Brands Name History
Adidas | Named for nickname of Adolf “Adi” Dassler |
Amazon | Most voluminous river for a site with hoped for voluminous sales |
Apple | Steve Job’s favorite fruit, simple and not cold or unapproachable like IBM |
Canon | Japanese name of Buddhist bodhissatva for mercy Kannon |
Coca-Cola | Made from coca leaves and kola nuts—coca-kola |
Danone | Named for nickname of founder’s first son Daniel—Dan + One |
eBay | Was originally Echo Bay, but that was taken, so Echo was shortened to e |
A misspelling for math term “googol” | |
M&Ms | For partners Forrest Mars and Bruce Murrie (son of Hershey president) |
Pepsi | Named for digestive enzyme pepsin |
Reebok | Named for African antelope rhebok |
Samsung | Korean for three stars |
Toyota | Founder name Toyoda turned out to be hard to spell |
Volkswagen | German for peoples’ car |