Brand Name, Behind the Scene

Sam Walton, founder of Walton’s Five and Dime, needed a name for the new retail chain of the new retail chain of super centers he was developing nationwide.



Shortened from Southern Pacific Railroad Internal Communication.


Taken from the logo, which represents the arm and hammer of Vulcan, the Roman god of fire and metalworking, which was adopted from the Vulca Spice Mills.



Founder Dave Thomas named the company after his daughter Melinda, who was nicknamed Wendy.



Shortened from Government Employees Insurance Company.



Named after a character in Herman Melville’s Moby Dick.




Taken from the nickname of founder Adlof Adi Dassler. His brother, Rudolf Rudi Dassler,went on to found his own shoe company called Ruda, which later became Puma.



Shortened from Service Games of Japan, which originally imported pinball machines into American bases in Japan.




From the founders’ names, Harold 'Matt' Matson and Elliot Handler.



Named for the coca leaves and kola nuts originally used as flavouring.




Named after founder Glen Bell.



Taken from the Japanese word for when an opponent’s pieces are in danger of being captured in the game Go.(Not unlike the term check in chess.




Combination of the Latin word veritas, which means truth, and the word horizon.




Named from the digestive enzyme pepsin.




Suggested to founder Richard Branson by a friend who claimed they were “complete virgins at business.”




From the Danish leg godt, which means to play well.




Stylized form of rhebok, which is an African antelope.




Named for Adobe Creek, which ran behind the house of co-founder john Warnock.




Changed from U-Tote’m in 1946 when new 7:00 am until 11:00 pm hours into effect.



Originally part of the Echo Bay Technology Group. The URL EchoBay.com was already taken by a mining company based out of Echo Bay, Nevada.


Named after the company’s first product, the ever-sharp pencil.

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