How they named companies

ABN AMRO- In the 1960s, the Nederlandse Handelmaatschappij (Dutch Trading Society;
1824) and the Twentsche Bank merged to form the Algemene Bank Nederland ( ABN;
General Bank of the Netherlands). In 1966, the Amsterdamsche Bank and the
Rotterdamsche Bank merged to form the Amro Bank. In 1991, ABNand Amro Bank merged
to form ABN AMRO.
Acccenture - Accent on the Future. Greater-than 'accent' over the logo's t points
forward towards the future. The name Accenture was proposed by a company employee
in Norwayas part of a internal name finding process (BrandStorming). Prior to
January 1, 2001 the company was called Andersen Consulting.

Adidas- from the name of the founder Adolf (Adi) Dassler.

Adobe- came from name of the river Adobe Creek that ran behind the houses of
founders John Warnock and Chuck Geschke .

AltaVista- Spanish for "high view".

Amazon.com - Founder Jeff Bezos renamed the company to Amazon (from the earlier
name of Cadabra.com) after the world's most voluminous river, the Amazon. He saw
the potential for a larger volume of sales in an online bookstore as opposed to
the then prevalent bookstores. (Alternative: It is said that Jeff Bezos named his
book store Amazon simply to cash in on the popularity of Yahoo at the time. Yahoo
listed entries alphabetically, and thus Amazon would always appear above its
competitors in the relevant categories it was listed in.)

AMD- Advanced Micro Devices.

Apache- The name was chosen from respect for the Native American Indian tribe of
Apache (Indé), well-known for their superior skills in warfare strategy and their
inexhaustible endurance. Secondarily, and more popularly (though incorrectly)
accepted, it's considered a cute name that stuck: its founders got started by
applying patches to code written for NCSA's httpd daemon. The result was 'a
patchy' server â€" thus the name Apache.

Apple- for the favourite fruit of co-founder Steve Jobs and/or for the time he
worked at an apple orchard. He was three months late in filing a name for the
business, and he threatened to call his company Apple Computer if his colleagues
didn't suggest a better name by 5 p.m. Apple's Macintosh is named after a popular
variety of apple sold in the US. Apple also wanted to distance itself from the
cold, unapproachable, complicated imagery created by the other computer companies
at the time had names like IBM, NEC, DEC, ADPAC, Cincom, Dylakor, Input, Integral
Systems, SAP, PSDI, Syncsort and Tesseract. The new company sought to reverse the
entrenched view of computers in order to get people to use them at home. They
looked for a name that was unlike the names of traditional computer companies, a
name that also supported a brand positioning strategy that was to be perceived as
simple, warm, human, approachable and different. Note: Apple had to get approval
from the Beatle's Apple Corps to use the name 'Apple' and paid a one-time royalty
of $100,000 to McIntosh Laboratory, Inc., a maker of high-end audio equipment, to
use the derivative name 'Macintosh', known now as just 'Mac'.

AT&T- American Telephone and Telegraph Corporation officially changed its name to
AT&T in the 1990s.

Bauknecht- Founded as an electrotechnical workshop in 1919 by Gottlob Bauknecht .

BBC- Stands for British Broadcasting Corporation.

BenQ- Bringing ENjoyment and Quality to life

Blaupunkt- Blaupunkt (Blue dot) was founded in 1923 under the name Ideal. Their
core business was the manufacturing of headphones. If the headphones came through
quality tests, the company would give the headphones a blue dot. The headphones
quickly became known as the blue dots or blaue Punkte. The quality symbol would
become a trademark, and the trademark would become the company name in 1938.

BMW- abbreviation of Bayerische Motoren Werke (Bavarian Motor Factories)

Borealis - The Northern Lights or Aurora Borealis, is the celestial phenomenon

that features bursts of light in colourful patterns dancing across the night skies
of the north. Borealis, inspired from the shining brilliance of the Northern
Lights, was formed in 1994 out of the merger between two northern oil companies,
Norway's Statoil and Finland's Neste.

