11 famous brand names & their full forms you probably didn’t know

Although brands are a part of our daily lives, there’s still a lot we don’t know about them. From something as simple as the full form of their abbreviations to their histories or founders, we really just seem to focus on what they have to offer.

So today, we shall focus on getting to know these brands that we use on a daily basis a little better.

Read on to see what these brand names actually stand for.

1. KFC

The American fast-food restaurant chain headquartered in Kentucky got its name from its owner, Colonel Harland Sanders, who vowed to sell the best chicken in Kentucky, hence “Kentucky Fried Chicken”. He travelled by car to different restaurants and cooked his chicken on the spot. If the owner liked the chicken, they would enter into a handshake agreement to sell the Colonel’s chicken.

2. IKEA

The I and K of IKEA are the initials of the founder, Ingvar Kamprad. The E and A come from  Elmtaryd and Agunnaryd, which are the farm and the village where he grew up, respectively. Beautiful, isn’t it?

3. BMW

BMW stands for Bayerische Motoren Werke, which in turn means ‘Bavarian Motor Works’.

4. H&M

Hennes means ‘hers’ in Swedish, and was the name of the original store. Mauritz was the name of a shop acquired by H&M founder Erling Persson, who joined the 2 words together. Hence, Hennes & Mauritz.

5. LG

After a merger with Lucky Chemical and LG Cable in 1995, the Taiwanese company originally called Goldstar was renamed Lucky Goldstar.

6. JBL

The audio company founded by James Bullough Lansing in 1946, used his initials as the name of the company.

7. ESPN

A dedicated sports broadcasting TV channel, ESPN stands for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, which explains the name. It was launched on September 1979.

8. LEGO

An abbreviation of the words Leg Godt, LEGO’s name literally means ‘play well’ in Danish.

9. CNN

The appropriate name for this 24-hour American cable news channel is what it’s short form stands for Cable News Network.

10. NASA

Standing for the National Aeronautics and Space Act, this American agency came into being after President Eisenhower signed the Act, before which the program was called NACA, or National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics.

11. M&M’s

This world-famous candy is named after the surnames of the company’s founders – Forrest Mars and William Murrie, a.k.a. Mars & Murrie.