25 Famous Company Names And Where They Came From

Posted by , Updated on March 21, 2024

From Nintendo to Coca Cola these are 25 famous company names and where they came from.

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25

Pepsi

company names and where they came from

Named for the digestive enzyme pepsin.

24

Sony

company names and where they came from

From the Latin word “sonus” for sound. It was chosen because it can be easily pronounced in many languages.

23

Volkswagen

company names and where they came from

From the German for “people’s car”

22

Verizon

company names and where they came from

Combination of the Latin word “veritus” which means truth and horizon.

21

Starbucks

company names and where they came from

Named after a character in the book Moby Dick

20

Sharp

company names and where they came from

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

19

Sega

company names and where they came from

Short for Service Games of Japan which originally imported pinball machines onto military bases in the country

18

Reebok

company names and where they came from

A stylized form of Rhebok which is an African antelope.

17

Geico

company names and where they came from

Shortened from Government Employees Insurance Company.

16

Nokia

company names and where they came from

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

15

Nintendo

company names and where they came from

From the Japanese name Nintendou. Nin means something along the lines of entrusted and ten-dou means heaven.

14

Nabisco

company names and where they came from

Shortened from the original name, National Biscuit Company.

13

Lego

company names and where they came from

From the Danish “leg godt” which means to play well.

12

Kia

company names and where they came from

Roughly translates to “rising from Asia” in Korean.

11

IKEA

company names and where they came from

The initials of founder Ingvar Kamprad plus the initials of the place where he group up, Elmtaryd Agunnaryd.

10

IBM

company names and where they came from

After leaving National Cash Register Tom Watson Sr. decided to out do his former employer and named his company International Business Machines.

9

Ebay

company names and where they came from

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

8

Duane Reade

company names and where they came from

The chain’s first warehouse was located between Duane and Reade Streets in Manhattan.

7

Comcast

company names and where they came from

Taken from the words “communication” and “broadcast”.

6

Coca Cola

company names and where they came from

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

5

Bridgestone

company names and where they came from

Named after founder Shojiro Ishibashi. His last name literally means “bridge of stone”.

4

Audi

company names and where they came from

Taken from the Latin word for “horch”, founder August Horch’s name was already being used by his previous car manufacturing company.

3

AT&T

company names and where they came from

Stands for American Telephone and Telegraph Company.

2

Adobe

company names and where they came from

Named for Adobe Creek which ran behind the house of founder John Wornock.

1

7-11

company names and where they came from

It changed from U-Tote’m in 1946 when new hours from 7am to 11pm went into effect