List of company name etymologies (T,U,V)

Hey there, here we are presenting List of company name etymologies (T,U,V) for preparation of biz and tech quizzes.

T

Taco Bell – named after founder Glen Bell.

TAG Group (Holdings) S.A. – Luxembourg-based holding company named from Techniques d'Avant Garde

TAG Heuer – watch-maker named after Edouard Heuer, who founded Uhrenmanufaktur Heuer AG in Switzerland in 1860.[87] It was taken over by TAG Group (Holdings) S.A. in 1985 and branded TAG Heuer in 1999. It is now owned by the LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy) conglomerate.

Talgo – from "Tren Articulado Ligero Goicoechea-Oriol" (Spanish for "Goicoechea-Oriol Light Articulated Train"), Goicoechea and Oriol being the founders of the company.
TAM Airlines – named from Transportes Aéreos Marília (Marilia's Air Transport). Marília is a city in São Paulo state, Brazil.

TAP Portugal – from "Transportes Aéreos Portugueses" (Portuguese Air Transport).
Taser International – named after a fictional weapon, Thomas A. Swift's Electric Rifle, after the novel Tom Swift and His Electric Rifle by Victor Appleton. The company was incorporated in Arizona in 1993 by brothers Rick and Tom Smith as Air Taser, Inc.[88]
Tata Group – conglomerate named after Jamshedji Tata, considered "the father of Indian industry".

Taxan – made-up name chosen partly because Takusan is a Japanese word for many or much and was considered propitious, but mainly because the head of the company, in the U.S. at the time, Tak Shimizu was known by everyone as Tak-san.

TCBY – Originally, the company's name was "This Can't Be Yogurt", but a lawsuit from a competitor named "I Can't Believe It's Yogurt!" forced TCBY to create a new backronym for its initials: "The Country's Best Yogurt".

TCL – from Today China Lion. Derived from literal translation of "今日中国雄狮" from Chinese to English.

TCS – from Tata Consultancy Services, from India's Tata Group, named after founder and legendary industrialist Jamshedji Tata.

TDK Corporation – from Tokyo Denki Kagaku (Tokyo Electronics and Chemicals).
Textron – this US defense conglomerate was founded as the Special Yarns Corporation in 1923 and later traded as Atlantic Rayon Corporation, when its main business was parachutes. After World War II, it moved into lingerie and other consumer goods, and needed a new name. The company history says: "Atlantic Rayon's advertising agency suggested Señorita Creations, but it was rejected in favor of Textron. The 'Tex' was derived from textiles and the 'tron' came from synthetics such as Lustron." Textron bought Bell Aerospace and the Cessna Aircraft Company, among many others.

TEPCO – Tokyo Electric Power Company

Tesco – founder Jack Cohen – who sold groceries in the markets of the London East End from 1919 – acquired a large shipment of tea from T. E. Stockwell. He made new labels by using the first three letters of the supplier's name and the first two letters of his surname.
Teva Naot – outdoors shoe company is named after the modern Hebrew word for 'nature' (pronounced "tehvah")

Texaco – from The Texas Company U.S.A.

THX – from Tomlinson Holman Crossover, the name of the technology's inventor and the audio technology of a crossover amplifier. It may be a backronym, as the technology is owned by George Lucas's company, and he directed THX 1138.

THY– Turkish Airlines. THY is the abbreviation of Türk Hava Yolları, which means Turkish Air Ways in Turkish.

TIBCO Software – The Information Bus Company. The company was founded by Vivek Ranadive as Teknekron Software Systems in 1985.

Tim Hortons – Canadian fast food doughnut, sandwich and coffee shop named after founder and hockey player Tim Horton. In Canada Tim Hortons is nicknamed "Tim's" and "Timmy's"; in America, the chain is nicknamed "Timmy Ho's".

TNT N.V. and TNT Express – Thomas Nationwide Transport, an Australian company which was acquired by the Dutch postal company in 1996. The postal company renamed itself TNT N.V. in 2005. In 2011, TNT N.V. demerged; the express delivery company took the name TNT Express while the postal company renamed itself PostNL.

