Ethan Trex
Spell It Out: 16 Abbreviated Company Names Explained
by Ethan Trex - May 6, 2010 - 11:36 AM

Dozens of companies use acronyms or initials in their names, but how well do you know what the abbreviated letters mean? Let’s take a look at the etymologies behind a few abbreviated company names.

1. CVS

Sorry, drugstore fans, there aren’t three fatcat pharmacists with these initials running around out there. When the pharmacy chain was founded in Lowell, MA in 1963, it was known as “Consumer Value Stores.” Over time the name became abbreviated to simply CVS.

2. K-Mart

Longtime five-and-dime mogul Sebastian S. Kresge opened his first larger store in Garden City, Michigan, in 1962. The store was named K-Mart after him. (Kresge had earned the right to have a store named for him; he opened up his new venture at the tender age of 94.)

3. IKEA

The Swedish furniture giant and noted charity takes its name from found Ingvar Kamprad’s initials conjoined with a the first initial of the farm where Kamprad grew up, Elmtaryd, and the parish he calls home, Agunnaryd.

4. JBL

The speaker company is named after its founder, James Bullough Lansing. But if Lansing had kept his original name, the company might have been called Martini Speakers. Lansing was born James Martini in 1902, but when he was 25, he changed his name to James Lansing at the suggestion of the woman who would become his wife. (The martini was already a popular cocktail at the time, and several of Lansing’s brothers had also changed their name by shortening it to Martin.)

5. BVD

The stalwart men’s underwear maker was originally founded by a group of New Yorkers named Bradley, Voorhees, and Day to make women’s bustles. Eventually the trio branched out into knitted union suits for men, and their wares became so popular that “BVDs” has become a generic term for any underwear.

6. DHL

In the late 1960s, Larry Hillblom was a broke student at the University of California, Berkeley’s law school, so to pick up a bit of extra cash, he would make courier runs from San Francisco. Hillblom would often fly packages on the night’s last flight then return to the Bay Area with more packages.

After he finished law school, he decided the courier business was the real racket for him, so he recruited his pals Adrian Dalsey and Robert Lynn to help him with the runs. Although they started out making their delivery trips in a single Plymouth Duster, the company quickly took off, and they named it after their respective last initials.

7. AT&T

No surprises here. The telecom giant sprang to life in 1885 as American Telephone and Telegraph, although it’s now legally known as just AT&T.

8. 3M

The conglomerate behind Post-It Notes gets its name from its roots as a company that mined stone to make grinding wheels. Since it was located in Two Harbors, MN, the company was known as Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing, which was later shortened to 3M.

9. H&M



The beloved clothing store began in Sweden in 1947. Founder Erling Persson was only selling women’s duds, so he called the store Hennes—Swedish for “hers.” Twenty-one years later, he bought up a hunting supplier called Mauritz Widforss. After the acquisition, Persson branched out into men’s clothing and began calling the store Hennes and Mauritz, which eventually became shortened to H&M.

10. A&W Root Beer

Roy Allen opened his first root beer stand in Lodi, CA, in the summer of 1919, and quickly began expanding to the surrounding areas. Within a year he had partnered with Frank Wright, and the pair christened their flagship product “A&W Root Beer.”

11. GEICO

The adorable gecko’s employer is more formally known as the Government Employees Insurance Company. Although GEICO has always been a private, standalone company, its name reflects its original purpose: Leo Goodwin founded the company in 1936 to sell insurance directly to employees of the federal government.

12. YKK

The initials you see on darn near every zipper you own stand for Yoshida Kōgyō Kabushikigaisha, which translates into “Yoshida Manufacturing Corporation.” The company is named after Tadao Yoshida, who started the zipper concern in Tokyo in 1934.

13. P.F. Chang’s

If you go looking for Mr. P.F. Chang, you’ll be in for a long search. The Asian dining chain’s name is actually a composite of the founding restaurateur Paul Fleming’s initials and a simplification of founding chef Philip Chiang’s last name.

