What's Up With That? - Why, yes. Hot sauce made in N.C. is called Texas Pete

As some guy named Shakespeare once wrote, "What's in a name?"

Ever wonder where the names for some of your favorite -- or least favorite -- businesses came from?

Sure, it's easy to figure out that someone named Sears and someone named Roebuck joined up to
form a store, but what the heck does "Arby's" mean, anyhow? And how does a big piece of mechanical equipment end up named after a tiny little caterpillar?

Here's a rundown of the name origins of some popular companies:

Local

Texas Pete: How does a hot sauce made in North Carolina come to have "Texas" in the name?

The company's website explains that, as "legend has it," the Garner family was trying to come up with a name for a new, spicy sauce. They rejected a suggestion of "Mexican Joe" because Sam Garner wanted an American name. He simply moved the idea north across the border, since Texas is also known for its spicy cuisine, and added his son Harold's nickname: "Pete."

Caterpillar: Benjamin Holt, the company founder, adopted the name on Nov. 24, 1904 when an experimental tractor was being tested. A company photographer commented that a newly-designed, steam-powered tractor moved along like a caterpillar. Holt reportedly said, "Caterpillar it is. That's the name for it." He registered the name as the company's trademark in 1910.

Wachovia Bank: The name Wachovia comes from Moravian settlers who purchased a tract of about 100,000 acres in 1753. According to the company's website, the settlers named their new home Wachau, after the ancestral home of their Austrian benefactor Count Zinzendorf. The name gradually changed to Wachovia and was no longer used for the land, but was popular for businesses there.

Truliant Federal Credit Union: Originally the Radio Shops Credit Union when it was founded in 1952, and later AT&T Family Federal Credit Union, the company changed its name in 1999 to Truliant.

Marc Schaefer, the president and CEO of Truliant, said that the company wanted to change the name because only a small portion of its members were from AT&T. Using a list of "image attributes," words and phrases that define the company, they developed a list of more than 100 possible names. Truliant was selected over such other contenders as Everserve, Goalmark, Partnerone, Proliant, and Cordelity.

"Like any name, it's an empty vessel," Schaefer said. "It means nothing until it is used, and then it starts to embue those attributes."

Bo-Ty Florist: According to Leslie Jamback, one of the current owners of the floral shop, the name came from two people: Jim Bottom and a woman named Miss Tyson whose first name is lost. "We even went to old employees" trying to find Tyson's first name, Jamback said, but they could not.

Bottom and Tyson owned the shop for four or five years in the 1950s before selling it. The name stuck for later owners.

Restaurants

Wendy's: When he started his first restaurant in 1969, founder Dave Thomas tried the names of all five of his children for his restaurant, according to the company website. He settled on naming it after his fourth child, Melinda Lou Thomas.

Her childhood nickname was "Wenda" or "Wendy." As a small child she couldn't pronounce "Melinda."

Arby's: When Forrest and Leroy Raffel were developing their first restaurant in Boardman, Ohio in 1964, they wanted to call their restaurant Big Tex. But that name was taken, so they chose Arby's (R.B.'s) for "Raffel Brothers." The initials, conveniently, could also stand for "Roast Beef," the product the brothers chose as their flagship dish rather than the more common hamburger.

Starbuck's: The name came from the character Starbuck, the first mate of the ship Pequod in the novel Moby-Dick. According to the company, the name was chosen because it "evoked the romance of the high seas and the seafaring tradition of the early coffee traders."

Others

Apple: Why an apple? Why not Banana Computers? The origin of the name is unclear. Steve Jobs came up with it while visiting friends at a hippie commune in early 1976, according to The Apple Museum, a website devoted to the company.

But the first logo for the company may be a clue. It showed Sir Isaac Newton sitting under the apple tree that inspired his theory of gravity.

Microsoft: The name comes from a combination of "microcomputer," a phrase for a computer with a microprocessor as its central processing unit, and "software."

tclodfelter@wsjournal.com


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