苹果、谷歌出名前都叫啥？

 Do you Yahoo!? Would you if you had to Jerry's Guide to the World Wide Web? 

你喜欢“雅虎”这个名字吗？如果叫“杰瑞的网络指南”还会喜欢吗？

While a bad name isn't enough to sink a brand on its own, several of the biggest shed some puzzling titles before becoming worldwide hits.
虽然一个不太好的品牌名称不足以让一个品牌没落，但有一些顶级品牌在成为全球热门品牌前曾放弃过一些令人费解的名字。

According to CNBC, electronics chain Best Buy was still called Sound of Music back in 1981 when the brand's Roseville, Minnesota, store was reduced to rubble¹ by a tornado².
根据美国全国广播公司财经频道介绍，电子商品连锁店百思买（Best Buy）在1981年还叫“音乐之声”（Sound of Music）。当时，其品牌旗下位于明尼苏达州的罗斯维尔零售店被龙卷风夷为平地。

Afterwards, the store held a 'Tornado Sale' in the parking lot advertising⁴ 'best buys' on damaged electronics. Two years later, all the stores were rebranded as Best Buy. 
后来，该门店在自家停车场举行“龙卷风后甩卖”，为受损的电子产品打出“最划算商品”的广告。两年后，所有的门店都更名为百思买。

Google, the most popular search engine provider, earned that name two years after it was founded in 1986, under infinitely⁵ less catchy⁶ name BackRub. 
最受欢迎的搜索引擎提供商——谷歌，在1986年刚刚创建时使用的是一个极不显眼的名字“BackRub”（译者注：谷歌创始人佩奇把他在斯坦福的一个项目称为BackRub），两年后才更名为“谷歌”。

Hertz Rent-A-Car was originally Hertz Drive-Ur-Self System, but changed to The Hertz Corporation in 1954 after a major restructuring. 
赫兹租车公司原名为“赫兹自我驾驶系统公司”，1954年进行了一次重大重组后，更名为赫兹租车公司。

Many of the top brands simply went from wordy and boring to short and sweet with their name changes. 
许多顶级品牌通过改名字就实现了由冗长而乏味向简洁友好形象的转变。

Computing⁷ Tabulating⁸ Recording⁹ Corporation became IBM (International Business Machines), while Jerry's Guide to the World Wide Web became Yahoo, an acronym¹⁰ for Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle¹¹. 
“计算列表纪录公司”更名为IBM——国际商业机器公司，“杰瑞的网络指南”更名为“雅虎”（Yahoo），这是“另一种非官方层次化数据库”的首字母缩写。

Quantum Computer Services turned into America Online back in 1991, then in 2006 shortened its name to AOL. 
1991年，量子电脑服务更名为“美国在线”，2006年又将名字缩短为“AOL”。

Starbucks Coffee, Tea and Spice, once called Il Giornale Coffee Company, was shortened to simply Starbucks, and Marafuku Company turned into Nintendo Playing Card Company before becoming Nintendo. 
“星巴克咖啡，茶叶和香料”原来叫“每日咖啡公司”，后缩减成简单的“星巴克”；任天堂在使用现用名之前，最初曾命名为马拉夫库公司，后又曾更名为任天堂扑克牌公司。

One of the most profitable companies in history, Apple Inc, made only a subtle change from Apple Computers in 2007 as the company moved into other areas of consumer electronics. 
历史上最赚钱的公司之一——苹果公司，在其进军其他消费电子产品领域时只是对名字作了细微更改——将“苹果电脑公司”更名为“苹果公司”。

Once known as Research in Motion, the makers¹² of the BlackBerry simply adopted the name of their flagship product in 2013 as they tried to catch up to competition in the midst of declining sales. 
曾经被称为移动研究公司是黑莓手机的制造商，该公司在2013年改名为黑莓，这是该公司最有名的一款旗舰产品的名字，此番改名主要是他们想要在销量下降的情况下与竞争对手抗衡。

Other companies, named after their original founders¹³, eventually outgrew¹⁴ their more provincial-sounding names. 
还有一些以创始人名字命名的公司，最终的发展与他们最初带有乡音的名字已经不可同日而语。