14. BJ’s Wholesale Club

The bulk retailer is named after Beverly Jean Weich, whose father, Mervyn, helped found the chain as a spinoff from discount retailer Zayre in 1983.

15. ING Group

The banking giant’s name is an abbreviation of Internationale Nederlanden Groep, or “International Netherlands Group,” a nod to the company’s dutch origins and headquarters. The company’s heavy use of the color orange in its buildings and promotion is also a shoutout to the Netherlands; orange is the color of the Dutch royal family dating all the way back to William of Orange.

16. H&R Block

Brothers Henry and Richard Bloch founding the tax preparation firm in Kansas City in 1955. Their only problem was their last name. The brothers worried that people would mispronounce their surname as “blotch,” hardly a term you want associated with your tax return. They decided to sidestep this problem by spelling the company’s name “Block” instead, so that nobody would miss the solid hard “k” sound.

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Comments (93)

  1. H&M are usually called by their full name in Sweden, or just Hennes. We pronounce the letter H differently, so the easy Hn’M in English would be an akward (H)OoM in Swedish. Doesn’t work!

    posted by Mag on 5-6-2010 at 11:53 am

  2. If BJ’s Wholesale Club is named after Beverly Jean Weich then why is their in store brand named Berkley and Jensen?

    posted by KJL on 5-6-2010 at 12:12 pm

  3. The ING cafe photo is half a block from where I work!

    posted by phampants on 5-6-2010 at 12:13 pm

  4. To my knowledge, Sebastian Kresge did not name it K-Mart after himself – his Board of Directors did, despite resistance from his son in this matter.

    From the Straight Dope (see link given)
    “By 1977 more than 1,200 of Kresge’s 1,600 outlets were K marts, so management proposed changing the company’s name to K mart Corporation. This did not sit well with Kresge’s son Stanley, who felt the younger generation was insufficiently appreciative of his father’s legacy, but he went down to stunning electoral defeat at the annual meeting, 89 million shares to 11 million”

    posted by Taz on 5-6-2010 at 12:39 pm

  5. (on edit, I forgot this paragraph)
    “In 1959, one Harry B. Cunningham took over. Harry was a former newspaper reporter and, like many of that breed, a man of subtle (if unappreciated) genius. Sensing that the dime store concept was a bit dated and apparently having cornered the market on blue light bulbs, he decided the time had come for a bold new concept. K mart, with the Kresge name sensibly boiled down to the bare essentials, was it. The first K mart opened in a Detroit suburb in 1962, and shortly thereafter they were sprouting like dandelions nationwide. ”

    Link was:
    http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/558/what-does-the-k-in-k-mart-stand-for

    Sorry about that, folks.

    posted by Taz on 5-6-2010 at 12:41 pm

  6. how about the Texas grocery store chain: HEB – named for H. E. Butt. I think he chose well: http://www.heb.com/aboutHEB/history.jsp

    posted by BB on 5-6-2010 at 12:53 pm

  7. Back in college during the height of the long distance phoen companies, I was a little drunk and called MCI to ask what they stood for. It took a little bit to convince the operator that I was not interested in switching my long distance phone service. Finally, she said it stood for Metropolitan Communications, Inc.

    posted by Schadwen on 5-6-2010 at 1:01 pm

  8. This could become a regular feature, as there are tons of others …. IBM, Aflac, BNSF (railroad), IGA, A&P, Esso, Exxon, Kodak, etc.
    -”BB”-

    posted by Bicycle Bill on 5-6-2010 at 1:44 pm

  9. My dad loves to tell the story that if I was a boy they were going to name me Brian Vincent Doggett and my initials would have been BVD. Har har.

    posted by Sarah in CA on 5-6-2010 at 2:03 pm

  10. I agree with BB… more, more!

    Maybe even ones that stand for other things like 7-11, Circle K, etc..

    posted by Sarah in CA on 5-6-2010 at 2:06 pm

  11. Kentucky Fried Chicken is still officially KFC because they realized that people health conscious people didn’t like the word fried.