BP - formerly British Petroleum, now "BP" (The slogan "Beyond Petroleum" has
incorrectly been taken to refer to the company's new name following its rebranding
effort in 2000).

BRAC- abbreviation for Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee, world's largest NGO
(non governmental organization). It works in development programs around the
world.

Bridgestone- named after founder Shojiro Ishibashi. The surname Ishibashi (??)
means "stone bridge", i.e. "bridge of stone".

Bull- Compagnie des machines Bull was founded in Paristo exploit the patents for
punched card machines taken out by a Norwegian engineer, Fredrik Rosing Bull.

Cadillac- Cadillac was named after the 18th century French explorer Antoine Laumet
de La Mothe , sieur de Cadillac, founder of Detroit, Michigan. Cadillac is a small
town in the South of France.

Canon- Originally (1933) Precision Optical Instruments Laboratory the new name
(1935) derived from the name of the company's first camera, the Kwannon, in turn
named after the Japanese name of the Buddhist bodhisattva of mercy.

CGI- from the first letter of Information Management Consultant in french

(Conseiller en Gestion et Informatique).

Cisco- short for San Francisco. It has also been suggested that it was "CIS-co" --
Computer Information Services was the department at StanfordUniversitythat the
founders worked in.

COBRA- Computadores Brasileiros, "Brazilian Computers", electronics and services

company, was the first state-owned designer and producer of computers in the
1970s, later acquired by the Banco do Brasil.

Coca-Cola- Coca-Cola's name is derived from the coca leaves and kola nuts used as
flavoring. Coca-Cola creator John S. Pemberton changed the 'K' of kola to 'C' for
the name to look better.

Colgate-Palmolive- formed from a merger of soap manufacturers Colgate & Company

and Palmolive-Peet. Peet was dropped in 1953. Colgate was named after
WilliamColgate, an English immigrant, who set up a starch, soap and candle
business in New York Cityin 1806. Palmolive was named for the two oils (Palm and
Olive) used in its manufacture.

Compaq- from "comp" for computer, and "pack" to denote a small integral object;
or: Compatibility And Quality; or: from the company's first product, the very
compact Compaq Portable.

Comsat - an American digital telecommunications and satellite company, founded

during the President Kennedy era to develop the technology. Contraction of
Communications Satellites.

Daewoo- the company founder Kim Woo Chong called it Daewoo which means "Great
Universe" in Korean.

Dell- named after its founder, Michael Dell. The company changed its name from
Dell Computer in 2003.

DHL- the company was founded by Adrian Dalsey, Larry Hillblom , and Robert Lynn ,
whose last initials form the company's moniker.

eBay- Pierre Omidyar, who had created the Auction Web trading website, had formed
a web consulting concern called Echo Bay Technology Group. " EchoBay" didn't refer
to the town in Nevada, the nature area close to Lake Mead, or any real place. "It
just sounded cool," Omidyar reportedly said. When he tried to register
EchoBay.com, though, he found that Echo Bay Mines, a gold mining company, had
gotten it first. So, Omidyar registered what (at the time) he thought was the
second best name: eBay.com.

Epson - Epson Seiko Corporation, the Japanese printer and peripheral manufacturer,
was named from "Son of Electronic Printer"

Fanta- was originally invented by Max Keith in Germanyin 1940 when World War II
made it difficult to get the Coca-Cola syrup to Nazi Germany. Fanta was originally
made from byproducts of cheese and jam production. The name comes from the German
word for imagination (Fantasie or Phantasie), because the inventors thought that
imagination was needed to taste oranges from the strange mix.

Fazer - named after its founder, Karl Fazer.

Fiat- acronym of Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino (Italian Factory of Cars of

Turin).

Fuji- from the highest Japanese mountain Mount Fuji.

Google- the name is an intentional misspelling of the word googol, reflecting the
company's mission to organize the immense amount of information available online.

Haier- Chinese ? "sea" and ? (a transliteration character; also means "you" in

Literary Chinese)

HP- Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard tossed a coin to decide whether the company they
founded would be called Hewlett-Packard or Packard-Hewlett.

