Jeff Bezos had to rename Amazon after morbid original title ‘freaked out’ lawyer

Posted on : February 1, 2023
Jeff Bezos had to rename Amazon after morbid original title ‘freaked out’ lawyer
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    As one of the largest businesses in the world, Amazon is an instantly recognisable brand name.

    But the Internet retail giant wasn't always named after the world's largest river.

    Amazon founder Jeff Bezos was actually forced to change the original name of the company after a lawyer misheard it as something a bit morbid.

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    When it began as an online bookshop in 1994, Amazon was actually called Cadabra, Inc—as in 'abracadabra'.

    But a few months after Bezos launched the firm from a garage in Washington, a lawyer misheard the company name as 'cadaver', i.e. a corpse.

    Bezos decided to ditch the name to avoid any potential confusion, and pick something else out.

    Ever a creative mind, he picked up a dictionary and began flicking through it. It didn't take long to get to Amazon, obviously.

    Bezos said he thought the name would be 'exotic and different' and that, as the world's largest river, 'Amazon' fit his vision for building the world's biggest online bookshop.

    It's also early in the alphabet, which means Bezos didn't have to waste time reading all the way through to those pesky 'Qs' and 'Zs'.

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    In 1997, Bezos told Inc magazine: "There's nothing about our model that can't be copied over time. But you know, McDonald's got copied. And it still built a huge, multibillion-dollar company.

    "A lot of it comes down to the brand name. Brand names are more important online than they are in the physical world."

    Earlier this month, Amazon workers went on strike in the UK for the first time, with 300 staff walking out of the company's Coventry warehouse over a 55p pay offer.

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