    posted by Jack on 5-6-2010 at 2:29 pm

  12. I remember when we were bought out by CGI, one of the first things we asked the founder, Serge Godin, is what it stood for. He had to think a bit before coming up with the answer but it was something like “Conseuiller en Gestion et Infomatique”

    posted by TheBear on 5-6-2010 at 2:34 pm

  13. I always thought JBL stood for “Junk, but Loud.”

    posted by Chris on 5-6-2010 at 2:40 pm

  14. Does anyone remember TG & Y stores?

    posted by Helenann on 5-6-2010 at 2:42 pm

  15. Dang – how old is that K-Mart sign?

    posted by Roger on 5-6-2010 at 3:01 pm

  16. Isn’t DHL somehow affiliated with the German postal system? How did that happen?

    posted by Celeste on 5-6-2010 at 3:17 pm

  17. @Helenann – I was just thinking about TG & Y. Toys, games and yo-yos right? Favorite store ever, i could wander the aisles all day as a kid.

    posted by monica on 5-6-2010 at 3:18 pm

  18. It’s also fun to note that the Dutch flag used to be orange, white, and blue. However, the dye used back in the day tended to change color to a deeper, reddish color after some time in the sun and weather. After a while, the flag’s color was changed to red.

    posted by Steven C. on 5-6-2010 at 3:58 pm

  19. BB beat me to HEB.

    posted by gus on 5-6-2010 at 4:02 pm

  20. PF Changs has the worst food in the world. Actually, they might be tied for first with Planet Hollywood.

    posted by jon on 5-6-2010 at 6:08 pm

  21. My best freind from high school was dating a girl who wondered what “TCBY” stood for. He said it was a chain of Jewish delis that went by the moniker “The Country’s Best Yiddish” I don’t know what’s funnier…his explaination or that she actually believed it!

    posted by Joey Jo-Jo Junior Shabadoo on 5-6-2010 at 6:30 pm

  22. @Helenann and @monica

    I was just thinking the same thing. We always called it Toys, Games and Yo yo’s.

    Floridians?

    posted by Okinawaredneck on 5-6-2010 at 6:54 pm

  23. @okinawaredneck – Oklahoma. i didn’t realize they were that spread out. Kind of always fancied the idea that they were something special to our neck of the woods.

    posted by monica on 5-6-2010 at 7:30 pm

  24. I love the picture of the Kmart sign! It reminds me of being little :)

    posted by Rachel on 5-6-2010 at 7:47 pm

  25. I do believe that 7-11 actually came from it’s original hours of operations – 11 hours a day, 7 days a week.

    Of course today they are open 24/7 and never close. Which begs the question – if 7-11 never closes, why are their locks on the doors?

    posted by Thunderbird on 5-6-2010 at 7:53 pm

  26. Thunderbird – in case they get robbed

    posted by DHL on 5-6-2010 at 9:10 pm

  27. Thunderbird, I believe 7-11 got it’s name from their hours: 7a – 11p.

    Maybe Ethan can solve the mystery for us, along with others, in part 2! Always great work Ethan.

    posted by Sarah in CA on 5-6-2010 at 9:17 pm

  28. DHL… locking up after you get robbed is a but “too little, too late” isn’t it?

    posted by Sarah in CA on 5-6-2010 at 9:17 pm

  29. HEB – the grocery store named after H.E.Butt. We used to kid he had 2 daughters, one by the name of Ima and the other Ura. lol

    posted by Jason C on 5-6-2010 at 10:08 pm

  30. I thought I once saw a Corporate Zoning application for a new CVS that listed the applicant as Cosmo’s Victory Stores, INC. CVS

    posted by JNG on 5-6-2010 at 10:14 pm

  31. I love how this was a link on Yahoo. Way to go Mental_Floss!

    posted by Chelsea on 5-6-2010 at 10:23 pm

  32. How can you forget one of the most obscure ones of all time?

    Southern
    Pacific
    Railroad
    Internal
    Network
    Telecommunications

    posted by James on 5-6-2010 at 10:34 pm

  33. CVS – Consumer Value Stores

    I learned that the hard way. They came into Horry County, South Carolina, and bought up a chain. I think it was Rite Aid. Anyway, I was in one of them, as they were in the midst of transitioning over to CVS, and asked them what CVS was. They said that it was a nationally-known chain. I asked them, if that was so, how come I’d never heard of them before in my entire life. And when I asked what “CVS” meant, they said “Consumer Value Stores.” I looked around, noted the unchanged prices, and asked them “Where is the value?” Needless to say, they gave me a dirty look! LOL!!!

