Maurya Learning Pvt. Ltd. Company Name Etymologies

Why are they called, what they are called?

Ravi Handa & Avinash Maurya 31-Aug-10

1

WHAT WE DO?

VIDEOS CONTENT DEVELOPMENT The pool of 50 videos on our Articles / Books / Questions on Math, General website covers the entire Math Knowledge, Group Discussion (GD) & syllabus for MBA Entrance Exams Personal Interviews (PI) (CAT/ XAT / MAT and others) [Absolutely FREE !! ]

DOUBT CLEARING LIVE EVENTS Get your doubts clarified on our Quizzes for corporates, schools, colleges and clubs. forum by expert Math / DI / LR faculties. [Absolutely FREE !!]

Click on the topics to visit their respective webpage >> 2 Complied by: www.handakafunda.com/?cne Company Name Etymologies When we put out the first version (Version 1.0), the Preface Wikipedia post had around 500 company names and our When we compiled the first edition of the eBook we eBook had around 200. thought we would get a total of 20-25 downloads because there are not that many inquisitive people who In Version 1.1, we had added around 27 new entries like would be interested in “Company Name Etymologies”. Zippo, Yamaha, Warner Bros, Maruti, Parle, etc. which Even if they were interested, they always had the did not exist on the Wikipedia page. Wikipedia list to go through. The response to the eBook In the current Version that is Version 1.2, we have by readers was a pleasant surprise with number of concentrated on increasing the readability. We have downloads reaching 1200 in no time. Somehow, the played around with fonts and formats so that it becomes effort seemed worthwhile. easily readable even in the full screen view. It is at this point we would like to clarify that we have Also, feel free to contact us for well – whatever you not compiled this list on our own. We have just copied it think you should contact us for. We would really like it if from Wikipedia (Original Link) and edited the hell out of you contact us for conducting a quiz.  Contact details it. What we mean by that is we have removed the are given on the last page of the book. etymologies of companies that we believe are not very popular / well-known. Obviously, there can be an error Cheers, in judgment and if you feel that we have made that error please mail us with the name of the companies Ravi Handa you would like to see in this list. We promise that we Avinash Maurya would update the list for the next version.

3 Complied by: www.handakafunda.com/?cne Company Name Etymologies # the Amro Bank; in 1991, ABN and Amro Bank merged to form ABN AMRO.  20th Century Fox – Film studio; formed in 1935 through the merger of William Fox's Fox Film,  Accenture – from "Accent on the future". The and Twentieth Century Pictures name Accenture was proposed by a company employee in Norway as part of an internal name  3Com – Network technology producer; the three finding process (BrandStorming). Before January coms are computer, communication, and 1, 2001, the company was called Andersen compatibility. Consulting.

 3M – from the company's original name,  Acer – Born as Multitech International in 1976, the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company company changed its name to Acer in 1987. The Latin word for “sharp, acute, able and facile”  7-Eleven – Convenience stores; renamed from "U- Tote'm" in 1946 to reflect their newly extended  Adidas – from the name of the founder Adolf hours, 7:00 a.m. until 11:00 p.m. (Adi) Dassler.

A  Adobe Systems – from the Adobe Creek that ran behind the house of co-founder John Warnock.  ABN AMRO – in the 1960s, the Nederlandsche Handel-Maatschappij (Dutch Trading Society;  Akai – named for its founder, Masukichi Akai. 1824) and De Twentsche Bank merged to form the Algemene Bank Nederland (ABN; General Bank  Akamai – from the Hawaiian word akamai of the Netherlands); in 1966, the Amsterdamsche meaning smart or clever; the company defines it as Bank and the Rotterdamsche Bank merged to form "intelligent, clever and cool". 4 Complied by: www.handakafunda.com/?cne Company Name Etymologies  Alcatel-Lucent – Alcatel was named from Société  Amstrad – Amstrad Consumer Electronics plc was Alsacienne de Constructions Atomiques, de founded by Sir Alan Michael Sugar in the UK. The Télécomunications et d'Electronique. It took over name is a contraction of Alan Michael Sugar Lucent Technologies in 2006. Trading.

 Alcoa – Aluminum Company of America.  Anheuser-Busch InBev – Formed by the 2008 purchase of Anheuser-Busch by InBev. Anheuser-  Alfa Romeo – the company was originally known Busch was named for the company's original as ALFA, an acronym for Anonima Lombarda founder, Eberhard Anheuser, and his later partner Fabbrica Automobili. When Nicola Romeo bought Adolphus Busch. ALFA in 1915, his surname was appended.  AOL – from America Online. The company was  AltaVista – Spanish for "high view". founded in 1983 as Quantum Computer Services.

