你知道嗎？Google的名字其實是一個拼寫錯誤

The creativity and simplicity of some of the most successful brands are what made them instantly recognizable and memorable. Without difficulties, they communicate to their audience precisely the message they want to send. However, the origins of some of them are more interesting than you might think.

一些成功品牌的創造力和簡潔性讓他們能夠立刻被辨認出來、被人們記住。他們毫無困難地準確地向大衆傳達他們想要傳達的信息。然而，這些著名品牌中，一些品牌的起源比你想得可能還要有趣。

Like many other carbonated beverages, Pepsi began to be sold as a remedy for indigestion. Pharmacist Caleb Bradham prepared it in the soda fountain of his pharmacy using a mixture of sugar, caramel, water, lemon oil, kola nuts, and nutmeg. The original name was “Brad’s Drink,” which he sold with the slogan: “Exhilarating, Invigorating, Aids Digestion.”

像許多其他碳酸飲料一樣，百事可樂一開始作爲消化不良的治療措施而出售的。藥劑師凱勒．布萊德漢姆在他的藥房中準備了一種用糖、焦糖、水、檸檬油、可樂果和肉豆蔻混合而成的蘇打水。它原來的名字叫"布萊德的飲料"，而他售賣這種飲料的口號是："興奮，振奮，幫助消化。

The drink turned out to be so popular that Bradham decided to change its name to a more attractive one. So, drawing inspiration from the word dyspepsia, the medical name for indigestion, and the kola nut that was part of the recipe, he renamed the product “Pepsi-Cola.” Nowadays, this centennial drink is a brand that has steadily grown thanks to the advertisements done by distinguished artists and celebrities.

這種飲料非常受歡迎，布萊德漢姆決定把飲料的名字改得更有吸引力一點。所以，他從消化不良的醫學名稱和作爲配方一部分的可樂果中汲取靈感，將飲料改名爲"百事可樂"。如今，這個百年飲料品牌仍在穩步增長，多虧了傑出的藝術家和名人的廣告。

The world’s largest search engine developed an influential brand that spread like a communications giant and even led to the creation of the verb “google” in the English language. It’s undeniable that Google currently possesses one of the most extensive data centers in the world, which collects internet information.

全球最大的搜索引擎開發了“谷歌”這個有影響力的品牌，傳播之廣像一個通信巨頭，甚至導致了英語動詞"google"的產生。不可否認，谷歌目前擁有世界上最廣泛的數據中心之一，用來收集互聯網信息。

Even during their freshman year at Stanford University, its founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, already knew the potential their company had. That’s why the original plan was to name it “googol,” based on the Googol number, which is equivalent to 10 to the 100th power, a huge number, but one that is not infinite.

甚至還在斯坦福大學上大一的時候，它的創始人拉里·佩奇和謝爾蓋·布林就已經知道他們公司的潛力了。這就是爲什麼最初的計劃是根據Googol數將其命名爲“ googol”的原因，該數字等於10到100的冪，這是一個巨大的數字，但不是無限的。

Due to a mistake, Larry Page misspelled the name: Instead of “googol,” he wrote “google,” and the web and the company were registered with this “error.” But, in fact, this mistake only worked to distinguish the search engine from the rest and rise to what it is today.

由於一個錯誤，拉里·佩奇拼錯了名字：寫成了Google，而不是"googol"，然而網絡和公司都以這個"錯誤"註冊了名字。但是，事實上，這個錯誤只是使谷歌區別於其他搜索引擎，並一路發展到今天。

The entrepreneur Ray Kroc was the mastermind behind the expansion of the chain, but the original name comes from the last name of the inventors of the “fast food” concept: Maurice “Mac” and Richard “Dick” McDonald. Before 1940, they owned and operated a successful restaurant, but once World War II was over, they decided to try a new system to reduce the time people waited for their food.

企業家雷·克拉克是麥當勞連鎖擴張的幕後推動者，但“麥當勞”這一名字最初來自於"快餐"概念的發明者的名字：莫里斯·麥克和理查德·"迪克"麥克唐納。在1940年之前，他們擁有並經營着一家成功的餐館，但第二次世界大戰結束後，他們決定嘗試一種新的供餐系統，以減少人們等待食物的時間。

The first McDonald’s opened in 1948. It had a menu of only a few items and executed standardized processes that allowed the brothers to accelerate the food preparation and sell it at a very competitive price. Their success led them to remodel the architecture of the restaurant too, building the prototype of the famous golden arches.