    posted by Robert Meek on 5-6-2010 at 10:40 pm

  34. The 17th Abbreviated Company Explained is:
    ASARCO
    Founded in 1899, it was originally named American Smelting and Refining Company, but later just became abbreviated.

    posted by DG on 5-6-2010 at 10:46 pm

  35. ASARCO
    American Smelting and Refining Company, estabilished in 1899.

    posted by IS on 5-6-2010 at 10:51 pm

  36. TG&Y! I don’t want to think how much cheap polyester knit fabric my mom bought there in the 70s. So much that I was sure the “Y” must be for “yardage.” (Never heard the yo-yos theory, maybe it never made it out to California.)

    posted by VM on 5-6-2010 at 11:19 pm

  37. jon-

    thems fightin’ words.

    Shrimp Dumplings ftw.

    posted by Beau on 5-7-2010 at 2:01 am

  38. My favorite has always been AMF

    Amalgamated Manufacturers of Fun.

    They make all our favorite equipment so we can recreate

    posted by Barb on 5-7-2010 at 7:02 am

  39. Visa is my favorite. Orginally just a made up word, it has now come to mean

    Visa
    International
    Service
    Association

    Recursive Backronyms are fun. :)

    posted by Keith on 5-7-2010 at 9:14 am

  40. @beau…how are your feet feeling today?

    posted by delinda on 5-7-2010 at 10:00 am

  41. DHL=Delivered Horribly Late

    posted by ryan on 5-7-2010 at 10:20 am

  42. I have fond memories of going to S S Kresges’ in Maryland back in then 60′s. Always thought is sounded like a ship.

    posted by PartiallyDeflected on 5-7-2010 at 10:37 am

  43. @ Jack – I was always told Kentucky Fried Chicken had shortened to KFC because Kentucky decided to charge a special tax on any company that actually used the name of the state as part of their corporation – obviously targeted at the food chain – so they shortened their name to avoid it.

    posted by Hastings on 5-7-2010 at 11:45 am

  44. They lock the doors after a robbery and wait until police arrive. This would serve to preserve evidence and allow any employees or whitnesses to breathe without having to worry about the assailent coming back. Also if they were closed for other emergency situations the locks would come in handy.

    posted by Brit on 5-7-2010 at 12:01 pm

  45. Aw, Kresge’s. Despite the fact that when I was coming up a young lad in the ’70s and K-Mart was firmly planted in discount retail-dom, my grandma still called the store “Kresge’s.” It wasn’t until after I graduated college that I figured out the origin of the name “K-Mart.” Back in the day I just figured grandma was crazy.

    posted by Tim on 5-7-2010 at 1:10 pm

  46. A friend, my sister, and I were wondering what CVS stood for one day. Our friend said it stood for “Customers Very Special”.

    posted by Sara in Al on 5-7-2010 at 1:44 pm

  47. @ Hastings- I thought/heard the same thing.

    posted by Sara in Al on 5-7-2010 at 1:46 pm

  48. My dad taught me that IBM stood for Industry’s Biggest Mistake

    posted by teresaisamazing on 5-7-2010 at 2:18 pm

  49. I was once told that Delta actually meant Doesn’t Ever Leave The Airport. Must have gotten in my head because I never opt for Delta.

    posted by Lala on 5-7-2010 at 2:33 pm

  50. When I was very little I used to think it was “Karen-Mart” after myself.

    posted by Nerak on 5-7-2010 at 3:49 pm

  51. @Bicycle Bill

    “This could become a regular feature, as there are tons of others …. IBM, Aflac, BNSF (railroad), IGA, A&P, Esso, Exxon, Kodak, etc.
    -”BB”-”

