Rebranding: Companies that changed their original names.

What’s in a name anyway?

Companies generally change their brand name and sometimes even changing the whole identity with the passage of time. Rebranding is a very tricky gamble, where even a small mistake or slip can land your business or brand in the soup. But that hasn’t stopped many organizations to tread this path. Some companies have changed it all from its original version from name them logo. And sometimes, the gamble seems to have paid off. So, here is the list of companies who had changed their original name.

Confinity/ PayPal.

Long before digital payment changed and made our life easier, PayPal was the pioneer in the field of online payment. But it was not always this way as the company started as a money transfer service and was known as Confinity. When it merged with Elon Musk’s banking company named Company X.com, it was rebranded as PayPal.

Odeo/Twitter.

One of the iconic rebranding known to industry, the journey of Odeo turning to Twitter is legendary. This social media platform started off as a platform for podcasts. But it sensed its downfall with Apple iTunes conquering the podcasts industry. So, it risked changing its model entirely to a microblogging site. And, the rest they say is history.

Relentless/Amazon.

The richest man on the planet, Jeff Bezos, started Amazon as relentless.com. Even today, if you search for relentless.com on web, then you would be redirected to Amazon. The name relentless didn’t resonate well with Jeff’s friends and peers, who found the name to be very negative and sinister. He toyed with many other names such as Abracadabra, Awake, Bookmail, before settling for Amazon.

Blue Ribbon Sports/Nike.

The world’s largest supplier of sports apparel and footwear was founded in the year 1964, and it was known as the Blue Ribbon Sports. You would be surprised to know that they didn’t manufacture shoes at first but instead distributed them for its Japanese manufacturer, known as Onitsuka Tiger. But when they decided to start their own footwear in the year 1971, they decided to change its name. After much deliberation, they settled for Nike, which is the name of the Greek Goddess of victory.

Matchbox/Tinder.

Your friend in finding your perfect match started with a similar name, Matchbox. Yes, the matchbox dating app was ready to blow you over when the makers felt the name was not appropriate enough. They wanted a catchy yet something associated with love and fire of compatibility. So, the name Tinder came out of thesaurus and was perfect.

So, do you prefer the old name or the new one?