How Top Tech Companies Got Their Names – Amazon, Intel, Lenovo, Adobe, Microsoft, Etc.

Ever wondered how the world’s top tech companies got their names? Well, you will be surprised to know that each of these brand names has unique, interesting stories to tell. If you have been curious, here’s a look at how the world’s top tech companies got their names.

Adobe: We all know Photoshop and PDF reader, which are just a few of the several popular products in Adobe’s portfolio. Now that it is world famous, Adobe comes across as a well-thought of name. However, the fact is that the name had already existed in the form of “Adobe Creek”, a body of water that flowed near the home of the company’s co-founder John Warnock. The name sounded quite good and was used as the official name of the company.

Amazon: Initially, the company was thinking about using ‘Cadabra’, derived from the popular word ‘abracadabra’ often used by magicians while performing their magic tricks. However, the company founder Jeff Bezos was not impressed and wanted something better and preferably starting with letter A. While searching in a dictionary, the word ‘Amazon’ sounded good and was chosen as the company’s name. Amazon River is big, unique and exotic, which resonates with the characteristics of Amazon online store.

Apple: The name was coined by the company’s co-founder Steve Jobs. It is said that the idea came to Steve while he was returning from an apple farm. Steve liked apples and according to him the name seemed “fun, spirited and not intimidating”. On a lighter note, Steve had mentioned that ‘Apple’ was also ahead of ‘Atari’ in the phonebook. It may be recalled that Steve had earlier worked at Atari.

Asus: One of the leading manufacturers of computer hardware and electronics, Asus derives its name from Greek word ‘Pegasus’. As per Greek mythology, Pegasus is a god-like horse creature with wings, having capabilities to fly.

AT&T: This is relatively simple. AT&T is just an abbreviation of American Telephone & Telegraph Company.

BlackBerry: The company was earlier known as Research In Motion. After a consultancy firm was hired to brainstorm a name for the company’s new email messaging device, the name BlackBerry was one of the recommendations. It was noticed that the keys of the device resembled that of the outer skin of Blackberry fruit. BlackBerry name became so popular that it was taken as the company’s new name in 2013.

Cisco: One of the world’s top companies in IT and networking, Cisco gets its name from San Francisco, the city where it was founded. The company’s logo is also derived from the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, even though it also represents telecom signal towers.

eBay: Not many know that eBay was originally called Echo Bay. However, since the domain echobay was already taken, the company changed it to ebay.

Facebook: The world’s leading social media platform, Facebook gets its name from ‘face books’, which is the term used for student directory books by Harvard University. There are other universities also that use the same terminology.

Google: You may already know the theory behind the term Google, which comes from ‘googol’ – a word that represents digit 1 followed by 100 zeroes. It essentially signifies the vast amount of data tracked by Google search engine. There are stories that people often misspelled googol as Google that sounded much better and was utilized as the official name of the company.

GoDaddy: The company was originally known as Jomax Technologies. However, when searching for a catchier name, some quirky names were suggested including Big Daddy and Go Daddy. The company eventually chose GoDaddy, as it sounded like a fun name and nearlyimpossible to forget.

Intel: Originally, the name ‘Integrated Electronics’ was being considered. However, since that name was already taken, the company shortened it to Int+El = Intel.

Lenovo: The company was originally called Legend. When searching for a globally relevant name, the company settled for Lenovo, which is derived from ‘Le’ from Legend and Latin word ‘novo’ that means ‘new’.

Microsoft: The company’s founders Bill Gates and Paul Allen were originally thinking about naming their company ‘Allen & Gates’. However, they dropped the idea, as they wanted the name to be relevant to the industry. Microsoft was eventuallychosen, which is a combination of the words Microprocessor and Software. Initially, Microsoft was spelled as Micro-Soft, but the hyphen was later removed.

Motorola: The company was originallycalled Galvin Manufacturing Corporation. In 1930, the company launched a car radio known as Motorola, derived from the combination of ‘Motor’ and ‘Ola’. At that time, the term Ola was often used with sound-based products. The name essentially signified ‘sound in motion’ and as it became poplar, it was used as the company’s name.

Samsung: In Korean language, the ‘Samsung’ character is representative of the ‘three stars’, which are said to bring good luck. Stars also signify the qualities of being eternal.

Yahoo: The company’s founders David Filo and Jerry Yang were looking for a quirky name for their pioneering search platform. It may be recalled that Yahoo was once the top search engine in the world. While looking up the dictionary, the founders liked the word ‘Yahoo’ that meant “loud, crass, rude, coarse, uncouth.” It was later used as the company’s name.