Businesses often change their names for a variety of reasons. However, the latter can also be based on an originally chosen name that is completely different from the one that ended up in front of a product. Here are a few.
The choice of the company name is one of the priorities in the steps leading to its creation.
It can be difficult to find, however, and this Twitter post reminds us of that by showcasing the different names originally chosen for several large companies. Watch out for the eyes!
Some of their originally planned names:
Amazon: Cadabra
BestBuy: Sound of Music
eBay: auction web
Google: BackRub
Instagram: Burbn
Netflix: Kibble
Nike: Blue Band
PayPal: Infinite
Pepsi: Brad’s drink
7-Eleven: Tote’m
Snapchat: Picaboo
Starbucks: Cargo House
Destination: Goodfellow— Jon Erlichman (@JonErlichman) February 13, 2023
Amazon could have been called Cadabra, Netflix was almost called Kibble and Nike Blue Ribbon… These names are completely different from the current ones and surely some people are unsettled at their mere discovery.
Still, some stories are well known, like Amazon’s.
In fact, Amazon was almost called Abracadabra, then Cadabra, and finally Amazon. The reason for Jeff Bezos, the company’s founder, to have changed his mind is quite simple. During a conversation with his lawyer, one said he understood the word “corpse” and was shocked.
From there, and because he wants a company name that starts with the letter A to rank first in SEO, after some research he chooses the name “Amazon”.
As for Netflix, we know that its name means film on the internet. But the company was almost called Kibble, which means kibble in English. “Netflix” was then voted the best-selling name.
“Kibble & Chill”, I’m not sure it’s that sexy…