25 Companies and Their Inception

We see these big company names almost 365 days a year, but do we know what they actually mean and the unique ideas behind the names that are finally put up? Here are names of 25 big companies and the stories behind their name as listed by Yahoo!

1. Nike
It is an American MNC that is involved in designing, manufacturing, international marketing and selling of footwear, accessories, equipment etc. Nike was founded on January 25, 1964 as Blue Ribbon Sports by Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight and was originally named Blue Ribbon Sports (BRS), later it became Nike, Inc on May 30, 1978. The name was inspired from the name of Greek goddess of victory, Nike.

2. IBM
The full company name of IBM is International Business Machines Corporation. With its headquarters based at in Armonk, New York, United States, IBM is an American multinational consulting and technology corporation. The company was a merger of three companies The Tabulating Machine Company, the International Time Recording Company, and the Computing Scale Company and commenced working in 9011. Initially it was called Computing Tabulating Recording Company (CTR). Later Tom Watson SR named his company International Business Machines in order to one-up his employees.

3. TCS
Full form of TCS is Tata Consultancy Services Limited and is a subsidiary of the Tata Group and was founded in 1968. TCS is an Indian outsourcing services, business solutions provider headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra. According to 2012 revenue results TCS is considered as one of Indias largest IT services company.

4. Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola is a soft drink produced by Coca-Cola Company of Atlanta, Georgia. It is a carbonated soft drink that is sold in stores and restaurants in more then 200 countries. Founder John S. Pemberton replaced the k of Kola nuts to C to make the came interesting as the flavoring of the drink is done by Kola nuts and Coca leaves.

5. Canon
It is a Japanese multinational corporation headquartered in ?ta, Tokyo, Japan. The original name and the first camera manufactured were named KWANAN, which is Japanese form of Buddhist Bodhisattva. Canon specializes in the production of optical and camera products including steppers, computer printers, camcorders, photocopiers and medical equipment.

6. Pepsi
The name of the company was on the name of the digestive enzyme Pepsin. It was first names Brads Drink who prepared the drink at his drugstore and also sold it from there. Later the drink was named as Pepsi-Cola, named after digestive enzyme pepsin and Kola used in the flavoring of the drink. Bradham wanted to make a drink which would both help in digestion and will be good in taste.

7. Reebok
Joseph William Foster from Holcombe Brook was earning his livelihood by making regular running shoes when suddenly an idea of making a novelty spiked running shoe came into his mind. In 19895 he started a new company with the new ideas and named it J.W. Foster and Sons. Later in 1958 Joe and Jeff Foster, grandsons of the founder renamed the company as Reebok which comes from the Afrikaans spelling of rhebok, a type of African antelope or gazelle.

8. Sony
Headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, Sony is a multinational corporation engaged in electronic business and is the mother company of Sony Group. The company name was taken from the American slang Sonny used for a bright young star and Latin word Sonus which means sound. Sony is also involved in Music as well as financial services.

9. KFC
Any one asked about their most favorite fried chicken restaurant and they will name KFC. KFC is the short for Kentucky Fried Chicken. Headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, United States, KFC specializes in fried chicken items. KFC has more than 17000 outlets in almost 105 countries. KFC founder Harland Sanders started his roadside restaurant where he sold fried chicken and gradually it got pretty famous and the first Kentucky Fried Chicken" franchise opened in Utah in early 1950s.

10. Skype
Skype is a client server and peer-to-peer VoIP service. The original name of the company was based on the concept of the business of peer-to-peer which was morphed into Skyper and later renamed as Skype. Skype was first released in 2003 written by Estonian developers Ahti Heinla, Priit Kasesalu, and Jaan Tallinn.

11. Adidas
It is a German multinational company that is involved in producing and designing sports clothing and accessories, headquartered in Herzogenaurach, Germany. The name of the company was taken from its founders name Adolf Dessler (ADI) and his first name was shortened to ADI and together with the first three letters of his surname Adidas was formed and the company was named accordingly.

12. Adobe
Adobe is a San Jose, California; United States based multinational software company. The company name Adobe was taken from the adobe creek that ran behind the home of the company Cofounder John Warnock. The company has a huge contribution to the business of multimedia and also creative software products.

