Would a rose by any other name smell as sweet? While we ponder that question, let’s look at how some of today’s iconic technology brands got their names. Long before they were household brands, after all, they were just nameless ideas. And one has to wonder, would an Apple by any other name still sell as many iPads?

1. What’s in a technology company
name?
Would a rose by any other name smell as
sweet?
While we ponder that question, let’s look
at how some of today’s iconic technology
brands got their names. Long before they
were household brands, after all, they
were just nameless ideas.
And one has to wonder, would an Apple
by any other name still sell as many
sweet, sweet iPads?
By Jeff Jedras Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

2. Apple Inc.
First slogan: Byte into an Apple
Well yes, of course Apple Inc. is named after
the fruit. Otherwise the Macintosh really
makes no sense. Never mind the logo. The
question, though, is why?
The answer only came recently, in Walter
Isaacson’s biography of late Apple founder
Steve Jobs:
On the naming of Apple, he said he was “on
one of my fruitarian diets.” He said he had just
come back from an apple farm, and thought
the name sounded “fun, spirited and not
intimidating.”

3. Microsoft Corp.
Early slogan: Where do you want to go today?
You don’t need to be a computer
scientist to see that Microsoft Corp.
is an amalgam of microcomputer
and software. It wasn’t the first
name Microsoft co-founders Bill Gates and Paul Allan considered, though.
The pair told Fortune magazine in 2005 that, at first, they went with “Micro-Soft”
with a hyphen, after (not so seriously) considering and rejecting options such as
Outcorporated Inc. and Unlimited Ltd.
While Allen & Gates was seriously considered as a name, they wanted to build a
company that would last without them.

4. Oracle Corp.
Original name: Software Development Laboratories
For the first five years of its existence,
Oracle Corp. was known as Software
Development Laboratories and then
Relational Software, changing its name in
1982 to align with its flagship Oracle
Database product.
OK, but why was the database product
called Oracle? Well, before founding the
company, Larry Ellison worked on a
database contract for the Central
Intelligence Agency called Project Oracle.
And that’s Oracle’s CIA connection.

5. Samsung Group
Produces one-fifth of South Korea’s exports
In North America we know Samsung best for its
electronics division, maker of everything from
televisions and DVD players to laptop computers and
smartphones.
That’s just one division of this major multinational
though, which dabbles in everything from
petrochemicals and heavy ships to life insurance.
But how did this South Korean corporate giant get its name? According to its
founder, in Korean the name means tristar, or three stars. Three represents
something big and powerful, and the stars mean eternity.

6. SAP AG
Founded in 1972
Knowing that SAP is a German software company,
you had to suspect the name would be pretty
literal.
SAP was founded as Systemanalyse und
Programmentwicklung, for System Analysis and
Program Development. They later kept the acronym
but changed the words behind it to Systeme,
Anwendungen und Produkte in der
Datenverarbeitung, or Systems, Applications and
Products in Data Processing.
Hey, they can’t all be linked to cool code names for
secret spy agency projects, can they?