Corporate Nomenclature Renaissance
Accenture — connotes "Accent on the Future". The ">" over the logo's t points forward towards the future. Prior
to 2001, the company was called Andersen Consulting.
Every word has an etymology behind it and so names of organizations. Companies start out with a name and when it runs its course through mergers, acquisitions and market changes, the names change to reflect the new identity. Here we look at some interesting company nomenclature etymologies.
20th Century Fox — after the merger of William Fox's Fox Film Corporation and Twentieth Century Pictures.
Accenture — connotes "Accent on the Future". The ">" over the logo's t points forward towards the future. Prior
to 2001, the company was called Andersen Consulting.
Adidas — from the name of the founder Adolf (Adi) Dassler.
Arcelor Mittal — Arcelor was formed in 2001 by a merger of Arbed (Luxembourg), Aceralia (Spain) and Usinor (France). After the recent merger of Arcelor with Mittal Steel, the new company was named Arcelor Mittal.
Blaupunkt — German for "Blue dot". The company's core business was the manufacturing of headphones. After
the headphones came through quality tests; the company would give the headphones a blue dot. These
headphones quickly became known as the blue dots or blaue Punkte. This quality symbol soon became a
trademark and the trademark became the company name in 1938.
Bridgestone — after founder Shojiro Ishibashi. The last name Ishibashi (石橋) means "stone bridge", or "bridge
of stone".
Cadillac — the 18th century French explorer Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac, founder of Detroit,
Michigan.
FCUK — French Connection United Kingdom
IKEA — the first letters of the Swedish founder Ingvar Kamprad's name combined with the first letters of the
names of the property and the village in which he grew up: Ingvar Kamprad Elmtaryd Agunnaryd.
MRF — from Madras Rubber Factory, which was founded by K M Mammen Mappillai in 1946.
Nokia — from where the company originated in the Finnish city of Nokia.
Pepsi — after the enzyme pepsin used in the drink.
Samsung — which means three stars in Korean.
Six Apart — Ben and Mena Trott, the company co-founders were born six days apart (in September 1977).
Verizon — from veritas (Latin for truth) and horizon.
Vodafone — stands for Voice, Data, Telefone.
Wipro — Western India Vegetable Products Limited; from its beginnings as a vanaspati (hydrogenated vegetable oil)
and laundry soap producer; now an IT services giant.
Yahoo! — for Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle.
Do we all know the etymologies of our own names?