Friday, June 20, 2014

How Famous Technology Companies Got Their Names

This is a list of company names where their names origin explained and some fascinating sort stories of how some famous companies got their names.
Some of the names are disputed & changed.

All company listed here are based on Technology, Computer, Software, Digital Camera, Semiconductor etc manufacturers and related to those.
Information are collected from Wikipedia, Company's website and Internet Articles . . . . .

ACER: It's means "Number One"

Adobe: The company name Adobe comes from Adobe Creek in Los Altos, California, which ran behind the houses of both of the company's founders.

Amazon.com: The company was renamed after the Amazon River, one of the largest rivers in the world.

AMD: Advanced MicroDevices

Apple: For the favorite fruit of co-founder Steve Jobs and/or for the time he worked at an apple orchard, and to distance itself from the cold, unapproachable, complicated imagery created by other computer companies at the time.

ARM Limited: Acorn Risc Machine

Asus: The name Asus originates from Pegasus, the winged horse of Greek mythology. Only the last four letters of the word were used in order to give the name a high position in alphabetical listings.

ATI: Array Technologies Incorporated

AT&T: American Telephone & Telegraph

BenQ: Bringing Entertainment aNd Quality

BlackBerry: The first BlackBerry device, the 850, was introduced in 1999 as a two-way pager in Munich, Germany. The name was chosen due to the resemblance of the keyboard's buttons to that of the drupe lets that compose the blackberry fruit.

Canon: Originally (1933) Precision Optical Instruments Laboratory the new name (1935) derived from the name of the company's first camera, the Kwanon, in turn named after the Japanese name of the Buddhist bodhisattva of mercy.

Casio: Casio is not an abbreviation. Its an alternative form of the founder, Tadao Kashio's last name.

Cisco: The name "Cisco" was derived from the city name, San FranCISCO, which is why the company's engineers insisted on using the lower case "cisco" in its early years.

COMPAQ: COMPAtibility and Quality

Corel: The name was derived from the founder's name Dr. Michael Cowpland. It stands for COwpland REsearch Laboratory.

Cray: Cray Research, Inc. (CRI), named after its founder, Seymour Cray.

Dell: Dell is named after its founder Michael Dell.

Doel: The computer's name comes from the national bird of Bangladesh, the Doel or Oriental Magpie Robin, a widely used symbol in Bangladesh.

EA Games: EA is from Electronic Arts

EDS: Electronic Data Systems

EHPT: Ericsson Hewlett Packard Telecom

Epson: Epson Seiko Corporation, the Japanese printer and peripheral manufacturer, was named from "Son of Electronic Printer" after a highly successful model, the EP-101.

FB: FB is short form of FaceBook

Fuji: Named after Mount Fuji, the highest mountain in Japan.

Fujitsu: Originally the data division of Fuji Electric, which was a joint venture between Furukawa Electric and Siemens. The tsu comes from tsūshinki, meaning data equipment.

Google: An originally accidental misspelling of the word googol and settled upon because google.com was unregistered. Googol was proposed to reflect the company's mission to organize the immense amount of information available online.

HCL: Hindustan Computer Limited

Hitachi: Hi meaning "Sun" and tachi meaning "Rise".

Hotmail: Founder Jack Smith got the idea of accessing e-mail via the web from a computer anywhere in the world. When Sabeer Bhatia came up with the business plan for the mail service he tried all kinds of names ending in 'mail' and finally settled for Hotmail as it included the letters " HTML" – the markup language used to write web pages. It was initially referred to as HoTMaiL with selective upper casing.
(At one time, if you clicked on Hotmail's 'mail' tab, you would have seen "HoTMaiL" in the URL, but since Hotmail is now Windows Live Mail, it is no longer there.)

HP: Hewlett-Packard
The last names of the two founders of HP.
The company was founded by Bill Hewlett and David Packard.

HTC: High Tech Computer

IBM: International Business Machines

Infosys: INFOrmation SYStems

INTEL: Integrated Electronics

Kaspersky: Kaspersky is named after its founderEugene Kaspersky.

