Google. Yahoo. Yandex. Some of today's biggest companies are named the strangest things.
Sometimes, it's not the company's fault. There's a running joke that vowels are too expensive in Silicon Valley and founders can't afford normal-sounding domain names.
Others strive to come up with something a little different. "I wanted a nonsense word because I wanted to build the brand from scratch," one founder said.
One Kings Lane is a made-up address
One Kings Lane is a big home decor shopping site run by Doug Mack, Susan Feldman and Ali Pincus.
The name is a made up address. "It's meant to reflect a blend of Old and New World sensibilities," Fortune writes.
Etsy means "And if" in Latin and "Oh, yes!" in Italian
Robert Kalin sought a meaningless word that he could turn into a brand.
He listened to foreign movies, wrote down what he heard, and turned it into the company's name.
Kalin explains to Reader's Digest, "I was watching Fellini's 8 ½ and writing down what I was hearing. In Italian, you say 'etsi' a lot. It means 'oh, yes.' And in Latin, it means 'and if.'"
Yandex has a double meaning, "Yet Another iNDEXer,' and the Russian word "Я" (Ya") Sounds like "I" In English (Ya-ndex).
The Russian search engine's name is both an acronym and a pun.
According to Wikipedia, ""The name initially stood for "Yet Another iNDEXer." The Russian word "Я" ("Ya") corresponds to English personal pronoun "I", making "Яndex" a bilingual pun on "index"; another pun is based on yin and yang contrast."
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