'Completely made up' - How 20 top brands got their names
Ever wondered how some of our best-loved household brands got their names? Find out which global giant was inspired by Moby Dick, whose original name sounded too much like like 'Cadaver' and which brand names are entirely made up!
Adidas
A nickname of founder Adolf ‘Adi’ Dassler
Adobe Systems
Named after Adobe Creek, a stream which ran behind the house of one of the co-founders, John Warnock.
Amazon
Named after the most voluminous river in the world, having been originally launched as Cadabra.com. Over the phone, this was repeatedly mistaken for ‘Cadaver’, hence the change.
Amstrad
Alan Michael Sugar Trading
Accenture
‘Accent on the future’ – following an employee competition to come up with a new name
Aldi
The surname of the founders (Albrecht) plus discount
Danone
The founders first son Daniel + one
Datsun
Originally DAT, changed to Datson implying a smaller version of the car, then changed to Datsun (as son can mean ‘loss’ in Japanese) when acquired by Nissan
Equifax
Equitable and factual
Garmin
After its founders Gary Burrell and Dr. Min Kao
Haagen-Dazs
A completely made-up ‘European sounding’ name designed to ‘convey an aura of old-world traditions and craftsmanship’
Intel
From Integrated Electronics
Lego
A play on the Danish expression, Leg godt, which means, Play well.
