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The creativity and simplicity of some of the most successful brands are what made them instantly recognizable and memorable. Without difficulties, they communicate to their audience precisely the message they want to send. However, the origins of some of them are more interesting than you might think.
一些成功品牌的创造力和简洁性让他们能够立刻被辨认出来、被人们记住。他们毫无困难地准确地向大众传达他们想要传达的信息。然而，这些著名品牌中，一些品牌的起源比你想得可能还要有趣。
Pepsi, a drink for indigestion
百事，一种治疗消化不良的饮料
Like many other carbonated beverages, Pepsi began to be sold as a remedy for indigestion. Pharmacist Caleb Bradham prepared it in the soda fountain of his pharmacy using a mixture of sugar, caramel, water, lemon oil, kola nuts, and nutmeg. The original name was "Brad's Drink," which he sold with the slogan: "Exhilarating, Invigorating, Aids Digestion."
像许多其他碳酸饮料一样，百事可乐一开始作为消化不良的治疗措施而出售的。药剂师凯勒·布莱德汉姆在他的药房中准备了一种用糖、焦糖、水、柠檬油、可乐果和肉豆蔻混合而成的苏打水。它原来的名字叫"布莱德的饮料"，而他售卖这种饮料的口号是：“兴奋，振奋，帮助消化。”
The drink turned out to be so popular that Bradham decided to change its name to a more attractive one. So, drawing inspiration from the word dyspepsia, the medical name for indigestion, and the kola nut that was part of the recipe, he renamed the product "Pepsi-Cola." Nowadays, this centennial drink is a brand that has steadily grown thanks to the advertisements done by distinguished artists and celebrities.
这种饮料非常受欢迎，布莱德汉姆决定把饮料的名字改得更有吸引力一点。所以，他从消化不良的医学名称和作为配方一部分的可乐果中汲取灵感，将饮料改名为“百事可乐”。如今，这个百年饮料品牌仍在稳步增长，多亏了杰出的艺术家和名人的广告。
Google, a typo
谷歌，一个拼写错误
The world's largest search engine developed an influential brand that spread like a communications giant and even led to the creation of the verb "google" in the English language. It's undeniable that Google currently possesses one of the most extensive data centers in the world, which collects internet information.
全球最大的搜索引擎开发了“谷歌”这个有影响力的品牌，传播之广像一个通信巨头，甚至导致了英语动词“google”的产生。不可否认，谷歌目前拥有世界上最广泛的数据中心之一，用来收集互联网信息。
Even during their freshman year at Stanford University, its founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, already knew the potential their company had. That's why the original plan was to name it "googol," based on the Googol number, which is equivalent to 10 to the 100th power, a huge number, but one that is not infinite.
甚至还在斯坦福大学上大一的时候，它的创始人拉里·佩奇和谢尔盖·布林就已经知道他们公司的潜力了。这就是为什么最初的计划是根据Googol数将其命名为“googol”的原因，该数字等于10到100的幂，这是一个巨大的数字，但不是无限的。
Due to a mistake, Larry Page misspelled the name: Instead of "googol," he wrote "google," and the web and the company were registered with this "error." But, in fact, this mistake only worked to distinguish the search engine from the rest and rise to what it is today.
由于一个错误，拉里·佩奇拼错了名字：写成了Google，而不是“googol”，然而网络和公司都以这个“错误”注册了名字。但是，事实上，这个错误只是使谷歌区别于其他搜索引擎，并一路发展到今天。
McDonald's, the inventors of fast food
麦当劳，快餐的发明者
The entrepreneur Ray Kroc was the mastermind behind the expansion of the chain, but the original name comes from the last name of the inventors of the "fast food" concept: Maurice "Mac" and Richard "Dick" McDonald. Before 1940, they owned and operated a successful restaurant, but once World War II was over, they decided to try a new system to reduce the time people waited for their food.
企业家雷·克拉克是麦当劳连锁扩张的幕后推动者，但“麦当劳”这一名字最初来自于“快餐”概念的发明者的名字：莫里斯·麦克和理查德·“迪克”麦克唐纳。在1940年之前，他们拥有并经营着一家成功的餐馆，但第二次世界大战结束后，他们决定尝试一种新的供餐系统，以减少人们等待食物的时间。
The first McDonald's opened in 1948. It had a menu of only a few items and executed standardized processes that allowed the brothers to accelerate the food preparation and sell it at a very competitive price. Their success led them to remodel the architecture of the restaurant too, building the prototype of the famous golden arches.
