24 Companies That Changed Their Names — the Naming Mistake Behind Each One

On 10 August 2001, England's High Court ruled that the World Wrestling Federation had breached a 1994 agreement with the World Wide Fund for Nature over three letters. Nine months later the company was called WWE, its logo had been sanded down to "WW," and it was running a campaign titled "Get the F Out." A trademark deal signed seven years earlier had eaten its name.

Rebrands like that are corrections, and the mistake usually happened years earlier at the naming stage. Below are twenty-four documented cases, each linked to a source, grouped into the seven mistakes that keep causing them. Where a rebrand's cost is publicly reported, the figure is here with its source. Where it is not, we say so.

The Seven Naming Mistakes That Force a Rebrand

The least embarrassing mistake, because it only happens to companies that succeed. The fix is nearly always the same shape: keep the famous name on the product, invent a new one for the parent.

Why did Facebook change its name to Meta?

Facebook renamed its parent company Meta on 28 October 2021 because the company brand and one of its apps had become the same word. The announcement said Meta "brings together our apps and technologies under one new company brand." The Facebook app kept its name.

Why did Google create Alphabet?

Google did not rename itself in 2015 — it built a parent above itself and became a subsidiary. Larry Page's "G is for Google" letter explains the word: Alphabet "means a collection of letters that represent language," and doubles as alpha-bet, "investment return above benchmark." Search kept Google; the moonshots got their own roof.

Why did Square change its name to Block?

Square announced on 1 December 2021 that its parent would become Block. The reason was collision: "The Square name has become synonymous with the company's Seller business," so the parent stepped aside to let that unit "own the Square brand it was built for." Cash App and TIDAL kept their names.

Why did Apple Computer become Apple Inc.?

Steve Jobs announced the change on 9 January 2007, at the Macworld keynote where he introduced the iPhone and Apple TV. Dropping "Computer" reflected an expanded focus on consumer electronics. A word that described the whole business in 1977 described a shrinking slice of it thirty years later.

Why did Zomato change its name to Eternal?

Zomato's listed parent became Eternal Limited on 6 February 2025. Blinkit, Hyperpure and District had become core pillars and a restaurant-review name could not hold them; the Zomato app kept its branding. Tesla did the same in February 2017, dropping "Motors" after buying SolarCity.

Mistake 2: The Name Locked You Into One Category

A category noun is a promise about what you sell, and also a fence. When the category shrinks — or customers already use something shorter — the fence becomes the problem.

Why did Weight Watchers change its name to WW?

Weight Watchers became WW in September 2018 under the tagline "Wellness that Works," repositioning from weight loss to overall health. Meetings became Wellness Workshops and membership no longer required a weight-loss goal. The initials kept the old name's equity while retiring the word the company no longer wanted defining it.

It did not save the company: WW International filed for Chapter 11 on 6 May 2025, citing GLP-1 drug competition, and emerged that July. That was attributed to the drug market, not the name — a rebrand repositions a business, it cannot manufacture demand.

Why did Dunkin' Donuts drop "Donuts" from its name?

Dunkin' Donuts announced in September 2018 that it would become simply Dunkin', rolling out from January 2019. The company framed it as a shift to a "beverage-led" brand as customers ate fewer doughnuts — and noted the shortened name was already what customers and its own marketing used.

Why did Kentucky Fried Chicken change its name to KFC?

Kentucky Fried Chicken formally adopted KFC in 1991. Kyle Craig, then president of KFC U.S., admitted the change was an attempt to distance the chain from the unhealthy connotations of "fried." The initials kept the rhythm of the brand while hiding the word that had become a liability.

Why did Research In Motion change its name to BlackBerry?

RIM announced on 30 January 2013, at the BlackBerry 10 launch, that the company would take its product's name. Research In Motion had no consumer equity; BlackBerry had all of it, and customers in several markets already used it. Tickers changed to BB and BBRY on 4 February 2013.

Mistake 3: Someone Else Already Owned the Name

The only mistake a court can force on you, and the most preventable. By the time a ruling lands you have spent years building recognition into a word you are about to lose.

Why did Andersen Consulting change its name to Accenture?

Andersen Consulting lost the right to its own name. A 2000 arbitration severed it from Andersen Worldwide and Arthur Andersen, required it to pay $1.2 billion, and forced it to surrender the Andersen name. The replacement — Accenture, from "accent on the future" — took effect on 1 January 2001.