 Amazon.com – founder Jeff Bezos renamed the  Apache – according to the project's 1997 FAQ: company Amazon (from the earlier name of "The Apache group was formed around a number Cadabra.com) after the world's most voluminous of people who provided patch files that had been river, the Amazon. He saw the potential for a written for NCSA httpd 1.3. The result after larger volume of sales in an online (as opposed to a combining them was A PAtCHy server." bricks and mortar) bookstore. (Alternative: Amazon was chosen to cash in on the popularity of  Apple – For the favorite fruit of co-founder Steve Yahoo, which listed entries alphabetically.) Jobs and/or for the time he worked at an apple orchard, and to distance itself from the cold,  AMD – Advanced Micro Devices unapproachable, complicated imagery created by

5 Complied by: www.handakafunda.com/?cne Company Name Etymologies other computer companies at the time – which had  AT&T – the American Telephone and Telegraph names such as IBM, DEC, Cincom and Tesseract Corporation officially changed its name to AT&T in the 1990s.  Arcelor – created in 2001 by a merger of Arbed (Luxembourg), Aceralia (Spain) and Usinor  Atari – named from the board game Go. "Atari" is (France) with the ambition of becoming a major a Japanese word to describe a position where an player in the steel industry. opponent's stones are in danger of being captured. It is similar, though not identical, to "check" in  Ask.com – search engine formerly named after chess. The original games company was American Jeeves, the gentleman's gentleman (valet, not but wanted a Japanese-sounding name. butler) in P. G. Wodehouse's series of books. Ask Jeeves was shortened to Ask in 2006.  Audi – Latin translation of the German name "Horch". The founder August Horch left the  Asus – named after Pegasus, the winged horse of company after five years, but still wanted to Greek mythology. The first three letters of the manufacture cars. Since the original "Horch" word were dropped to get a high position in company was still there, he called his new alphabetical listings. An Asus company named company Audi, the Latin form of his last name. In Pegatron, using the spare letters, was spun off in English it is: "hark!". 2008. B  Aston Martin – from the "Aston Hill" races (near Aston Clinton) where the company was founded,  Bayer – named after Friedrich Bayer, who founded and the surname of Lionel Martin, the company's the company in 1863. founder.

6 Complied by: www.handakafunda.com/?cne Company Name Etymologies  BBC – British Broadcasting Corporation, headphones came through quality tests, the originally British Broadcasting Company. company would give the headphones a blue dot. The headphones quickly became known as the  Ben & Jerry's – named after Ben Cohen and Jerry blue dots or blaue Punkte. The quality symbol Greenfield, who founded an ice cream parlor in would become a trademark and the trademark 1978 after completing a correspondence course on would become the company name in 1938. ice cream making from Pennsylvania State University. The company, Ben & Jerry's  BMW – Bayerische Motoren Werke (Bavarian Homemade Holdings, Inc. was later taken over by Motor Factories). Unilever.  Boeing – named after founder William E. Boeing.  BenQ – Bringing Enjoyment and Quality to life It was originally called Pacific Aero Products Co.

 BHP – Broken Hill Proprietary, named after the  Bosch – named after founder Robert Bosch. Robert town of Broken Hill, where BHP was founded Bosch GmbH (full company name) is a German (now BHP Billiton) diversified technology-based corporation.

 BIC Corporation – the pen company was named  Bose Corporation – named after founder Amar after one of its founders, Marcel Bich. He dropped Bose. the final h to avoid a potentially inappropriate English pronunciation of the name.  BSNL – from Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (India Communications Corporation Limited).  Blaupunkt – Blaupunkt ("Blue dot") was founded in 1923 under the name "Ideal". Its core business  BP – formerly British Petroleum, now BP. (The was the manufacturing of headphones. If the slogan "Beyond Petroleum" has incorrectly been 7 Complied by: www.handakafunda.com/?cne Company Name Etymologies taken to refer to the company's new name  Canon – Originally (1933) Precision Optical following its rebranding effort in 2000.) Instruments Laboratory the new name (1935) derived from the name of the company's first  Bridgestone – named after founder Shojiro camera, the Kwanon, in turn named after the Ishibashi. The surname Ishibashi (石橋) means Japanese name of the Buddhist bodhisattva of "stone bridge", or "bridge of stone". mercy.

 BT – formerly British Telecom (from BT Group,  Carrefour – chain of supermarkets and formerly British Telecommunications plc.) hypermarkets which started with a store near a crossroads (carrefour in French) in Annecy.  BHEL – Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited, a government of India company.  Caterpillar – Originally Holt Tractor Co, merged with Best Tractor Co. in 1925. A company C photographer exclaimed aloud of a Holt tractor that the tracks' movement resembled a caterpillar  CA – Computer Associates was founded in 1976 moving along the ground. The name stuck. as Computer Associates International, Inc. by Charles Wang  Cathay Pacific Airways Limited – The airline was founded on 24 September 1946 by American Roy  Cadillac – named after the 18th century French C. Farrell and Australian Sydney H. de Kantzow, explorer Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de with each man putting up HK$1 to register the Cadillac, founder of Detroit, Michigan. Cadillac is airline. They named it Cathay Pacific because a small town in the South of France. Cathay was the ancient name given to China; and

8 Complied by: www.handakafunda.com/?cne Company Name Etymologies Pacific because Farrell speculated that they would Citroen family moved to Paris from Amsterdam in one day fly across the Pacific. 1873 where the name changed to Citroën.