第一家麦当劳于1948年开业。菜单上只有几个菜，并执行标准化程序，能够让两兄弟加快食品的准备，并用非常有竞争力的价格出售餐品。他们成功后重新设计了餐厅的设计，建造出了著名的金色拱门的原型。
Soon after, the McDonald brothers bought Ray Krocs many milkshake mixers at a time when the market was on decline. The businessman was shocked at the efficiency of the restaurant and came up with the idea of developing franchises throughout the United States. He became their agent and bought 100% of the firm in the 1960s.
不久之后，麦当劳兄弟在市场下跌的时候给雷·克拉克买下了许多奶昔搅拌机。这位商人对餐厅的效率感到震惊，并想出了在美国各地发展特许经营的想法。他成为了麦当劳兄弟的经纪人，并在20世纪60年代买下了整个公司。
The famous golden arches that identify the brand have evolved with time, but they're still one of the most recognizable logos on the planet because of their simplicity and vibrant color.
麦当劳的著名金色拱门标志已随着时间而演变，但由于其简洁和鲜艳的色彩，它们仍然是这个星球上最知名的标志之一。
Gatorade, help winning
佳得乐，帮助获胜
When in 1965, the Florida Gators university team was showing deficient performance and a series of heat-related illnesses on the field, doctors got down to work at the coach's request to find out what was going wrong.
1965年，佛罗里达鳄鱼大学队在球场上表现不佳，出现一系列与发热有关的疾病，医生应教练的要求下开始工作，以查明出了什么问题。
The specialists discovered that when the players played a game, they lost electrolytes and carbohydrates but did not recover them, so they developed a drink that met these needs. They called it Gator-Aid. The product proved to be a vast success among the Gators, and its popularity spread like wildfire in the sports world.
专家们发现，当球员们运动时，他们会失去电解质和碳水化合物，但没有得到恢复，所以他们开发了一种饮料，以满足这方面的需求。他们称其为“鳄鱼援助”。该产品在鳄鱼队中取得了巨大的成功，其受欢迎程度在体育界如野火一样蔓延开来。
When the time came to start producing it commercially, the name was replaced with Gatorade. However, its success only intensified over the years and today the brand has expanded into something much bigger than brightly colored drinks.
当这个产品开始商业化生产的时候，原来名字被佳得乐所取代了。然而，它的成功在多年之中不断强化，今天，该品牌的业务已经扩展到比这些色彩鲜艳的饮料大得多的东西。
Rolex, the whisper of success
劳力士，成功的耳语
According to Hans Wilsdorf, founder of the exclusive watches label, he tried everything to give his new product a proper name. Wilsdorf was looking for something short that could be easily pronounced in any language. It also had to look good on the watch's surface.
据劳力士这个独家手表品牌的创始人汉斯·威尔斯多夫说，他尽了一切努力给他的新产品起一个合适的名字。威尔斯多夫当时正在寻找一些短的、可以很容易地在任何语言发音的词汇。当出现在手表表面上时看起来也必须合适。
After combining all the alphabet letters in thousands of ways and coming up with a hundred potential names, none seemed powerful enough. But a trip on a horse-drawn trolley would change the fate of his newly founded company, because a "genius," as he called it, whispered the word "Rolex" into his ear.
在以数千种方式组合了所有字母表字母并想出一百个潜在名字后，似乎没有哪一个是足够强大的。但是，一次乘坐马车旅行改变了他新成立的公司的命运，因为一个“天才”——他是这么称呼的——在他的耳边低声说了“Rolex”这个词。
Häagen-Dazs, Danish?...pride
哈根达斯，丹麦？骄傲
This premium ice cream went a long way to satisfy the palates of the American public, or that is what they've tried to make us believe. Its creator, Reuben Mattus, was actually a Jewish immigrant from Poland who lived in the United States. Together with his wife, they created a name that seems Scandinavian, but it is just an invented word.
这种优质冰淇淋远道而来，以满足美国公众的口味，或者他们试图让我们相信这一点。它的创始人鲁本·马特斯实际上是一个来自波兰的犹太移民，住在美国。他和他的妻子创造了这个看似斯堪的纳维亚的名字，但它只是一个被发明出来的词。
Naming his ice cream Häagen-Dazs, he fulfilled a double purpose. Mattus wanted to pay tribute to Denmark, the only country that defended Jewish people during World War II, so he used Danish spelling in the name of his brand. He also wanted to add a bit of exoticism, since it was ice cream of the highest quality. He was sure the name would give his product a more distinguished profile.