第一家麥當勞於1948年開業。菜單上只有幾個菜，並執行標準化程序，能夠讓兩兄弟加快食品的準備，並用非常有競爭力的價格出售餐品。他們成功後重新設計了餐廳的設計，建造出了著名的金色拱門的原型。

Soon after, the McDonald brothers bought Ray Krocs many milkshake mixers at a time when the market was on decline. The businessman was shocked at the efficiency of the restaurant and came up with the idea of developing franchises throughout the United States. He became their agent and bought 100% of the firm in the 1960s.

不久之後，麥當勞兄弟在市場下跌的時候給雷·克拉克買下了許多奶昔攪拌機。這位商人對餐廳的效率感到震驚，並想出了在美國各地發展特許經營的想法。他成爲了麥當勞兄弟的經紀人，並在20世紀60年代買下了整個公司。

The famous golden arches that identify the brand have evolved with time, but they’re still one of the most recognizable logos on the planet because of their simplicity and vibrant color.

麥當勞的著名金色拱門標誌已隨着時間而演變，但由於其簡潔和鮮豔的色彩，它們仍然是這個星球上最知名的標誌之一。

When in 1965, the Florida Gators university team was showing deficient performance and a series of heat-related illnesses on the field, doctors got down to work at the coach’s request to find out what was going wrong.

1965年，佛羅里達鱷魚大學隊在球場上表現不佳，出現一系列與發熱有關的疾病，醫生應教練的要求下開始工作，以查明出了什麼問題。

The specialists discovered that when the players played a game, they lost electrolytes and carbohydrates but did not recover them, so they developed a drink that met these needs. They called it Gator-Aid. The product proved to be a vast success among the Gators, and its popularity spread like wildfire in the sports world.

專家們發現，當球員們運動時，他們會失去電解質和碳水化合物，但沒有得到恢復，所以他們開發了一種飲料，以滿足這方面的需求。他們稱其爲“鱷魚援助”。該產品在鱷魚隊中取得了巨大的成功，其受歡迎程度在體育界如野火一樣蔓延開來。

When the time came to start producing it commercially, the name was replaced with Gatorade. However, its success only intensified over the years and today the brand has expanded into something much bigger than brightly colored drinks.

當這個產品開始商業化生產的時候，原來名字被佳得樂所取代了。然而，它的成功在多年之中不斷強化，今天，該品牌的業務已經擴展到比這些色彩鮮豔的飲料大得多的東西。

According to Hans Wilsdorf, founder of the exclusive watches label, he tried everything to give his new product a proper name. Wilsdorf was looking for something short that could be easily pronounced in any language. It also had to look good on the watch’s surface.

據勞力士這個獨家手錶品牌的創始人漢斯·威爾斯多夫說，他盡了一切努力給他的新產品起一個合適的名字。威爾斯多夫當時正在尋找一些短的、可以很容易地在任何語言發音的詞彙。當出現在手錶表面上時看起來也必須合適。

After combining all the alphabet letters in thousands of ways and coming up with a hundred potential names, none seemed powerful enough. But a trip on a horse-drawn trolley would change the fate of his newly founded company, because a “genius,” as he called it, whispered the word “Rolex” into his ear.

在以數千種方式組合了所有字母表字母並想出一百個潛在名字後，似乎沒有哪一個是足夠強大的。但是，一次乘坐馬車旅行改變了他新成立的公司的命運，因爲一個"天才"——他是這麼稱呼的——在他的耳邊低聲說了"Rolex"這個詞。

This premium ice cream went a long way to satisfy the palates of the American public, or that is what they’ve tried to make us believe. Its creator, Reuben Mattus, was actually a Jewish immigrant from Poland who lived in the United States. Together with his wife, they created a name that seems Scandinavian, but it is just an invented word.

這種優質冰淇淋遠道而來，以滿足美國公衆的口味，或者他們試圖讓我們相信這一點。它的創始人魯本·馬特斯實際上是一個來自波蘭的猶太移民，住在美國。他和他的妻子創造了這個看似斯堪的納維亞的名字，但它只是一個被髮明出來的詞。

Naming his ice cream Häagen-Dazs, he fulfilled a double purpose. Mattus wanted to pay tribute to Denmark, the only country that defended Jewish people during World War II, so he used Danish spelling in the name of his brand. He also wanted to add a bit of exoticism, since it was ice cream of the highest quality. He was sure the name would give his product a more distinguished profile.

