There's a bizarre meaning behind Snickers chocolate bars' name

Many people don't know the truly unique backstory behind the Snickers' name, despite eating the chocolate favourite for years.

Turning the clock back to 1911, Franklin Clarence Mars and his wife Ethel started a sweets factory in the state of Washington, which unfortunately for them turned out to be unsuccessful.

That was partly because there was another confectionery manufacturer called Brown & Haley, the people who make the Almond Roca.

Fast forward to 1920 and the Mars' moved to Minnesota and set up the Mar-o-Bar Co, which later became Mars.

Franklin's son came up with the idea for the Milky Way, and things really took off for the family after that money-wise.

Young Forrest Edward Mars was the brainchild of a number of Mars creations after the Milky Way, including the Mars Bar and Snickers.

Snickers are pretty popular, but where on Earth has that name come from? (Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Image)

The name for the Snickers came about after the Mars family experienced some commercial success and bought a huge 3,000-acre horse breeding farm in Tennessee.

Naming the farm after the Milky Way bar, they kept a number of horses there.

In 1930, Ethel's favourite horse died while the company was working on a new chocolate bar, and the horse had been called, you guessed it, Snickers.

It was decided that the company's upcoming chocolate bar would be named in honour of Mrs Mars' beloved horse, and that's the true story of where the name Snickers came from.

Father and son later had a bit of a falling out over whether to keep selling in the US or expand overseas, and Forrest ended up taking an idea he'd picked up in the Spanish Civil War and making them into M&Ms.

That's right, they named it after a horse. (Igor Golovniov/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Snickers hit the shelves at a retail cost of five cents a bar in Chicago back in 1930.

However, those of you reading this in the UK and Ireland will know that Snickers used to be known as a Marathon until 1990, before changing to the original horse-honouring name.

You might be wondering why a Snickers wasn't called a Snickers in the UK for so many years.

That's all because it sounded a bit too similar to 'knickers'. Yep, that's right.

The Marathon Bar had become a household name in the UK, so some were actually disappointed it left after so many years.

You might even catch members of the older generation still referring to it as a Marathon.

Can you imagine what things would have been like if they'd called the horse something else?