 Casio – from the name of its founder, Kashio  Coca-Cola – derived from the coca leaves and kola Tadao, who had set up the company Kashio nuts used as flavoring. Coca-Cola creator John S. Seisakujo as a subcontractor factory. Pemberton changed the 'K' of kola to 'C' to make the name look better.  CBS – Columbia Broadcasting System  Colgate-Palmolive – formed from a merger of soap  Chevrolet – named after company co-founder manufacturers Colgate & Company and Louis Chevrolet, a Swiss-born auto racer. The Palmolive-Peet. Peet was dropped in 1953. company was merged into General Motors in 1917 Colgate was named after William Colgate, an and survives only as a brand name. English immigrant, who set up a starch, soap and candle business in New York City in 1806.  Chrysler – named after the company founder, Palmolive was named for the two oils (Palm and Walter P. Chrysler. Olive) used in its manufacture.  Cisco – short for San Francisco.  Comcast – from communications and broadcast.  Citroën – named after André-Gustave Citroën  Compaq – from computer and "pack" to denote a (1878–1935), a French entrepreneur of Dutch small integral object; or: Compatibility And descent. He was the fifth and last child of the Quality; or: from the company's first product, the Dutch Jewish diamond merchant Levie Citroen very compact Compaq Portable. and Mazra Kleinmann (of Warsaw, Poland). The

9 Complied by: www.handakafunda.com/?cne Company Name Etymologies  COMSAT – a contraction of communications  Daewoo – company founder Kim Woo Chong satellites. This American digital called it Daewoo which means "Great House" or telecommunications and satellite company was "Great Universe" in Korean. founded during the era of U.S. President John F. Kennedy era to develop the technology.  Danone (Dannon in the U.S.) – Isaac Carasso in Barcelona made his first yoghourts with the  ConocoPhillips – formed from the merger of nickname of his first son Daniel (DAN-ONE) Conoco (from Continental Oil Company) and the Phillips Petroleum Company.  Datsun – first called DAT, from the initials of its financiers Den, Aoyama and Takeuchi. Soon  Corel – from Cowpland Research Laboratory, changed to DATSON to imply a smaller version of after the name of the company's founder, Dr. their original car, then (as SON can mean "loss" in Michael Cowpland. Japanese) again to DATSUN when they were acquired by Nissan.  Cray – supercomputer company named after its founder, Seymour Cray.  Debian – project founder Ian Murdock named it after himself and his girlfriend, Debra. D  Dell – named after its founder, Michael Dell. The  Dabur - Dr. S.K. Burman, laid the foundations of company changed its name from Dell Computer in what is today known as Dabur India Limited. The 2003. brand name Dabur is derived from the words 'Da' for „Daktar‟ or „Doctor‟ and 'bur' from Burman.  DHL – named after its founders, Adrian Dalsey, Larry Hillblom, and Robert Lynn.

10 Complied by: www.handakafunda.com/?cne Company Name Etymologies  Digg, Inc.- Kevin Rose's friend David Prager Software and changed its name to Electronic Arts originally wanted to call the site "Diggnation", but in October the same year. Kevin wanted a simpler name. He chose the name "Digg", because users are able to "dig" stories, out  eBay – Pierre Omidyar, who had created the of those submitted, up to the front page. The site Auction Web trading website, had formed a web was called "Digg" instead of "Dig" because the consulting concern called Echo Bay Technology domain name "dig.com" was previously registered, Group. "Echo Bay" didn't refer to the town in by Walt Disney Internet Group. "Diggnation" Nevada, "It just sounded cool", Omidyar would eventually be used as the title of Kevin reportedly said. Echo Bay Mines Limited, a gold Rose and Alex Albrecht's weekly podcast mining company, had already taken EchoBay.com, discussing popular stories from Digg. so Omidyar registered what (at the time) he thought was the second best name: eBay.com.  The Walt Disney Company, named for its co- founder Walt Disney.  EDS – Electronic Data Systems, founded in 1962 by former IBM salesman Ross Perot. According to  DKNY – Donna Karan New York. the company history. "He chose Electronic Data Systems from potential names he scribbled on a  Dow – named after its founder, Herbert Henry pledge envelope during a service at Highland Park Dow. Presbyterian Church in Dallas."

E  EMI – formerly Electric and Musical Industries Ltd.  EA Games – EA is from Electronic Arts. The company was founded in May 1982 as Amazin'

11 Complied by: www.handakafunda.com/?cne Company Name Etymologies  ESPN – Entertainment and Sports Programming F Network  Facebook – name stems from the colloquial name  Epson – Epson Seiko Corporation, the Japanese of books given to newly enrolled students at the printer and peripheral manufacturer, was named start of the academic year by university from "Son of Electronic Printer" administrations in the US with the intention of helping students to get to know each other better.  Essar Group - Essar is named after the first letters of founder‟s names – S and R, ie, Shri Shashi Ruia  Fair Isaac Corporation – named after founders Bill and Shri Ravi Ruia. Fair and Earl Isaac.

 Esso – the enunciation of the initials S.O. in  FCUK – French Connection United Kingdom. Standard Oil of New Jersey.  FedEx – abbreviation of Federal Express  Exxon – a name contrived by Esso (Standard Oil Corporation, the company's original name. of New Jersey) in the early 1970s to create a neutral but distinctive label for the company.  Ferrari – from the name of its founder, Enzo Within days, Exxon was being called the "double Ferrari. cross company" but this eventually subsided. (Esso is a trademark of ExxonMobil.) Esso had to  Fiat – acronym of Fabbrica Italiana Automobili change its name in the U.S. because of restrictions Torino (Italian Automobile Factory of Turin) dating to the 1911 Standard Oil antitrust decision.  Finnair – from "Finland" and "air". Originally called "Aero Osakeyhtiö", which led to its

international flight code, "AY".

12 Complied by: www.handakafunda.com/?cne Company Name Etymologies  Ford Motor Company – named after its founder,  Google – an originally accidental misspelling of Henry Ford, who introduced automobile mass the word googol and settled upon because production in 1914. google.com was unregistered. Googol was proposed to reflect the company's mission to  Forrester Research – from the family name of the organize the immense amount of information mother of the founder George Forrester Colony. available online.

