A brand name is all important when it comes to setting up a business, and a new list reveals which of today’s well-known brands used to have a different name.
The list, drawn up by Karissa Giuliano for CNBC, is surprising as it shows an astonishing number of the world’s biggest brands started out under a different name. One of the strangest on the list is Google, as the ubiquitous tech giant used to be known as BackRub. It is certainly hard to imagine one of the biggest global companies having such a name these days.
Names tend to be shortened
Perhaps the founders of Quantum Computer Services realized that they were offering something that they could not provide when they decided to rename the company America Online in October 1991. Another name change in April 2006 saw the company take on the AOL abbreviation that we know today.
Other entries on the list include companies that used to have implausibly long names. A certain Japanese brand started life as Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo in 1946, before it was decided to change its name to the all together more catchy Sony in 1958. International Business Machines may now be known by the convenient abbreviation IBM, but for years it was known as the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company.
When co-founders Jerry Yang and David Filo were still studying at Stanford, they created a search engine known as “Jerry’s Guide to the World Wide Web.” They would later change its name to Yahoo, before it went on to become one of the world’s largest search engines. Yahoo, for those keen to brush up on their trivia, stands for “Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle.”
A long history of rebranding
Even back in the 19th-century, entrepreneurs recognized the power of branding. After originally bearing the name “Brad’s Drink,” a sugary sweet soda came to be known as Pepsi-Cola in 1898 before becoming one of the most widely recognized brands in the world.
Other companies changed their names due to outside influences more than the will of the founders themselves. A store known as “Sound of Music” ran a promotional sale at which it offered “best buys” on excess stock. The volume of sales that day convinced the owner to change the store name to “Best Buy.”
Other selected entries on the list include Nike, formerly known as Blue Ribbon Sports, eBay, which used to be called AuctionWeb, and Pete’s Super Submarines, which found success after being renamed Subway.
