Uniqlo got its name by mistake because there was a typo
If you've ever wondered how Uniqlo got its name, then wonder no more. Watch the company explain the unique story here:
In a video posted on the retailer's US TikTok page, the popular Japanese clothing outlet explained that the name was in fact the result of a typo.
The text on the video explains: "The company was initially called Unique Clothing Warehouse.
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"We wanted to register the brand under 'Uniclo'.
"But in 1988 the staff in charge of registering misread C for Q!!!
"The name stuck! And now we're UNIQLO."
What a happy little accident, as Bob Ross would say.
The video has been liked more than 100,000 times, and people are in agreement that it turned out for the best.
One person wrote: "Q is more eye catching than C. Soooo! That's a good mistake."
Another commented: "It’s cooler with a Q."
A third added: "Sometimes typos are a good thing."
UNIQLO is just one of tonnes of brands we may come across on a daily basis, oblivious to the meaning behind their names.
For example, Amazon is now one of the most well-known companies in the world, but many people haven't a clue what its name and logo represents.
When the online shopping giant first started out all the way back in 1994, founder Jeff Bezos planned on creating the world's biggest bookstore. As such, he wanted a fitting name and logo.
Tech editor Brad Stone wrote in his best-selling book The Everything Store that the CEO initially landed on the name Cadabra, as in abracadabra, but this was decided against as it was confused with the word cadaver. A pretty solid reason to rule it out, I'm sure you'll agree.
After looking at a number of different possibilities, Bezos then turned to the A section of the dictionary and came across Amazon.
Stone explained in the book: "This is not only the largest river in the world, it's many times larger than the next biggest river."
It was a perfect fit for his intentions with the company, as he was hoping to make the online book selling platform equivalent.
Since those early days, Amazon has become a global juggernaut, branching out into pretty much any category you can think of. And it's for this reason that the simple logo design it actually pretty damn genius.
You see, while most people assume the orange arrow under the name represents a smile, it's actually pointing from 'a' to 'z', highlighting that Amazon sells everything you could need.
Jake Massey