List Of Company Name Etymologies

This is a list of company names with their name origins explained. Some of the origins are disputed.

0–9

*19 Entertainment – talent company founded by Simon Fuller and "named after Paul Hardcastle's single 19, the first No. 1 Fuller had a hand in", according to ''TV Guide'' After selling 19 Entertainment to CKX, Inc, Fuller founded XIX Entertainment, which is 19 in Roman numerals.
*20th Century Fox – film studio; formed in 1935 through the merger of William Fox's Fox Film, and Twentieth Century Pictures.
*21st Century Fox – media company formed by spinning off News Corporation's TV and movie properties in 2013. It owned 20th Century Fox, the Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox News, Star TV and others until it was bought by Disney in 2019.
*23andMe – using the 23 pairs of chromosomes that make up each person's genome, the company helps individuals make sense of their own genome.
*343 Industries – ''Halo'' game developer founded by Microsoft after the departing of Bungie, named after the character, 343 Guilty Spark.
*37signals – web development company; named for the 37 radiotelescope signals identified by astronomer Paul Horowitz as potential messages from extraterrestrial intelligence. In 2014, the company renamed itself Basecamp, after its main product.
*3Com – network technology producer; the three ''com''s are computer, communication, and compatibility.
*3dfx Interactive – 3d and fx, standing for "three-dimensional effects".
* 3M – from the company's original name, Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company.
*7-Eleven – convenience stores; renamed from "Tote'm" in 1946 to reflect their newly extended hours, 7:00 am until 11:00 pm.

