Last autumn I looked at the origins of some of the better known brand names. Having had to shop for a relative over the last few months I have seen a number of names which I would never have noticed had I only been hunter-gathering for myself. Hence I decided to revisit the subject and look at another batch of well-known brand names and just what inspired them.
Agfa – photographic products such as Agfa film may be a thing of the past in the digital age, but having to produce my own photographs the subject remains relevant to me. This is an acronym - Akteingesellschaft fur Anilinfabrikation – which I am reliably informed translates to “Limited company for dye manufacture”.
Brylcreem – is quite easy to see as a combination of ‘brilliantine’ and ‘cream’. I do not recall a day when my father did not use this product, yet there must have been many for the product was not marketed until 1928, when my father was already 9 years old, was originally called ‘Elite’ and at first only available to barbers.
Colibri – as a former smoker I recognised the name of the cigarette lighter. The firm named Colibri was founded by Julius Lowenthal in 1927, he chose the name as the name sounds foreign and thus exotic (car manufacturers do the same). The name is also used for a hummingbird, one sacred to the Taino Indians of the Caribbean.
Dorothy Perkins – I was quite surprised to find there was no such woman, at least not one who gave her name to the clothing stores. The name was suggested by the wife of one of the co-founders after she saw the classic English cottage which was home to the first of the chain of shops. She thought the premises would ideally suit a rambling rose being grown around the outside and it was this rose which was called Dorothy Perkins.
Ex-Lax – developed by a New York scientist of Hungarian extraction, it was first marketed as Bo-Bo. The story goes than the scientist was reading a newspaper, which reported there had been an ex-lex in his native Hungary – this a Latin term literally translating to ‘outside the law’ and just a minor tweak away from the present name. Just why he thought this would make a good name for a laxative is far from clear.
Fanta – developed during the years of the Second World War, it implies ‘fantasy’ as it required such an imagination to create a desirable drink from the limited materials available.
Gaumont – many towns and cities had a Gaumont cinema, these taking the name of the inventor of the motion picture, one Leon Ernest Gaumont.
Hovis – the famous ‘brown bread’ was patented in 1887 by Staffordshire miller Richard Smith as Smith’s Patent Brown Bread. Three years later he opened a competition to find a better name for his loaf. It was won by one Herbert Grime, who suggested a contraction of the Latin ‘hominis vis’ or ‘the strength of man’.
Izal – said to be an anagram of Liza, a sister of Mr J H Worrall who first produced this disinfectant.
Jaguar – chosen at random by the founder, William Lyons, from a long list of speedy and/or powerful animals which he thought would be suitable for a car.
Kenwood – a name synonymous with electric food mixers and named after the found of the company, Ken Wood.
Lucozade – it is based on glucose, hence the first part, and suffixed by the typical fizzy drink syllable –ade.
Mars – nothing to do with the planet or the Roman god, this was named after its founder, Forrest Mars.
Nabisco – derived from the original name of the firm, the National Biscuit Company.
Odeon – from the Greek oideion or ‘theatre’.
PG Tips – the end is easily seen as it is the tips of the tea leaves which produce the flavour of the tea. Originally it was marketed as Pre-Gestee, suggesting it was a good drink before food and used as an aid to digestion. When shopkeepers and delivery men began shortening it to PG the company soon adopted the name.
Quink – a contracted form of ‘quick drying ink’
Ribena – from the Latin name for the blackcurrant Ribes nigrum, from which Ribena is made.
Schweppes – jeweller Jacob Schweppe came up with this man-made mineral water having already made his money as a jeweller.
Teflon – this non-stick miracle, or so it seemed when it was first marketed, is a more manageable version of the substance polytetrafluoroethylene.
Uhu – an adhesive developed in the around the Black Forest in Germany. The forest is the ideal habitat for the eagle owl or, as it is known in Germany, the uhu.
Velcro – an amalgamation of the French velours ‘velvet’ and croche ‘hooked’
Wimpy – named after the hamburger-loving character in the Popeye cartoons, his full name being J Wellington Wimpy.
Xylonite – a combination of the Green xulon ‘wood’ and the common suffix ‘ite’, an excellent reflection of a company producing cellulose nitrate.
Yale – named after the American locksmith Linus Yale.
Zubes – a throat lozenge which may have been named from the Russian zub meaning ‘tooth’.
