word “abracadabra”.
But a few months later, he changed the name after a lawyer misheard it as “cadaver” – yes, a corpse. He looked through a dictionary and decided to go with “Amazon”.
Bezos thought the name would be “exotic and different”, just like his online business. The Amazon River is also the largest river in the world, which Bezos believed fit with his dreams of creating the biggest bookstore globally.
And Amazon also had the benefit of starting with an “A”, which would place it near the top of lists in alphabetical order. Bezos understood something fundamental about ambition—if you’re going to name your company after a river, make it the biggest one.
Pepsi
Invented in 1893 by drugstore owner Caleb Davis Bradham, the beverage—made from a mix of sugar, water, caramel, lemon oil, nutmeg, and other natural ingredients—was originally called “Brad’s Drink,” according to the company website. But because Bradham saw the drink less as a refreshment and more as a healthy cola that could aid in digestion, he renamed it five years later, using the word “dyspepsia,” which means indigestion, as its root.
The irony is delicious—a soft drink named after a digestive ailment became one of the most successful beverages in history.
Virgin
Richard Branson’s choice for his company name started as a bit of a joke. According to the company, there were a number of contenders, including “Slipped Disc.”
But then someone suggested Virgin, as they were all virgins at business. As the company tells it, they all laughed, but the name stuck.
It takes confidence to build a billion-dollar empire on what amounts to a self-deprecating pun, but Branson made it work.
Target
The discount chain store owned by The Dayton Company opened in 1962. According to the company timeline, after debating more than 200 possible names, the company’s director of publicity—in a burst of red-and-white inspiration—came up with Target.
The reasoning behind the choice was that the new store, which was originally designed to have 75 departments in all and parking for 1,200 cars, would hit the bull’s-eye in terms of retail goods, services, commitment to the community, price, value, and overall experience. They were adrift.
That is until the company’s publicity director came up with the name “Target.” According to his reasoning, the bullseye-related word fit perfectly because the original store was set up to have more than 75 different departments, as well as parking for nearly 1,300 cars.
Thus, it would be so big and so useful across every sector that it would be the perfect “target” for everyone’s retail needs.
Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola: Derived from two of its original ingredients: coca leaves and kola nuts. John S. Pemberton’s bookkeeper, Frank M. Robinson, suggested the name, believing the two Cs would look good in advertising.
It reflects its two original vital ingredients. Robinson had an eye for alliteration that would make any marketing executive weep with envy—he understood that names need to sound as good as they look.
McDonald’s
McDonalds is called that because it was founded by Richard and Maurice McDonald in San Bernardino, California in 1940. Sometimes the simplest explanation is the correct one.
McDonald is a boy’s name of Scottish origin. Traditionally a last name, it derives from the Scottish Gaelic name MacDhòmhnaill, which means “son of Donald” and “son of the world ruler.”
Although the name McDonald is today associated with the burger restaurant, the Donald clan was a significant family in the Scottish Highlands for centuries. The golden arches have made a Scottish surname more recognizable than most corporate logos.
Disney
The name Disney is from an English surname derived from the French. It is a local surname, originally D’Isigny meaning “from Isigny, France” – a town in Normandy.
Disney is most identified with cartoonist Walt Disney, who built a company based on cartoon characters and animated movies. Disney is now a major international entertainment corporation.
Walt Disney built his empire on his family name, which traces back to a small town in Normandy—proof that sometimes the most magical names come from the most ordinary places.
Louis Vuitton
Louis Vuitton was a French fashion designer and skilled craftsman and he established his eponymous brand in Paris in 1854. Vuitton started his career making trunks for Napoleon III’s wife, Empress Eugénie de Montijo, and it was at the age of 33 that he opened his own artisanal workshop at 4 Rue Neuve-des-Capucines.
Thus came to fruition the beginnings of his much-lauded brand, Louis Vuitton. The LV monogram that adorns luxury goods worldwide is simply the initials of a craftsman who started making trunks for royalty—sometimes the most iconic symbols begin with the most personal stories.
Hermès
Hermès began as a harness workshop in 1837 by Thierry Hermès. His grandson, Emile-Maurice Hermès was responsible for the successful diversification of the business.
Our tale begins not in the fashion capital of Paris, but in the German town of Krefeld, where Thierry Hermès was born in 1801. As the sixth child of a family of innkeepers, Thierry’s destiny seemed set, but fate had other plans.
