These famous companies completely changed their names

[jw5]

These famous companies completely changed their names​

The name of a company or brand can seemingly make or break its success. Catchy names like Netflix and Tinder have become part of the modern vernacular, which is unlikely to have happened if they had some of the terrible brand names you'll discover in this list...
Facebook has a funny and well-known story of dropping its initial "the," but now the social media company is planning a much bigger rebrand. The big name change was announced on October 28, when Zuckerberg revealed that Facebook will now be known as Meta. He stated that the rebranding of the company was intended to move away from being known as simply a social media company. As he has mentioned in the past, Zuckerberg is focused on building the "metaverse," a concept first mentioned in a Sci-Fi novel in 1992. The metaverse is an online virtual reality space where users can interact with each other. Welcome to the future!
This rebranding comes at a time that Facebook and all of Zuckerberg's other apps like Instagram are coming under intense scrutiny and criticism. Whistleblowers and damning reports have shown that trust in these platforms is at an all-time low after their involvement in election scandals. There's also an increasing awareness of how they manipulate the human brain and how toxic these spaces can be for young people, especially girls.
Whether for the purposes of sounding more professional or rebranding after a scandal, nearly every well-known company has gone through a name change at some point in its history.

 

[jw5]

Yahoo!​

When it was first created, Yahoo! was officially named Jerry and David's Guide to the World Wide Web. Jerry and David were the names of the two Stanford students who came up with the search engine, but they decided to switch to something a little more concise in 1995.

 

[jw5]

Yahoo!​

They changed the name to Yahoo! which seems like a big compromise, but it's actually an acronym for "Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle."

 

[jw5]

Playboy​

Hugh Hefner launched his racy magazine back in 1953 under the name Stag Party, but he received a cease and desist letter from another men's magazine called Stag just before going to print. He considered other names like Top Hat, Bachelor, Gent, Satyr, and Pan, but eventually he settled on Playboy.

 

[jw5]

Best Buy​

Best Buy founder Richard Schulze started out selling stereo equipment from his store called Sound of Music. Disaster struck in 1981 when a tornado literally ripped the roof off his store!

 

[jw5]

Best Buy​

Schulze moved all of the remaining goods out in the parking lot for a two-day sale so customers could get the best buys from the wreckage. He made more money in those two days than ever before, so the name Best Buy stuck!

 

[jw5]

Livestrong​

The Lance Armstrong Foundation was founded in 1997 following Armstrong's testicular cancer diagnosis. It was a charity organization that aimed to raise money for cancer research.

 

[jw5]

Livestrong​

After years of rumors and investigations, it was finally confirmed in 2012 that the seven-time Tour de France champion had been doping. He was stripped of his titles, banned from professional cycling, and the foundation changed their name to Livestrong in an effort to separate themselves from the scandal.

 

[jw5]

WW​

After 55 years in business, the weight management company Weight Watchers changed its name to WW in 2018. The decision came at a time when weight loss and diet culture had started to change and become a taboo subject. The brand tried to pivot in a direction more aligned with wellness and body positivity.

 

[jw5]

Amazon​

Jeff Bezos originally thought that Relentless was a good name for his fast-growing business. Friends warned him that it sounded a bit sinister, so he tried out a few other names like Awake, Bookmail, Browse, and Cadabra. He landed on Amazon because it suggested a large volume, and it started with the letter 'A.' This was handy in a time when websites were listed alphabetically!

 

[jw5]

Pepsi​

Pepsi was invented by a pharmacist in North Carolina in 1893. He came up with the unusual drink and it was an instant hit. He called it Brad's Drink, even though Brad wasn't his name. He decided to change the name to Pepsi-Cola in 1898 because he believed the drink had health benefits and helped with indigestion, also known as dyspepsia.

 

[jw5]

Google​

Google, perhaps the most famous company in the world, started out with a pretty creepy name. The search engine was originally called BackRub, referencing the way it analyzed the internet's "back links" to determine the relevance of each website. The name lasted less than a year, and they became Google in 1997.

 

[syed putra]

Google out manouvered yahoo, which was there first, but stalled and eventually overtaken.
They couldn't match Google's initial promotion burst. Like awestruck..snd never did hit back

 

[jw5]

Subway​

Subway was founded way back in 1965, but back then it was called Pete's Super Submarines. The name didn't exactly roll off the tongue and was often misheard as "pizza submarines," so they changed it to Subway in 1968.

 

[jw5]

Dell​

Michael Dell was a pre-med student at the University of Texas when he started creating his company PC’s Limited out of his dorm room. Within a year, he dropped out of college to pursue the business and renamed the company after himself.

 

[jw5]

Netflix​

In 2011, Netflix decided to try to separate their DVD rental and streaming services by splitting them into two different companies. The DVD rental section would be called Qwikster and came with a 60% price increase in the service! Unsurprisingly, the plan backfired, and they reversed the decision within a few weeks.

 

[jw5]

7-Eleven​

The famous convenience store franchise 7-Eleven was originally called Tote'm. This was supposedly in reference to the way customers toted away their purchases. Some Alaskan branches even put Totem poles outside their stores. It was changed to 7-Eleven in 1946, simply to reflect their opening hours.

 

[jw5]

Nike​

The Nike brand started out as Blue Ribbon Sports in 1963. At that time they didn't make shoes, but simply distributed them for other producers. When they decided to start producing their own shoes, they wanted to refresh the brand. They decided to name it Nike after the Greek goddess of victory.

 

[jw5]

Tinder​

The dating app Tinder was founded in 2012 under the name Matchbox. The founders wanted a name that played on the idea of fire and sparks flying, given the nature of the service. However, they felt that Matchbox wasn't quite right and searched for an alternative. Tinder struck the perfect balance.

 

[jw5]

Intel Security​

Intel Security took over the well-known anti-virus software brand McAfee and was happy to get rid of that name. The founder, John McAfee, was an eccentric and controversial figure who lost his fortune and ended his life disgraced and wanted by the police.