Many of the top companies in the world have names we instantly recognize and we couldn’t
imagine them being called anything else.
But where did these names come from?
Well, join us as we count 10 reasons behind company names.
Amazon.
Amazon was founded by Jeffrey Bezos in 1994 as a bookstore.
Amazon, previously known by everyone as Cadabra.com … Just kidding.
However, Amazon was actually called Cadabra for a while, as in “abra cadabra” but
that name died pretty fast after it had been pointed out that it sounded like “cadaver”.
Get it?
The name died fast … cadaver … Anyway, moving on!
In 1995, Bezos started to look through the dictionary after a new name that would reflect
his company, he didn’t get that far into the book because he found the word “Amazon”.
He liked the word Amazon for two reasons.
In the past, websites were listed alphabetically, this would mean that Amazon would be higher
on different pages, giving it a slightly better marketing spot.
Second, he picked the largest river in the word to communicate Amazon’s huge selection
of books.
Nowadays you kind find pretty much anything on Amazon, would you like a Nicholas Cage
pillowcase or an inflatable party sheep?
Then Amazon is the place for you.
Instagram.
Instagram was created by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, and launched in October 2010.
Perhaps not so hard to figure out, Instagram is a combination of Instant Camera and Telegram
which in short terms becomes Instagram.
Youtube.
Youtube was created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005.
In November 2006, it was bought by Google for 1.65 billion US dollars.
So what about the name?
“You” in this context means that you can personalize it, it’s yours, and “Tube”
stands for video or television.
Tube was an old term for television when TVs had picture tubes inside.
Welcome to Youtube.
Facebook.
Facebook was invented by Mark Zuckerberg with a little help from some of his friends, although
Mark Zuckerberg himself have stated that the social network was his own creation, something
he designed and built while he was a student at Harvard.
Before the social network, known by all as Facebook, previously known by no one as TheFacebook,
a Face Book was simply a book of photos of faces and names.
These books are given out at big workplaces and universities so that colleagues and classmates
can recognize each other.
The name Facebook originates from these paper documents, perhaps not so creative, but very
effective.
eBay: eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995.
Started out as AuctionWeb but changed name to eBay in 1997.
From the start, the site belonged to Echo Bay Technology Group which was the Omidyar’s
consulting firm.
He had tried to register the domain name echobay.com but unfortunately (or should we say fortunately)
for him the domain name was already taken by a gold mining company called Echo Bay Mines.
No problem for Omidyar as he then went for his second choice and registered eBay.com.
Wikipedia.
Wikipedia was launched on 15 January 2001 by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger, the actual
suggestion that the site should be opened for the users to edit with no specific organization
having control came from Richard Stallman in 2000.
So what’s in the name then?
Well, a wiki is a page or collection of pages that anyone can access and edit.
Pedia, is short for Encyclopaedia, a collection of information, before you youths were alive,
these were more common in paper form.
And there you have the name, Wikipedia, it just tells you what it is, literally.
Twitter.
Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Evan Williams, Biz Stone, and Noah
Glass and launched in July 2006.
From the beginning, Twitter was called Status but that didn’t really feel right for the
creator Jack Dorsey.
He searched through the dictionary and came across the word Twitter with the description
“a short burst of inconsequential information, and chirps from birds”.
With the 140 character limit, Dorsey thought that description fit the product perfectly.
Initially the product was inspired by Flickr and Dorsey called it Twttr but changed it
to Twitter for simplicity.
Apple.
Apple was founded by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne on April 1, 1976.
Steve Jobs was the one who came up with the name after visiting an apple farm, he thought
the name Apple sounded “fun, Spirited and not intimidating”
Here is en extra fact for you, do you know why someone has taken a bite of the apple
in the Apple logo?
The logo designer revealed the quite simple explanation: “I designed it with a bite
for scale, so people get that it was an apple and not a cherry“.
-nom nom-.
Microsoft.
Microsoft was founded on April 4, 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen.
Paul Allen came up with the original name, Micro-Soft but was later changed by Bill Gates
to Microsoft.
In the early tech days, the microprocessor was invented, with the microprocessor, the
companies could now build so called minicomputers.
Paul Allen saw this as an opportunity, new computers would need standard means to write
software for them and Microsoft was the company that was going to do it.
The name Microsoft is a blend between MICROprocessor and SOFTware as their goal was to become the
leading company for “Software for Microprocessors.”
Google.
Google was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1998.
So, what does google mean?
Could it have something to do with goggles?
No.
They wanted a name that related to the volume of data that the search engine indexed.
During a brainstorming session, one of their friends suggested the name “Googolplex”.
Googolplex is the name for 10 to the power of googol.
Googol is the name used by mathematicians to reference 10 to the power of 100.
Anyway … When their friend suggested the name Googolplex, Larry Page felt more comfortable
with the shorter name Googol.
They quickly searched the internet to see if the domain name was free, their friend
however misspelled googol and typed in google, which was available.
Larry Page liked it and the rest is history.