Adidas is a major German-based sports apparel manufacturer, producing not only footwear but also bags, shirts, eyewear and other goods, related to sports. The name of the company comes from the name and surname of its founder Adi Dassler. In 1949, he took the first two syllables from his first (Adi) and last name (das) to create the name for his line of athletic shoes.
But there’s only another version referring to the meaning of the word. It’s said that ADIDAS means “All Day I Dream About Sports”. But if we carry out a little investigation on the internet, we’ll find out where this version comes from…
ADIDAS is not only a sportswear company name. It also refers to an American rock band “Korn”, which in spite of this, doesn’t have any connection with the company. On March, 1997, the band released a single, named “A.D.I.D.A.S”. The title is an acronym for the statement “All Day I Dream About Sex”. Slightly modifying the name of the song people with good imagination added another meaning to the word ADIDAS – “All Day I Dream About Sports”, which fully complies with the company.
20th Century Fox – Film studio; formed in 1935 through the merger of William Fox's Fox Film, and Twentieth Century Pictures.
7-Eleven – Convenience stores; renamed from "U-Tote'm" in 1946 to reflect their newly extended hours, 7:00 a.m. until 11:00 p.m.
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”
Alfa Romeo – the company was originally known as ALFA, an acronym for Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili. When Nicola Romeo bought ALFA in 1915, his surname was appended.
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.)
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
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".
Boeing – named after founder William E. Boeing. It was originally called Pacific Aero Products Co.
Bosch – named after founder Robert Bosch. Robert Bosch GmbH (full company name) is a German diversified technology-based corporation.
Caterpillar – Originally Holt Tractor Co, merged with Best Tractor Co. in 1925. A company photographer exclaimed aloud of a Holt tractor that the tracks' movement resembled a caterpillar moving along the ground. The name stuck.
Coca-Cola – derived from the coca leaves and kola nuts used as flavoring. Coca-Cola creator John S. Pemberton changed the 'K' of kola to 'C' to make the name look better.
eBay – Pierre Omidyar, who had created the Auction Web trading website, had formed a web consulting concern called Echo Bay Technology Group. "Echo Bay" did not refer to the town in Nevada, "It just sounded cool", Omidyar reportedly said. Echo Bay Mines Limited, a gold mining company, had already taken EchoBay.com, so Omidyar registered what (at the time) he thought was the second best name: eBay.com.
Facebook – name stems from the colloquial name of books given to newly enrolled students at the start of the academic year by university administrations in the US with the intention of helping students to get to know each other better.
Fuji – named after Mount Fuji, the highest mountain in Japan.
Google – an originally accidental misspelling of the word googol and settled upon because google.com was unregistered. Googol was proposed to reflect the company's mission to organize the immense amount of information available online.
Honda – from the name of its founder, Soichiro Honda.
Hyundai – connotes the sense of "the present age" or "modernity" in Korean.
KFC – short for Kentucky Fried Chicken. It is popularly believed that the company adopted the abbreviated name in 1991 to avoid the unhealthy connotations of the word 'fried'. The rumor that it was because the Commonwealth of Kentucky trademarked the name "Kentucky" is false. Commercials in the early 2000s tried to imply that the abbreviation stands for "Kitchen Fresh Chicken", but in 2007 KFC decided to return to the original "Kentucky Fried Chicken" branding (although the corporate name remained KFC).
L'Oréal – In 1907, Eugène Schueller, a young French chemist, developed an innovative hair-color formula. He called his improved hair dye Auréole.
Lukoil – From the first letters of the three companies that merged to form the Russian oil giant: Langepasneftegaz, Uraineftegaz, and Kogalymneftegaz, plus the English word "oil".
McDonald's – from the name of the brothers Dick McDonald and Mac McDonald, who founded the first McDonald's restaurant in 1940.
Motorola – Founder Paul Galvin came up with this name when his company (at the time, Galvin Manufacturing Company) started manufacturing radios for cars. Many audio equipment makers of the era used the "ola" ending for their products, most famously the "Victrola" phonographVictor Talking Machine Company. The name was meant to convey the idea of "sound" and "motion". It became so widely recognized that the company later adopted it as the company name.
Nestlé – named after its founder, Henri Nestlé, who was born in Germany under the name "Nestle", which is German (actually, Swabian diminutive) for "bird's nest". The company logo is a bird's nest with a mother bird and two chicks.
Nike – named for the Greek goddess of victory.
Nokia – started as a wood-pulp mill, the company expanded into producing rubber products in the Finnish city of Nokia. The company later adopted the city's name.
Pemex – An abbreviation of the full name of the state-owned Mexican oil/gasoline company, Petróleos Mexicanos (Spanish for Mexican Petroleum).
Pepsi – named from the digestive enzyme pepsin.
Samsung – meaning three stars in Korean.
Skype – the original concept for the name was Sky-Peer-to-Peer, which morphed into Skyper, then Skype.
Sony – from the Latin word 'sonus' meaning sound, and 'sonny' a slang word used by Americans to refer to a bright youngster, "since we were sonny boys working in sound and vision", said Akio Morita. The company was founded as Tokyo Tsoshiu Kogyo KK (Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation) in 1946, and changed its name to Sony in 1958. Sony was chosen as it could be pronounced easily in many languages.
Taco Bell – named after founder Glen Bell.
Twitter - social networking and microblogging service. The name was derived from the original idea 'Twitch', which did not bring up the right imagery.
Volvo – from the Latin word volvo, which means "I roll". It was originally a name for a ball bearing being developed by SKF.
Xerox – named from xerography, a word derived from the Greek xeros (dry) and graphos (writing). The company was founded as The Haloid Company in 1906, launched its first XeroX copier in 1949, and changed its name to Haloid Xerox in 1958.
The final Curious © phrase:
“I have a very strong opinion that brands get in trouble when they lose focus of who they are. And we're not going to let that happen”
(Jill Lajdziak)