 Fuji – named after Mount Fuji, the highest H mountain in Japan.  Häagen-Dazs – Name was invented in 1961 by ice- G cream makers Reuben and Rose Mattus of the Bronx "to convey an aura of the old-world  Glaxo – a dried milk company set up in traditions and craftsmanship". The name has no Bunnythorpe, New Zealand, by Joseph Edward meaning. Nathan. The company wanted to use the name "Lacto" but it was similar to some already in use.  Haier – Chinese "sea" and (a transliteration Glaxo evolved and was registered on 27 October character; also means "you" in Literary Chinese). 1906. GlaxoSmithKline was a 2000 merger of Glaxo Wellcome and SmithKline Beecham.  Harpo Productions – production company founded by Oprah Winfrey. Harpo is Oprah backwards.  Goodyear – named after the founder of vulcanization, Charles Goodyear, the Goodyear  Hasbro – founded by Henry and Helal Hassenfeld, Tire and Rubber company was founded by Frank the Hassenfeld Brothers. Seiberling in 1898.

13 Complied by: www.handakafunda.com/?cne Company Name Etymologies  HCL – Hindustan Computers Ltd, Indian software  Hotmail – Founder Jack Smith got the idea of company founded by Shiv Nadar. accessing e-mail via the web from a computer anywhere in the world. When Sabeer Bhatia came  HP – Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard tossed a coin up with the business plan for the mail service he to decide whether the company they founded tried all kinds of names ending in 'mail' and finally would be called Hewlett-Packard or Packard- settled for Hotmail as it included the letters Hewlett. "HTML" – the markup language used to write web pages. It was initially referred to as HoTMaiL with  Hitachi – old place name, literally "sunrise" selective upper casing. (At one time, if you clicked  HMV – from "His Master's Voice", which on Hotmail's 'mail' tab, you would have seen appeared in 1899 as the title of a painting of "HoTMaiL" in the URL, but since Hotmail is now Nipper, a Jack Russell terrier, listening to a Windows Live Mail, it is no longer there.) gramophone.  HSBC – Hongkong and Shanghai Banking  Honda – from the name of its founder, Soichiro Corporation. Honda.  HTC Corporation – A contraction of its original  Honeywell – from the name of Mark Honeywell, corporate name, High Tech Computer founder of Honeywell Heating Specialty Co. It Corporation. later merged with Minneapolis Heat Regulator  Hyundai – connotes the sense of "the present age" Company and was finally called Honeywell Inc. in or "modernity" in Korean. 1963.

14 Complied by: www.handakafunda.com/?cne Company Name Etymologies I potential conflicts with other companies with similar names, Intel purchased the name rights for  IBM – named by Tom (Thomas John) Watson Sr, $15,000 from a company called Intelco. (Source: an ex-employee of National Cash Register (NCR Intel 15 Years Corporate Anniversary Brochure) Corporation). To one-up them in all respects, he called his company International Business  Ittiam Systems – an Indian company named from Machines. the famous philosophical dictum: "I think therefore I am" (Cogito, ergo sum).  ICICI – Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India.  Infosys – An Indian software major. "Information Systems"  IKEA – a composite of the first letters in the Swedish founder Ingvar Kamprad's name in J addition to the first letters of the names of the property and the village in which he grew up:  Jockey International, Inc. - On January 19, 1935 Ingvar Kamprad Elmtaryd Agunnaryd. during a blizzard, Coopers Inc. sold the world's first briefs at the Marshall Field's State Street store  Intel – Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore initially in downtown Chicago. Designed by an apparel incorporated their company as N M Electronics. engineer named Arthur Kneibler, briefs dispensed Someone suggested Moore Noyce Electronics but with leg sections and had a Y-shaped overlapping it sounded too close to "more noise". Later, fly. The company dubbed the design the Jockey, Integrated Electronics was proposed but it had since it offered a degree of support that had already been taken, so they used the initial previously only been available from the jockstrap. syllables (INTegrated ELectronics). To avoid Jockey briefs proved so popular that over 30,000

15 Complied by: www.handakafunda.com/?cne Company Name Etymologies pairs were sold within three months of their original "Kentucky Fried Chicken" branding introduction. Samuel T. Cooper, founder of (although the corporate name remained KFC). Coopers Inc, renamed the company Jockey.  Kenwood Limited – named after Kenneth (Ken)  Johnson & Johnson – Originally a partnership Wood, who founded this kitchenware company as between brothers James Wood Johnson and Woodlau Industries in the UK in 1947. It is not Edward Mead Johnson in 1885, the addition of related to Kenwood Electronics, which started as brother Robert Wood Johnson I led to formal Kasuga Radio Co in Japan in 1946 and became incorporation as Johnson & Johnson in 1887. Trio Corporation in 1960.