A

*A&M Records – named after founders Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss
* A&P – from Atlantic & Pacific in The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, a U.S.-based supermarket chain
*A&W Root Beer – named after founders Roy Allen and Frank Wright
* A. Le Coq – named after the founder Albert von Le Coq.
*Abba Seafood – from Aktiebolaget Bröderna Ameln, meaning "Ameln brothers limited company".
* ABC – American Broadcasting Company
* Abloy – derived from ''Aktiebolag Låsfabriken/Lukkotehdas Osakeyhtiö'', which means "lock factory limited company" in both Swedish and Finnish
*ABN AMRO – in the 1960s, the Nederlandsche Handel-Maatschappij (Dutch Trading Society; 1824) and De 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, ABN and Amro Bank merged to form ABN AMRO.
*Accenture – from "Accent on the future". The name Accenture was proposed by a company employee in Norway as part of an internal name finding process (''BrandStorming''). Before 1 January 2001, the company was called Andersen Consulting.
* Acer – born as Multitech International in 1976, the company changed its name to Acer in 1987; the Latin word for "sharp, acute, able and facile"
*Acorn Computers – The name "Acorn" was chosen because the company's first microcomputer system Acorn System 75 was to be expandable and growth-oriented. It also had the attraction of appearing before "Apple Computer" in a telephone directory.
*Adecco – named from the merger of Swiss staffing company Adia with French staffing company Ecco
*Adidas – from the name of the founder Adolf "Adi" Dassler. Adolf and his brother Rudolf Dassler split the original company, ''Gebrüder Dassler Schuhfabrik'' (Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory), with Rudolf founding Puma.
*Adobe Systems – from the Adobe Creek that ran behind the house of co-founder John Warnock
*Adyen – from the Sranan Tongo word adyen meaning 'start again', this is a reference to this being the second project of the founders, after Bibit
*Aflac – initialism for the company's previous name of American Family Life Assurance Company of Columbus (which remains the legal name of Aflac's underwriting subsidiary).
* Ahlstrom – named after founder Antti Ahlström
*Ahold – holding company of Albert Heijn and other supermarkets. For its 100th anniversary in 1987, Ahold was granted the title of ''Koninklijke'' ("Royal" in Dutch) by the Monarchy of the Netherlands, changing its name to Koninklijke Ahold (Royal Ahold).
*Akai – named for its founder, Masukichi Akai
* Akamai – from the Hawaiian word akamai meaning smart or clever; the company defines it as "intelligent, clever and cool"
*AKG Acoustics – from the company's original name, Akustische und Kino-Geräte (Acoustic and Cinema Equipment)
*AKZO – named from the 1969 merger of Algemene Kunstzijde Unie (AKU) and Koninklijke Zout Organon (KZO)
*Alcatel-Lucent – Alcatel was named from Alsacienne de Constructions Atomiques, de Télécommunications et d'Électronique. It took over Lucent Technologies (below) in 2006.
*Alcoa – Aluminum Company of America
*Aldi – portmanteau of Albrecht (name of the founders) and discount
*Alepa – from Alennushalli Pajunen (Pajunen's Discount Hall), named after the founder. The Pajunen family sold the chain to HOK-Elanto in 1987.
*Alfa Romeo – company was originally known as ALFA, an acronym for ''Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili'' ("Anonymous Lombard Automobile Factory"). When Nicola Romeo bought ALFA in 1915, his surname was appended.
* Alibaba Group – from the character Ali Baba from the Middle Eastern folk-tale collection ''One Thousand and One Nights'' because of its universal appeal.
*Alltel – from original company name Allied Telephone Company
*Alps Electric/Alpine Electronics – Katsutaro Kataoka founded Kataoka Electronics in a suburb of Tokyo in 1947. A subsidiary was established in the province of Tohoku, also known as the Tohoku Alps, as Tohoku Alps Co. Ltd. When Kataoka was seeking investment during the 1960s, he found that foreigners had difficulty pronouncing "Kataoka," and renamed his firm Alps Electric. Alpine Electronics was originally named Alps-Motorola as a joint venture in the Japanese car audio market and the Alpine name was adopted after Motorola divested its stake in 1978.
*Alstom – set up as Alsthom in 1928 by Société Alsacienne de Constructions Mécaniques and Compagnie Française Thomson-Houston, it changed the spelling to Alstom in 1997.
*AltaVista – Spanish for "high view"
*Altec Lansing – audio equipment company formed when Altec Service Company, whose name was an abbreviation of "all technical" (and which had promised to never make or sell audio equipment), acquired Lansing Manufacturing Company, named after James Bullough Lansing (also later the namesake of JBL (below), which he founded to compete with Altec Lansing as soon as his contract expired)
*Alza – from the name of the founder Alex Zaffaroni
* Amazon.com – founder Jeff Bezos renamed the company "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 (as opposed to a bricks and mortar) bookstore. (Alternative: Amazon was chosen to cash in on the popularity of Yahoo, which listed entries alphabetically.)
* AmBev – American Beverage Company, the largest Brazilian beverage company and fourth in the world. In 2004 it merged with Interbrew to create InBev, which in turn purchased Anheuser-Busch in 2008 to form Anheuser-Busch InBev.
*AMC Theatres – American Multi-Cinema: the company pioneered multi-screen cinemas
* AMD – Advanced Micro Devices
*Amdahl Corporation – American mainframe computer company named after its founder, Dr. Gene Amdahl, formerly of IBM. It was taken over by Fujitsu in 1997.
*Amiga Corporation – original developers of the 16-bit Amiga computer chose the name, which means a 'female friend' in Spanish and Portuguese, because it sounded friendly, and because it came before rivals (Apple Inc. and Atari) alphabetically.
*AMKOR – American Korea
*Amoco – American Oil Company, now part of BP
*Amstrad – Amstrad Consumer Electronics plc was founded by Lord Alan Michael Sugar in the UK. The name is a contraction of Alan Michael Sugar Trading.
*Anheuser-Busch InBev – formed by the 2008 purchase of Anheuser-Busch by InBev. Anheuser-Busch was named for the company's original founder, Eberhard Anheuser, and his later partner and son-in-law Adolphus Busch.
*AOL – from America Online. The company was founded in 1983 as Quantum Computer Services.
*Apache – Co-founder Brian Behlendorf first came up with the name “Apache” for the server. The name “Apache” was chosen out of reverence and appreciation for the people and tribes who refer to themselves as “Apache”.
*Apple – for the favorite fruit of co-founder Steve Jobs and/or for the time he worked at an apple orchard, and to distance itself from the cold, unapproachable, complicated imagery created by other computer companies at the time – which had names such as IBM, DEC, and Cincom
*Apricot Computers – early UK-based microcomputer company founded by ACT (Applied Computer Techniques), a business software and services supplier. The company wanted a "fruity" name (Apple and Acorn were popular brands) that included the letters A, C and T. Apricot fit the bill.
*Arby's – enunciation of the initials of its founders, the Raffel Brothers. The partners wanted to use the name Big Tex, but were unsuccessful in negotiating with the Akron businessman who was already using the name. So, Forrest said, "We came up with Arby's, which stands for R.B., the initials of Raffel Brothers, although I guess customers might think the initials stand for roast beef."
*Arcelor – created in 2001 by a merger of ARBED (''Aciéries Réunies de Burbach-Eich-Dudelange'', "United Steelworks of Burbach-Eich-Dudelange") of Luxembourg, Aceralia of Spain, and Usinor (''Union Sidérurgique du Nord'', "Northern Steel Union") of France with the ambition of becoming a major player in the steel industry.
*Arcor – Arroyito, Córdoba, the city where it was founded.
*Areva – named from the region of Ávila in northern Spain, location of the Arevalo abbey. Arevalo was shorted to AREVA.
*Aricent – communications software company name created in 2006 by combining two words "arise" and "ascent".
*Arm & Hammer – based on the arm and hammer of Vulcan, the Roman god of fire and metalworking. It was previously the logo of the Vulcan Spice Mills in Brooklyn. When James Church, the son of Church & Dwight founder Austin Church, came to Church and Dwight from Vulcan Spice Mills, he brought the logo with him.
*ARM – named after the microprocessor developed by small UK company Acorn as a successor to the 6502 used in its BBC Microcomputer. ARM originally stood for Acorn Risc Machine. When the company was spun off with backing from Apple and VTI, this was changed to Advanced Risc Machines.
* ARP – company that made analog synthesizers in the 1970s, named after founder Alan Robert Pearlman
* Artis – zoo in Amsterdam; named from the Latin phrase ''Natura Artis Magistra'', or "Nature is Art's Teacher"
*Asda – Asda Stores Limited was founded as Associated Dairies & Farm Stores Ltd in 1949. However, the formation of the Asda name occurred in 1965 with the merger of the Asquith chain of three supermarkets and Associated Dairies; it is an abbreviation of Asquith and Dairies.
* ASICS – acronym for Anima Sana In Corpore Sano, which, translated from Latin, means "Healthy soul in a healthy body". Originally the citation is ''mens sana in corpore sano'', but MSICS does not sound as good.
*Ask.com – search engine formerly named after Jeeves, the gentleman's gentleman (valet, ''not'' butler) in P. G. Wodehouse's series of books. Ask Jeeves was shortened to Ask in 2006.
*Aston Martin – In 1913, Lionel Martin and Robert Bamford co-founded a company to sell Singer cars in London, and Martin developed their first car to take part in races at Aston Hill, near Aston Clinton. Bamford & Martin Ltd ran into financial difficulties, and in 1925, Martin was forced to sell the company (Bamford had already left). The new owners renamed it Aston Martin Motors and started the production of an entirely new range of cars from a new factory in Feltham in London.
* Asus – named after Pegasus, the winged horse of Greek mythology. The first three letters of the word were dropped to get a high position in alphabetical listings. An Asus company named Pegatron, using the spare letters, was spun off in 2008.
*AT&T – American Telephone and Telegraph Corporation officially changed its name to AT&T in the 1990s.
*Atari – named from the board game Go. "Atari" is a Japanese word to describe a position where an opponent's stones are in danger of being captured. It is similar, though not identical, to "check" in chess. The original games company was American but wanted a Japanese-sounding name.
*ATI Technologies – founded in Canada as Array Technology Inc. and taken over by AMD in 2006.
*Atresmedia – Spanish media company which owns the TV network Antena 3; ''A Tres Media'' is Spanish for "A3 Media", A3 being Antena 3.
*ATS – Auto Technik Spezialerzeugnisse, a German company producing light alloy wheels and motor parts, which ran its own Formula 1 racing team in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
*Audi – Latin translation of the German name "Horch". The founder August Horch left the company after five years, but still wanted to manufacture cars. Since the original "Horch" company was still there, he called his new company Audi, the Latin form of his last name. In English it is "hark".
*AVROTROS – Part of the Dutch public broadcasting system, AVROTROS was formed as the result of a merger between AVRO (Algemene Vereniging Radio Omroep, "General Association of Radio Broadcasting") and TROS (Televisie Radio Omroep Stichting).

