This book gives the stories behind, or origins of, more than 3,500 commercial names. Many of them are American or British but some are French, German, Italian or Japanese.
From A & C Black (publishers) to Zyklon (insecticide), entries cover two types of subjects: company names and the names of products and services. The companies have names derived from their founders or benefactors, such as Dell computers and Lamborghini automobiles; or from placenames, such as Land O’Lakes dairy products and Halex table tennis balls; or from a “story,” such as Ratrac snow tractors or Hang Ten surfwear.
The entries for product names explain the origin of brand names, like Dannon yogurt and Laservision video system; trademarks, such as Harp beer and Holeproof hosiery; patented products like Demerol; and hard-to-categorize commercial names like the Dancercize program.

The late Adrian Room was a noted toponymist and onomastician. The author of more than 50 reference books about words and names, he lived in Stamford, Lincolnshire, England.

Adrian Room
Format: softcover (7 x 10 in 2 vols.)
Pages: 591
Bibliographic Info: appendix, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2008 [2002]
pISBN: 978-0-7864-3765-8
Imprint: McFarland

Introduction     1

Corporate Names Worldwide     5

Advertising Slogans     559

Appendix     562

Bibliography     563

Index     567

“extensive coverage…extremely useful”—Booklist; “gives the origin and etymology of 3,500 names of corporations and products”—C&RL News; “well-made…a necessity””—Reference & User Services Quarterly.