The origin of well-known company names like Ford Motor Company or Microsoft are pretty easy to figure out. (Ford Motor was founded by Henry Ford; Microsoft produces software for microprocessors.) But other well-known companies have names whose derivations are not so obvious.
Here are some examples:
Coca-Cola. Like many soft drinks developed in the late 19th century, “Coke” was originally marketed as a tonic with curative powers. Two of the drink’s original ingredients were kola nut and coca leaves—the source of cocaine. (No wonder customers felt so peppy!) The original formula called for five ounces of coca leaf per gallon of syrup. This was later reduced to .05 ounces o
f leaf/gallon, and in 1903 coca leaf was removed altogether. To this day, “Coke” still contains coca flavoring, albeit from a cocaine-free leaf extract prepared at a plant in Maywood, New Jersey.
Pepsi. The above discussion naturally begs the question, how did Pepsi—originally “Pepsi-Cola”—get its name? Invented around the same time as its chief competitor, Pepsi again contained kola nuts along with pepsin, a digestive aid. Like coca leaves in “Coke,” there is no longer any pepsin in Pepsi.
7-Eleven. You can buy both of the above colas at your neighborhood 7-Eleven, convenience stores originally called “Tote’ms.” (You “toted” away your purchases. Get it?) In 1946, the stores were renamed 7-Eleven to promote their new, longer-operating hours: 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. (These “longer” hours, let alone seven-day-a-week operations, were revolutionary in post-World War II America.) Even after 7-Eleven went to a 24/7 schedule, the stores retained their old name.
Apple. Originally “Apple Computer Co.,” the fruit-flavored tech company was purportedly named by founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak after the Beatles’ Apple Records. (That and the fact Jobs had once worked on an apple farm.)
Google. A “googol” is the term mathematicians use for 10100. In other words, it’s a BIG number. When founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin named their new search engine, they chose the term to reflect the large amount of information it could retrieve. Unfortunately, they misspelled it.
Xerox. The term “xerography” was coined in 1938 by inventor Chester Carlson. A combination of two ancient Greek terms that together mean “dry writing,” the image reproduction process developed by the Haloid Corporation eventually led to the world’s first plain paper photocopier, the Xerox 914, released in 1959. The product line proved so successful that Haloid changed its name to the Xerox Corporation in 1961.
EBay. Online auction house founder Piere Omidyar originally had a web consulting company called Echo Bay Technology Group. However, when he attempted to register EchoBay.com, he found the name was already taken by a mining company. So he shorted Echo Bay to “eBay.”
Starbucks. No, the founders weren’t Battlestar Galactica fans. The ubiquitous chain of gourmet coffee houses was purportedly named for “Starbuck,” the coffee-loving whaler in Herman Melville’s Moby Dick. The company’s mermaid logo reflects this same seafaring theme.
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