The Genesis of 50 Iconic Brand Names

Beyond Coca-Cola, Amazon, Apple and Tesla…

‘Thank you, Mr. Pez!’, echoed in my mind as I awoke the other day. It’s no surprise that crystal-clear childhood memories revisit my dreams from time to time; growing up in the 1990s and early 2000s was a true blessing for me.

Mr. Pez was a neighbour of my family. My brother and I called him Mr. Pez because he worked for the candy empire, delivering sweet treats to local stores every day. Even his company truck’s license plate displayed the letters ‘PEZ’. Whenever we met him, he would bestow us a handful of candies with a broad smile on his face.

This volatile scene from my dreams made me wonder: What does PEZ actually mean? The question then sparked the idea of investigating the backstory behind other brand names like Nintendo, Lada or 7UP. And the list just kept growing until I finally said ‘Enough!’ at number fifty.

Covering a range of industries and sectors, including but not limited to food product, cosmetics, sports, apparel, general merchandise retailers, telecommunications, and automobile manufacturers, it is a fairly long listicle, but stay cool; I’ve arranged the brand names alphabetically. So if you’re only here for the story of Vespa or Zildjian you can just scroll down to the bottom.

1. Alibaba

The name of the online marketplace Alibaba, which is often referred to as the Chinese equivalent of the American Amazon, is inspired by the…