Hitachi- old place name, literally "sunrise"

Honda- from the name of its founder, Soichiro Honda

Honeywell- from the name of Mark Honeywell founder of Honeywell Heating Specialty
Co. It later merged with Minneapolis Heat Regulator Company and was finally called
Honeywell Inc. in 1963.

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 markup language used
to write web pages. It was initially referred to as HoTMaiL with selective upper
casing. (If you click on Hotmail's 'mail' tab, you will still find "HoTMaiL" in
the URL.)

HSBC- The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation.

Hyundai- connotes the sense of "the present age" or "modernity" in Korean.

IBM- named by Tom Watson, an ex-employee of National Cash Register. To one-up them
in all respects, he called his company International Business Machines.

ICL- abbreviation for International Computers Ltd, once the UK's largest computer
company, but now a service arm of Fujitsu, of Japan.

IKON - copier company name derived from I Know One Name.

Intel- Bob Noyce and Gordon Moore initially incorporated their company as N M
Electronics. Someone suggested Moore Noyce Electronics but it sounded too close to
"more noise" -- not a good choice for an electronics company! Later, Integrated
Electronics was proposed but it had been taken by somebody else. Then, using
initial syllables from INTegrated ELectronics, Noyce and Moore came up with Intel.
To avoid potential conflicts with other companies of similar names, Intel
purchased the name rights for $15,000 from a company called Intelco. (Source:
Intel 15 Years Corporate Anniversary Brochure)

Interland - a web hosting provider formally known as Micron Computer, Inc. which
was named either after InternetLandor the combination of the largest acqusition it
performed, Interliant with the word Land.

Kawasaki- from the name of its founder, Shozo Kawasaki

Kodak- Both the Kodak camera and the name were the invention of founder George
Eastman . The letter "K" was a favourite with Eastman; he felt it a strong and
incisive letter. He tried out various combinations of words starting and ending
with "K". He saw three advantages in the name. It had the merits of a trademark
word, would not be mis-pronounced and the name did not resemble anything in the
art. There is a misconception that the name was chosen because of its similarity
to the sound produced by the shutter of the camera.

Konica- it was earlier known as Konishiroku Kogaku. Konishiroku in turn is the

short for Konishiya Rokubeiten which was the first name of the company established
by Rokusaburo Sugiura in the 1850s.

Korg - Formed from the surnames of the founders, Tsutomu Katoh and Tadashi Osanai,
combined with the letters "rg" from the word organ.

LG- combination of two popular Korean brands Lucky and Goldstar. (In
Mexicopublicists explained the name change to the public as an abbreviation to
LÃnea Goldstar Spanish for Goldstar Line)

L'Oréal- In 1907, Eugène Schueller, a young French chemist, developed an

innovative hair-color formula. He called his improved hair dye Auréole.
Lotus Software- Mitch Kapor got the name for his company from 'The Lotus Position'
or 'Padmasana'. Kapor used to be a teacher of Transcendental Meditation technique
as taught by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

Lucent Technologies- a spin-off from AT&T, it was named Lucent (meaning "luminous"
or "glowing with light") because "light as a metaphor for visionary thinking
reflected the company's operating and guiding business philosophy," according to
the Landor Associates staff who chose the name. Source: Design Management Journal
8:1 (Winter 1997).

Lycos- from Lycosidae, the family of wolf spiders.

Mazda Motor- from the company's first president, Jujiro Matsuda . In Japanese, no
syllables are ever stressed and some inner syllables are virtually skipped. Thus,
Matsuda is pronounced "Matsda". To make the name fly better outside of Japan, the
spelling was changed to Mazda.

McDonald's- from the name of the brothers Dick McDonald and Mac McDonald, who
founded the first McDonald 's restaurant in 1940.

Mercedes- This is the first name of the daughter of Emil Jellinek, who worked for
the early Daimler company around 1900.