    International
    Business
    Machines

    American
    Family
    Life
    Assurance
    Company

    Burlington
    North
    Santa
    Fe

    Atlantic
    &
    Pacific as in (Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company)

    Eastern
    States
    Standard
    Oil

    another one that is fun:

    Coleco:

    Colorado
    Leather
    Company

    according to the interwebs “exxon” and “kodak” aren’t abbreviations.

    most of these i knew already but this helped:

    http://acronyms.thefreedictionary.com/

    posted by gnateye on 5-7-2010 at 3:54 pm

  52. @Tim : My father was the same way. Used to always call it “Kresge’s”

    @gnateye : If memory serves me correctly , “Exxon” couldn’t use the Esso name after the breakup of Standard Oil, so they basically just chose something that sounded close.

    posted by TheBear on 5-7-2010 at 4:02 pm

  53. @ Hastings & Sara – you’ve been Urban Mythed. No truth to that rumor.

    As far as unofficial airline abbreviations, the classic is the South American airline Sabena, which travelers say stands for “Such A Bad Experience, Never Again”

    posted by PartiallyDeflected on 5-7-2010 at 5:45 pm

  54. IKEA is a charity?

    posted by Dennis on 5-7-2010 at 8:59 pm

  55. @ Hastings-
    KFC changed to eliminate the evil word “fried” from their name.

    posted by Jake on 5-7-2010 at 11:02 pm

  56. While not a real company, ACME stands for “A Company That Makes Everything”.

    posted by Eric on 5-8-2010 at 10:33 am

  57. Might want to add Lexus -> Luxury EXported to the US. I thought that was a good one.

    posted by Daniel on 5-8-2010 at 2:34 pm

  58. Kaybee toys was KB toys which stood for
    Kaufman Brothers.

    Arby’s I think was RB for roast beef
    but I could be remembering that wrong.

    Still wondering about TG&y
    Still have vivid memories of Mego dolls and Star wars toys in that store.

    posted by Chetcon on 5-8-2010 at 4:32 pm

  59. AMF
    American Machine and Foundry

    posted by Chas on 5-8-2010 at 5:41 pm

  60. Regional to the midwest, E.J. Korvettes (retail store) was founded by

    Eight
    Jewish
    Korean War
    Veterans

    It is NOT true that FORD came from

    Fixed
    Or
    Repaired
    Daily

    Loved the Delta one…..

    posted by grs4liberty on 5-9-2010 at 9:36 am

  61. I think ARRI is one of the most clever company names out there. ARRI was founded by August ARnold and Robert RIchter.

    posted by Michael Tapp on 5-9-2010 at 8:41 pm

  62. @lala
    Delta= Don’t Expect Luggage To Arrive

    posted by Ramona on 5-10-2010 at 12:13 pm

  63. I used to convince people that CVS started as an old-time drugstore/soda fountain and the CVS stood for chocolate vanilla strawberry. LOL

    posted by Dave Bloomquist on 5-10-2010 at 2:35 pm

  64. @Okinawaredneck and Monica… New Mexico, and the yo-yo nomiker stuck! I can remember the smell of the store–THAT disinfectant they used, and the square ice cream cones… :)

    posted by Helenann on 5-10-2010 at 3:02 pm

  65. *Moniker. Although, since I was thinking about the square cones, I suppose ‘nomiker’ fits…LOLOLOL

    posted by Helenann on 5-10-2010 at 3:03 pm

  66. @ grs4liberty…ha! we were always told it was Found On Road Dead

    posted by Jess on 5-10-2010 at 5:17 pm

  67. SBC coffee was Stewart Brothers Coffee. I seem to remember they weren’t allowed to use the original name due to another Stewart Brothers claiming copyright rights.