通过把冰淇淋命名为哈根达斯，他实现了双重目的。一是马特斯想向丹麦致敬，丹麦是二战期间唯一一个为犹太人辩护的国家，所以他用丹麦语拼了一个品牌的名字。二是他还想添加一点异国情调，因为它是最高品质的冰淇淋。他确信这个名字会给他的产品一个更杰出的形象。
Zara, taking inspiration from a movie
Zara，从电影中汲取灵感
When magnate Amancio Ortega wanted to name his clothing business, he initially thought of calling it "Zorba," like the 1964 movie, Zorba The Greek, as he was a big fan of the Anthony Quinn film. He had even made the frame to put the letters on the poster of his shop in A Coruña.
当大亨阿曼西奥·奥尔特加想给他的服装生意命名时，他最初想到称它为“佐尔巴（Zorba）”，就像1964年的电影《佐尔巴希腊人》里那样，因为他是安东尼·奎因电影的忠实粉丝。他甚至制作了框，以将字母贴在他在拉科鲁尼亚（ACoruña）的商店的海报上。
However, shortly before the inauguration in 1975, he realized that his store was pretty close to a bar named, precisely, "Zorba." Since it would've been very confusing to the customers to have 2 businesses with the same name in such a small radius, Ortega took the sign and decided to add an "a," and remove the "b," coining the name of one of the most recognizable Spanish brands in the world.
然而，在1975年开业前不久，他意识到他的商店离一个叫"Zorba"的酒吧很近。奥尔特加在这么小的半径内拥有2家同名的店，会让顾客非常困惑，于是他决定添加一个“a”，并删除“b”，最后形成的就是世界上最知名的西班牙品牌之一的名字。
Amazon.com, a river of possibilities
亚马逊，一条可能性之河
Amazon.com started its days in Jeff Bezos' garage in 1994, but didn't always bear the name that distinguishes it today. What was originally an online bookstore was going to have the magical name "Cadabra." However, the brand's first lawyer, Todd Tarbert, convinced Bezos that the word sounded very similar to "cadaver."
Amazon.com是1994年在杰夫·贝佐斯的车库里被创建出来的，但那时候并不总是有今天如此有辨识度的名字。它原来是一家网上书店，计划中的名字是听起来很神奇的“卡达布拉（Cadabra）”。然而，该品牌的第一位律师托德·塔伯特说服了贝佐斯不要用这个名字，因为这个词听起来非常类似于“尸体（cadaver）”。
It was time to pick another name. Bezos came up with the name Relentless. In fact, the web domain exists and now redirects the user to Amazon.com.
是时候再取一个名字了。贝佐斯想出了“无情（relentless）”这个名字。事实上，这个Web域的确存在，但现在将用户重定向到Amazon.com这个网址。
But finally, the name Amazon was selected, and so, "the largest bookstore in the world" would bear the name of the longest river in the world, the Amazon. It wouldn't be just an online bookstore, but a technological process that would simplify electronic purchases and change history forever. This is what it looked like in the 90s (look at the logo with the river).
但最后，亚马逊这个名字被选中了，从此，“世界上最大的书店”将用上世界上最长的河流——亚马逊的名字。它不仅仅是一个在线书店，而是一个技术过程，将简化电子采购，并永远改变历史。这是它在90年代的时候的样子（看看与河流的标志）。
IKEA, the Scandinavian enigma
宜家，斯堪的纳维亚之迷
Founded in 1943, when its creator was only 17 years old, IKEA went from selling all kinds of objects to becoming the benchmark of Swedish creativity worldwide with its furniture for assembly that facilitates packaging and transport.
宜家成立于1943年，其创建者当时只有17岁。从销售各种物品，到成为全球创意的标杆，宜家主要用了家具组装这一业务，方便家具的包装和运输。
However, those who don't understand Swedish have always wondered what the word IKEA means in that language. The answer? It's an acronym that is a combo of the first letters of founder's first name and last name: Ingvar Kamprad, the farm where he grew up: Elmtaryd, and the town in southern Sweden where it was located: Agunnaryd.
然而，那些不懂瑞典语的人总是想知道宜家这个词在瑞典语中意味着什么。答案是什么？IKEA是一个首字母缩写，是创始人的名字和姓氏的第一个字母组合：英格瓦尔·坎普拉德（Ingvar Kamprad），他长大的农场：埃尔姆塔里德（Elmtaryd），和它所在的瑞典南部的城镇：阿贡纳里德（Agunnaryd）。
Curious fact: Unlike the company, the name of each product does have a Swedish origin (mostly). The categories can be found in the IKEA Dictionary.
奇怪的事实：与公司的名字不同，每种产品的名称大部分都有瑞典血统。这些名称可在宜家词典中找到。