K  Kia Motors – the name "Kia" roughly translates as "Rising from Asia" in Hanja.  Kawasaki – from the name of its founder, Shozo Kawasaki  K-Mart Named for Sebastian S. Kresge, who opened the first K-Mart in 1962.  KFC – short for Kentucky Fried Chicken. It is popularly believed that the company adopted the  Kodak – Both the Kodak camera and the name abbreviated name in 1991 to avoid the unhealthy were the invention of founder George Eastman. connotations of the word 'fried'. The rumor that it The letter "K" was a favorite with Eastman; he felt was because the Commonwealth of Kentucky it a strong and incisive letter. He tried out various trademarked the name "Kentucky" is false. combinations of words starting and ending with Commercials in the early 2000s tried to imply that "K". He saw three advantages in the name. It had the abbreviation stands for "Kitchen Fresh the merits of a trademark word, would not be mis- Chicken", but in 2007 KFC decided to return to the pronounced and the name did not resemble

16 Complied by: www.handakafunda.com/?cne Company Name Etymologies anything in the art. There is a misconception that  Lenovo Group – a portmanteau of "Le-" (from the name was chosen because of its similarity to former name Legend) and "novo", pseudo-Latin the sound produced by the shutter of the camera. for "new". This Chinese company took over IBM's PC division.  Konica – it was earlier known as Konishiroku Kogaku. Konishiroku in turn is the short for  LG – from the combination of two popular Korean Konishiya Rokubeiten which was the first name brands, Lucky and Goldstar. (In Mexico, publicists of the company established by Rokusaburo explained the name change as an abbreviation to Sugiura in the 1850s. Linea Goldstar, Spanish for Goldstar Line)

 KPMG – from the last names of the founders of  Lockheed Martin – Aerospace manufacturer, a the firms which combined to form the cooperative: combination of Lockheed Corporation and Martin Piet Klijnveld, William Barclay Peat, James Marietta, which is a combination of Glenn L. Marwick, and Reinhard Goerdeler. Martin Company and American-Marietta Corporation. L  Longines – In 1862 the new company "Ancienne  Lego – combination of the Danish "leg godt", Maison Auguste Agassiz, Ernest Francillon, which means to "play well".Lego also means "I put Successeur" was born. At that time watchmaking together" in Latin, but Lego Group claims this is in the area used the skills of people working only a coincidence and the etymology of the word outside the "comptoir d'établissage", often at is entirely Danish. Years before the little plastic home. In 1866 Ernest Francillon bought two plots brick was invented, Lego manufactured wooden of land on the right bank of the river Suze at the toys. place called "Les Longines" and brought all of the

17 Complied by: www.handakafunda.com/?cne Company Name Etymologies watchmaking skills under one roof. This was the M first "Longines factory".  Maggi – food company named after its founder,  L'Oréal – In 1907, Eugène Schueller, a young Julius Maggi. It was taken over by Nestlé in 1947 French chemist, developed an innovative hair- and survives as a brand name. color formula. He called his improved hair dye Auréole.  Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd - The company was set up in 1945 in Ludhiana as Mahindra &  Lotus Software – Mitch Kapor named his company Mohammed. Later, after the partition of after the Lotus Position or 'Padmasana'. Kapor India, Malik Ghulam Muhammad returned used to be a teacher of Transcendental M ation to Pakistan and became that nation's first finance technique as taught by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. minister. Hence, the name was changed from Mahindra & Mohammed to Mahindra & Mahindra  Lucent Technologies – a spin-off from AT&T, it in 1948. was named Lucent (meaning "luminous" or "glowing with light") because "light as a metaphor  Mars – named after Frank C. Mars and his wife, for visionary thinking reflected the company's Ethel, who started making candy in 1911. Their operating and guiding business philosophy", son, Forrest E. Mars, joined with Bruce Murrie, the according to the Landor Associates staff who son of a Hershey executive, to form M&M Ltd chose the name. It was taken over by Alcatel to (from Mars & Murrie). Forrest took over the form Alcatel-Lucent in 2006. family business after his father's death and merged the two companies in 1964. After retiring from  Lycos – from Lycosidae, the family of wolf Mars, Inc. in 1993, Forrest founded Ethel M. spiders. Chocolates, named after his mother. 18 Complied by: www.handakafunda.com/?cne Company Name Etymologies  Maruti Udyog Limited (MUL) - "Maruti", in  McDonald's – from the name of the brothers Dick popular Indian culture, is India Hindu's lord McDonald and Mac McDonald, who founded the Hanuman [Hanuman was the son of Pawan, God first McDonald's restaurant in 1940. of wind] is known as "maruti".  Mercedes – from the first name of the daughter of  Mattel – a portmanteau of the founders names Emil Jellinek, who distributed cars of the early Harold "Matt" Matson and Elliot Handler. Daimler Company around 1900.

 Maybach-Motorenbau GmbH - It was founded in  Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) – Film studio 1909 by Wilhelm Maybach with his son Karl formed from the merger of three other companies: Maybach. Metro Picture Corporation, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation, and Louis B. Mayer Pictures.  Mazda Motor Corporation – the company was Goldwyn Picture Corporation in turn was named founded as Toyo Kogyo, started manufacturing after the last names of Samuel Goldfish, and Edgar Mazda brand cars in 1931, and changed its name to and Archibald Selwyn. Mazda in 1984. The cars were supposedly named after Ahura Mazda, the chief deity of the  Microsoft – coined by Bill Gates to represent the Zoroastrians, though many think this explanation company that was devoted to microcomputer was created after the fact, to cover up what is software. Originally christened Micro-Soft, the '-' simply a poor anglicized version of the founder‟s disappeared on 3/2/1987 with the introduction of a name, Jujiro Matsuda. This theory is supported by new corporate identity and logo. The "slash the fact that the company is referred to only as between the 'o' and „s‟ [in the Microsoft logo] "Matsuda" in Japan. emphasizes the "soft" part of the name and conveys motion and speed.

