Company name changes can be a big leap full of risks. But every name change has a solid reason behind it because owners know a name can make or destroy a company’s reputation and brand visibility. This infographic from Qualtrics shows us the full details of name changes from top companies. The graphic includes information on when a name change occurred, why it happened, and what the earlier names were. Some companies changed their names right away after a year or two, while others operated for decades before they decided to change names.
Here are some of name changes charted:
- Goodfellow Dry Goods to Target
- Brad’s Drink to Pepsi Cola
- Computing Tabulating Recording Corporation to IBM
- Rent-a-Car Inc. to Hertz Corporation
- Tote’m to 7-Eleven
- Precision Optical Instruments Laboratory to Canon
- Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo to Sony
- Stag Party to Playboy
- Walton’s 5 & 10 to Walmart
- Blue Ribbon Sports to Nike
- Pete’s Super Submarines to Subway
- Sound of Music to Best Buy
- Pequod to Starbucks
- Unadultered Food Products to Snapple
- T.J. Applebee’s Rex for Edibles & Elixers to Applebee’s Neighborhood Grill and Bar
- Control Video Corporation to Quantum Computer Services
- Jerry and David’s Guide to the World Wide Web to Yahoo!
- Cadabra to Amazon
- Auction Web to eBay
- BackRub to Google
- Phoenix to Firefox
- Facesmash to Facebook
- Twitter to X
- Burbn to Instagram
- MatchBox to Tinder
Many of these companies went through more than one name change, so the infographic gives the full picture on a company’s name journey. It also provides a reason for the name change. For example, Pepsi-Cola’s switch from Brad’s Drink was in reference to the ingredients in the soda. Canon’s name change came about when the company wanted to have a more global name, recognizable and pronounceable outside of Japan (the brand went from Precision Optical Instruments Laboratory to Kwanon to Canon.)
