Great names by non-professionals Bashny.Net

As history shows, does not always copywriter talent helped to create a great brand. Sometimes the name came from the name or place of residence of the founder. H3> One of the most horrible headaches for people starting a new business, come up with a name for their offspring. With a deep sense of the subject, an easy to remember, and that, of course, remains forever.



History shows that the popularity of many brands - purely historical, and not because of the genius of naming.

In search of hidden words are held for days and weeks, paid bills from indecent branding agencies.

But, as demonstrated by the history of successful brands, living and owning our minds for decades, most talented copywriters and expensive agencies, as well as naming, branding and many other buzzwords often do at anything.

Names of famous brands became place names, the names of the founders, the reflection of their world views, religious beliefs, and even eating habits. Not to mention the simple effect of the circumstances.










Once there were two brothers by the name Dassler. Adolf and Rudolf. They had a family business - made sleeping slippers. The sole of the tires, the top of the decommissioned military uniforms. One came up with new models, the other marketed slippers. Then he went to training shoes, Gym shoes with booties. Even the horses were. By the beginning of the forties of the last century "Dassler" was not recognized global standard for sports shoes.

But after his father's death the brothers quarreled to the nines. Exactly half the division of property - two big shoe factories, and each went his own way. Adi Dasler began to produce shoes of the brand "Adidas". Rudolf - Shoes «Ruda», later became a shoe brand «Puma».

It happened in the German town of Herzogenaurach, which is Bros. Brawl also divided into two parts. Workers in these factories went only to their pubs, drinking different beers, and their children attend different schools. Companies maintained their own football teams.

And until now, one company employee waits immediate dismissal if he will be seen in the shoes or clothing produced by a competitor.





Ole Kirk Kritiansen, the company's founder, created the name by combining the Danish words "play" and "good» (leg and godt). In Latin «lego» means: "I read," or "I connect". A carpenter by profession Christiansen first made wooden toys, which eventually became so popular that the work had to attract other artists. Wooden blocks have become plastic, and the idea of ​​connecting and disconnecting brought from England Christiansen's son. It is easy to utter even a very young child, this name instantly remembered forever - no wonder passion for designer often feed the adults. Lego - word for the game and the company.





Auchan - from the French countryside, the birthplace of the company's founder Gerard Myule - hauts champs (literally - high field), in French is pronounced as O Sham.

Initially was registered in Russia as of "Auchan", then, given the characteristics of Russian Linguistics (A - unstressed syllables, pronounced A), the company re-registered.





Adobe Photoshop is almost every second Russian computer. And the company is named after the river Adobe Creek, which flowed behind the house of founder John Warnock (John Warnock).





Apple - favorite fruit of founder Steve Jobs (Steve Jobs). After three months of fruitless attempts to find a name for a new business, he put his partner an ultimatum: "I will call the company Apple, if a 5-hours you do not offer the best." Apples Macintosh - the name of the varieties of apples sold in the United States.





BMW - an acronym for Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, the Russian translation, Bavarian Motor Works. Blue and white BMW logo round still used today - a stylized image of a spinning propeller aircraft, and dates from this period in the history of the company. The design also points to the checkered blue and white flag of Bavaria.







Canon - after Kwanon, the Buddhist god of mercy. It was changed to Canon, to avoid the protests of religious organizations. In addition, the main buyers at first were American soldiers, and for their original name was too complicated.





Casio - in honor of the founder of the company Casio Tadao (Kashio Tadao).





Cisco - short for San Francisco. The logo depicts the Bridge "Golden Gate" in San Francisco.





Coca-Cola - the basic ingredients of Coca-Cola, at the opening of the beverage.





Compaq - by Comp and paq (small integrated detail).





Corel - in honor of company founder Michael Copeland (Dr. Michael Cowpland). Stands COwpland REsearch Laboratory (Research Laboratory Copeland).





Daewoo - the company founder Kim Woo Chong (Kim Woo Chong) called the company modestly, "Great Universe" is the translation from Korean.





Fuji. The name comes from the names of the founders of the company - Furukawa and Siemens. The company called FuSi, and only then, was renamed Fuji. Also known legend that the name is given in honor of the highest mountain of Japan - Fuji. Later, her daughter Fuji Tsushinki (telecommunications) was renamed Fujitsu.