Showing posts with label product. Show all posts
Showing posts with label product. Show all posts
Sunday, 30 March 2014
Sunday, 10 November 2013
Branded
When Munzly suggested I look at the origins of some trade names I felt sure I had covered the subject before. A quick search and I find my memory was a little off, for it was not a blog but a crossword produced many years ago. On the subject of crosswords, the only writing challenge I accepted but failed to meet was when a magazine asked for a 15x15 grid where every answer was related to tobacco and smoking. While I saw it as a near impossible task I could not resist trying. In fact I found it easier to quit smoking than I did the challenge.
As the subject of trade and product names is vast, I decided to opt for just 26, one from each letter of the alphabet. These were chosen mainly because they have been on the shelves for such a long time and because I found the product name of interest, and not because I’m being sponsored by any of them (yet). For the first I did consider using ACME, which everyone will recognize as the name stamped on every package sent to Wile E. Coyote and containing any number of items he hoped would see an end to the abysmal Road Runner. Yet many years before Warner Brothers produced the first cartoon featuring this duo, the name had been used by a Birmingham company, J Hudson and Co soon after it was founded in 1883. This firm produced whistles. Included in the range was the famous police whistle, referees whistles, and even an attempt to fool Japanese soldiers in the Asian jungles in thinking they were being stalked by tigers – the sound was realistic enough, as I witnessed, its failure was down to the rattling noises made when transporting the large metal item which looked nothing like a whistle. Of particular interest to us here is the Acme Thunderer, a whistle which uses the Greek acme meaning ‘high point’ to suggest this was the epitome of whistles. Today such names would never be allowed, unlike the following.
Atora – which makes such wonderful things as steak and kidney pudding, is the shredded fat from a bull. Initially the company’s supplies came from South America where the Spanish for ‘from a bull’ was a toro and the name was born.
Britvic – although the company no longer exists their juices the produced still have the name derived from British Vitamin Products.
Cherry Blossom – it always seemed an odd choice for shoe polish with an aroma nothing like that of the flower of the fruit tree. As a name it was used for a soap, suitably perfumed, and sold in a tin by the Chiswick Soap Company of London. The soap had been off the shelves for a reasonable period when the name (and apparently the tin) was revived for the name of the show polish.
Dettol – when this disinfectant was first produced in the 1930s it was going to be called Disinfectol, but this was considered too clinical and quickly abbreviated.
England’s Glory – was suggested by the trademark, that of the battleship featured on the front of the matchbox ever since it was first produced in 1870. Despite a number of changes of ownership, HMS Devastation still appears on the front and the message from the name is a patriotic one. It does strike me (pun intended) it was a good idea not to use the name of the vessel for the product.
Findus – began when two Swedish chocolate producers united as Fruit Industries, none of which produced anything fishy or frozen.
Gloy – a glue name suggested by gloia the Greek for ‘glue’.
Harpic – was a product named from its inventor, Harry Pickup, who registered the Harpic Manufacturing Company in 1924.
Indesit – was a trade name developed as an acronym from the manufacturer, Industria Elettrodomestici Italia (the Italian Domestic Appliances Industry).
Jubilee – the name of the hose clip is often said to have been inspired by a jubilee when the product was launched and yet 8th February 1929, the launch date, is nowhere near any obvious jubilee and thus was probably named to suggest a prestigious occasion (one marked only by the appearance of a hose clip).
Kalamazoo – is a Birmingham firm which first used this as a product name when one of the owners brought back the loose-leafed binder from the USA with sole rights to producing this in Britain, the name of the company changed to Kalamazoo some time later in 1943.
Lion Brand – and a lesson to anyone when trying to market a product. I am often asked why there are so many pubs featuring oddly-coloured animals – the Red Lion is still among the commonest of pub names – and the answer was it is heraldic, the same as so many pub names. It made sense to use imagery when the written name was pointless as so many potential customers were illiterate. On the face of it using a lion as an emblem seems a reasonable idea, with different coloured lions showing the differing grades of paper. Yet it seems nobody bothered to point out to the owner, one John Dickinson, the illiterate would be unlikely to buy any writing paper.
Marmite – having written an article on this product some years ago I am fascinated by its history, although I do number among those who find the taste quite unpalatable. The name comes from the shape of the pot depicted on the label, this being a French vessel known as a marmite.