MGM- Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was formed by the merger of three picture houses Metro
Picture Corporation, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer Pictures.
Goldwyn Picture Corporation in turn was named after the last names of Samuel
Goldfish and Edgar and Archibald Selwyn.

Micron- computer memory producer named after the microscopic parts of its
products. The official name was Micron Computer, Inc. Since, the company has
become Interland, a web hosting provider, after selling/spinning off its RAM
division and closing down its computer division, licensing the name. The company
is now headquartered in Atlanta.

Microsoft- coined by Bill Gates to represent the company that was devoted to
MICROcomputer SOFTware. Originally christened Micro-Soft, the '-' was removed
later on.

midPhase- the post-dotcom era gave using the .com in a companies official name
untrendy. A new dotcom company may be named traditionally, in midPhase's case it
was named midPhase Services, Inc., the midPhase stands for Middle Phase, or middle
of the road.

Mitsubishi- The name Mitsubishi (??) has two parts: mitsu means three and hishi
(changing to bishi in the middle of the word) means water chestnut, and from here
rhombus, which is reflected in the company's logo.

Motorola- Founder Paul Galvin came up with this name when his company (at the
time, Galvin Manufacturing Company) started manufacturing radios for cars. Many
audio equipment makers of the era used the " ola" ending for their products, most
famously the "Victrola" phonograph made by the Victor Talking Machine Company. The
name was meant to convey the idea of "sound" and "motion". The name became so
recognized that the company later adopted it as the company name.

Mozilla Foundation- from the name of the web-browser that preceded Netscape
Navigator. When Marc Andreesen , founder of Netscape, created a browser to replace
the Mosaic browser, it was internally named Mozilla (Mosaic-Killer, Godzilla) by
Jamie Zawinski.

MRF- Madras Rubber Factory, founded by K M Mammen Mappillai in 1946. He started

with a toy balloon-manufacturing unit at Tiruvottiyur, Chennai (then called
Madras). In 1952, he began manufacturing tread-rubber, and in 1961, tyres.

Nero - Nero Burning ROM named after Nero burning Rome.

Netscape- named by first marketing employee Greg Sands, in a panic when the
Universityof Illinoisthreatened to sue the new company for its original name,
Mosaic. Netscape then paid Landor $50,000 to design a logo.

Nike- named for the Greek goddess of victory.

Nikon - the original name was Nippon Kogaku, meaning "Japanese Optical".

Nissan- the company was earlier known by the name Nippon Sangyo which means
"Japanese industry".

Nokia- started as a wood-pulp mill, the company expanded into producing rubber
products in the Finnish city of Nokia. The company later adopted the city's name.

Nortel - The Nortel Networks name came from Nortel (Northern Telecom) and Bay
Networks. The company was originally spun off from the Bell Telephone Company of
Canada Ltd in 1895 as Northern Electric and Manufacturing, and traded as Northern
Electric from 1914 to 1976.

Novartis- after the Latin _expression "novae artes" which means something like
"new skills".

Oracle - Larry Ellison, Ed Oates and Bob Miner were working on a consulting
project for the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency). The code name for the project
was Oracle (the CIA saw this as the system to give answers to all questions or
some such). The project was designed to help use the newly written SQL database
language from IBM. The project eventually was terminated but they decided to
finish what they started and bring it to the world. They kept the name Oracle and
created the RDBMS engine. Later they changed the name of the company, Relational
Technology Inc, to the name of the product.

Pepsi- Pepsi derives its name from (treatment of) dyspepsia, an intestinal
ailment.

Philips - Royal Philips Electronics was founded in 1891, by brothers Gerard (the
engineer) and Anton (the entrepreneur) Philips .

Qantas- From its original name, Queensland And Northern Territory Aerial Services.

Red Hat- Company founder Marc Ewing was given the Cornell lacrosse team cap (with
red and white stripes) while at college by his grandfather. People would turn to
him to solve their problems, and he was referred to as 'that guy in the red hat'.
He lost the cap and had to search for it desperately. The manual of the beta
version of Red Hat Linux had an appeal to readers to return his Red Hat if found
by anyone.