Kodak: Both the Kodak camera and the name were the invention of founder George Eastman. The letter "K" was a favorite with Eastman; he felt it a strong and incisive letter. He tried out various combinations of words starting and ending with "K". He saw three advantages in the name. It had the merits of a trademark word, would not be mis-pronounced and the name did not resemble anything in the art. There is a misconception that the name was chosen because of its similarity to the sound produced by the shutter of the camera.

LENOVO: It is a Russian word. Lenovo" is a portmanteau of "Le-" (from Legend) and "novo", pseudo-Latin for "new".

Lexmark: In the 1980s, IBM wanted to spin off its printer and typewriter businesses. The main production facility for this business segment was in Lexington, Kentucky, and the code name for the spinoff was LEXington MARKeting.

LG: Life's Good

Linux: The operating system is named for its first developer, Linus Torvalds, with a change in the "s" with "x" in honor of Unix operating system.

McAfee: McAfee is named after its founder John McAfee .

Mitsubishi: The name Mitsubishi consists of two parts: "mitsu" meaning "three" and "hishi" (which becomes "bishi" under rendaku) meaning "water caltrop" (also called "water chestnut"), and hence "rhombus", which is reflected in the company's logo. It is also translated as "three diamonds".

Microsoft: MICROcomputer SOFTware

MS (ms office): MicroSoft

MSI: Micro-Star International

Motorola: Motorola" which was a blend of "motor" and the then popular suffix -ola used with audio equipment of the time (for example "Victrola")

Mozilla: MOsaic-Killer, GodZILLA

NEC: Nippon Electric Company

Netscape: NET - LandSCAPE,” “Landscape of the Internet”.

Nokia: In 1865, mining engineer Fredrik Idestam sets up his first wood pulp mill at the Tammerkoski Rapids in south-western Finland. A few years later he opens a second mill on the banks of the Nokianvirta river, which inspires him to name his company Nokia Ab in 1871.

NTT: Nippon Telegraph & Tel

Olympus: Old name changed to Olympus Optical Co., Ltd. It was named after Mount Olympus, which like Mt. Takachiho is the home of gods, this time of Greek mythology.

Panasonic: The Panasonic brand was created from the elements "pan" - meaning "all" - and "sonic" - meaning "sound" - because it was first used for audio equipment.

Philips: Philips is named after its founders Gerard Philips and Frederik Philips.

RIM: Research In Motion Limited

Samsung: The meaning of the Korean hanja word Samsung (三星) is "tristar" or "three stars". The word "three" represents something "big, numerous and powerful"; the "stars" mean eternity.

Sanyo: Sanyo means three oceans in Japanese, referring to the founder's ambition to sell their products worldwide, across the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans.

SAP: System Analysis and Program Development

SEGA: SErvice GAmes

Sharp: Takes its name from one of its founder's first inventions, the Ever-Sharp mechanical pencil, which was invented by Tokuji Hayakawa.

Siemens: Siemens is named after its founder Werner von Siemens.

Skype: The original concept for the name was Sky-Peer-to-Peer, which morphed into Skyper, then Skype.

SONY: Sound of New York

Sony: From the Latin word ‘sonus’ meaning sound, and ‘sonny’ a slang used by Americans to refer to a bright youngster.

Sun Microsystems: Its founders designed their first workstation in their dorm at Stanford University, and chose the name Stanford University Network for their product, hoping to sell it to the college.

TCL: Today China Lion
TCL's current corporate slogan is "The Creative Life".

Toshiba: TOkyo SHIBAura
Shibaura is a district of Minato ward located in Tokyo, Japan.

Ubuntu Foundation: Named from a Zulu word (ùɓúntú) that translates as "humanity to others".

VMware: Virtual Machine softWARE

Wikipedia: Wiki meant "quick" in Hawaiian and the word was actually a mash-up with part of the word encycloPEDIA.

Xerox: Named from xerography, a word derived from the Greek xeros (dry) and graphos (writing).

Yahoo: Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle

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