- Most consumers likely come into contact with at least one of the world's best-known brand names every day. But, few know what these names actually mean.
- A name is one of the most important ways a company can set a first impression for a customer. These names need to be catchy, memorable, and uncomplicated to make sure they stick.
- We put together a list of popular brands and investigated where their names originated. Some of them have crazy backstories.
- The list includes big names such as Amazon, Nike, Adidas, and Pepsi.
You're wearing your favorite Nike sneakers and Lululemon pants when you head to the mall to do some shopping at the Gap. On your way there, you grab a latté at Starbucks.
After a few good hours of shopping, you head to Panera to meet a friend for lunch. You Venmo her for the meal and then you both decide dessert is in the cards: Next stop, Häagen-Dazs.
All of these popular brands are staples in our lives, and most of us will come into contact with at least one of them every day. However, few of us actually know what they mean.
The name of a company is one of the most important ways to set a good first impression for the customer. It needs to be catchy, memorable, and uncomplicated, which often means companies keep them short and snappy.
In some cases, companies will even invent what seems like an entirely new language around their brand name. Think Google, Venmo, and Twitter, for example. For some, there might be a crazy backstory behind the origins of their name.
For this reason, we decided to put together a list of 24 well-known brands and find out how their founders came up with their often-kooky names.
Find out more below:
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Pepsi was named after the medical term for indigestion.
The inventor of Pepsi, Caleb Davis Bradham, originally wanted to be a doctor, but a family crisis meant that he left medical school and became a pharmacist instead, according to the company website.
His original invention, known as "Brad's Drink," was made from a mix of sugar, water, caramel, lemon oil, and nutmeg. Three years later, Bradham renamed his drink, which he believed aided digestion, to "Pepsi-Cola," taken from the word dyspepsia, meaning indigestion.
Panera is a portmanteau of the words "pan" and "era."
According to Panera's Facebook page, the sandwich chain's name "has Latin and Spanish roots."
In Spanish, "pan" means bread and "era" means age or time. So put together, Panera means "age of bread."
Ron Shaich, the founder of Panera, also told Fortune the name comes from the Latin word for breadbasket.
Google owes its name to a typo.
Google's name emerged from a brainstorming session at Stanford University. Founder Larry Page was coming up with ideas for a massive data-index website with other graduate students, Business Insider reported.
One of the suggestions was "googolplex" one of the largest describable numbers. The name "Google" came about after one of the students accidentally spelled it wrong. Page then registered his company with this name.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider