Brand Names came from...

Coca-Cola — derived from the coca leaves and kola nuts used as flavoring. Coca-Cola creator John S. Pemberton changed the 'K' of kola to 'C' to make the name look better.

Apple — for the favorite fruit of co-founder Steve Jobs and for the time he worked at an apple orchard

Pepsi — named from the digestive enzyme pepsin.

Nike — named for the Greek goddess of victory.

Nokia — started as a wood-pulp mill, the company expanded into producing rubber products in the Finnish city of Nokia. The company later adopted the city's name.

Colgate-Palmolive — formed from a merger of soap manufacturers Colgate & Company and Palmolive-Peet. Peet was dropped in 1953. Colgate was named after William Colgate, an English immigrant, who set up a starch, soap and candle business in New York City in 1806.

Palmolive was named for the two oils (Palm and Olive) used in its manufacture.

Starbucks — named after Starbuck, a character in Herman Melville's novel Moby-Dick

Sharp — Japanese consumer Electronics Company named from its first product, an ever-sharp pencil

LG — from the combination of two popular Korean brands, Lucky and Goldstar.

Google — a deliberate misspelling of the word googol, reflecting the company's mission to organize the immense amount of information available online.

Company names from the founders:

Adidas — from the name of the founder Adolf (Adi) Dassler.

Honda — from the name of its founder, Soichiro Honda

Nestlé — named after its founder, Henri Nestlé, who was born in Germany under the name "Nestle", which is German for "bird's nest". The company logo is a bird's nest with a mother bird and two chicks.

HP — Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard tossed a coin to decide whether the company they founded would be called Hewlett-Packard or Packard-Hewlett.

Toyota — from the name of the founder, Sakichi Toyoda.

Dell — named after its founder, Michael Dell. The company changed its name from Dell Computer in 2003.