What Were the Original Names of These Big Brands?

Mastercard was founded in 1966 as the Interbank Card Association. In the late 1970s, ICA changed its name to Mastercard International in an effort to reaffirm its commitment to global expansion. Though it’s still known as Mastercard today, the company dropped the “Mastercard” wordmark from its branding in 2019, leaving just the overlapping red and yellow circles.

In 1984, the company that came to be known as BlackBerry was founded in Ontario, Canada, as Research In Motion. It released its revolutionary BlackBerry mobile device in 1999, and later renamed the whole company after that signature product. The name change coincided with the launch of the BlackBerry 10 device in 2013.

According to Starbucks co-founder Gordon Bowker, the coffee chain was originally set to be called “Cargo House.” During those early brainstorms, the group of founders also proposed “Pequod,” named after the ship from Herman Melville’s novel, “Moby-Dick.” In the end, the group chose a different name inspired by “Moby-Dick,” titling the brand after Captain Ahab’s first mate Starbuck.

Before the Tinder dating app swiped its way into the hearts of millions, it was known as “MatchBox.” The original name suggested the flirty nature of "matching" with other potential dating partners, but when it came time to launch in 2012, Match.com's similar name became an issue. The team got to work on a new name that would still jive with the app's flame logo, and “Tinder” was chosen.

When 3M began in 1902, it was called the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company, and its goal was to mine for corundum. The company's five founders made a mistake, however, and what they thought was corundum was actually a low-grade mineral called anorthosite. Forced to pivot, 3M rose to the challenge and made nimble transitions part of the company. Today, it’s the brand behind Scotch Tape, Command Strips, and Post-it Notes.

When founding his online bookshop in the early 1990s, Jeff Bezos wanted to name it "Cadabra,” but the company lawyer convinced him it sounded too much like "cadaver.” His second choice was "Relentless,” but his friends suggested that it sounded a bit sinister. So, Bezos settled on Amazon, invoking the massive river's depth and volume. Relentless.com still redirects to Amazon, so Bezos never entirely gave up on the idea.

In the early 1970s, Unadulterated Food Products, Inc. was founded with the goal of selling pure fruit juices to health food stores. Eventually, the company created a carbonated apple juice that it called "Snapple." The drink became Unadulterated's most popular brand, and eventually most of its products were released under the Snapple line. In 1992, Unadulterated was restructured into the Snapple Holding Corporation, which merged with Dr Pepper in 2008.

In 1881, George D. Dayton bought land in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and opened his new store — the Dayton Dry Goods Company. Eighty-one years later, the Dayton Company launched the Target discount store, which was marketed as "a store you can be proud to shop in." Today, the company has nearly 2,000 locations across the United States.

7-Eleven began in 1927 as the Southland Ice Company in Dallas, Texas. The company originally sold block ice to homes without refrigerators but eventually began selling food and other necessities. As they grew, some stores put out totem poles to grab attention, leading to the adoption of the name "Tote'm Stores." Finally, in 1946, the company's hours were extended to 7:00 AM to 11:00 PM and the name changed accordingly.

In 1994, Jerry Yang and David Filo founded "Jerry and David's Guide to the World Wide Web," a collection of their favorite websites After realizing the name was a mouthful, they changed it to Yahoo!, an acronym for "Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle.” In 1996, the company was incorporated and began its short reign as the king of internet companies. Yahoo!'s was fully sold by 2017.

Eugène Schueller started his career in cosmetics with the invention of a safe synthetic hair dye and founded the French Company of Inoffensive Hair Dyes to sell it. However, that mouthful proved hard to say, so he quickly changed the name to "L'Oréal," a homonym for "auréale," a popular hairstyle of the period.

In 1966, Sound of Music opened in Saint Paul, Minnesota, selling high fidelity stereos. By 1969, the retailer had three locations and became publicly traded on the NASDAQ. Twelve years later, the company had a massive sale promising "best buys" on everything. Sound of Music made more money during the four-day sale than it did in a typical month, and two years later, Sound of Music was officially renamed "Best Buy."

Though they’re now one of the most iconic sports brands, the Yankees began under a different name. They debuted in 1901 as the Orioles, and in 1903 were known as the Highlanders, possibly as a nod to the team’s ballpark at Hilltop Park, located on one of Manhattan’s highest points. The Yankees brand was adopted in 1913 thanks in part to sportswriters who coined the name.

The Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company, or CTR, was founded in 1911. Created as a census recording company, CTR developed machines that could count quickly and organize data in ways that other products couldn't. The computers proved very popular and the company began to broaden its scope, renaming itself International Business Machines, or IBM, in 1924.

In 1893, North Carolina drug store owner Caleb Bradham mixed sugar, water, caramel, lemon oil, nutmeg, and other additives into a beverage he called "Brad's Drink.” The concoction became a quick local sensation. Five years later, Bradham renamed the product to "Pepsi-Cola," to suggest that it might help with digestion, as “Pepsi” comes from the word "dyspepsia,” which means indigestion.

In September 1995, Pierre Omidyar launched AuctionWeb, a site "dedicated to bringing together buyers and sellers in an honest and open marketplace." A few days later, Omidyar sold a broken laser pointer for $14, making it the site's first-ever sale. Two years later, after more than 1 million items had been sold, the site changed its name to "eBay."

In 1965, Fred DeLuca and Peter Buck opened their first sandwich shop in Bridgeport, Connecticut named "Pete's Super Submarines." The duo sold 312 sandwiches on the first day and the restaurant was an immediate success. Three years later, the name was changed to "Subway" and the chain quickly grew to multiple locations across the state. Today, there are more than 40,000 Subway locations worldwide.

Upon its incorporation on April 1, 1976, Apple — founded by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne — was officially known as Apple Computer, Inc. The company dropped the word “Computer” on January 9, 2007, as the brand’s vision pivoted from exclusively focusing on personal computers toward other devices such as the iPhone, iPod, and Apple TV.

Blue Ribbon Sports was founded in 1964 by Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight, but it would be 14 years before they rebranded to the name they're known by today: Nike. Inspired by the Greek goddess of victory, the new moniker has proven true, as the company is the largest and one of the most-recognized sportswear corporations in the world.

In 1996, Larry Page and Sergey Brin created the first version of their search engine on the servers of Stanford University. The engine worked by analyzing the web's backlinks to understand the importance of a website and then cataloged the internet accordingly. The product was temporarily called "BackRub" until "Google" was suggested, a reference to the word "googol," which is the number one followed by 100 zeroes.