New book reveals stories behind names of big firms

London, Nov 20: While Nike was got its name from the Greek God of victory, Internet giant Google got its from googol - the number one followed by 100 zeroes which represents the amount of information the site was expected to cover, reveals the latest edition of The Economist book, World of Business.

The book narrates the weird and wonderful ways some of the world's top firms got their names are revealed in a new book.

While many companies like Sainsbury's or Marks and Spencer are named after real people, others have bizarre beginnings, reports The Sun.

Google is a reworked form of googol, and tyre giant Bridgestone sounds English but is a translation of the founder's surname, Ishibashi - Japanese for stone bridge.

However, computer company Oracle does not have any connection with mythology. Instead it comes from a top secret CIA project that founders Larry Ellison, Ed Oates and Bob Milner were working on before they started the firm.

Ikea is a combination of the initials of founder Ingmar Kamprad and his home, a farm called Elmtaryd in the Swedish town Agunnaryd.

And Aldi is a cross between the Albrecht family who began the firm and the word discount.

ANI