The document provides information on the meanings and origins of many famous company names. It explains that names are often derived from the company's products, founders, or visions. Some common naming techniques include translating words, using mythology, combining words, emphasizing sounds, borrowing founder names, using abbreviations, and inventing new words. The document ends by assigning students to brainstorm their own business names using the 10 techniques described.

1. Company Names What they mean, and where they come from . . .

2. First you need to decide on a product, service, or purpose. Then you need a name to suit it. Let’s look at some famous names

3. Coca-Cola derived from the coca leaves and kola nuts used as flavoring. Coca-Cola creator John S. Pemberton changed the 'K' of kola to 'C' to make the name look better.

4. 37signals Web development company named for the 37 radiotelescope signals identified by astronomer Paul Horowitz as potential messages from extraterrestrial intelligence

5. Compaq from comp uter and "pack" to denote a small integral object or: Compatibility And Quality or: from the company's first product, the very compact Compaq Portable.

6. Nike named for the Greek goddess of victory.

7. Lego combination of the Danish "leg godt", which means to "play well". Lego also means "I put together" in Latin, but Lego Group claims this is only a coincidence Years before the little plastic brick was invented, Lego manufactured wooden toys.

8. McDonald’s from the name of the brothers Dick McDonald and Mac McDonald, who founded the first McDonald's restaurant in 1940.

9. Microsoft coined by Bill Gates to represent the company that was devoted to micro computer soft ware. Originally christened Micro-Soft, the '-' disappeared on 3/2/1987 with the introduction of a new corporate identity and logo. The dash between the 'o' and 's' [in the Microsoft logo] emphasizes the "soft" part of the name and conveys motion and speed.

10. Mitsubishi the name Mitsubishi has two parts: mitsu means three, and hishi (changing to bishi in the middle of the word) means diamond (the shape). Hence, the three diamond logo.

11. Nintendo Nintendo is the transliteration of the company's Japanese name, nintendou . The first two ( nin-ten ) can be translated to "entrusted to heaven" dou is a common ending meaning "hall" or "store".

12. Pixar from pix el and the co-founder's name, A lvy R ay Smith. According to the biography "The Second Coming of Steve Jobs" by Alan Deutschman, the 'el' in pixel was changed to 'ar' because 'ar' is frequently used in Spanish verbs, implying the name means "To Pix".

13. H äagen-Dazs Name was invented in 1961 by ice-cream makers Reuben and Rose Mattus of the Bronx "to convey an aura of the old-world traditions and craftsmanship". The name has no meaning.

14. Hotmail Founder Jack Smith got the idea of accessing e-mail via the web from a computer anywhere in the world. When Sabeer Bhatia came up with the business plan for the mail service, he tried all kinds of names ending in 'mail' and finally settled for Hotmail as it included the letters " HTML " – the markup language used to write web pages. It was initially referred to as HoTMaiL with selective upper casing. (If you click on Hotmail's 'mail' tab, you will still find "HoTMaiL" in the URL).

15. Hyundai connotes the sense of "the present age" or "modernity" in Korean.

16. Fuji named after Mount Fuji, the highest mountain in Japan.

17. Kodak the name was the invention of founder George Eastman. The letter "K" was a favorite with Eastman; he felt it was a strong letter. He tried out various combinations of words starting and ending with "K". He saw three advantages in the name. It had the merits of a trademark word, would not be mis-pronounced and the name did not resemble anything in the art. There is a misconception that the name was chosen because of its similarity to the sound produced by the shutter of the camera.

18. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos renamed the company Amazon (from the earlier name of Cadabra.com) after the world's most voluminous river, the Amazon. He saw the potential for a larger volume of sales in an online (as opposed to a bricks and mortar) bookstore. Amazon was also chosen to cash in on the popularity of Yahoo, which listed entries alphabetically.

19. Cadillac named after the 18th century French explorer Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac, founder of Detroit, Michigan. Cadillac is also a small town in the South of France.

20. 10 Ways to Pick a Company Name Number 1: Translate words from other languages Adobe is Arabic for clay which brick is made with. Volvo from the Latin word volvo , which means “I roll”. Xerox is named from xerography, a word derived from the Greek xeros (dry) and graphos (writing).

21. 10 Ways to Pick a Company Name Number 2: Use names from mythology and literature Nike is the Greek goddess of victory Trident is the weapon used by the god, Poseidon Starbucks – Starbuck is a character from the book, Moby Dick

22. 10 Ways to Pick a Company Name Number 3: Combine words to form portmanteaus *** Portmanteau means to blend two or more words *** Podcast is a mix of “iPod” and “broadcast” Wikipedia is a mix of “wiki” and “encyclopedia” Bennifer is a mix of “Ben” Affleck and “Jennifer” Lopez (good old J-Lo  )

23. 10 Ways to Pick a Company Name Number 4: Use alliteration to repeat the same vowel or consonant sounds C oca- C ola repeats the letter C at the start of each word M inute M aid is a juice company H amburger H elper makes meat products C rispy C runch is a popular chocolate bar

24. 10 Ways to Pick a Company Name Number 5: Use rhyme Five Alive makes fruit juice blends FireWire is a peripheral computer connection Ronald McDonald is the most popular fast food character

25. 10 Ways to Pick a Company Name Number 6: Borrow (or modify) the names of the people involved in the company Ford Motors Inc. is named after founder, Henry Ford Mercedes-Benz: Mercedes was the daughter the cars’ distributor; Karl Benz was the other owner. Johnson & Johnson: a partnership between brothers James Wood Johnson and Edward Mead Johnson in 1885.

26. 10 Ways to Pick a Company Name Number 7: Use abbreviations of names, products, or the company’s vision JBL – live speaker maker, named from J ames B L ansing, electronics engineer IKEA – a composite of the first letters in the Swedish founder Ingvar Kamprad's name in addition to the first letters of the names of the property and the village in which he grew up: I ngvar K amprad E lmtaryd A gunnaryd. HMV – from “His Master’s Voice”, a painting showing a dog listening to music

27. 10 Ways to Pick a Company Name Number 8: Think about alphabetical order to get your name higher up on lists A&W Root Beer Adidas AMC Theatres

28. 10 Ways to Pick a Company Name Number 9: Use the names of famous people related to the “concept” of the company Nero (the program for burning DVDs and CDs) comes from the Roman Emperor, Nero, who burned down Rome Oracle is a planning software, named after the women of Ancient Greece who could see into the future

29. 10 Ways to Pick a Company Name Number 10: Invent words! Yahoo: The word Yahoo was invented by Jonathan Swift and used in his book Gulliver's Travels . It represents a person who is repulsive in appearance and barely human. The Yahoo founders jokingly considered themselves yahoos. It's also associated with the United States Southerners' and Westerners' expression of joy – YAHOO!!!

30. RECAP: 10 Ways to Pick a Company Name Translate words Use names from myths and stories Combine words to form new ones Repeat the same beginning letters Use rhyme Borrow names of people in the company Use abbreviations Think about alphabetical order Use the names of famous people Invent words!

31. ASSIGNMENT It’s time to finally create your own business model for this course Start by deciding on what product, service, or organization you would like to sell Use the 10 techniques just given to you to create some company names Come up with two names per technique On paper, brainstorm a total of 20 possible business names Once you are done, go around to 3 people in the class with your list

32. ASSIGNMENT 7. Get each of these 3 people to list their top 3 favourite names of yours on the back of the sheet 8. Decide which name you like best after you have got some feedback 9. When you are done, bring the complete sheet to me for marks, and to discuss the name and its originality and appropriateness 10. We will look on the internet together to make sure this name is not taken 11. Update your wiki with your new business name