There is a certain category of extremely popular brands that usually are a subject of discussions. This inevitably leads to speculation about the real story behind their names. That’s why we decided to shed light over the real truth behind three popular brand names.

Do you know that Pepsi’s name is inspired by the medical term for indigestion?

Caleb Davis Bradham, who is the inventor of Pepsi, first wanted to be a doctor. However, due to family reasons he had to leave medical school and take on the path to becoming a pharmacist instead. At least that’s the story the website of the company tells.

The original invention that later turned into Pepsi was first named “Brad’s Drink”. It was a mix of sugar, water, caramel, lemon oil and nutmeg. Three years later Bradham’s muse came to inspire him to rename the drink’s name to “Pepsi Cola” that comes from the word for indigestion – dyspepsia.

All Day I Dream About Soccer = Adidas?

Turns out there is a pretty common misconception that Adidas is an acronym for “All Day I Dream About Soccer”. It’s wrong. The real answer is only a quick google search away – the apparel brand is wearing the name of Adolf Dassler, who is the founder of Adidas. According to information in mainstream media, he started making sport shoes when he was coming back from serving in World War I. The first part of the brand‘s name – Adi stands as a nickname for Adolf and Das is the first three letters of the founder’s family name.

Lululemon in a nonsense name and is intentionally hard to pronounce

Chip Wilson, who is the founder of the yoga-wear brand Lululemon, choose the name because of a very interesting reason – to sound international for the Japanese market. The simple reason behind that motivation is that the Japanese people cannot pronounce the sound of the letter „L” since it is not in the Japanese phonetics. So the Japanese consumers were left with the sense that the brand is something authentically foreign. So the only roots the brand name Lululemon has are in the motivations of the founder to set three Ls in the name’s letters. According to insiders the choice for the brand’s name was taken from a list of 20 brand names and 20 logos by a group of hundred people.

Read our article The secret story of 5 famous brand names, where we also discussed Lululemon’s meaning.