B

*B&H Photo Video – named after Blimie Schreiber and her husband, company founder Herman Schreiber
* B&Q – from the initials of its founders, Richard Block and David Quayle
*Babolat – racquet sports (tennis, badminton, squash) equipment company named after its founder, Pierre Babolat
*Bahco – from the name B.A. Hjort & Company. Founder Berndt August Hjort signed a deal to distribute the tools of inventor Johan Petter Johansson.
*Bakkavör – from the street in a Reykjavík suburb where the founders grew up
*Bally – originally Lion Manufacturing, the company changed its name to Bally after the success of its first popular pinball machine, ''Ballyhoo''.
* Banesto – from Banco Español de Crédito (''Spanish Credit Bank'')
*Bang & Olufsen – from the names of its founders, Peter Bang and Svend Olufsen, who met at a school of engineering in Denmark.
*BAPE – A Bathing Ape is a cult clothing company founded by Tomoaki "Nigo" Nagao in 1993.Breaking Down Bapes
TheHipHopIcon.com, 2007. Retrieved 4 October 2007 The name is derived from a Japanese saying, "A Bathing Ape in Lukewarm Water", which Nigo says is "a reference to the young generation being spoiled, pampered and too complacent."
*BASF – from Badische Anilin und Soda Fabriken ("Baden Aniline and Soda Factory"), after its first two products
*Bauhaus – European chain of DIY stores founded by Heinz-Georg Baus and named from the German words ''bauen'' (to build) and ''Haus'' (house). The reference to the classic Bauhaus art school is only an allusion.
* Bauknecht – founded as an electrotechnical workshop in 1919 by Gottlob Bauknecht, and now a Whirlpool brand
*Bayer – named after Friedrich Bayer, who founded the company in 1863
*BBC
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