Continuing in the vein of things cobbled together from names… Here in the northeast (at least CT and RI, not sure about other states) we have Cardi’s furniture, who state that they’re the home of “NiRoPe” pricing - pronounced very much like Nairobi (which is why for the longest time, I couldn’t figure out why there was a specific Nairobian pricing scheme). At any rate, it stands for Nick, Rob and Pete.
Used to work there… there’s one in my hometown.
The store used to be called Gibson’s… then it moved to a bigger location and they renamed it Pamida.
More trivia: Adidas-Salomon in December named Frank Dassler, one of Rudi Dassler’s grandsons, to head its legal department.
ColonelDax, business and financial history geek
the range of Kenwood kitchen and home appliances are named after the founder of the company.
Ken Wood.
That’s what I get for not reading the whole thread. Jpeg Jones mentioned this a good fourteen hous before I did.
:smack:
But I do get dibs on mentioning Herzogenaurach as where the HQ of both Adidas and Puma is!
Similarly, it is a useless yet interesting fact that Kenwood electronics was founded by a guy named Ken Wood. How’s that for being inventive?
Healthcare giant Kaiser Permanente is the lone survivor of the Kaiser-Frazer Corporation. It was originally created to provice care to employees at a cost of 5¢.
The Edsel wasn’t automotive’s greatest failure. That would be the Sears Allstate, produced by Kaiser-Frazer for a couple of years in the early '50s. Seems nobody was interested in going into their local Sears store to buy a car.
Yes, I did. TwistofFate told me that neat little tidbit. 
:smack: When you have 15 minutes of work left on a friday, your focus isn’t exactly where it should be. Concordantly, my post answers a question that wasn’t asked. (I wanna go home.)
Along the same lines, Mattel got its name from two of the founders, Harold “Matt” Matson and Elliot Handler
This will mean nothing to any of you, but that’s not going to stop me.
Camp Nahelu, which is right down the street from me and where I went to summer camp back when dinosaurs roamed the Earth stands and I thought it was located in Fuck-All Middle of Nowhere ( which is where I live now. Ironic, no?)
Naancy, HElen, Luisa. The camp owners daughters.
Two major builders of racing engines are cobbled-together names in this vein, as well:[ul][li]Ilmor was founded by Mario Illien and Paul MorganCosworth was the brainchild of Mike Costin and Keith Duckworth[/ul]While we’re on the subject of cars, Bridgestone has a similar Japanese history: In the early part of the 1900’s two brothers named Ishibashi (Shojiro and Tokujiro) inherited a clothing company in Japan and eventually expanded into the tire business. Wanting to go global, I guess, in 1931 they hunted around for a more English-sounding name. [/li]
As it turns out (at least, according to the website I linked above), “Ishi” can be translated as “stone”, and “bashi” as “bridge.” Slight rearrangement, and: “Bridgestone.” According to the Bridgestone-Firestone corporate site, Shojiro Ishibashi was an admirer of Harvey Firestone, which played a part in the choice as well. (Which seems poetically just, since Bridgestone purchased the Firestone Tire & Rubber Company in 1988, leading to Bridgestone/Firestone, the current company.)
Then there’s the movie RoGoPaG, from 1963, named for its four directors: Roberto Rossellini, Jean-Luc Godard, Pier Paolo Pasolini, and Ugo Gregoretti.
Origin of “DAT”, which would later become “Datsun”:
The name Microsoft was arrived at by combining descriptive terms for a certain portion of Bill Gates’ anatomy.
This is fascinating.
** Nabisco ** stands for ** NA**tional BIscuit COmpany.
A & W stands for Roy Allen & Fred White, who stared the company in 1922.
Arby’s is for Raffel Brothers (forrest & Leroy) who started the business in 1964.
Carl’s Jr. is named after CArl Karcher, who started the company in 1941.
**Keebler ** cookies were started by Godfrey Keebler before the Civil War. (which now makes over 200 different products!)
McDonald’s was stared by Dick and Mac McDonald in 1948 in California.
Nestle was started by Henri Nestle as a formula for baby milk.
Orange Julius was started by Julius Freed who invented the delicious orange drink in 1926. It came from " Give me an Orange, Julius."
Taco Bell ** was started by Glen ** Bell in 1946.
**Wendy’s ** was named after Dave Thomas’ daughter Wendy, whom the image of the girl is taken from.
This above info comes from a wonderful cookbook " Treasure of Top Secret Recipes, by Todd Wilbur." A most excellent resource for copying your favorite foods. Like Orange Julius and a Frosty. oooooooh, frosty
The little m & m* on the candy stands for Mars & Milton. Mars being The big candy maker and Milton, being after Milton Hershey, another huge company. A long time ago, the candy companies actually helped each other out. (I think, I know the second M stands for one of the Big Head Honchos in charge at Hershey, I just cannot recall at this time.)
You recall correctly. See Joel Glenn Brenner’s *The Chocolate Wars: Inside the Secret Worlds of Mars and Hershey * (an excellent read, IMHO) for more info.
Oh, and the former Coleco Industries, which introduced Cabbage Patch dolls in 1985, was originally the Connecticut Leather Co.
We used to say “All Day I Dream About Stacy”. See, Stacy was this hot babe in our class, heh heh.
My linux distro is Debian, from Debra and Ian Murdock, the founders of this entirely free software project.