How the popular brands got their names

Every year, the global market is flooded with new brands and already existing ones that have made the name. With lots of brands around us today one may need to ask where the ideas of these brands actually came from.

It may surprise you to know that these brands we have become so familiar with have hidden meaning behind their name.

Let’s look at those most common brand names;

Coca-cola
This popular brand actually got the name from the two main ingredients; cocoa leaves and Cola nuts. Surprised? Yes, before now, this ‘miracle concoction’ was sold as a tonic for headaches and fatigue in pharmacies. Today, you can get one from virtually any supermarket where they are stored in the fridge.

eBay
The eBay, as it’s called today, was first named ‘Auction Web’ by the founder, Pierre Morad Omidyar in his attempt to create a website that replicated an online marketplace. Omidyar first arrived at ‘eBay AuctionWeb’ which was literally a combination of his company name, ‘Echo Bay’ and the site, Auction Web. In 1997, he decided to change the company’s name to what it is called today, ‘eBay’.

Google
Google has become everyone’s search engine, but have you wondered where the name came from? Well, the name was derived from ‘goggol’ – a mathematical term used to describe the ‘1’ with 100 zeros.

IKEA
This is the world’s largest furniture retailer founded by Ingvar Kamprad when he was just 17. The brand is a combination of his name initials, IK, and the first letters of the farm and village where he was raised, Elmtaryd and Agunnaryd, EA – hence IKEA.

Virgin
Virgin is a world brand known for owning one of the biggest media telecoms companies, airlines and gym chains. According to Sir Richard Branson, in his autobiography, the company’s name picked from a statement made by one of the colleagues during a brainstorming session. The colleague said that they were all virgins in the business – and so the name!

Skype
This was first referred to as ‘sky-peer-to-peer’ which was later changed to ‘Skyper’. Subsequently the ‘r’ was removed to give the name ‘skype’ which it is called today.

Blackberry
Yes, the Blackberrys came onboard before the recent iPhones. There’s this unique feature about this phone – the small sized keypad. Definitely it was made to portray the drupelets on the berry fruit hence the name – Blackberry.

Amazon
The name was derived from the world’s largest river. This is possibly a good name for a business intended to become the world’s biggest company. Again, the letter ‘A’ is a good way to start if you want to appear at the top of a search.

Apple
Steve Jobs, in his story of how the renowned brand name came to be explained how he thought the name, Apple, to sound spirited, fun and not intimidating when he had come back from an apple farm. Today, everyone is grateful for the iPhones, iPads, Macs.

Vodafone
The name Vodafone, was derived from 3 words – Voice – DAta – FONE i.e Data and Voice Telephone to become your mobile network provider.

There’s continuous innovation as these brands keep pace with technology and remain at the top of their industry’s game. Their beautiful and compelling content inspires us to create and grow meaningful brand identities.

Nike
In Greek mythology, Nike is the Winged Goddess of Victory. The logo is derived from goddess' wing, ‘swoosh’, which symbolises the sound of speed, movement, power, and motivation.

Trello
Ostlund, a technical team member at Fog Creek, the parent software company that gave life to Trello, was heavily involved in the naming process. It started simply enough, as he recalled that Fog Creek's co-founder Michael Pryor suggested Trellis as a code name for the project in its early stages.

Evernote
The primary work of the app is to store and remember the notes your write and it's for that reason it uses the Elephant symbol because the elephants have impressive ability to store the memory. As they say it, "An elephant never forgets."

Starbucks
In an interview with The Seattle Times, Starbucks cofounder Gordon Bowker told the story of how they arrived at the name. At first, they were going through a list of words beginning with "st" because they thought those were powerful.

"Somebody somehow came up with an old mining map of the Cascades and Mount Rainier, and there was an old mining town called Strabo," he said. "As soon as I saw Starbo, I, of course, jumped to Melville's first mate [named Starbuck] in Moby-Dick."

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If you are thinking the time has come for a re-brand or relaunch of your business. We would be more than happy to discuss with you how we can meet your needs to support your business growth and stability. Contact Handle Branding for further information.

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