Let's talk about some very well-known brand names. The name of something gives certain characteristics. But there are certainly characteristics that are impossible to attribute. In the world of trademarks and large businesses, the names of a Company should encapsulate something personal and trustworthy. Or, at least, offer some relative value compared to other options. Why is Nike (originally known as Blue Ribbon Sports) called Nike? From the name of the goddess who personified victory. Sounds much better than Blue Ribbon Sports, doesn't it?
So let's take a look at the brand names of some of the biggest tech brands. How did they really get their names?
Samsung
This is a pretty straight forward one. The word Samsung in Korean means “three stars” and was chosen to represent the adjectives “great, numerous, and powerful.”
Samsung's early products included dried fish, vegetables, pasta, and fruits, although it apparently later sought to diversify its operations into a wide range of different industries. Today, it is best known for smartphones and other consumer electronics. Over time, Samsung has entered the aerospace, insurance, and financial industries, among others.
Between 1938 and 1993, each Samsung logo featured three stars in different forms. Since 1993, Samsung has been using its current logo.
Nokia
Nokia is quite well-known in the electronics market. In 1865, a wood pulp mill was operating at the Tammerkoski Rapids in Finland. In 1868, in search of a stronger water flow, the company opened another mill a few kilometers away from the town of Nokia on the banks of the Nokianvirta River, from which the company took its name in 1871. Clearly, there was no rush to trademark the brand name in the late 19th century.
Apple
It is one of the largest companies in the world, but it wasn't always like this.
When Steve Jobs had to submit a name for the company for official purposes, he thought of something like Matrix Electronics. However, in Jobs's words: "Partly because I like apples a lot, but also because Apple as a name precedes Atari in the phone book.".
Clearly, his plan worked quite well – Apple is now a global superpower, while Atari has been losing the game for some time. The name Atari comes from the Japanese word for hitting the target.
LG
Like many other companies, LG Electronics didn't start out with the name it has today. In 1958, GoldStar was founded in the wake of the Korean War, with the mission of manufacturing electronic devices.GoldStar brand names brand names brand names brand names brand names brand names
GoldStar's sister company was Lak-Hui (pronounced “Lucky”), and hence the name “Lucky Goldstar.”
HTC
Most people think that the name HTC comes from the initials High-Tech Computer, but that's not the case.
In 1997, when the company was founded by H.T. Cho (current chairman) and Cher Wang (current president), they decided to use their initials to form a name – and thus the name HTC was born.
Spotify
Spotify originally started in Sweden, although the word Spotify doesn't seem to mean anything in Swedish.
Company founders Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon were sitting around one day trying to think of a name, and when one of the suggestions they heard was “Spotify,” they liked it. When the duo realized there were no Google results for the word and that the domains were available, they simply jumped at the chance.
Sony
The roots of Sony are a mix of Latin and English slang. Specifically, it is a version of “Sonus,” which sounds like “Sonny,” and means a good young man.
However, that wasn't the original name. It was founded in 1946 as Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo KK, or simply Totsuko. The name change came in the 1950s, when the company began to have global ambitions, and the TTK trademark was owned by another company. With the combination of Sonus and Sonny, Sony was born.
Amazon
Amazon was close to being named Cadabra, from "abracatabra" because Bezos wanted his bookselling website to be so fast it would seem like magic.
Indeed, in 1994, Jeff Bezos launched the website with the “magical” name but in 1995 he changed it to Amazon. The name was taken from Amazon. Clearly, Jeff Bezos had big ambitions from the start.
Google
It's a known fact. Google got its name from a misspelling of Googol, the word that represents 10^100, or 1 followed by 100 zeros. Why this name? Simply because the company's founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page wanted to emphasize how much data they had at their disposal.
Microsoft
Microsoft got its name from a flashback of Bill Gates and Paul Allen.
The company was officially founded in April 1975, and its name comes from the combination of "microprocessor" and "software".
In 1977, the company opened its first international office in Japan under the name ASCII Microsoft. The company later merged its name with its Washington office and became Microsoft Inc.
Everyone probably knows how Facebook got its name. It's simply the name of the student directory at some colleges in the US. At first the name was thefacebook.com and since 2005 there has been Facebook.com which we have to this day.
Mozilla
In 1994, when a team at Netscape sat down to brainstorm names for a new browser, they were looking for something that could crush the competition. Something that would look like Godzilla.
Wikipedia
Ward Cunningham's WikiWikiWeb was one of the first user-editable websites. The project caught the attention of Nupedia, which was considering allowing people to edit and contribute to the content.
Asus
Asustek, better known as Asus, was founded by four former Acer employees in 2009. The company claims that their name comes from the winged horse of Greek mythology, Pegasus. (huh?)
Why?
According to their own explanation, the company was named so because it “embodies the strength, purity, and adventurous spirit of this fictional creature, and reaches new heights with each new product it creates.” Whatever.
Lenovo
Lenovo's founders in 1984 agreed that the company should be called the Chinese Academy of Sciences Computer Technology Research Institute New Technology Development Company, according to Zhijun Ling's Lenovo Affair.
Eventually, the team named it Legend, a name that lasted for almost two decades, until 2003. Since then, it has been called Lenovo.
The name comes from the Latin Le and Novo and means new.
Skype
In 2003, Skype was another company that couldn't find the name it really wanted to use available.
Skype is a simple combination of Sky and the term peer-to-peer, which initially became Skyper, and then, since the name wasn't available, became Skype. At least, according to former Skype employee Andreas Sjölund.
We have written about Twitter before. Read here
Yahoo!
Founded in 1994 as “Jerry and David's Guide to the World Wide Web” by Jerry Yang and David Filo, Yahoo was named in January 1995, when the company was incorporated.
Yahoo! is an acronym for Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle according to TNW.
Source: secnews.gr