 Pete's Super Submarines became SUBWAY, Wards³ Company became Circuit City, Brad's Drink turned into Pepsi-Cola and Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo became Sony. 
“皮特的超级潜艇”现在成了“赛百味”，“华德公司”更名为“电路城”，“布拉德饮料公司”更名为“百事可乐”，东京通信工业公司也变成了“索尼”。

Blue Ribbon Sports, which distributed Japanese sneakers Onitsuka Tiger in the US, eventually became Nike, named after the winged Greek goddess of victory. 
最初在美国代理日本鬼冢虎运动鞋的蓝带体育用品公司最终成为了如今的耐克公司，耐克是古希腊神话中展翅的胜利女神的名字。

1 rubble   

n.（一堆）碎石，瓦砾

参考例句：

• After the earthquake,it took months to clean up the rubble.地震后，花了数月才清理完瓦砾。
• After the war many cities were full of rubble.战后许多城市到处可见颓垣残壁。

2 tornado   

n.飓风，龙卷风

参考例句：

• A tornado whirled into the town last week.龙卷风上周袭击了这座城市。
• The approaching tornado struck awe in our hearts.正在逼近的龙卷风使我们惊恐万分。

3 wards   

区( ward的名词复数 )； 病房； 受监护的未成年者； 被人照顾或控制的状态

参考例句：

• This hospital has 20 medical [surgical] wards. 这所医院有 20 个内科[外科]病房。
• It was a big constituency divided into three wards. 这是一个大选区，下设三个分区。

4 advertising   

n.广告业；广告活动 a.广告的；广告业务的

参考例句：

• Can you give me any advice on getting into advertising? 你能指点我如何涉足广告业吗?
• The advertising campaign is aimed primarily at young people. 这个广告宣传运动主要是针对年轻人的。

5 infinitely   

adv.无限地，无穷地

参考例句：

• There is an infinitely bright future ahead of us.我们有无限光明的前途。
• The universe is infinitely large.宇宙是无限大的。

6 catchy   

adj.易记住的，诡诈的，易使人上当的

参考例句：

• We need a new slogan.The old one's not catchy enough.我们需要新的口号，旧的不够吸引人。
• The chorus is very catchy to say the least.副歌部分很容易上口。

7 computing   

n.计算

参考例句：

• to work in computing 从事信息处理
• Back in the dark ages of computing, in about 1980, they started a software company. 早在计算机尚未普及的时代（约1980年），他们就创办了软件公司。

8 tabulating   

把（数字、事实）列成表( tabulate的现在分词 )； 制表

参考例句：

• The Census Office did not finish tabulating the results until 1888. 直到1888年，人口普查办公室才完成统计数字表格。
• By 1890 a revolutionary electrical tabulating system was available. 到了1890年，一种具有革命意义的电动制表装置投入使用。

9 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。

10 acronym   

n.首字母简略词，简称

参考例句：

• That's a mouthful of an acronym for a very simple technology.对于一项非常简单的技术来说，这是一个很绕口的缩写词。
• TSDF is an acronym for Treatment, Storage and Disposal Facilities.TSDF是处理，储存和处置设施的一个缩写。

11 oracle   

n.神谕，神谕处，预言

参考例句：

• In times of difficulty,she pray for an oracle to guide her.在困难的时候，她祈祷神谕来指引她。
• It is a kind of oracle that often foretells things most important.它是一种内生性神谕，常常能预言最重要的事情。

12 makers   

n.制造者，制造商（maker的复数形式）

参考例句：

• The makers of the product assured us that there had been no sacrifice of quality. 这一产品的制造商向我们保证说他们没有牺牲质量。
• The makers are about to launch out a new product. 制造商们马上要生产一种新产品。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 founders   

n.创始人( founder的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He was one of the founders of the university's medical faculty. 他是该大学医学院的创建人之一。 来自辞典例句
• The founders of our religion made this a cornerstone of morality. 我们宗教的创始人把这看作是道德的基石。 来自辞典例句

14 outgrew   

长[发展] 得超过（某物）的范围( outgrow的过去式 )； 长[发展]得不能再要（某物）； 长得比…快； 生长速度超过

参考例句：

• She outgrew the company she worked for and found a better job somewhere else. 她进步很快，不再满足于她所在工作的公司，于是又在别处找到一份更好的工作。
• It'soon outgrew Carthage and became the largest city of the western world. 它很快取代了迦太基成为西方的第一大城市。 来自英汉非文学 - 文明史