I was pronouncing it (mentally) that way for YEARS. I never understood what the name was supposed to suggest. “Chicken Filler”? (eww.) “Chicken Fellow”? “Chicken Fill-up”? When I finally understood it, I was annoyed, because English words ending in -a are never pronounced like that.
So originally the name was “Chris Steak House”? That doesn’t help. Why wasn’t it Chris’s Steak House"? And adding a possessive so she could get her name on there just makes it worse.
As for Piggly-Wiggly, it’s one of my favorite business names. It’s silly and whimsical and makes stuffed shirt types unbend a little to say it. “The Pig” is a nickname I don’t care for, however.
The company is out of business now, but I used to find “Fleming Foods” to be an unappealing name. Phonetically, it just sounded gross.
I haven’t read past your post on this thread, so maybe someone else already pointed out that it gets worse: there is, or was, also a division named “Dress Barn Woman”.
I presume that “woman” is a euphemism for larger-sized dresses. But years ago, it prompted me to wonder “If women are shopping at ‘Dress Barn Woman’, who the hell is shopping at ‘Dress Barn’?”
Ah, the sweet, sweet bliss of serendipitous validation. This one always grated for me, too.
I never bothered to research it, but I guessed (apparently wrongly), that Ruth was Chris’s mother, and there was at least one other Chris in the family/friend circle, such that during social occasions (e.g., weddings or funerals), distant relatives or acquaintances would often ask, “Oh, are you Ruth’s Chris?”
Farfetched, perhaps. But it was the only reason I could think of for this cutesy name.
FWIW, I’m of Italian descent; I’ve never patronized a Quizno’s, but I never thought of it as an Italian or pseudo-Italian name. I assumed it was supposed to be Mexican or “Southwestern”.
If I read further into this thread, I’ll probably find out that “Sbarro” is Turkish or something. 
Stay away from the cherry and strawberry yogurt!
Maybe it used to be a medical-supplies store; I think that proctologists recommend an onus donut for patients suffering from hemorrhoids.
Ruth Fertel bought Chris Steak House from founder and repeat owner Chris Matulick in the 60s. Unlike others who had bought the business from Matulick, and ended up selling it back to him at a loss, Fertel made a go of it. When she had a chance to open another, she was faced with the problem that her sales agreement with Matulick prevented her from using the original business’s name for another establishment. She got around that by using the name which even she hated. The important thing was to keep a link to the identity of her already successful restaurant. Reading that history makes me hate the name just a bit less. Not much, but less.
There’s a company called Menzies Aviation that provides ground handling services to airlines. Apparently Menzies is a Scottish surname and was the name of company’s founder, but to me it sounds like a euphemism for menstruation.
Does Menchies serve their yogurt in Diva Cups?
We have a sort-of hock shop in SE Portland called “Stuff”. First time I passed it I though of George Carlin.
I was part of the crew that put together a retail aquarium shop years ago in Portland for a friend who is in the aquarium wholesale business. When it came time to designate a name, we outvoted him and named it the Wet Spot.
ETA: I believe Hung Phar Lo is still on 82nd St.
C.O. Jones = cojones
Up until about 4 years ago, there was a sign just as you entered the farming town of Tisdale SK Canada that said “The Land of Rape and Honey”. It had been there since around 1958. “Rapeseed” is substantially similar to Canola which is grown extensively in that area.
This is on-topic, but there’s also a sub-genre of small business names that are just too cute, clever, labored, etc. for their own good.
“Seinfeld” did a show involving cutesy names for orthopedic mattress stores, e.g. “The Lumbar Yard”. Hair salons are also notorious for cringeworthy pun-based names.
It’s a subjective judgment, perhaps, but like naming one’s children there are times when it seems obvious that the namer was trying a little too hard to be original and distinctive.
There was a local pizza/sandwich shop named “Two Guys and a Grill”. As soon as I saw the sign I knew it wouldn’t last. Sure enough, after a couple of months the name had changed-- whether because of a change of ownership or because the namers reconsidered, it became the mundane “Apollo Pizza”.
There’s also a local ice cream and candy shop I pass by but have never patronized; it’s named “Chillings and Chocolate”. I almost hate to look when I ride by, because I’m sure its days are numbered. Maybe it will become “Apollo Ice Cream”.
On a main street near me is a store named “Two Cousin’s Beauty Supply.” I don’t think the actual name has the apostrophe, but the sign does. Every time I drive past it, I have to look, like at an accident.
Instead, these geniuses got their jollies by defacing instructions on men’s room hand dryers, scratching out the “H” and “ON” on “PUSH BUTTON” so it read “PUS BUTT”.
I probably mentioned this in a previous thread, but the now defunct Service Supply company in Indianapolis had a banner sign on the side of their building that you could see as you drove by on the Interstate. It read “House of a Million Screws”. They trademarked it.*
*the place sold hardware supplies.
In my city there is a suburb called Dickson. Their shopping centre has a cake shop called Dickson Cakes. I’m glad the sign writer got the kerning right, otherwise we might have ended up with Dicks on Cakes.
Oh no, starting a name with sb-, sd-, or sg- is the most ultra-Italian spelling there can be. Very, very few other languages start words with those consonant clusters. Just Italian. The “s” in those clusters is pronounced as a voiced [z] because it goes with the voiced stop consonants. (It’s actually a worn down remnant from the Latin prefix ex-.)
Well, that brings back memories. Back before the dawn of time, I sort of dated a girl who’s father was an exec there. After I moved away, she wrote to me a few times on their letterhead. She promised me a shirt but I never got it.