How companies got their names?

Updated on March 3, 2017
Get knowledgeable about how 36 big companies got their name..

1) How Yahoo got its name?

The word was invented by Jonathan Swift and used in his book 'Gulliver's Travels'. It represents 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.

2) How Google got its name?

It was a due to a spelling mistake. 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', which means '1' followed by 100 zeros. After the founders +Sergey Brin and +Larry Page presented their project to an angel investor, they received a cheque made out to 'Google'.

3) How HP got its name?

Named after the names of its founders Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard. They tossed a coin to decide whether to name it 'Hewlett-Packard' or 'Packard-Hewlett'.

4) How Compaq got its name?

It was created using COM - for Computers, and PAQ - to denote a small integral object.

5) How CISCO got its name?

Unlike to as most of the people believe, it is not an acronym. It is short for San Francisco.

6) How Motorola got its name?

Paul Galvin named his company this when it started manufacturing radios and cars. The famous radio company at that time was called Victrola.

7) How SONY got its name?

Came up from a Latin word 'Sonus' - sound, and 'Sonny' - a slang used by Americans to refer to a bright youngster.

8) How SEGA got its name?

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

9) How IBM got its name?

After leaving National Cash Register, Tom Watson Sr. one-upped his former employer by calling his company International Business Machine.

10) How Skype got its name?

The original concept was Sky-Peer-To-Peer which morphed into 'Skyper' and then finally 'Skype'.

11) How Microsoft got its name?

The name was coined by founder Bill Gates, to represent the company which was devoted to MICROcomputer SOFTware.

12) How APPLE got its name?

It was the favorite fruit of Steve jobs. He was 3 months late in filing a name for his business. So finally he ended up naming his company as Apple Inc.

13) How DELL got its name?

It is named after its founder Michael DELL.

14) How ADDIDAS got its name?

Named after its founders Adolf Adi Dassler. His brother, Rudolf Rudi Dassler, found his shoe company called 'Ruda' which later became 'PUMA'.

15) How eBay got its name?

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.

16) How Coca-Cola got its name?

Named for Coca leaves and Kola nuts originally used as flavouring.

17) How Canon got its name?

Named after Precision Optical Instruments Laboratory's first camera, Kwanon.

18) How Bridgestone got its name?

Named after the founder shojiro Ishibashi. His last name translates to 'bridge of stone'.

19) How Audi got its name?

Taken from Latin for Horch. Founder August Horch's name was already being used by his previous auto manufacturing company.

20) How Comcast got its name?

Coined from COMmunication and broadCAST.

21) How Nikon got its name?

Shortened from the original name, Nippon Kogaku, which means Japanese Optical.

22) How Nintendo got its name?

Came from Japanese name Nintendou where Nin means Entrested and Ten-dou means heaven.

23) How NOKIA got its name?

Started as a wood-pulp mill which started producing rubber products in the Finnish city of Nokia.

24) How NISSAN got its name?

Shortened from original name Nippon Sangyo which means Japan Industries.

25) How PEPSI got its name?

Named from the digestive enzyme 'Pepsin'.

26) How Qualcomm got its name?

Short for Quality Communication.

27) How Reebok got its name?

Stylized form of 'rhebok' which is an American Antelope.

28) How Amazon.com got its name?

It meant to represent the potential for a longer volume of sales in an online bookstore as compared to a physical bookstore. (Renamed from Cadabra.com )

29) How SHARP got its name?

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

30) How Verizon got its name?

Combination of Latin word Vertas - Truth and the word Horizon.

31) How Virgin got its name?

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

32) How ORACLE got its name?

Larry Ellison and Bob Oats were working on a consulting project for CIA. The code name for project was 'Oracle' as the CIA saw this as a system to give answers to all questions. Project was designed to help use the newly written SQL code by IBM. Project was eventually terminated by the founders decided to finish what they had started. They kept the name 'Oracle' and created RDBMS engine. Later they kept the same name for the company.