19 Complied by: www.handakafunda.com/?cne Company Name Etymologies  Minolta – Minolta was founded in Osaka, Japan in  Mozilla Foundation – from the name of the web 1928 as Nichi-Doku Shashinki Shōten (literally: browser that preceded Netscape Navigator. When Japan-Germany camera shop). It was not until Marc Andreesen, co-founder of Netscape, created 1934 that the name Minolta first appeared on a a browser to replace the Mosaic browser, it was camera, the Minolta Vest. internally named Mozilla (Mosaic-Killer, Godzilla) by Jamie Zawinski.  Mitsubishi – the name Mitsubishi has two parts: mitsu means three and hishi (changing to bishi in  MRF – from Madras Rubber Factory, founded by the middle of the word) means diamond (the K M Mammen Mappillai in 1946. He started with shape). Hence, the three diamond logo. (Note that a toy-balloon manufacturing unit at Tiruvottiyur, "diamond" in this context refers only to the Chennai (then called Madras). In 1952 he began rhombus shape, not to the precious gem.) manufacturing tread-rubber and, in 1961, tyres.

 Motorola – Founder Paul Galvin came up with this N name when his company (at the time, Galvin Manufacturing Company) started manufacturing  Nabisco – formerly The National Biscuit radios for cars. Many audio equipment makers of Company, changed in 1971 to Nabisco. the era used the "ola" ending for their products, most famously the "Victrola" phonograph made by  Napster - The service was named Napster after the Victor Talking Machine Company. The name Fanning's hairstyle-based nickname. was meant to convey the idea of "sound" and  NCR Corporation – from National Cash Register. "motion". It became so widely recognized that the company later adopted it as the company name.  NEC – from Nippon Electric Company.

20 Complied by: www.handakafunda.com/?cne Company Name Etymologies  Nero – Nero Burning ROM named after Nero  Nintendo – Nintendo is the transliteration of the burning Rome ("Rom" is the German spelling of company's Japanese name, nintendou (任天堂). "Rome"). The first (nin) can be translated as to "entrusted"; ten-dou means "heaven".  Nestlé – named after its founder, Henri Nestlé, who was born in Germany under the name  Nissan – the company was earlier known by the "Nestle", which is German (actually, Swabian name Nippon Sangyo which means "Japan diminutive) for "bird's nest". The company logo is Industries". a bird's nest with a mother bird and two chicks.  Nirma - Karsanbhai Patel, founder of Nirma group  Netscape – Originally the product name of the companies, named the powder as Nirma, after his company's web browser ("Mosaic daughter Nirupama. Communications Netscape Web Navigator"). The company adopted the product name after the  Nokia – started as a wood-pulp mill, the company University of Illinois threatened to sue for expanded into producing rubber products in the trademark infringement over the use of the Mosaic Finnish city of Nokia. The company later adopted name. Netscape is the combination of network and the city's name. landscape.  Nortel Networks – named from Nortel (Northern  Nike – named for the Greek goddess of victory. Telecom) and Bay Networks. The company was originally spun off from the Bell Telephone  Nikon – the original name was Nippon Kogaku, Company of Canada Ltd in 1895 as Northern meaning "Japanese Optical". Electric and Manufacturing, and traded as Northern Electric from 1914 to 1976.

21 Complied by: www.handakafunda.com/?cne Company Name Etymologies  Novartis – after the Latin expression "novae artes"  Petrobras – An abbreviation of the Brazilian oil which means something like "new skills". company's full name, Petróleo Brasileiro (Portuguese for Brazilian Petroleum). O  Philips – Royal Philips Electronics was founded in  Oracle – Larry Ellison, Ed Oates and Bob Miner 1891 by brothers Gerard (the engineer) and Anton were working on a consulting project for the CIA. (the entrepreneur) Philips. The code name for the project was Oracle. The project was designed to use the newly written SQL  Pixar – from pixel and the co-founder's name, database language from IBM. The project was Alvy Ray Smith. According to the biography "The eventually terminated but they decided to finish Second Coming of Steve Jobs" by Alan what they started and bring it to the world. Later Deutschman, the 'el' in pixel was changed to 'ar' they changed the name of the company, Relational because 'ar' is frequently used in Spanish verbs, Software Inc., to the name of the product. implying the name means "To Pix".

P  Porsche – Car Company named after founder Ferdinand Porsche, an Austrian automotive  Parle - Parle group, founded by Mohanlal Dayal engineer. The family name may have originated in Chauhan in 1929. The name Parle was derived the Czech name "Boreš" (boresh). from the Mumbai suburb of Vile-Parle.  Prada – an Italian high fashion house named after  Pepsi – named from the digestive enzyme pepsin. the founder Mario Prada, who founded Prada in Milan 1914.

22 Complied by: www.handakafunda.com/?cne Company Name Etymologies  Procter & Gamble – named after the founders,  Reckitt Benckiser – consumer goods giant named William Procter, a candlemaker, and James from the merger of Britain's Reckitt & Colman and Gamble, a soapmaker, who pooled their resources the Dutch company Benckiser NV in December after marrying two sisters. The company was 1999. The latter was named after its founder, founded in Cincinnati in 1837. Johann A. Benckiser.