    I think the companies that “used to” stand for something but now don’t are odd. AARP, KFC (always called affectionately Kentucky Friend Rat) and others.It doesn’t make them sound modern, just ignorant of their roots and history.

    posted by Nan on 5-10-2010 at 9:35 pm

  68. Kentucky Fried Chicken changed its name to KFC because…

    1) The meat they serve is so genetically mutated that it can’t legally be called “chicken”, so they can’t use that word in their name.

    2) The state of Kentucky sent a cease and desist order to everyone using their name, which also changed the name of the “Kentucky Derby” to “The Big Horse Race”.

    3) The name “fried” was removed to promote a more health-conscious menu.

    Gotcha! All three of these are Urban Legends! :)
    Although there’s some truth to #3, KFC’s “double down sandwich” proves they don’t really care about being health-conscious any more. ;)
    http://www.google.com/search?q=kfc+double+down+sandwich

    posted by John on 5-11-2010 at 3:42 pm

  69. @Daniel Lexus is not an acronym. Just a made up word. The original name of the car was Alexis. Also doesn’t make sense when you consider half of the cars are sold outside the US.

    posted by Patten on 5-12-2010 at 11:19 am

  70. to gnateye —

    True, Kodak and Exxon aren’t abbreviations, but the way they got their names is still interesting.

    Kodak: The letter “K” was a favorite with George Eastman, founder of Kodak; he felt it a strong and incisive letter. He tried out various combinations of words starting and ending with “K”. He saw three advantages in the name. It could be trademarked, it would not be mispronounced even in foreign countries, and the name did not resemble anything else in the art world.

    Exxon: When Esso (Standard Oil of New Jersey) had to change their name in the early 1970s because of restrictions dating to the 1911 Standard Oil antitrust decision, they created a neutral but distinctive label for the company. Again, a trademarkable name, and one of only a handful of words in any language with two “X”s together.

    posted by Bicycle Bill on 5-17-2010 at 5:37 pm

  71. HTC used to be High Tech Computer. With a name that lame you’d think they were founded in the 70′s. Nope, 1997!

    posted by Dave on 5-21-2010 at 6:28 am

  72. Dave: HTC is brilliant. I love taiwan and taiwanese. i need to buy a high tech computer phone immeadiately. screw nokia though i’m finnish and nokia supplies all the finnish social services.

    posted by Paavo Ojala on 5-30-2010 at 10:27 am

  73. My favorite obscure one is LG, which in spite of it’s recent ad campaigns stands for Lucky Goldstar.

    Also, I liked when someone told me that KFC mean Keep From Cooking.

    posted by DL on 7-6-2010 at 2:30 pm

  74. How about:
    WINDOWS: Will Install Needless Data On Whole System
    IBM: I Blame Microsoft
    APPLE: Arrogance Produces Profit-Losing Entity
    MACINTOSH: Most Applications Crash; If Not the Operating System Hangs

    posted by Norma dePlume on 7-8-2010 at 4:56 pm

  75. Two supermarkets on the West Coast

    W Washington
    I Idaho
    N Nevada
    C California
    O Oregon

    S Suckers
    P Pay
    D Double

    posted by Daniel in Ca on 7-26-2010 at 12:37 pm

  76. HSBC – Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation

    posted by Paul on 1-13-2011 at 2:58 pm

  77. A&W stands for Albert and Walter, not Allen and Wright…

    posted by RootBeer on 4-1-2011 at 9:40 pm

  78. QANTAS – Queensland And Northern Territories Aerial Service. When that little company started out it took four days to get from England to Australia. By plane.

    I’ve always been partial to Kentucky Fried Cruelty

    posted by orfan on 6-24-2011 at 3:38 pm

  79. You are obviously highly intelligent. BVDs is the correct plural. 99.999999999999999999999999999% of writers on the net stick in an ‘. Just today I read a list of 8 plural items-half had apostrophes, half didn’t, no discernible rules why he thought chair’s needed one but plants didn’t, etc.

    posted by archworf on 7-27-2011 at 9:22 pm

  80. Does anyone remember the airline TWA? They merged with American back in 2001 I believe.

    Anyway, with all the Delta monickers I read (and “Don’t Even Leave The Airport” is the one I recall the most), I was reminded that some people would say TWA stood for “Try Walking Again” – in reference to their often grounded flights for various reasons.

