You Can't Make This Stuff Up!

[Lee Stewart]

IKEA isn't a Swedish word that you don't understand.

Founder Ingvar Kamprad chose the brand name by combining the initials of his own name, IK, with the first letters of the farm and village, where grew up in southern Sweden: Elmtaryd and Agunnaryd.

[Lee Stewart]

In an interview with The Seattle Times, Starbucks cofounder Gordon Bowker told the story of how they arrived at the name. At first, they were going through a list of words beginning with "st" because they thought those were powerful.

"Somebody somehow came up with an old mining map of the Cascades and Mount Rainier, and there was an old mining town called Starbo," he said. "As soon as I saw Starbo, I, of course, jumped to Melville's first mate [named Starbuck] in 'Moby-Dick.'"

[Lee Stewart]

The convenience-store chain's name means two things: 1. It's the name of the area in Pennsylvania where the company's first dairy farm was located. 2. It's a Native-American word for a Canada Goose (the one pictured in the company's logo).

Wawa is named after an area of Pennsylvania. The convenience-store chain's name means two things: 1. It's the name of the area in Pennsylvania where the company's first dairy farm was located. 2. It's a Native-American word for a Canada Goose (the one pictured in the company's logo).

[Lee Stewart]

Nike was founded in 1964 as Blue Ribbon Sports, and it didn't take on its current name until 1971.

Co-founders Bill Bowerman -a track-and-field coach - and Phil Knight, a middle-distance runner from Portland, had wanted to make the name "Dimension 6" originally. In fact, it was Nike's first employee, Jeff Johnson who came up with the name.

Nike is the Greek goddess of victory.

[Lee Stewart]

Amazon's original logo. Yes it's named after the largest river in the world.

[Lee Stewart]

Agrochemical company Monsanto was founded in 1901 by John F. Queeny. He named the business after his wife, Olga Monsanto Queeny.

[Lee Stewart]

Verizon was the product of a merger between Bell Atlantic and GTE, both telecommunications companies. The name is a mix between the latin word "veritas" meaning "truth," and horizon, which is meant to signify that the brand is forward-looking.

[Lee Stewart]

With a name like James Cash Penney, it's as if the retail founder was born to make money.

[Lee Stewart]

The Tupelo Automobile Museum cars are up for auction. The crown jewel is this Tucker which has an estimated auction price of $2,000,000.

[Lee Stewart]

Robert Louis Steveson

Why do we have a middle name? We almost never use it.

But there is actual history behind it, and it dates back to ancient Rome.

Many Romans had three names, a praenomen, which was a personal name, a nomen, which was a family name, and a cognomen, which indicated what branch of family you were from. The more names you had the more respected you were by others. Women only had two names, and slaves typically had one. An example you may be familiar with, Gaius Julius Caesar.