You need a good shoe to kick this one whose name is an alternate spelling of Pelea capreolus, an African antelope.
Reebok
Named from the Biblical character renowned for his strength.
Samsonite
A major player in the early days of the internet, its name is Spanish for 'high view.'
Alta Vista
Mitch Kapor who was a teacher of Transcendental Meditation of Mahesh Yogi named the company after this yogic position formally called "Padmasana."
Lotus
Literally 'sunrise' in Japanese and a big 'Hit' in the world of technology.
Hitachi
This word was invented by Jonathan Swift in Gulliver's Travels and represents a repulsive person who is barely human. For some reason, the founders of a tech giant liked it.
Yahoo!
You deserve a cuppa if you know this company was named after a character in Herman Melville's novel Moby-Dick.
Starbucks
From the creek that ran behind the house of co-founder John Warnock. Can also mean a natural building material made from sand and clay.
Adobe
Take a Big Gulp and name this company renamed from UtoteM in 1946 to reflect their newly extended hours.
7-Eleven
From the German for 'people's car.'
Volkswagen
A pioneer in the world of video games, its name is a Japanese word for a position in the board game Go when an opponent's stones are in danger, akin to "check" in chess.
Atari
From the Latin word which means 'I roll.' Their cars don't!
Volvo
The name roughly translates as 'Rising from Asia' in Hanja. Now owned by Hyundai, it is best known for the Rio.
Kia
GM's luxury car division named for the explorer who founded Detroit.
Cadillac
Assemble the answer. Its name is a composite of the first letters of the founder's name + the first letters of the names of the property and the village in which he grew up.
IKEA (Ingvar Kamprad; Elmtaryd, the family farm; Agunnaryd, a village)
Beverage giant named from a digestive enzyme - just don't say Coke!
Pepsi
You can take it to the bank that the name of this company is from the Latin version of the German name given to a region in North Carolina.
Wachovia
From the company's original name, Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company.
3M
Named for the Greek goddess of victory.
Nike
Play a 'Sonata' and name this Korean giant whose name connotes the sense of 'the present age' or 'modernity' in Korean.
Hyundai
Predict this. The code name for a CIA project which was designed to use the newly written SQL database language from IBM.
Oracle
A world leader in providing a distributed computing platform for internet content delivery, its name is from the Hawaiian word meaning smart or clever.
Akamai
From the Japanese name for the constellation known to Westerners as Pleiades or the Seven Sisters. ___ was formed from a merger of seven other companies, and the constellation is featured on the company's logo.
Subaru
The founder says in his autobiography that when they were starting a business to sell records by mail order, "one of the girls suggested: What about ___? We're complete ___'s at business."
Virgin
Click! Named after the Japanese name of the Buddhist bodhisattva of mercy.
Canon
The Japanese translation is disputed, although the Chinese name is three oceans. This electronic giant is now owned by Panasonic.
Sanyo
The founder worked at an orchard and named the company to distance itself from the cold, unapproachable, and complicated imagery created by other computer companies at the time.
Apple
You get milk chocolate if you name this Swiss company whose name means 'little nest.'
Nestlé
This pharmaceutical giant based in Basel, Switzerland has a name that means 'new skills' in Latin.
Novartis
Company founder Kim Woo Chong called it ___ which means 'Great House' or 'Great Universe' in Korean. Prior to the Asian Financial Crisis of 1998, it was the second largest conglomerate in Korea after Hyundai.
Daewoo
Prior to January 1, 2001 the company was called Andersen Consulting.
Accenture
Their guided missiles are literally 'light of the gods.'
Raytheon
Meaning three stars in Korean, it is the largest conglomerate in that country.
Samsung
From the college nickname of founder Paul Orfalea. He was called ___ because he had curly red hair. Copy that.
Kinko's
Named after company co-founder Louis ___, a Swiss-born auto racer. The company was merged into General Motors in 1917 and survives only as a brand name.
Chevrolet
Listen - This is a Latin translation of the German name 'Horch.' The founder August Horch left the company after five years, but still wanted to manufacture cars. Since the original 'Horch' company was still there, he called his new company this.
Audi