Google - the name comes from the word Googol (the number with 100 zeros).





Hitachi - Japanese dawn.





Honda - the name of the founder Soichiro Honda Honeywell.





Hotmail - founder Jack Smith (Jack Smith) had the idea to access e-mail via the web from anywhere in the world. When Sabir Bhatia (Sabeer Bhatia) appeared with the business plan of the service, he went through all the words ending in «mail» and eventually settled on hotmail, since the title was attended by the letters HTML (a markup language of web pages).





HP (Hewlett-Packard) - founders Bill Hewlett (Bill Hewlett) and Dave Packard (Dave Packard) threw a coin to decide whose name will be the first in the title. As you know, won the Bill.





Hyundai - Korean "present" (time).





IBM - International Business Machines.





The name «IKEA» stands for «Ingvar Kamprad Elmtaryd Agunnaryd», ie the name of the founder, and the name of two villages in which he lived.





Intel - The founders Bob Noyce (Bob Noyce) and Gordon Moore (Gordon Moore) wanted to name the company Moore Noyce, but by then it would already exist hotel chain with the same name. So they decided to stay on the reduction of INTegrated ELectronics.





Kawasaki - after the founder Shozo Kawasaki.





Kodak - K - favorite character George Eastman (George Eastman), the founder of the company. He searched for words beginning and ending of this wonderful letter. Especially because in all alphabets «K» spelled the same way. In the end, Kodak has been selected, it is alleged that sound makes the camera when shooting.

Knorr - the name of Carl Heinrich Knorr - the founder of the brand.





LG - the first letters of the two Korean brands Lucky and Goldstar, which merged into one company.





Lotus - Anthony Colin Bruce Chapman, founder of the company (as evidenced by the monogram in the upper part of the logo - the letters C, A, B, C), engaged in meditation. His wife and first love Chapman called "My lotus flower." In honor of her and called the company.





Microsoft - MICROcomputer SOFTware. Originally written as Micro-Soft. Then dash removed.





The name means "three diamonds", or "three diamonds", the word "KHISI" (when connecting the first syllable ozvonchaetsya according to the rules of Japanese phonetics and "Chi" is transformed into "B") means "chestnut." It is used to refer to a diamond shape.





Logo Mitsubishi - is the result of merging sort Iwasaki family crest (three diamonds) and Tosa (three oak leaves growing from a single point). Yataro Iwasaki was from the family sold its nobility, and after the Meiji Restoration he got the ship's business Tosa. Two generations later, Kayota Iwasaki repurpose business and created a car company Mitsubishi Motors.

Since the creation of logo remained virtually unchanged.





Motorola - Founder Paul Galvin (Paul Galvin) coined the name when his company started manufacturing radios for cars. Many manufacturers of audio components while

We came to an end on «ola».





NEC - the acronym of the Nippon Electric Company, Ltd, facing redundancy in 1983.





Nike - the Americans say "Nike", but acknowledged that pronounced correctly, if you focus on the right to open syllable. In Russian correctly pronounce and instead of "Nike". In 1978, Blue Ribbon Sports was officially renamed Nike, Inc. It is believed that the name is taken from the name of the goddess of victory Nike.





Nikon - originally Nippon Kogaku, meaning "Japanese optics».





Nintendo - a composite of 3eh Japanese kanji «Nin-ten-do», which can be translated as "Heaven bless the hard work».





Nissan - previously known as Nichon Sangio, which means "Japanese industry».





Nokia - started as a wood processing plant, it has grown to the production of rubber products in the Finnish town of Nokia. The company got its name from the name of the area where Fredrik Idestam bought the land in 1868 for his second paper mill.

The estate is known Nokia 1270's, although the first document to mention it dates back to 1505 year. Current Nokia - a town 15 km from Tampere. Another thing is that the name of the area is believed to be derived from the old Finnish word nois (pl. Nokia), denoted by the black sable, which once was driven into the ground. When sable disappeared, the word came to mean any animal with black fur, such as marten.





Novell - the name of the wife of co-founder came up with Joji Canova (George Canova). She mistakenly thought that «Novell» in French means "new».



Oracle - founders Larry Ellinson (Larry Ellison) and Bob Watts (Bob Oats) have worked on consulting projects for the CIA, code name was Oracle. Later, the project was canceled, but the name remained.





Sanyo - in Chinese "Three Ocean».