The Napoleonic Wars, which brought glory to France, also brought tragedy to the Hermès family. Thierry’s parents and all five of his siblings were killed, leaving him an orphan at just 20 years old.
This places us in 1821. The tragedy that shaped Thierry Hermès eventually led to one of the world’s most prestigious luxury houses—a reminder that remarkable stories often emerge from the darkest chapters.
Tiffany
Tiffany was founded in 1837 by then 25-year-old Charles Lewis Tiffany, when he and his friend opened a stationery store in New York. The company soon received international recognition when it won the silver craftsmanship in Paris at the 1867 World’s Fair.
It was in the 1940s when Charles designed the signature blue color of the company, which is now recognized worldwide. Fun fact: the Hermès brand shares a birth year with another iconic brand: Tiffany & Co.
That particular shade of blue became so iconic that “Tiffany blue” entered the cultural lexicon—not bad for what started as a stationery store.
Reebok
In a 1928 South African dictionary, the word “rhebok” described a type of antelope known for speed and agility. When a British athletic shoe company was looking for a name, they latched onto it like a marketing intern chasing a gazelle.
They changed the spelling to “Reebok,” which sounds sporty, mysterious, and just exotic enough to make you forget how often you skip leg day. The company wanted a name symbolising movement and energy.
The “rhebok,” an African antelope known for its speed and agility, fit the bill perfectly.
Adobe
Tech giant Adobe gets its name from Adobe Creek, a small stream behind co-founder John Warnock’s home in California. That’s it.
That’s the story. Sometimes the most successful names require no explanation beyond pure geography—a creek behind someone’s house became the foundation of a software empire.
Netflix
The name “Netflix” combines “net” for internet and “flix,” slang for movies. Founded in 1997, it started as an online DVD rental service and evolved into the streaming giant we know today, with the name capturing its digital and cinematic roots.
The portmanteau perfectly captured what the company did, even as that mission evolved from mailing DVDs to streaming everything imaginable.
Google: accidental misspelling of the mathematical term googol, proposed to reflect the company’s mission to organize the immense amount of information available online. BackRub was the working name before Google was decided on.
One misspelling changed everything—though honestly, “BackRub” doesn’t quite roll off the tongue the way “Google” does (and it would have made for some very awkward marketing campaigns).
Samsung
Samsung: South Korea’s largest corporation. Samsung means three stars in Korean.
Three stars turned into a global constellation of electronics, appliances, and technology—sometimes the simplest names carry the most ambitious promises.
Xerox
Xerox was founded almost 120 years ago and was pivotal in the development of the first photocopying machine. In 1948 the term “Xerox” (derived from the Greek for ‘dry writing’) was registered as a trade mark.
The Greek etymology feels appropriately academic for a company that revolutionized how information gets copied and shared, though they probably didn’t anticipate spending decades fighting to keep their name from becoming a generic verb.
When Names Take On a Life of Their Own
The most successful brand names sometimes become victims of their own success. Xerox Corporation attempted to prevent the genericization of its core trademark through an extensive public relations campaign advising consumers to “photocopy” instead of “xerox” documents.
The Lego Company has worked to prevent the genericization of its plastic building blocks following the expiration of Lego’s last major patents in 1978. Lego manuals and catalogs throughout the 1980s included a message imploring customers to preserve the brand name by “referring to [their] bricks as ‘LEGO Bricks or Toys’, and not just ‘LEGOS’.”
Most people don’t reach for facial tissue, they reach for a Kleenex; they apply a Band-Aid, not an adhesive bandage, to a wound, and they make a Xerox of a document, as opposed to a photocopy. These words, like Kleenex, Band-Aid, and Xerox, are known as generic trademarks, genericized trademarks, or propriety eponyms.
Through usage a trademarked name or brand becomes a generic term — a common noun or verb used in daily conversation and writing. Looking at these naming stories, what strikes you isn’t the careful market research or focus group testing (most of these names predate such luxuries).
Instead, it’s the wonderfully human mix of accident, instinct, and circumstance that created the words we now use without thinking. A Greek goddess, a Swedish farm, a creek behind someone’s house, a misspelled math term—these fragments of inspiration became the vocabulary of modern life.
The best brand names don’t announce their origins loudly. They settle into our language so naturally that we forget they were ever invented by someone sitting in a workshop, looking at a dictionary, or just trying to solve the simple problem of what to call the thing they’d created.
In a world obsessed with strategic naming and trademark searches, there’s something refreshing about the unplanned poetry of it all.
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