Q  Red Hat – while at college, company founder Marc Ewing was given the Cornell lacrosse team cap  Qantas – from its original name, Queensland and (with red and white stripes) by his grandfather. Northern Territory Aerial Services. People would turn to him to solve their problems and he was referred to as that guy in the red hat.  Qualcomm – Quality Communication By the time he wrote the manual of the beta version of Red Hat Linux he had lost the cap, so R the manual included an appeal to readers to return his Red Hat if found.  Raytheon – "Light of the gods". Maker of missiles such as Patriot, Maverick, Sidewinder and  Reebok – alternate spelling of rhebok (Pelea Tomahawk, among other military technology. capreolus), an African antelope.

 Reckitt & Colman - named from the merger of  Research In Motion – from the phrase "poetry in Reckitt & Sons with J&J Colman in 1938. motion", which company founder Mike Lazaridis Colman's, best known for its mustard, was founded had seen used to describe a football player. by Jeremiah Colman in 1814. Isaac Reckitt founded Reckitt & Sons in 1840.

23 Complied by: www.handakafunda.com/?cne Company Name Etymologies  Rolls-Royce – name used by Rolls-Royce plc and  SAP – SystemAnalyse und Programmentwicklung Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, among others. In 1884 (German for "System analysis and program Frederick Henry Royce started an electrical and development"), a company formed by five ex-IBM mechanical business, making his first car, a Royce, employees who used to work in the in 1904. He was introduced to Charles Stewart 'Systems/Applications/Projects' group of IBM. Rolls on 4 May that year. The pair entered into a Later, SAP was redefined to stand for Systeme, partnership in which Royce would manufacture Anwendungen und Produkte in der cars to be sold exclusively by Rolls, and the cars Datenverarbeitung (Systems, Applications and would be called Rolls-Royce. Products in Data Processing).

 RPG Group – Rama Prasad Goenka  SCB – from Standard Chartered Bank. The name Standard Chartered comes from the two original S banks from which it was founded – The Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China, and The  SAAB – founded in 1937 in Sweden as Svenska Standard Bank of British South Africa. Aeroplan aktiebolaget (Swedish Aeroplane Company); the last word is typically abbreviated  Sega – Service Games of Japan was founded by as AB, hence SAAB. Marty Bromley (an American) to import pinball games to Japan for use on American military  Samsonite – named from the Biblical character bases. Samson, renowned for his strength.  Seiko –The two characters were taken from the  Samsung – meaning three stars in Korean. phrase the company's vision which roughly translates to "a factory that successfully produces  Sanyo – meaning three oceans in Japanese. 24 Complied by: www.handakafunda.com/?cne Company Name Etymologies exquisite and precise watches". – According to  Skoda Auto – the car company was founded in Seiko's official company history, titled A Journey 1895 and originally named Laurin & Klement after in Time: the Remarkable Story of Seiko (2003), its founders, Vaclav Laurin and Vaclav Klement. It Seiko is a Japanese word for "exquisite" or was taken over by Škoda Works, an industrial "minute" as well as a word for "success". conglomerate, in 1924, and adopted the Škoda name from Emil Škoda. Škoda Auto was split off  Sharp – Japanese consumer electronics company after World War II and is now part of Volkswagen. named from its first product, an ever-sharp pencil.  Skype – the original concept for the name was  Shell – Royal Dutch/Shell was established in 1907, Sky-Peer-to-Peer, which morphed into Skyper, when the Royal Dutch Petrol Society Plc. and the then Skype. Shell Transport and Trading Company Ltd. merged their operations. The Shell Transport and  Smart – Swatch + Mercedes + Art Trading Company Ltd had been established at the end of the 19th century by commercial firm  Sony – from the Latin word 'sonus' meaning Samuel & Co (founded in 1830). Samuel & Co sound, and 'sonny' a slang word used by were already importing Japanese shells when they Americans to refer to a bright youngster, "since we set up an oil company, so the oil company was were sonny boys working in sound and vision", named after the shells. said Akio Morita. The company was founded as Tokyo Tsoshiu Kogyo KK (Tokyo  Siemens – founded in 1847 by Werner von Telecommunications Engineering Corporation) in Siemens and Johann Georg Halske. The company 1946, and changed its name to Sony in 1958. Sony was originally called Telegraphen-Bau-Anstalt von was chosen as it could be pronounced easily in Siemens & Halske. many languages.

25 Complied by: www.handakafunda.com/?cne Company Name Etymologies  Sprint – from its parent company, Southern Pacific T Railroad INTernal Communications. At the time, pipelines and railroad tracks were the cheapest  Taco Bell – named after founder Glen Bell. place to lay communications lines, as the right-of- way was already leased or owned.  TAG Heuer - TAG Heuer was formed in 1985 when TAG (Techniques d'Avant Garde),  Starbucks – named after Starbuck, a character in manufacturers of high-tech items such as ceramic Herman Melville's novel Moby-Dick turbochargers for Formula One cars, acquired Heuer. It has its roots in 1860 when Edouard  Subaru – from the Japanese name for the Heuer founded Heuer Watchmaking Company. constellation known to Westerners as Pleiades or the Seven Sisters. Subaru was formed from a  Taser International – Thomas A. Swift's Electric merger of seven other companies, and the Rifle constellation is featured on the company's logo.  Tata Group – conglomerate named after Jamshedji  Sun Microsystems – its founders designed their Tata, considered "the father of Indian industry". first workstation in their dorm at Stanford University, and chose the name Stanford  TCS – from Tata Consultancy Services, from University Network for their product, hoping to sell India's Tata Group, named after founder and it to the college. They didn't. legendary industrialist Jamshedji Tata.