Siemens - founded in 1847 by Werner von Siemens (Werner von Siemens).





After the war, Americans were treated to all the Japanese with a clear suspicion and so it was decided to invent a word that would not be associated by consumers with Japan. After much anguish and Sony was from the Latin «Sonus» (sound).





Subaru - the name of the constellation. It is the same and displayed on the company's logo.

"Subaru" - is the Japanese name for the cluster "Pleiades" in the constellation Taurus. The six stars can be seen in the night sky with the naked eye, yet some 250 - with a telescope. Signs of Cana, which is written the word "Subaru", translated as "pointing the way" or "gathering together." In Japan, it is consonant with the name of the title Mitsurabosi (Mitsuraboshi) («stars six»).





SUN - founded by 4 university friends, reduction from Stanford University Network.

Suzuki - the name of the founder Michio Suzuki.





Samsung - Samsung in Korean means three stars, which was shown at the first logo of the company:









Sharp - the origins lie in the etymology of the 10-ies of the last century, when Tokyo resident Tokudzhi Hayakawa started production of branded products - the ever-sharp mechanical pencil, does not require sharpening!





Toshiba -Get its name as a result of the reduction in 1978, the former name of Tokyo Shibaura Elektric Co., Ltd, obtained by the merger of Tokyo Denki, engaged in household appliances, and Shibaura Seisaku-sho, which produced heavy electrical equipment. < br />




Toyota ​​b> - the name of the founder Sakichi Toyoda. Later it changed to a blagozvochnoe Toyota. Japanese consisted of 8 letters (a lucky number in Japan).





TDK - the acronym from Tokyo Denkikagaku Kogyo KK - That was the name of the office for the production of ferrite cores.





PEPSI - first made in the 1890s in New Bern, North Carolina pharmacist Caleb Bredhem (Caleb Bradham). August 28, 1898 «Brad's drink» was renamed «Pepsi-Cola». Brand Pepsi-Cola was registered June 16, 1903 In one version of the name "Pepsi" Caleb Bredhem has made the word dyspepsia. According to another version, Caleb Bredham borrowed the name «Pep Kola» from one of the local competitors, slightly corrected him and called his drink Pepsi-Cola.

«Pepsi-Cola» - an anagram of the word «Episcopal». Opposite was a large pharmacy Bredhem Episcopal Cathedral. The company itself has denied this version.

Popular Organization in the Middle East says that the word is an acronym for the phrase PEPSI «Pay Every Pence to Save Israel» (Give every penny to save Israel). According to this theory, the beverage maker is actually a Zionist organization, which forwards the money to Israel.

According to another version Caleb and his visitors just liked the sound of the word, since it reflects the fact that the carbonated drink gave some vigor and energy (pep - cheerfulness, energy, liveliness).





Philips - the company was called by the name of its founder, Frederick Phillips and his son Gerard, who founded it in 1891 in Eindhoven for the manufacture of light bulbs. Objection light and people have not given up yet, but it has expanded its range still a couple of hundred names.





Xerox - comes from the Greek «Xer», that despite the vulgar guess translates as "dry." The fact that at the time of composing the name for the future of copier giant (late 40s) there were only wet copying, and the author would like to emphasize the use of technology in a dry powder dye. Sounds, by the way, is not as "Hi" - according to the rules of the English language this name reads: "ziroks».





Yahoo - a word coined by Jonathan Swift (Jonathan Swift) in the book "Gulliver's Travels." So called repulsive, disgusting man. The founders of «Yahoo!» Jerry Yang (Jerry Yang) and David Filo (David Filo) chose this name because I called themselves yahoo'mi. Now, however, the name stands for Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle.





3Com - here without mathematics has not done: took the name «Computer Communication Compatibility Corporation», threw out the last word, threw in all the remaining letters, except for the first three, and they brought these terms!





3M - three-quarters of mathematical notation acronym of Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company (Minesotskaya mining company)





JVC - Japan Victor Company Ltd.





Yandex - the name is derived from Yet Another Indexer (another indexer).





Rambler - from the English Rambler (Wrangler).





Lebedyansky - the location of the city Lebedyan

Also read:

Stories of great logos

Where did the name for a super-agency (BBDO, TBWA, DDB, etc.)

World wacky names

As super-originated brands

Tricky marketing - looking for sales

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