Toshiba – named from the merger of consumer goods company Tokyo Denki (Tokyo Electric Co) and electrical firm Shibaura Seisaku-sho (Shibaura Engineering Works).

Toyota – from the name of the founder, Sakichi Toyoda. Initially called Toyeda, it was changed after a contest for a better-sounding name. The new name was written in katakana with eight strokes, a number that is considered lucky in Japan.

Triang – operating name for Lines Bros Ltd, which was founded by William, Walter and Arthur Edwin Lines. Three Lines make a triangle

Tucows – an acronym for The Ultimate Collection Of Winsock Software.

Tungsram – derived from Tungsten + Wolfram, two variations of the name of the main raw material of the lamp production.

TVR – derived from the first name of the company founder TreVoR Wilkinson

TWA – derived from Trans World Airlines. Before the airline opened up its first international route from New York to Paris in the 1950s, it was a domestic operation that focused on serving Los Angeles and San Francisco from New York, operating under the name Transcontinental and Western Air. Keeping the initials and rebranding as a global airline was a stroke of marketing continuity genius.

Twinings – named after founder Thomas Twining, who set up a tea-shop on the Strand in London in 1706.

Twitter – Having rejected the name Twitch for their social networking service, co-founder Jack Dorsey says: "we looked in the dictionary for words around it and we came across the word 'twitter' and it was just perfect. The definition was 'a short burst of inconsequential information', and 'chirps from birds'. And that's exactly what the product was."

U

Ubuntu Foundation – named from a Zulu word (ùɓúntú) that translates as "humanity to others".

Umbro – Umbro was founded in 1924 by the Humphrey (Umphrey) Brothers, Harold C. and Wallace.

Unilever – name created to reflect the merger of Margarine Unie and Lever Brothers, agreed in 1929. Lever Brothers was named after its founders, William Hesketh Lever and his brother, James.

UNIMED – Brazilian cooperative of physicians, meaning União de Medicos (Physicians' Union)

Unisys – from United Information Systems, the new name for the company that resulted from the merging of two old mainframe computer companies, Burroughs and Sperry [Sperry Univac/Sperry Rand]. It united two incompatible ranges. The newborn Unisys was briefly the world's second-largest computer company, after IBM.

Unocal Corporation – the Union Oil Company of California, founded in 1890

UPS – United Parcel Service of America, Inc.

UUNET – one of the industry's oldest and largest Internet Service Providers, named from UNIX-to-UNIX Network.

V

Vaisala – Finnish company named after its founder, Professor Vilho Väisälä

Valero Energy Corporation – From Misión San Antonio de Valero, the Spanish-language name of the mission in the company's home city better known as The Alamo.

Valtra – from Valmet Tractors, where Valmet is the name of a Finnish state-owned company (originally Valtion Metallitehtaat – English: State Metalworks)

Varig – A Brazilian airline, its name is an abbreviation of Viação Aérea Rio-Grandense, because it was founded in the state of Rio Grande do Sul.

Verizon – a portmanteau of veritas (Latin for truth) and horizon.

Virgin – founder Richard Branson started a magazine called Student while still at school. In his autobiography, Losing My Virginity, Branson says that when they were starting a business to sell records by mail order, "one of the girls suggested: 'What about Virgin? We're complete virgins at business.'"

VMware – Virtual Machine [soft]ware

Vodafone – from Voice, Data, Telefone. Vodafone made the UK's first mobile call at a few minutes past midnight on 1 January 1985.

Volkswagen – from the German for people's car. Ferdinand Porsche wanted to produce a car that was affordable for the masses – the Kraft-durch-Freude-Wagen (or "Strength-Through-Joy car", from a Nazi social organization) later became known, in English, as the Beetle.

Volvo – from the Latin word volvo, which means "I roll". It was originally a name for a ball bearing being developed by SKF.