Nivea – is the feminine form of the Latin niveus or ‘snowy’. This points to colour and cooling properties of the cream, while also suggesting it keeps the skin of the user a similar colour.
Oxo – is beef extract, thus the ‘ox’ with the addition of the suffix ‘–o’ making it nicely symmetrical and an obvious product name.
Persil – while this is the French word for ‘parsley’ this is not the reason for the name, although it is the reason for a sprig of parsley being used as a trademark. The name comes from two ingredients in bleach and included in the original recipe, perborate and silicate.
Quaker Oats – the origin was never recorded but is said to have become obvious to American Henry D Seymour, a co-founder of the company, when he found a reference to the Quakers in a book. The attributes of both the oatmeal and the religious group – purity, honesty, and strength – were seen as similar.
Radox – originally not a bath product but one used solely in a foot bath and said to come from ‘radiated oxygen’, which the manufacturers claimed was one of the advantages of using it.
Sindy – a doll first marketed in the 1950s and chosen from a shortlist of four as the most popular after a street survey. In truth the public voted for Cindy on the original list but the makers saw they could never register a popular girl’s name as a trademark and so tweaked the spelling.
Toblerone – was originally made by the Swiss chocolate company Tobler. Italian is one of the four official languages of Switzerland and –one (which should rhyme with minestrone) means ‘big’.
Umbro – comes from the company’s founders, the Humphreys Brothers.
Vick – named after North Carolina chemist Dr Joshua Vick. However he did not create the menthol gel, that was a former employee of his who later became his brother-in-law Lunsford Richardson who originally wanted to call it Richardson’s Croup and Pneumonia Cure Salve but changed his mind.
Wolseley – the car manufacturer employed the later founder of the Austin company, Herbert Austin who, until 1893, had been employed in Australia by the Wolseley Sheep Shearing Machine Company.
Xerox – is from xeros, the Greek word for ‘dry’ and described the process of copying which had previously used liquids.
Yorkie – produced by Rowntree Mackintosh, whose headquarters were in the city of York.
Zebrite – originally marketed as Zebra from 1890 until it became Zebrite in 1952. It was used to on the grate, changing it from dirty to clean, a ‘black and white’ concept mirrored by the wrapper. The change in name put greater emphasis on the ‘bright’ idea.
As always I would welcome any suggestions for themes or subjects, or even specific words to examine the origins, meanings and etymologies. I’d be delighted to hear from you.
As the subject of trade and product names is vast, I decided to opt for just 26, one from each letter of the alphabet. These were chosen mainly because they have been on the shelves for such a long time and because I found the product name of interest, and not because I’m being sponsored by any of them (yet). For the first I did consider using ACME, which everyone will recognize as the name stamped on every package sent to Wile E. Coyote and containing any number of items he hoped would see an end to the abysmal Road Runner. Yet many years before Warner Brothers produced the first cartoon featuring this duo, the name had been used by a Birmingham company, J Hudson and Co soon after it was founded in 1883. This firm produced whistles. Included in the range was the famous police whistle, referees whistles, and even an attempt to fool Japanese soldiers in the Asian jungles in thinking they were being stalked by tigers – the sound was realistic enough, as I witnessed, its failure was down to the rattling noises made when transporting the large metal item which looked nothing like a whistle. Of particular interest to us here is the Acme Thunderer, a whistle which uses the Greek acme meaning ‘high point’ to suggest this was the epitome of whistles. Today such names would never be allowed, unlike the following.
Atora – which makes such wonderful things as steak and kidney pudding, is the shredded fat from a bull. Initially the company’s supplies came from South America where the Spanish for ‘from a bull’ was a toro and the name was born.
Britvic – although the company no longer exists their juices the produced still have the name derived from British Vitamin Products.
Cherry Blossom – it always seemed an odd choice for shoe polish with an aroma nothing like that of the flower of the fruit tree. As a name it was used for a soap, suitably perfumed, and sold in a tin by the Chiswick Soap Company of London. The soap had been off the shelves for a reasonable period when the name (and apparently the tin) was revived for the name of the show polish.
Dettol – when this disinfectant was first produced in the 1930s it was going to be called Disinfectol, but this was considered too clinical and quickly abbreviated.
