21 Famous Company Facts

Published November 1, 2025

When it was founded in 1964, Nike was called "Blue Ribbon Sports." It officially became Nike in 1971._[2]
Sony was originally called Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo when it was established in 1946._[3]
Elon Musk did not found Tesla. Two engineers, Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning, actually created Tesla Motors in 2003, and Musk joined as an early investor in 2004._[5]
When Pepsi was created in 1893, it was originally a digestive aid called "Brad's Drink."_[11]

Because the founder of IKEA had dyslexia, he used a naming system rather than numbers. For example, sofas and tables were named after Swedish places; rugs were named after Danish towns; beds and wardrobes were named after Norwegian locations; and kitchen items were named after herbs, fish, or male names

The name IKEA is actually an acronym: Ingvar Kamprad (founder) + Elmtaryd (farm) + Agunnaryd (hometown)._[1]
Adidas is named after its founder Adolf "Adi" Dassler. He had a brother who founded Puma after a family feud._[10]
The original name of Snapchat was "Picaboo."_[9]
The inspiration for Red Bull was a Thai energy drink called "Krating Daeng."_[1]
Ben and Jerry's was originally going to sell bagels._[4]
The Facebook color scheme is blue because Mark Zuckerberg has a red-green color blindness._[2]
Candy Crush once generated $633,000 per day, which has led to the saying "One's obsession becomes someone else's income."_[7]

The logo actually spells "Toyota" using the shapes of the ovals

The Toyota symbol represents the unification of the hearts of our customers and the heart of the Toyota products. The background represents technological advancements and boundless opportunities of the company._[12]
Mercedes is named after businessman Emil Jellinek's daughter, Mercedes._[6]
The name Adobe comes from Adobe Creek, which ran behind cofounder John Warnock's house._[4]
Gucci's famous logo was created by Gucci's son, Aldo, to represent his initials. It also represents the links of a bracelet._[4]
The word Comcast is a blend of two words, "communications" and "broadcast." The co-owner wanted a name that would reflect a broad technological scope._[3]

August Horch was a German engineer and the founder of Audi

August Horch created Audi in 1909, but he legally could not use his name as the name of the company. Instead, his son thought of the word "audi," which means "listen" in Latin._[3]
CVS stands for "Consumer Value Store." The now famous-store started out in 1963 as a scrappy beauty and health outlet._[3]
The word "Microsoft" is meant to reflect Bill Gates and Paul Allen's mission to create software for microcomputers. They briefly considered Allen & Gates, but they thought that sounded too much like a law firm._[3]
When The Gap was established in 1969, the owners viewed it as a store for traditionally poor teens and college kids. Initially, they thought to name the store "Pants and Discs," but they settled on "The Gap" to reflect the generation gap._[3]
Nintendo started in 1889 as a playing card company._[8]