The winning entry, from Kim Petersen in the Oslo office, was picked partly because the invented word was meaningless and so unlikely to offend anywhere the firm operated. What the relaunch cost in marketing has never been published.

Why did the WWF change its name to WWE?

On 10 August 2001, England's High Court found the World Wrestling Federation had breached a January 1994 agreement with the World Wide Fund for Nature — over the WWF initials, the wwf.com domain and its "scratch" logo. On 6 May 2002 it became World Wrestling Entertainment.

The initials had been contested since 1994, yet the company kept expanding into the disputed territory. When the Fund later pursued damages, a 2007 ruling called its approach an abuse of process and awarded none: the company lost its name and nobody collected.

Mistake 4: The Name Was Too Generic to Own

Descriptive names explain the business instantly, but a description belongs to everyone in the category. Google began as "BackRub," a Stanford project named for the backlinks it analysed — a name for the mechanism, not the promise.

Why did the Sci Fi Channel change its name to Syfy?

NBCUniversal announced the change on 16 March 2009 and switched on 7 July 2009. The reason was ownership: unlike the generic "sci fi," which names a whole genre, "Syfy" is a sensational spelling that can be protected by trademark and marketed on other goods without confusion. If your name is the plain words for your category, you own a description, not a brand.

Why did Overstock rename itself Bed Bath & Beyond?

"Overstock" named a business model — closeout inventory — not a brand, and capped what shoppers thought it could sell. It bought Bed Bath & Beyond's IP out of bankruptcy for $21.5 million in June 2023, took the name on 1 August 2023, and became Beyond, Inc. that November. It relaunched Overstock.com as a separate higher-end brand on 28 March 2024 — narrow, not worthless.

Mistake 5: The Name Did Not Survive the Border

A name only has to fail in one language you sell into, and the failure is not subtle — it is a word your sales team cannot say out loud.

Why did Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo change its name to Sony?

Akio Morita discovered on a US trip that Americans could not pronounce "Totsuko," the company's own abbreviation, and that Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo meant nothing abroad. In January 1958 the company became Sony, built from the Latin sonus (sound) and the American slang "sonny."

Why is the Mitsubishi Pajero sold as the Montero in Spanish-speaking markets?

Because pajero is vulgar slang in Spanish — roughly "wanker." Mitsubishi sells the identical vehicle as the Montero in North America, Spain and most of Latin America, and as the Shogun in the United Kingdom, keeping Pajero for Japan and markets where the Spanish reading does not apply.

Why did Nissan drop the Datsun name?

Nissan announced the switch in autumn 1981 and finished by 1986, wanting one global name so advertising and dealer materials would work everywhere. It produced the best-documented rebrand cost on this list — and five years after the programme ended, Datsun was reportedly still the more familiar name.

The reported total was roughly $500 million over five years: about $30 million to re-sign 1,100 dealerships, $200 million of advertising from 1982 to 1986, and $50 million of Datsun advertising produced and never used. Part of a name change is work you already paid for and threw away.

Mistake 6: The Name Became Radioactive

Sometimes the name was fine and the company was not. Once an event attaches to a word, advertising will not detach it — so the word gets replaced.

Why did Philip Morris change its name to Altria?

Philip Morris Companies became Altria Group in 2003, publicly to reflect a portfolio that then included an 84% stake in Kraft Foods. Its own consultants, the Wirthlin Group, had written that a name change "offers the possibility of masking the negatives associated with the tobacco business." Steven Pinker called the result an "egregious example" of phonesthesia.

Why did ValuJet change its name to AirTran?

ValuJet Flight 592 crashed in the Florida Everglades on 11 May 1996, destroying the airline's safety reputation. ValuJet Inc. announced the acquisition of the much smaller Airways Corporation on 10 July 1997, closed it on 17 November 1997, and took the acquired company's name. Time called it "a corporate disappearing act."

Why did Blackwater change its name twice?

Blackwater USA became Blackwater Worldwide in October 2007, weeks after the Nisour Square shootings; then Xe Services in February 2009; then Academi in 2011, after new owners took over and founder Erik Prince departed. Three names in four years, each further from the word the public had learned.

Why did Aunt Jemima change its name to Pearl Milling Company?

