苹果、谷歌出名前都叫啥？

Do you Yahoo!? Would you if you had to Jerry's Guide to the World Wide Web?
你喜欢“雅虎”这个名字吗？如果叫“杰瑞的网络指南”还会喜欢吗？

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.
虽然一个不太好的品牌名称不足以让一个品牌没落，但有一些顶级品牌在成为全球热门品牌前曾放弃过一些令人费解的名字。

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.
根据美国全国广播公司财经频道介绍，电子商品连锁店百思买（Best Buy）在1981年还叫“音乐之声”（Sound of Music）。当时，其品牌旗下位于明尼苏达州的罗斯维尔零售店被龙卷风夷为平地。

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.
后来，该门店在自家停车场举行“龙卷风后甩卖”，为受损的电子产品打出“最划算商品”的广告。两年后，所有的门店都更名为百思买。

Google, the most popular search engine provider, earned that name two years after it was founded in 1986, under infinitely less catchy name BackRub.
最受欢迎的搜索引擎提供商——谷歌，在1986年刚刚创建时使用的是一个极不显眼的名字“BackRub”（译者注：谷歌创始人佩奇把他在斯坦福的一个项目称为BackRub），两年后才更名为“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.
赫兹租车公司原名为“赫兹自我驾驶系统公司”，1954年进行了一次重大重组后，更名为赫兹租车公司。

Many of the top brands simply went from wordy and boring to short and sweet with their name changes.
许多顶级品牌通过改名字就实现了由冗长而乏味向简洁友好形象的转变。

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.
“计算列表纪录公司”更名为IBM——国际商业机器公司，“杰瑞的网络指南”更名为“雅虎”（Yahoo），这是“另一种非官方层次化数据库”的首字母缩写。

Quantum Computer Services turned into America Online back in 1991, then in 2006 shortened its name to AOL.
1991年，量子电脑服务更名为“美国在线”，2006年又将名字缩短为“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，茶叶和香料”原来叫“每日咖啡公司”，后缩减成简单的“星巴克”；任天堂在使用现用名之前，最初曾命名为马拉夫库公司，后又曾更名为任天堂扑克牌公司。

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.
历史上最赚钱的公司之一——苹果公司，在其进军其他消费电子产品领域时只是对名字作了细微更改——将“苹果电脑公司”更名为“苹果公司”。

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.
曾经被称为移动研究公司是黑莓手机的制造商，该公司在2013年改名为黑莓，这是该公司最有名的一款旗舰产品的名字，此番改名主要是他们想要在销量下降的情况下与竞争对手抗衡。

Other companies, named after their original founders, eventually outgrew their more provincial-sounding names.
还有一些以创始人名字命名的公司，最终的发展与他们最初带有乡音的名字已经不可同日而语。

 Pete's Super Submarines became SUBWAY, Wards Company became Circuit City, Brad's Drink turned into Pepsi-Cola and Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo became Sony.
“皮特的超级潜艇”现在成了“赛百味”，“华德公司”更名为“电路城”，“布拉德饮料公司”更名为“百事可乐”，东京通信工业公司也变成了“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.
最初在美国代理日本鬼冢虎运动鞋的蓝带体育用品公司最终成为了如今的耐克公司，耐克是古希腊神话中展翅的胜利女神的名字。

(来源：英国《每日邮报》 译者：梁倩SCNU 编辑：马文英)