    Incidentally, TWA actually stood for Trans Word Airlines.

    posted by capodo on 8-6-2011 at 7:32 pm

  81. Here’s one.

    Chinese
    Over
    Seas
    Trading
    COmpany

    And BNSF is actually BN/SF

    Burlington Northern/Santa Fe Railroad.

    A combination of at least 3 railroads.

    posted by Erik on 8-31-2011 at 6:11 am

  82. Nabisco stands for NAtional BIscuit COmpany. And the Necco in Necco Wafers comes from the New England Confectionery Company.

    posted by Karen on 8-31-2011 at 8:46 pm

  83. My husband, who is from Germany, says that BMW stands for Bring Mich Workstat (not sure if I’m spelling it right) which is German for “Bring me to the Garage” :)

    posted by bavarian_moneywaster on 9-8-2011 at 9:44 pm

  84. http://www.snopes.com/lost/kfc.asp

    “it was about money — money that Kentucky Fried Chicken would have had to pay to continue using their original name. In 1990, the Commonwealth of Kentucky, mired in debt, took the unusual step of trademarking their name. Henceforth, anyone using the word “Kentucky” for business reasons — inside or outside of the state — would have to obtain permission and pay licensing fees to the Commonwealth of Kentucky. It was an unusual and brilliant scheme to alleviate government debt, but it was also one that alienated one of the most famous companies ever associated with Kentucky. The venerable Kentucky Fried Chicken chain, a mainstay of American culture since its first franchise opened in Salt Lake City in 1952, refused as a matter of principle to pay royalties on a name they had been using for four decades. After a year of fruitless negotiations with the Kentucky state government, Kentucky Fried Chicken — unwilling to submit to “such a terrible injustice” — threw in the towel and changed their name instead, timing the announcement to coincide with the introduction of new packaging and products to obscure the real reasons behind the altering of their corporate name.”

    posted by Jakes Wrong on 10-7-2011 at 12:31 am

  85. BMW
    Bayerische Motoren Werke AG
    Bavarian Motor Works

    posted by Jakes Wrong on 10-7-2011 at 12:32 am

  86. TG&Y

    Rawdon E. Tomlinson
    Enoch L. “Les” Gosselin
    Raymond A. Young

    posted by Jakes Wrong on 10-7-2011 at 12:39 am

  87. Yet, more typos here (sigh)
    Number 3.
    from: found
    to: founder

    Number 16.
    from: founding
    to: founded

    posted by Susan Hyland on 11-4-2011 at 10:32 am

  88. Having lived in San Antonio in the early 70′s, the home of HEB, I’ve always known that it stood for the name of H.E. Butt, the founder. However, HEB, at times, likes to promote it standing for “Here, Everything’s Better”.

    posted by 20 Yr Texan on 11-13-2011 at 9:15 pm

  89. A&W = Amburgers & Woot Beer

    posted by Bing on 11-14-2011 at 3:52 am

  90. @JasonC – you are very incorrect there. It was the Hogg family of Houston that had a single daughter Ima. She had no sisters, just brothers and none was named Ura.

    Miss Ima became a philanthropist and lived a long and happy life. You can tour her home, now a musuem, Bayou Bend. It is lovely. Come visit!

    posted by S In Houston on 11-16-2011 at 1:04 pm

  91. @Jakes Wrong:

    Jake, you do know that you are quoting from the “Lost Legends” page on Snopes right? Everything on that page is not true. The state of Kentucky did not trademark their name :)

    posted by TheBear on 12-1-2011 at 5:41 pm

  92. Ignoring their position as one of the world’s greatest chemical companies, and mocking the fact that they seemed to be responsible for the rise of polyester fabric, I had heard that BASF stands for Big Ass String Factory.

    posted by PaulS on 12-11-2011 at 12:17 am

  93. I was told that A&W stood for “Amburgers and Woot Beer”!

    posted by fylolney on 12-31-2011 at 11:38 pm

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