Famous brands from Pepsi to Google that started with different names

Some of the most recognisable brands today were once called something completely different. In their infancy, many brands were named after their owners or to loosely describe their purpose before they grew into big and influential companies.

From social media platforms to soft drinks, the brands on this list chose to change their names early on to suit their customer base or better represent their aims and values. Matthew Woodward, the director of Search Logistics, shares his insights into the unlikely histories of five famous brands and how they evolved into what they are today.

The original name of Facebook

Started by Harvard University student Mark Zuckerberg in 2003, the original name for Facebook was Facemash. The online platform began as a place where fellow students could look at photos of their classmates and rate them based on attractiveness. This lasted a total of two days before Harvard authorities shut it down because Zuckerberg was using university resources without permission.

After the failed first attempt, Zuckerberg rebranded with the new name of The Facebook in January 2004. This ultimately fit better as the name for the first official social media platform, with 'the' soon dropped from the name. Matthew said: "The founders, including Zuckerberg, saw the potential beyond a silly place where people rate each other’s appearance."

From there, the platform grew into a hub for social interaction online with features like status posting and Facebook groups. Today, Facebook is the largest social media platform in the world and is under the umbrella company, Meta, which also runs Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp.

The original name of Google

When Larry Page and Sergey Brin co-founded what later became known as Google, they went with the name Backrub in reference to the program’s analysis of back-links on the internet. It was a fun play on words that served the company’s purpose for just over a year from 1995, until 1997 when they accidentally stumbled upon the name Google after a team member made a typo.

The name change originally suggested was ‘googol’, the term for the number one followed by one hundred zeros, symbolising the seemingly countless results when someone searches for something on the company’s home page. "The typo worked and they decided to keep it, making it one of the most iconic logos in today’s modern world," said Matthew.

The original name of Nike

In the late 1950s, a man named Phil Knight was attending the University of Oregon when he met a track and field coach named Bill Bowerman, who was obsessed with fitting his athletes with the best running shoes on the market. After getting a master’s degree from Stanford, Phil returned to Oregon with a deeper knowledge of shoe production and distribution to team up with his former coach and create Blue Ribbon Sports.

From 1964 to 1971, this was the name that Knight operated under while he designed shoes, selling those designs to a bigger company called the Tiger Shoe Company (now called Asics). By 1971, Knight wanted to sever ties with Tiger and rebrand in order to sell his successful design called the “Cortez '' and release other designs.

This is when the name Nike came about. The name Nike originates from Greek mythology and is the name of the goddess of victory - something Nike achieved once they rebranded.

The original name of PayPal

Getting a jump on online payment accessibility, the entrepreneurs and founders of PayPal, Peter Thiel and Max Levchin started the company in 1998. Back then, the startup went by the name of Confinity, which is defined as a ‘community of limits’. The original aim of the company was to create a low-cost, online payment method for both businesses and consumers.

Matthew said: "The company changed its name to PayPal in June of 2001 as they changed their focus solely to internet users." This name gave customers an easy understanding of what the company does: makes online payments quick and easy.

The original name of Pepsi

As the oldest brand on this list, Pepsi has a long and storied history that started in 1898 with the invention of what was then called Brad’s Drink. Although Brad might sound like the name of an average guy you’d meet on the street, the name Brad’s Drink was actually derived from Caleb D. Bradham, a pharmacist and the inventor of the soda we now know as Pepsi.

Doctor Bradham wasn’t satisfied with the name his concoction was being sold under, so sought out a new name, which he found in a local competitor called “Pep-Cola”. He bought the rights to the name and changed it to Pepsi-Cola not long afterwards.

Brands naturally evolve as the world grows and changes. The brands on this list all had inklings early on that a name change would make a positive difference for their company and they turned out to be right. Matthew said: "Being willing to adapt and make big changes can sometimes be the best thing you can do for the growth and success of your brand."