50 Famous Company Acronyms All Spelled Out

There’s more to creating a successful company than simply coming up with a catchy name. While brand names can be incredibly effective at enhancing a company’s public image and building customer recognition, they don’t always describe exactly what the company does or its history.

Instead of choosing descriptive names, many organizations choose to be known by simple acronyms or abbreviations so that they are easy to remember in the minds of consumers. While you might know all of the brands and companies on this list, do you know what all those letters actually stand for?

1. BMW

You may know a BMW better as a Bimmer (yes, that is the official way you spell it). But if you’ve ever wondered what the luxury German car’s name stands for, it’s Bayerische Motoren Werke in German, which translates to "Bavarian Motor Works" in English.

The company was originally founded in Munich, Germany in 1916—when its main business was manufacturing airplane engines. Though the brand is booming today, that wasn’t always the case. In the late 1950s, it was on the brink of bankruptcy and almost sold out to Daimler-Benz—the parent company of Mercedes, their biggest competitor.