 Texaco – from The Texas Company U.S.A.  Suzuki – from the name of its founder, Michio Suzuki.  Toshiba – named from the merger of consumer goods company Tokyo Denki (Tokyo Electric Co)

26 Complied by: www.handakafunda.com/?cne Company Name Etymologies and electrical firm Shibaura Seisaku-sho (Shibaura  Umbro – Umbro was founded in 1924 by the Engineering Works). Humphrey (Umphrey) Brothers, Harold C. and Wallace.  Toyota – from the name of the founder, Sakichi Toyoda. Initially called Toyeda, it was changed  Unilever – name created to reflect the merger of after a contest for a better-sounding name. The Margarine Unie and Lever Brothers, agreed in new name was written in katakana with eight 1929. Lever Brothers was named after its founders, strokes, a number that is considered lucky in William Hesketh Lever and his brother, James. Japan.  UPS - United Parcel Service of America, Inc.  TVS Motors, TVS Electronics – T. V. Sundaram Iyengar founded the group in 1911. V

 Twitter - social networking and microblogging  Verizon – a portmanteau of veritas (Latin for service. The name was derived from the original truth) and horizon. idea 'Twitch', which didn't bring up the right imagery.  Virgin – founder Richard Branson started a magazine called Student while still at school. In U his autobiography, Losing My Virginity, Branson says that when they were starting a business to sell  Ubuntu Foundation – named from a Zulu word records by mail order, "one of the girls suggested: (ùɓúntú) that translates as "humanity to others". 'What about Virgin? We're complete virgins at business.'"

27 Complied by: www.handakafunda.com/?cne Company Name Etymologies  Vodafone – from Voice, Data, Telefone. Vodafone G. Fargo. (When Norwest purchased Wells Fargo made the UK's first mobile call at a few minutes in 1998, it chose to retain the Wells Fargo name.) past midnight on 1 January 1985.  Wendy's – Wendy was the nickname of founder  Volkswagen – from the German for people's car. Dave Thomas' daughter Melinda. Ferdinand Porsche wanted to produce a car that was affordable for the masses – the Kraft-durch-  Wipro – from Western India Palm Refined Oil Ltd Freude-Wagen (or "Strength-Through-Joy car", Wipro Technologies. The company started as a from a Nazi social organization) later became modest Vanaspati and laundry soap producer and known, in English, as the Beetle. is now also an IT services giant.

 Volvo – from the Latin word volvo, which means  WWE – World Wrestling Entertainment, formerly "I roll". It was originally a name for a ball bearing World Wrestling Federation (WWF). It changed its being developed by SKF. name after a court case brought by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), which is now called the W World Wide Fund for Nature.

 Wal-Mart – named after founder Sam Walton  WPP – Global advertising and marketing company. Originally called Wire and Plastic  Warner Bros. – Jack Warner, Sam Warner, Harold Products. Warner, and Albert Warner. X  Wells Fargo – From the founders of the original Wells Fargo company, Henry Wells and William  Xerox – named from xerography, a word derived from the Greek xeros (dry) and graphos (writing). 28 Complied by: www.handakafunda.com/?cne Company Name Etymologies The company was founded as The Haloid Corporation). In October 1987, on its 100th Company in 1906, launched its first XeroX copier anniversary, the name was changed to The Yamaha in 1949, and changed its name to Haloid Xerox in Corporation. 1958.

Y Z  Yahoo! – The word Yahoo was invented by Jonathan Swift and used in his book Gulliver's  Zippo - George Blaisdell liked the sound of the Travels. It represents a person who is repulsive in word "zipper" and "zippo" sounded more modern. appearance and barely human. Yahoo! founders David Filo and Jerry Yang jokingly considered themselves yahoos. It's also an interjection sometimes associated with United States Southerners' and Westerners' expression of joy, as

alluded to in Yahoo.com commercials that end with someone singing the word "yahoo". It is also sometime jokingly referred to by its backronym, Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle.

 Yamaha - Yamaha was established in 1887 as a piano and reed organ manufacturer by Torakusu Yamaha as Nippon Gakki Company, Limited (literally Japan Musical Instrument Manufacturing 29 Complied by: www.handakafunda.com/?cne Company Name Etymologies For comments / feedback / rotten tomatoes / hiring us as quizmasters / advertising in our ebooks

Contact us:

Ravi Handa Avinash Maurya Phone: +91- 9461 493 393 Phone: +91- 9158 086 233 Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Facebook: http://facebook.com/ravihanda Facebook: http://facebook.com/mauryaavinash Twitter: http://twitter.com/ravihanda Twitter: http://twitter.com/avinash_maurya Linkedin: http://in.linkedin.com/in/ravihanda

30 Complied by: www.handakafunda.com/?cne Company Name Etymologies Our other free e-books

Collection of selected questions from Comprehensive the Tata Crucible Business Quiz over compilation/complete list of the years 2006 to 2009. Maths/Quantitative Aptitude (Best 421 questions) formulas, fundas, tips and tricks required for CAT, XAT, MAT and other MBA Entrance examinations.

To download any or all of the free e-books; Visit: www.handakafunda.com/downloads.php 31