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Company Name Origins

Click on each clue for its answer.

  1. You need a good shoe to kick this one whose name is an alternate spelling of Pelea capreolus, an African antelope.

    Reebok

  2. Named from the Biblical character renowned for his strength.

    Samsonite

  3. A major player in the early days of the internet, its name is Spanish for 'high view.'

    Alta Vista

  4. Mitch Kapor who was a teacher of Transcendental Meditation of Mahesh Yogi named the company after this yogic position formally called "Padmasana."

    Lotus

  5. Literally 'sunrise' in Japanese and a big 'Hit' in the world of technology.

    Hitachi

  6. 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!

  7. You deserve a cuppa if you know this company was named after a character in Herman Melville's novel Moby-Dick.

    Starbucks

  8. 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

  9. Take a Big Gulp and name this company renamed from UtoteM in 1946 to reflect their newly extended hours.

    7-Eleven

  10. From the German for 'people's car.'

    Volkswagen

  11. 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

  12. From the Latin word which means 'I roll.' Their cars don't!

    Volvo

  13. The name roughly translates as 'Rising from Asia' in Hanja. Now owned by Hyundai, it is best known for the Rio.

    Kia

  14. GM's luxury car division named for the explorer who founded Detroit.

    Cadillac

  15. 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)

  16. Beverage giant named from a digestive enzyme - just don't say Coke!

    Pepsi

  17. 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

  18. From the company's original name, Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company.

    3M

  19. Named for the Greek goddess of victory.

    Nike

  20. Play a 'Sonata' and name this Korean giant whose name connotes the sense of 'the present age' or 'modernity' in Korean.

    Hyundai

  21. Predict this. The code name for a CIA project which was designed to use the newly written SQL database language from IBM.

    Oracle

  22. 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

  23. 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

  24. 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

  25. Click! Named after the Japanese name of the Buddhist bodhisattva of mercy.

    Canon

  26. The Japanese translation is disputed, although the Chinese name is three oceans. This electronic giant is now owned by Panasonic.

    Sanyo

  27. 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

  28. You get milk chocolate if you name this Swiss company whose name means 'little nest.'

    Nestlé

  29. This pharmaceutical giant based in Basel, Switzerland has a name that means 'new skills' in Latin.

    Novartis

  30. 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

  31. Prior to January 1, 2001 the company was called Andersen Consulting.

    Accenture

  32. Their guided missiles are literally 'light of the gods.'

    Raytheon

  33. Meaning three stars in Korean, it is the largest conglomerate in that country.

    Samsung

  34. From the college nickname of founder Paul Orfalea. He was called ___ because he had curly red hair. Copy that.

    Kinko's

  35. 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

  36. 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