Years ago, I worked for BAC Transportation, which is owned by our old family friend Charlie. These days I think Charlie’s wife has redefined BAC to stand for “believe, achieve, community”, but originally it stood for Brent and Charlie (Brent being Charlie’s partner). Eventually,

Brent wanted out of the business, so Charlie bought him out. At that time, the name was BAC Limo & Bus. When they added more vehicles to the fleet, the name was changed to BAC Transportation. Regardless of what BAC stands for now, Charlie tells/told people that after Brent left,

it stood for “Big Ass Charlie”. I love stories like this, of how companies got their names, and I just saw an article about how a bunch of major companies did so I’m going to talk about them in this thread in case anyone else is as interested in this stuff as me!

Häagen-Dazs, my favorite brand of ice cream, got their name from pure marketing. Apparently, the creators wanted the name “to convey an aura of old-world craftsmanship”. The name is meant to sound Danish, but it’s not and doesn’t mean anything in Danish. Still my fav

Pepsi is one that I think is p interesting. It was originally called “Brad’s Drink” after the owner Caleb Bradham, which was then switched the Pepsi-Cola in 1898 after dyspepsia, a term for indigestion, which Pepsi was said to help with. Pepcid is another anti-nausea medication.

Virgin Airlines is also interesting, for me mostly because I assumed that the name came from the Virgin Islands and that maybe that was one of the first places they flew. But in reality it was because Richard Branson said during its creation: “we’re complete virgins at business”.

Blackberry got its name because the small black keys look vaguely like the drupelets of a blackberry! This one I find adorable

Starbucks, founded in Seattle, Washington, got their name from the first mate in Moby Dick. They chose this to evoke “the romance of the high seas and the seafaring tradition of early coffee traders”. Seattle is a huge port city so this makes a lot of sense