通過把冰淇淋命名爲哈根達斯，他實現了雙重目的。一是馬特斯想向丹麥致敬，丹麥是二戰期間唯一一個爲猶太人辯護的國家，所以他用丹麥語拼了一個品牌的名字。二是他還想添加一點異國情調，因爲它是最高品質的冰淇淋。他確信這個名字會給他的產品一個更傑出的形象。

When magnate Amancio Ortega wanted to name his clothing business, he initially thought of calling it “Zorba,” like the 1964 movie, Zorba The Greek, as he was a big fan of the Anthony Quinn film. He had even made the frame to put the letters on the poster of his shop in A Coruña.

當大亨阿曼西奧·奧爾特加想給他的服裝生意命名時，他最初想到稱它爲"佐爾巴（Zorba）"，就像1964年的電影《佐爾巴希臘人》裏那樣，因爲他是安東尼·奎因電影的忠實粉絲。他甚至製作了框，以將字母貼在他在拉科魯尼亞（ACoruña）的商店的海報上。

However, shortly before the inauguration in 1975, he realized that his store was pretty close to a bar named, precisely, “Zorba.” Since it would’ve been very confusing to the customers to have 2 businesses with the same name in such a small radius, Ortega took the sign and decided to add an “a,” and remove the ’b," coining the name of one of the most recognizable Spanish brands in the world.

然而，在1975年開業前不久，他意識到他的商店離一個叫"Zorba"的酒吧很近。奧爾特加在這麼小的半徑內擁有2家同名的店，會讓顧客非常困惑，於是他決定添加一個"a"，並刪除"b"，最後形成的就是世界上最知名的西班牙品牌之一的名字。

started its days in Jeff Bezos’ garage in 1994, but didn’t always bear the name that distinguishes it today. What was originally an online bookstore was going to have the magical name “Cadabra.” However, the brand’s first lawyer, Todd Tarbert, convinced Bezos that the word sounded very similar to “cadaver.”

是1994年在傑夫·貝佐斯的車庫裏被創建出來的，但那時候並不總是有今天如此有辨識度的名字。它原來是一家網上書店，計劃中的名字是聽起來很神奇的"卡達布拉（Cadabra）"。然而，該品牌的第一位律師託德·塔伯特說服了貝佐斯不要用這個名字，因爲這個詞聽起來非常類似於"屍體（cadaver）"

It was time to pick another name. Bezos came up with the name Relentless. In fact, the web domain exists and now redirects the user to .

是時候再取一個名字了。貝佐斯想出了"無情（relentless）"這個名字。事實上，這個Web域的確存在，但現在將用戶重定向到這個網址。

But finally, the name Amazon was selected, and so, “the largest bookstore in the world” would bear the name of the longest river in the world, the Amazon. It wouldn’t be just an online bookstore, but a technological process that would simplify electronic purchases and change history forever. This is what it looked like in the 90s (look at the logo with the river).

但最後，亞馬遜這個名字被選中了，從此，"世界上最大的書店"將用上世界上最長的河流——亞馬遜的名字。它不僅僅是一個在線書店，而是一個技術過程，將簡化電子採購，並永遠改變歷史。這是它在90年代的時候的樣子（看看與河流的標誌）。

Founded in 1943, when its creator was only 17 years old, IKEA went from selling all kinds of objects to becoming the benchmark of Swedish creativity worldwide with its furniture for assembly that facilitates packaging and transport.

宜家成立於1943年，其創建者當時只有17歲。從銷售各種物品，到成爲全球創意的標杆，宜家主要用了傢俱組裝這一業務，方便傢俱的包裝和運輸。

However, those who don’t understand Swedish have always wondered what the word IKEA means in that language. The answer? It’s an acronym that is a combo of the first letters of founder’s first name and last name: Ingvar Kamprad, the farm where he grew up: Elmtaryd, and the town in southern Sweden where it was located: Agunnaryd.

然而，那些不懂瑞典語的人總是想知道宜家這個詞在瑞典語中意味着什麼。答案是什麼？IKEA是一個首字母縮寫，是創始人的名字和姓氏的第一個字母組合：英格瓦爾·坎普拉德（Ingvar Kamprad），他長大的農場：埃爾姆塔裏德（Elmtaryd），和它所在的瑞典南部的城鎮：阿貢納裏德（Agunnaryd）。

Curious fact: Unlike the company, the name of each product does have a Swedish origin (mostly). The categories can be found in the IKEA Dictionary.

奇怪的事實：與公司的名字不同，每種產品的名稱大部分都有瑞典血統。這些名稱可在宜家詞典中找到。