England’s Glory – was suggested by the trademark, that of the battleship featured on the front of the matchbox ever since it was first produced in 1870. Despite a number of changes of ownership, HMS Devastation still appears on the front and the message from the name is a patriotic one. It does strike me (pun intended) it was a good idea not to use the name of the vessel for the product.
Findus – began when two Swedish chocolate producers united as Fruit Industries, none of which produced anything fishy or frozen.
Gloy – a glue name suggested by gloia the Greek for ‘glue’.
Harpic – was a product named from its inventor, Harry Pickup, who registered the Harpic Manufacturing Company in 1924.
Indesit – was a trade name developed as an acronym from the manufacturer, Industria Elettrodomestici Italia (the Italian Domestic Appliances Industry).
Jubilee – the name of the hose clip is often said to have been inspired by a jubilee when the product was launched and yet 8th February 1929, the launch date, is nowhere near any obvious jubilee and thus was probably named to suggest a prestigious occasion (one marked only by the appearance of a hose clip).
Kalamazoo – is a Birmingham firm which first used this as a product name when one of the owners brought back the loose-leafed binder from the USA with sole rights to producing this in Britain, the name of the company changed to Kalamazoo some time later in 1943.
Lion Brand – and a lesson to anyone when trying to market a product. I am often asked why there are so many pubs featuring oddly-coloured animals – the Red Lion is still among the commonest of pub names – and the answer was it is heraldic, the same as so many pub names. It made sense to use imagery when the written name was pointless as so many potential customers were illiterate. On the face of it using a lion as an emblem seems a reasonable idea, with different coloured lions showing the differing grades of paper. Yet it seems nobody bothered to point out to the owner, one John Dickinson, the illiterate would be unlikely to buy any writing paper.
Marmite – having written an article on this product some years ago I am fascinated by its history, although I do number among those who find the taste quite unpalatable. The name comes from the shape of the pot depicted on the label, this being a French vessel known as a marmite.
Nivea – is the feminine form of the Latin niveus or ‘snowy’. This points to colour and cooling properties of the cream, while also suggesting it keeps the skin of the user a similar colour.
Oxo – is beef extract, thus the ‘ox’ with the addition of the suffix ‘–o’ making it nicely symmetrical and an obvious product name.
Persil – while this is the French word for ‘parsley’ this is not the reason for the name, although it is the reason for a sprig of parsley being used as a trademark. The name comes from two ingredients in bleach and included in the original recipe, perborate and silicate.
Quaker Oats – the origin was never recorded but is said to have become obvious to American Henry D Seymour, a co-founder of the company, when he found a reference to the Quakers in a book. The attributes of both the oatmeal and the religious group – purity, honesty, and strength – were seen as similar.
Radox – originally not a bath product but one used solely in a foot bath and said to come from ‘radiated oxygen’, which the manufacturers claimed was one of the advantages of using it.
Sindy – a doll first marketed in the 1950s and chosen from a shortlist of four as the most popular after a street survey. In truth the public voted for Cindy on the original list but the makers saw they could never register a popular girl’s name as a trademark and so tweaked the spelling.
Toblerone – was originally made by the Swiss chocolate company Tobler. Italian is one of the four official languages of Switzerland and –one (which should rhyme with minestrone) means ‘big’.
Umbro – comes from the company’s founders, the Humphreys Brothers.
Vick – named after North Carolina chemist Dr Joshua Vick. However he did not create the menthol gel, that was a former employee of his who later became his brother-in-law Lunsford Richardson who originally wanted to call it Richardson’s Croup and Pneumonia Cure Salve but changed his mind.
Wolseley – the car manufacturer employed the later founder of the Austin company, Herbert Austin who, until 1893, had been employed in Australia by the Wolseley Sheep Shearing Machine Company.
Xerox – is from xeros, the Greek word for ‘dry’ and described the process of copying which had previously used liquids.
Yorkie – produced by Rowntree Mackintosh, whose headquarters were in the city of York.
Zebrite – originally marketed as Zebra from 1890 until it became Zebrite in 1952. It was used to on the grate, changing it from dirty to clean, a ‘black and white’ concept mirrored by the wrapper. The change in name put greater emphasis on the ‘bright’ idea.
As always I would welcome any suggestions for themes or subjects, or even specific words to examine the origins, meanings and etymologies. I’d be delighted to hear from you.
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