# Drug names **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 27, 2001, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drug-names/78330 "2001-08-27T15:23:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Geenius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f475e1/32.png) [@Geenius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geenius)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2001, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drug-names/78330/1 "2001-08-27T15:23:43Z")
What’s the earliest recorded instance of a prescription and/or over-the-counter drug being given one of the euphonious but nonsensical names we’re familiar with today (Prozac, Allegra, Cafergot, etc.) instead of either a descriptive or herb-lore name? At what point did this naming convention take over completely? I know this pseudoscientific naming is too deeply ingrained in the corporate culture of the prescription drug industry to change anytime soon, but with all the reports of pharmacists’ mixing up similarly named medications, wouldn’t it be cool to see a trend away from “Viagra” and back toward “Pfizer’s Dumbfounding Potency Restorative”? ---
**Author:** ![micco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f8ce5/32.png) [@micco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/micco)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2001, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drug-names/78330/2 "2001-08-27T15:51:37Z")
This certainly isn’t limited to the drug industry. Look at all the dotcom companies with nonsensical names. They do it because they want a “brandable” name with unambiguous trademark status. Sorry, can’t answer the actual question of earliest occurrence, but I think it’s something we’re stuck with now that it’s so necessary for a company to build a brand image for whatever widget they’re pushing. ---
**Author:** ![D18](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@D18](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D18)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2001, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drug-names/78330/3 "2001-08-27T15:56:08Z")
Interesting question! Aspirin was trademarked in 1899. Looking forward to earlier examples. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2001, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drug-names/78330/4 "2001-08-27T16:09:22Z")
Heroin was a trade name devised by the Bayer company to tout the drug’s “heroic” ability to relieve pain. ---
**Author:** ![Perderabo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a183cd/32.png) [@Perderabo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Perderabo)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2001, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drug-names/78330/5 "2001-08-27T18:12:11Z")
_The Balsam of Life_ was granted a Royal patent in 1744. [(cite)](http://www.antiquebottles.com/turlington/) This is thought to be the first [(cite)](http://www.cyberus.ca/~sjordan/pmhist.htm)“patent” medicine. But certainly something like _Healing Waters of the Ganges River_ or something came long before this and would possibly count as a psuedoscientific name. Someone musta turned up with with healing potions shortly after the invention of money. ---
**Author:** ![Geenius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f475e1/32.png) [@Geenius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geenius)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2001, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drug-names/78330/6 "2001-08-27T18:24:49Z")
“Balsam of Life” and “Water of the Ganges” fall into my “descriptive names” category. Today, in the pseudoscientific age, they’d be something like “Basovid” and “Flogan.” What I’m wondering is, when did “Balsam of Life” fade out and “Basovid” take over, and what caused it? Was it just yer run-of-the-mill science worship mixed with obsessive marketing, or was there something else to it? ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2001, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drug-names/78330/7 "2001-08-27T20:22:12Z")
Barbituric acid is so-called because it was first synthesised on St. Barbara’s Day, sometime in the middle of the 19th century. When phenobarbital was first developed, it was marketed by Bayer as **Luminal**. That was around the beginning of the first world war, if I recall correctly. ---
**Author:** ![Stella\_Fantasia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/74df32/32.png) [@Stella\_Fantasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stella_Fantasia)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2001, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drug-names/78330/8 "2001-08-27T20:29:31Z")
I would imagine, though am too lazy to look it up right now, that the creation of the Food & Drug Administration during Teddy Roosevelt’s administration had something to do with the changeover. The timing’s about right, anyway, & before the FDA, drugs weren’t really regulated to ensure that they did what they said they did. Once they were, names that described what the drug did wouldn’t be as important. Like, if you know that ibuprofen makes your headache goes away, you can buy a product called “ibuprofen”. If you didn’t know that, you would need to buy “Doctor Fantasia’s Pain-Relieving Elixir” or whatever, because “ibuprofen” wouldn’t have any meaning to you. ---
**Author:** ![Geenius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f475e1/32.png) [@Geenius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geenius)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2001, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drug-names/78330/9 "2001-08-27T21:27:32Z")
In other words, drug companies made up meaningless names so that their names wouldn’t contain any implied promise of their efficacy? Priceless. ---
**Author:** ![Weird\_AL\_Einstein](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c67d28/32.png) [@Weird\_AL\_Einstein](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weird_AL_Einstein)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2001, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drug-names/78330/10 "2001-08-27T22:45:23Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Geenius \* > \*\*“Balsam of Life” and “Water of the Ganges” fall into my “descriptive names” category. Today, in the pseudoscientific age, they’d be something like “Basovid” and “Flogan.” \*\* That’s pretty good. Do you do this for a living? I wonder, with all the “name generators” out there, if one for this kind of thing won’t be popping up soon. ---
**Author:** ![Chez\_Guevara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2001, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drug-names/78330/11 "2001-08-27T22:58:03Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by D18 \* > \*\*Interesting question! Aspirin was trademarked in 1899. Looking forward to earlier examples. \*\* Further to D18’s post: Aspirin, or acetylsalicylic acid, was synthesised by the Frenchman Charles Frederick von Gerhardt at the University of Montpelier in 1853, but he was not particularly interested in its practical use. In 1893 Felix Hoffman, a young German chemist working at Bayer in Dusseldorf, rediscovered aspirin to treat his rheumatic father. Bayer began to market the drug in 1899 under the name Aspirin, formed from **acetyl** + **spiraeic** + **in** which was a popular ending for the names of medicines at the time. It became available in the UK in October 1905. In the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 Germany surrendered the brand name to the Allies as part of her war reparations. Recent studies have shown what had been suspected for a long time: that taken in moderation, aspirin is good for the heart. The worldwide consumption of aspirin is in excess of 100 billion tablets per year. Its main rival, Paracetamol, first appeared in 1878.