Steve Douglas on March 16th, 2007

Seen on the tubes – when I was younger, I used to pride myself in being able to tell folks how various obscure musicial bands got their name – Joy Division, New Order, Depeche Mode, Spandau Ballet, UB40, Heaven 17 and the like (while pretty well mainstream now, they weren’t in the 80’s, during my misspent youth). Anyhoo – here’s a A – Z list that does the same for corporate names.. Pretty interesting stuff. Did you know, for example –

Kodak: The letter “K” was a favourite with founder George Eastman; 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 had the merits of a trademark word, would not be mis-pronounced and the name did not resemble anything in the art. There is a misconception that the name was chosen because of its similarity to the sound produced by the shutter of the camera.

See, I wuz duped with the shutter fable during Photography class at college. Wonder if I can get a credit.

In related news, you can always check out our naming a new company feature, and well as how to name your company website domain.

Related posts:

  1. Logo trademarks & company names
  2. Unintentionally funny web names…
  3. Naming your company. Website & Domain names.

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