Some of the companies you use everyday did not always have instant name brand recognition. Some started out with completely different names. Below are some of the lackluster names some of the most famous companies could have had.
1. AOL was once Quantum Computer Services
2. Google was once BackRub
Larry Page and Serge Brin’s renamed BackRub to Google in 1998. 
3. Best Buy was once Sound of Music
Sound of Music had a great four-day sale which made it more money than it did in a typical month so it renamed its self to Best Buy in 1983. The rest is history.
4. Blackberry was once Research in Motion
In 1984 and for years after that Research in Motion was the only smartphone that business people took seriously. Most people were calling it Blackberry anyway but it took a total collapse for the company for it to listen to its users. In 2013 it changed its name to BlackBerry.
5. Pepsi-Cola was once Brad’s Drink
6. Sony was once Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo
7. Starbucks was Starbucks Coffee, Tea and Spice, Il Giornale Coffee Company
8. Nike was once Blue Ribbon Sports
9. Hertz Rent-A-Car was once DrivUrSelf
10. eBay was once AuctionWeb
11. PayPal was once Confinity
12. IBM was once Computing Tabulating Recording Corporation
IBM is an American institution. Founded in 1911 through a super merger. In 1924 the company changed to “International Business Machines.”
13. Nintendo once was Marafuku Company, Nintendo Playing Card Company
By now you know the story of the playing cards company founded in 1889. What you may not know it had a few name changes. The first name change came in 1951. It became Nintendo Playing Card Company. The final and iconic company name change came in 1963. It simply became Nintendo. That stuck around and the rest is gaming history.
14. SUBWAY was once Pete’s Super Submarines
15. Playboy was once Stag Party
Playboy magazine was almost Stag Party. That name does not sound that strange to me. I think it could have still worked. One month before publishing, Hefner received a letter from Stag magazine saying that the name was an infringement on their title. Thus he quickly changed the name to Playboy.
16. Firefox was once Firebird
17. Jerry’s Guide to the World Wide Web » Yahoo