The other day I discovered that the app, Slack, actually stands for Searchable Log of All Conversation and Knowledge. I was shook. This is genius! And it led me down the path to Googoling (spelled like this purposefully) all the fun and weird ways in which companies’ names originated. Here’s what I found:
- YAHOO! – Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle
- Skype – The online communication program was originally going to be called “Sky Peer-to-Peer,” due to its peer-to-peer technology that would be transferred “in the sky.” It was shortened to “Skype” before launching in 2003.
- Venmo – Venmo comes from the Latin word vendo/vendere which means, ‘to sell.’
- Google – Google received its name when co-founder Larry Page misspelled the number “Googol,” which is a digit followed by 100 zeros. Page and co-founder Sergey Brin decided to keep the name because the domain name was available. “It turns out that most people misspell some things,” said Page, which is why Google corrects spelling mistakes for all searches.
- Samsung – In 1938, founder Lee Byung-chull named his company Samsung because it means “Three Stars” or “Tristar” in Korean.
- LEGO – The name comes from the Danish phrase “Leg Godt,” which means “Play Well” in English and “I Put Together” or “I Assemble” in Latin.
Honorable mentions:
SPAM – Shoulder of Pork and Ham
TASER – Thomas A. Swift’s Electric Rifle
WD-40 – Water Displacement 40th formula