Reebok- another spelling of rhebok (Pelea capreolus), an African antelope.

SAAB- founded in 1937 in Swedenas "Svenska Aeroplan aktiebolaget" (Swedish
Aeroplane Company) abbreviated SAAB.

Samsonite- Samsonite was launched as a brand in 1941, receiving its name from the
Biblical character Samson, renowned for his strength.

Samsung- meaning three stars in Korean.

Sanyo- The Japanese translation is disputed, although the Chinese name is "??"
(literally, "Three Oceans")

SAP- "Systems, Applications, Products in Data Processing", formerly "SystemAnalyse

und Programmentwicklung" (German for "System analysis and program development"),
formed by 4 ex- IBM employees who used to work in the
'Systems/Applications/Projects' group of IBM.

SEGA- "Service Games of Japan" (SeGa) Founded by Marty Bromley (an American) to
import pinball games to Japanfor use on American military bases.

Sharp- Japanese consumer electronics company named from its first product, an
ever-sharp pencil.

Shell- Royal Dutch Shell was established in 1907, when the Royal Netherlands
Petrol Society Plc. and the Shell Transport and Trading Company Ltd. merged. The
Shell Transport and Trading Company Ltd. had been established at the end of the
19th century, by commercial firm Samuel & Co (founded in 1830). Samuel & Co were
already successfully importing Japanese shells when they set up an oil company, so
the oil company was named after the shells Samuel & Co were importing.

Siemens - founded in 1847 by Werner von Siemens and Johann Georg Halske: the
company was originally called Telegraphen-Bau-Anstalt von Siemens & Halske.

Sprint- from its parent company, Southern Pacific Railroad INTernal

Communications. Back in the day, pipelines and railroad tracks were the cheapest
place to lay communications lines, as the right-of-way was already leased or
owned.

Sun Microsystems- its founders designed their first workstation in their dorm at
StanfordUniversity, and chose the name Stanford University Network for their
product, hoping to sell it to the college. They didn't.

Suzuki- from the name of its founder, Michio Suzuki

Tesco- Founder Jack Cohen, who from 1919 sold groceries in the markets of the
London East End, acquired a large shipment of tea from T. E. Stockwell and made
new labels by using the first three letters of the supplier's name and the first
two letters of his surname forming the word "TESCO".

Toshiba- was founded by the merger of consumer goods company Tokyo Denki (Tokyo
Electric Co) and electrical firm Shibaura Seisaku-sho (Shibaura Engineering
Works).

Toyota- from the founder's name Sakichi Toyoda. Initially called Toyeda, it was
changed after a contest for a better-sounding name. The new name was written in
katakana with eight strokes, a number that is considered lucky in Japan.

Unisys- made-up name for the company that resulted from the combination of two old
mainframe computer companies, Burroughs and Sperry [Sperry Univac/Sperry Rand]. It
"united" two incompatible ranges. Unisys was briefly the world's second-largest
computer company, after IBM.

Verizon- A portmanteau of veritas (Latin for truth) and horizon.

Vodafone- is a multinational mobile phone operator with headquarters in the United

Kingdom. Its name is made up of VOice, DAta, TeleFONE. Vodafone made the UK's
first mobile call at a few minutes past midnight on the 1 January 1985.

Volvo- From the Latin word "volvo", which means "I roll". It was originally a name
for a ball bearing being developed by SKF.

Xerox- The inventor, Chestor Carlson, named his product trying to say `dry' (as it
was dry copying, markedly different from the then prevailing wet copying). The
Greek root `xer' means dry.

Yahoo!- a "backronym" for Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle. The word
Yahoo was invented by Jonathan Swift and used in his book Gulliver's Travels. It
represents a person who is repulsive in appearance action and is barely human.
Yahoo! founders David Filo and Jerry Yang selected the name because they jokingly
considered themselves yahoos

(Source: An Email...Friends say its in wikipedia too)