Similarly, the name of Jupiter, Florida:
The My Little Pony character Steven Magnet was originally named by fans after an incorrectly spelled close caption. Hasbro later confirmed that that was the official name of the character.
“pwned” seems to have caught on on the internet.
Not a product, but a woman wanted a tattoo with her new baby’s name, Kevin. Only the tattoo “artist” wrote “Kelvin”. So she changed her baby’s name.
RS-71 has a repeated “S” sound in the middle that makes it harder to say. I can see why someone would want to change it.
“Drive Thru” is pretty much the common spelling for the “drive-through window” these days. It’s on signs n’ stuff.
The city of Cleveland was named for Moses Cleaveland. But…
I had heard that Phil thought the nickname was actually “Thin”, as that is pronounced as “Tin” in Ireland.
Close enough.
Well, there’s the whole Berenstain Bears vs. Berenstein Bears controversy.
I’m Team Berenstain, FWIW.
The city of Albuquerque, NM is named after the Francisco Fernandez de la Cueva, 10th Duke of Alburquerque. I have heard three different explanations for the dropped “R”.
Some say that a gringo postmaster mis-spelled it, and the Post Office’s mistake became the official name.
Some say that the city had a significant population of Portuguese immigrants, and they preferred the Portuguese spelling.
Some say that people took the spelling from the Portuguese general Afonso de Albuquerque, Duke of Goa, who was more famous than the Spaniard that the city was actually named after.
Not quite a typo, but a mistunderstanding: when Electric Light Orchestra’s album “No Answer” was being put together, it ended up being named that because when someone called the band at the last minute to find out what name was supposed to be on the album, nobody picked up the phone - so they wrote “no answer” on the paperwork.
On the first couple of Stones albums released in the US for sale, the songwriter credits were given, whee applicable, to Jagger and Richard, without the s on the end of Richards’ name . It got corrected eventually, but it seemed like it took a while. As I recall.
Whether Krakatoa/Krakatau is east or west of Java depends on which direction you’re traveling. 
How about Mackinac Island, which is pronounced “Mackinaw”? That was a transliteration of the original Ojibwa (IIRC) name, when Ojibwa was translated into the English alphabet.
Not a mistake. Their manager Andrew Loog Oldham convinced Keith to drop the “s” from his name, but after a year or two he went back to “Richards.”
Years ago, my mother, in explaining JFK’s popularity to me, said “he was a dord”. I didn’t understand what was so great about that, and I still don’t.
I can’t provide a reference for Till saying “nope”, but AFAIK that’s one of the many fansplanations.
Latin translation? :smack:
Is it still considered likely that Nome, Alaska originated as a typo? (A handwritten mark on a map — “Name?”).
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Gnope.
Regarding typos- it seems two prominent 1% motorcycle clubs might fit in here. Hells Angels and Pagan’s. However, these guys aren’t known for their punctuation.
Thanks for the details!
Would you please provide a cite?
It is my understanding that the name refers to both the Ramstein incident and a battering ram/rammong stone. (“Stein” = stone)
There’s several other place name errors, mostly by the post office. Here’s some I remember off the top of my head:
Norway, Maine: they wanted to name it Norage, an Indian word for “falls”, but for reasons uncertain (records have been lost) the General Court changed it to Norway. My guess is that someone thought they meant Norge, the Norwegian name of their country, and translated it.
Lerado, Kansas: they wanted to name it for Laredo, Texas, but a clerical error by the post office swapped the vowels.
Salitpa, Alabama: they wanted to name it Satilpa, after a nearby stream Satilpa Creek, but someone, perhaps on the PO application, crossed the wrong letter, thus swapping the L and T.
Tensed, Idaho: They orginally wanted to name it De Smet, after the missionary, but there was already a PO by that name in Idaho. So they reversed it to Temsed. And of course it came back with the name changed.
Lionilli, Kentucky: meant to be Sionilli (“Illinois” spelled backwards), but yes another PO typo.