PepsiCo announced on 17 June 2020 that it would retire Aunt Jemima, a brand built on a racial stereotype. The replacement, Pearl Milling Company, was revealed on 9 February 2021 and reached shelves that June. Mars said on the same day in 2020 that it would evolve the Uncle Ben's identity, but did not announce the replacement name — Ben's Original — until 23 September 2020.

PepsiCo kept the Aunt Jemima trademark registered after retiring it, because abandoning a mark lets a third party claim it. A retired name is not a released name — which is why a name can be unavailable when nobody appears to use it.

Mistake 7: The Rebrand Itself Was the Mistake

The mirror image of the rest: companies that changed a name they should have kept, each underestimating how much recognition sat in the old word.

Why did the Post Office become Consignia — and then change back?

The Post Office Group became Consignia plc in 2001, a coined name from the consultancy Dragon Brands, meant to show the company did more than deliver mail. Staff and the Communication Workers Union rejected it, the public mocked it, and the group began operating as Royal Mail Group plc on 4 November 2002.

No verified figure for what Consignia cost has been published, and inventing one would be dishonest. The documented cost is the reversal: a brand with centuries of recognition replaced and restored inside roughly a year.

Why did Tribune Publishing rename itself tronc?

Tribune Publishing became tronc, Inc. in June 2016 — short for "Tribune online content" — signalling a pivot to digital, machine learning and video under the slogan "From Pixels to Pulitzers." It was ridiculed immediately, including by John Oliver. The reversal was announced on 19 June 2018 and took effect that 9 October.

Why did Twitter change its name to X?

Elon Musk replaced the Twitter name and bird logo with X in July 2023, retiring a brand whose product verb — "tweet" — had entered ordinary English. X Corp. still owns the Twitter trademark. No published figure isolates what the rebrand alone cost.

Fidelity, a shareholder, repeatedly marked its stake down; by September 2024 its estimate implied roughly a 79% decline from the $44 billion purchase price, before recovering by March 2025. That reflects everything that happened at the company, not the name — which is why any clean cost figure quoted for this rebrand should be distrusted.

Why did Cracker Barrel reverse its 2025 logo change?

Cracker Barrel unveiled a simplified logo in August 2025, dropping the old man and barrel, and reverted within about a week after mass customer backlash. Note what this case is not: the name never changed. The customers who punish a change are rarely the ones it was designed to attract.

What These Rebrands Actually Cost

Rebrand costs are widely quoted and rarely sourced. Here is every figure in this article with a public source, plus the ones without.

The Checklist That Would Have Caught Most of These

Every mistake above is cheap to avoid at the naming stage and expensive to fix later. Run each shortlisted candidate through these seven questions first.

1. Does it still work if you double your product line? "Apple Computer" fails this test; "Apple" does not.
2. Does it name a category you might leave? Weight Watchers, Dunkin' Donuts and Overstock all had to unpick a noun.
3. Can you actually own it? A plain description of your category cannot be protected — the Syfy lesson. Search the USPTO trademark database and your state's Secretary of State.
4. Is someone with a bigger legal budget already using it? Andersen Consulting and the WWF both lost names they had used for years.
5. Say it aloud in your three biggest export markets. Pajero and Totsuko were caught by someone reading the word to a native speaker. That review costs nothing.
6. Would you keep this name attached to your worst possible headline? ValuJet, Blackwater and Philip Morris all learned a name absorbs whatever happens to the company.
7. Are customers already calling you something shorter? If so, that is your real name — BlackBerry and Dunkin' both eventually surrendered to it.

What You Can Check Yourself — and What You Cannot

Be precise about which risks a tool removes. Namilio checks domain availability across 21 TLDs, and on Premium screens each name against live trademark records across 200+ offices — a preliminary conflict scan, not a clearance search. It does not check state business registries, social media handles, or marketplace shop names. A free .com here can still collide with a registered mark — the collision that cost Andersen Consulting its name. See our guides to trademarking a business name and checking name availability.

Name It Once

None of these companies chose a bad name in a vacuum. They chose one that was accurate for the business they had that day. The failure was horizon, not taste. The counterweight is volume: generate far more candidates than you need, then eliminate on ownership, category and pronunciation. Read how iconic brands got their names, work through the naming process, and build a shortlist with Namilio's free AI name generator or company name generator.

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