Brand Stories

What's in a Name?

The stories behind the brands you already know — names chosen in a hurry, logos designed for $35, typos nobody corrected. The details that don't make it into the press releases.

LEGO · Featured

LEGO Didn't Know What Its Own Name Meant

A Danish carpenter picked two words that sounded right. He had no idea he'd accidentally written a Latin verb meaning 'I put together.'

2026-06-01 · 5 min read
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FedEx

The Arrow FedEx Hid in Plain Sight for Years

Millions of people looked at the FedEx logo every day for nearly a decade before noticing what was hiding between the E and the x.

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Nike

Nike Paid $35 for Its Logo and Almost Threw It Away

Phil Knight looked at Carolyn Davidson's designs and said he didn't love any of them. He picked the Swoosh anyway because he had a deadline.

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Google

Google Was Named After a Typo and Nobody Caught It

They wanted 'googol.' The domain was taken. 'Google.com' was available. The misspelling became the most searched word on the internet.

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Häagen-Dazs

Häagen-Dazs Is a Made-Up Word That Means Absolutely Nothing

The umlaut isn't Danish. The word isn't Scandinavian. The map on the packaging showed a country whose language doesn't contain the letters. It didn't matter.

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Amazon

Amazon Was Almost Named Cadabra — Until a Lawyer Heard 'Cadaver'

Jeff Bezos loved 'Cadabra.' His lawyer heard 'cadaver.' The name changed. He also registered relentless.com in 1994 and still owns it.

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IKEA

IKEA Is Named After a Swedish Farmer's Childhood Address

Ingvar Kamprad. Elmtaryd farm. Agunnaryd village. The world's largest furniture retailer is an acronym for a postal address in rural Sweden.

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Pepsi

Pepsi Used to Be Called Brad's Drink

A pharmacist named Caleb Bradham invented it, named it after himself, went bankrupt betting on sugar prices, and died before the brand recovered.

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Starbucks

Why Starbucks Is Named After a Character in Moby Dick

They almost called it Pequod. A design consultant said nobody would drink a cup of Pee-quod. Then someone found a mining map.

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Instagram

How Instagram Got Its Name: A Portmanteau, a Polaroid, and a Pivot

It started as a whiskey check-in app called Burbn. The photo feature was an afterthought. The name came from two words in one brainstorm.

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Apple

The Apple Logo Bite: Design Genius, Happy Accident, or Something Else?

The bite had nothing to do with Alan Turing. Rob Janoff designed it to stop the apple from looking like a cherry. He's been explaining this for 40 years.

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Slack

Slack Is an Acronym. No One Planned For It.

Stewart Butterfield named it Slack because it felt right. Someone later noticed the letters spelled 'Searchable Log of All Conversation and Knowledge.' Pure coincidence.

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YouTube

YouTube Was Designed to Help People Find Dates. Nobody Wanted That.

The original tagline was 'Tune In, Hook Up.' It was a video dating site. Nobody uploaded dating videos. The pivot took weeks. Google paid $1.65 billion 18 months later.

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