Do you Yahoo!? Would you if you had to Jerry's Guide to the World Wide Web?
你喜歡“雅虎”這個名字嗎？如果叫“杰瑞的網絡指南”還會喜歡嗎？

While a bad name isn't enough to sink a brand on its own, several of the biggest shed some puzzling titles before becoming worldwide hits.
雖然一個不太好的品牌名稱不足以讓一個品牌沒落，但有一些頂級品牌在成為全球熱門品牌前曾放棄過一些令人費解的名字。

According to CNBC, electronics chain Best Buy was still called Sound of Music back in 1981 when the brand's Roseville, Minnesota, store was reduced to rubble by a tornado.
根據美國全國廣播公司財經頻道介紹，電子商品連鎖店百思買（Best Buy）在1981年還叫“音樂之聲”（Sound of Music）。當時，其品牌旗下位于明尼蘇達州的羅斯維爾零售店被龍卷風夷為平地。

Afterwards, the store held a 'Tornado Sale' in the parking lot advertising 'best buys' on damaged electronics. Two years later, all the stores were rebranded as Best Buy.
后來，該門店在自家停車場舉行“龍卷風后甩賣”，為受損的電子產品打出“最劃算商品”的廣告。兩年后，所有的門店都更名為百思買。

Google, the most popular search engine provider, earned that name two years after it was founded in 1986, under infinitely less catchy name BackRub.
最受歡迎的搜索引擎提供商——谷歌，在1986年剛剛創建時使用的是一個極不顯眼的名字“BackRub”（譯者注：谷歌創始人佩奇把他在斯坦福的一個項目稱為BackRub），兩年后才更名為“谷歌”。

Hertz Rent-A-Car was originally Hertz Drive-Ur-Self System, but changed to The Hertz Corporation in 1954 after a major restructuring.
赫茲租車公司原名為“赫茲自我駕駛系統公司”，1954年進行了一次重大重組后，更名為赫茲租車公司。

Many of the top brands simply went from wordy and boring to short and sweet with their name changes.
許多頂級品牌通過改名字就實現了由冗長而乏味向簡潔友好形象的轉變。

Computing Tabulating Recording Corporation became IBM (International Business Machines), while Jerry's Guide to the World Wide Web became Yahoo, an acronym for Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle.
“計算列表紀錄公司”更名為IBM——國際商業機器公司，“杰瑞的網絡指南”更名為“雅虎”（Yahoo），這是“另一種非官方層次化數據庫”的首字母縮寫。

Quantum Computer Services turned into America Online back in 1991, then in 2006 shortened its name to AOL.
1991年，量子電腦服務更名為“美國在線”，2006年又將名字縮短為“AOL”。

Starbucks Coffee, Tea and Spice, once called Il Giornale Coffee Company, was shortened to simply Starbucks, and Marafuku Company turned into Nintendo Playing Card Company before becoming Nintendo.
“星巴克咖啡，茶葉和香料”原來叫“每日咖啡公司”，后縮減成簡單的“星巴克”；任天堂在使用現用名之前，最初曾命名為馬拉夫庫公司，后又曾更名為任天堂撲克牌公司。

One of the most profitable companies in history, Apple Inc, made only a subtle change from Apple Computers in 2007 as the company moved into other areas of consumer electronics.
歷史上最賺錢的公司之一——蘋果公司，在其進軍其他消費電子產品領域時只是對名字作了細微更改——將“蘋果電腦公司”更名為“蘋果公司”。

Once known as Research in Motion, the makers of the BlackBerry simply adopted the name of their flagship product in 2013 as they tried to catch up to competition in the midst of declining sales.
曾經被稱為移動研究公司是黑莓手機的制造商，該公司在2013年改名為黑莓，這是該公司最有名的一款旗艦產品的名字，此番改名主要是他們想要在銷量下降的情況下與競爭對手抗衡。

Other companies, named after their original founders, eventually outgrew their more provincial-sounding names.
還有一些以創始人名字命名的公司，最終的發展與他們最初帶有鄉音的名字已經不可同日而語。

?Pete's Super Submarines became SUBWAY, Wards Company became Circuit City, Brad's Drink turned into Pepsi-Cola and Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo became Sony.
“皮特的超級潛艇”現在成了“賽百味”，“華德公司”更名為“電路城”，“布拉德飲料公司”更名為“百事可樂”，東京通信工業公司也變成了“索尼”。

Blue Ribbon Sports, which distributed Japanese sneakers Onitsuka Tiger in the US, eventually became Nike, named after the winged Greek goddess of victory.
最初在美國代理日本鬼冢虎運動鞋的藍帶體育用品公司最終成為了如今的耐克公司，耐克是古希臘神話中展翅的勝利女神的名字。

(來源：英國《每日郵報》 譯者：梁倩SCNU 編輯：馬文英)