The naming game
Interesting facts behind some of the most famous brands. Some I know
to be true, the others I am not so sure about. However, they are all
interesting. There are many companies / brands / products whose names
were derived from strange circumstances...
Mercedes
This was actually the financier's daughter's name.
Adobe
This came from name of the river Adobe Creek that ran behind the house
of founder John Warnock.
Apple Computer
The favourite fruit of cofounder Steve Jobs. He was three months late
in filing a name for the business, and he threatened to call his
company Apple Computers if his colleagues didn't suggest a better name
by 5 O'clock.
CISCO
Not an acronym as popularly believed. From San FrancCISCO.
Compaq
COMp, for computer, plus PAQ to denote a small integral object.
Corel
From the founder's name, Dr Michael Cowpland. It stands for COwpland
Research Laboratory.
Google
The name started as a joke boasting about the amount of information
the search-engine would be able to search. It was originally named
'Googol', a word for the number represented by 1 followed by 100
zeros. After founders Stanford graduate students Sergey Brin and Larry
Page presented their project to an angel investor, they received a
cheque made out to 'Google'
Hotmail
Founder Jack Smith got the idea of accessing e-mail via the web from a
computer anywhere in the world. When Sabeer Bhatia came up with the
business plan for the mail service, he tried all kinds of names ending
in 'mail' and finally settled for hotmail as it included the letters
"html" - the programming language used to write web pages. It was
initially called HoTMaiL with selective uppercasing.
Hewlett-Packard
Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard tossed a coin to decide whether the
company they founded would be called Hewlett-Packard or
Packard-Hewlett.
Intel
Bob Noyce and Gordon Moore wanted to name their new company 'Moore
Noyce' but that was already trademarked by a hotel chain so they had
to settle for an acronym of INTegrated ELectronics.
Lotus
Mitch Kapor got the name for his company from 'The Lotus Position' or
'Padmasana'. Kapor used to be a teacher of Transcendental Meditation
of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
Microsoft
Coined by Bill Gates to represent the company that was devoted to
MICROcomputer SOFTware. Originally christened Micro-Soft, the '-' was
removed later on.
Motorola
Founder Paul Galvin came up with this name when his company started
manufacturing radios for cars. The popular radio company at the time
was called Victrola.
ORACLE
Larry Ellison and Bob Oats were working on a consulting project for
the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency). The code name for the project
was called Oracle (the CIA saw ! this as the system to give answers to
all questions or something such). The project was designed to help use
the newly written SQL code by IBM. The project eventually was
terminated but Larry and Bob decided to finish what they started and
bring it to the world. They kept the name Oracle and created the RDBMS
engine. Later they kept the same name
for the company.
Sony
It originated from the Latin word 'sonus' meaning sound, and 'sonny' a
slang used by Americans to refer to a bright youngster.
SUN
Founded by four Stanford University buddies, SUN is the acronym for
Stanford University Network. Andreas Bechtolsheim built a
microcomputer; Vinod Khosla recruited him and Scott McNealy to
manufacture computers based on it, and Bill Joy to develop a
UNIX-based OS for the computer.
Yahoo!
The word was invented by Jonathan Swift and used in his book
'Gulliver's Travels'. A yahoo is a person who is repulsive in
appearance and action and is barely human. Yahoo! founders Jerry Yang
and David Filo selected the name because they considered themselves
yahoos.
--
G.A.
to be true, the others I am not so sure about. However, they are all
interesting. There are many companies / brands / products whose names
were derived from strange circumstances...
Mercedes
This was actually the financier's daughter's name.
Adobe
This came from name of the river Adobe Creek that ran behind the house
of founder John Warnock.
Apple Computer
The favourite fruit of cofounder Steve Jobs. He was three months late
in filing a name for the business, and he threatened to call his
company Apple Computers if his colleagues didn't suggest a better name
by 5 O'clock.
CISCO
Not an acronym as popularly believed. From San FrancCISCO.
Compaq
COMp, for computer, plus PAQ to denote a small integral object.
Corel
From the founder's name, Dr Michael Cowpland. It stands for COwpland
Research Laboratory.
The name started as a joke boasting about the amount of information
the search-engine would be able to search. It was originally named
'Googol', a word for the number represented by 1 followed by 100
zeros. After founders Stanford graduate students Sergey Brin and Larry
Page presented their project to an angel investor, they received a
cheque made out to 'Google'
Hotmail
Founder Jack Smith got the idea of accessing e-mail via the web from a
computer anywhere in the world. When Sabeer Bhatia came up with the
business plan for the mail service, he tried all kinds of names ending
in 'mail' and finally settled for hotmail as it included the letters
"html" - the programming language used to write web pages. It was
initially called HoTMaiL with selective uppercasing.
Hewlett-Packard
Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard tossed a coin to decide whether the
company they founded would be called Hewlett-Packard or
Packard-Hewlett.
Intel
Bob Noyce and Gordon Moore wanted to name their new company 'Moore
Noyce' but that was already trademarked by a hotel chain so they had
to settle for an acronym of INTegrated ELectronics.
Lotus
Mitch Kapor got the name for his company from 'The Lotus Position' or
'Padmasana'. Kapor used to be a teacher of Transcendental Meditation
of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
Microsoft
Coined by Bill Gates to represent the company that was devoted to
MICROcomputer SOFTware. Originally christened Micro-Soft, the '-' was
removed later on.
Motorola
Founder Paul Galvin came up with this name when his company started
manufacturing radios for cars. The popular radio company at the time
was called Victrola.
ORACLE
Larry Ellison and Bob Oats were working on a consulting project for
the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency). The code name for the project
was called Oracle (the CIA saw ! this as the system to give answers to
all questions or something such). The project was designed to help use
the newly written SQL code by IBM. The project eventually was
terminated but Larry and Bob decided to finish what they started and
bring it to the world. They kept the name Oracle and created the RDBMS
engine. Later they kept the same name
for the company.
Sony
It originated from the Latin word 'sonus' meaning sound, and 'sonny' a
slang used by Americans to refer to a bright youngster.
SUN
Founded by four Stanford University buddies, SUN is the acronym for
Stanford University Network. Andreas Bechtolsheim built a
microcomputer; Vinod Khosla recruited him and Scott McNealy to
manufacture computers based on it, and Bill Joy to develop a
UNIX-based OS for the computer.
Yahoo!
The word was invented by Jonathan Swift and used in his book
'Gulliver's Travels'. A yahoo is a person who is repulsive in
appearance and action and is barely human. Yahoo! founders Jerry Yang
and David Filo selected the name because they considered themselves
yahoos.
--
G.A.
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