13. Amazon.Com
Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezoz wanted a company name starting with the letter A that will appear at the beginning of the alphabetic order. While searching in the dictionary, he settled for the name Amazon as it started with the alphabet A and was also the name of a river considered famous in the world, as he dreamt for his company will be one day.

14. Audi
Audi founder August Horch took the name for the company by translating his name that meant Hark!, which is to listen in Latin. The founders name was already used earlier by his other car manufacturing companies. The four rings used in the company logo represents the union of Audi with its other sister companies DWK, Horch and wanderer.

15. Intel
Intel is the incorporated name of Integrated Electronics. Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce initially named the company as N M Electronics. Again Moore Noyce was suggested but it sounded more like more noise. Later Integrated Electronics was proposed but as the name was already registered with some other company Gordon and Robert took the initial syllables of INTegrated ELectronics and named the company as Intel.

16. HCL
The full form of HCL is Hindustan Computers Limited. Founded by Shiv Nadar. HCL is one the big companies that rules the IT hardware market. The headquarters is in India and it operates for about 30 countries of the world. Initially the focus of the founders was to create scientific calculators but gradually the company got money and shifted in manufacturing computers.

17. NIKON Corporation

Nikon Corporation, also popularly known as NIKON is multinational company that specializes in manufacturing optics and imaging products. Founded in 25 July 1917 the original name of NIKON was Nippon Kogaku, meaning "Japanese Optical". In 1988 the company was renamed as Nikon Corporation after its cameras. Nikon is a part of the Mitsubishi Group.

18. Vodafone
To reflect the provision of voice and data services over mobile phones the company was named as Vodafone, which was initial for Voice, Data, Telefone. On 1, Januarey 1985 Vodafone made the UKs first mobile call few minutes prior to midnight. Measured by 2011 revenues it is the worlds second largest mobile telecommunications company.

19. Wal-Mart
In June 3, 1940 a businessman from Arkansas, Sam Walton began his retail career. On July 2, 1962, he opened the first Wal-Mart Discount City store and on October 31, 1969 it was incorporated as Wal-Mart Stores. Today Wal-Mart is the worlds third largest public corporation and the biggest private employer in the world. The name of the company is taken from the founder of the company Sam Walton.

20. ESPN
ESPN founder Bill Rasmussen was fired from his job as communications manager at Hartford Whalers in 1978 as he had a craze for sports for much of his life. Later Bill decided to start his carrier in Television and in summer of 1978, Bill Rasmussen and his son, with Eagan and his associate Bob Beyus started a sports channel which they had named as Entertainment and Sports Programming Network now popular as ESPN.

21. Nissan Motors

Initially named as The Kwaishinsha Motor Car Works in 1911 the company was founded by Masujiro Hashimoto. Nissan is a Japanese multinational automaker company that is headquartered in Japan. Earlier the name of the company was Nippon Sangyo which meant Japan Industries or Nippon Industries. It is a member company of the Nissan Group.

22. Virgin
Virgin is a British Multinational company founded by Richard Branson. When Richard was at school he started a magazine which he named Student. In his autobiography, Loosing My Virginity Richard says that when they were commencing a business of selling records by mail order, "one of the girls suggested: 'What about Virgin? We're complete virgins at business as quoted by Wikipedia. The core business areas of the company are entertainment, lifestyle, travel and many more.

23. Nokia
Nokia is a Finnish multinational communications and information technology corporation, headquartered at Keilaniemi. The company started as a wood pulp mill and further extended into producing rubber goods at the Finnish city of Nokia. The company was named after the city itself.

24. HP
While deciding the company name co-founders Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard tossed a coin to choose whether the company should be called Hewlett-Packard or PackardHewlett. The toss settled down for Hewlett-Packard. HP American information technology MNC headquartered in Palo. The business area of HP also includes solutions and services to consumers, small- and mediumsized businesses (SMBs) and large enterprises, health and education sectors including customers in the government.

25. HSBC
HSBC stands for Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation. HSBC is a universal bank and is organized within four business groups: Commercial banking; Investment banking; Retail Banking and Wealth Management and Global Private Banking.

Thanks RB