Company Names – What Does That Mean? R-W

1. RSA Security – Are the first letters of the family names of its founders Ronald Rivest, Adi Shamir and Len Adleman.

2. Sprint – From the parent company, Southern Pacific Railroad INTernal Communications. At the time, pipelines and railroad tracks were the cheapest place to lay communications lines, as the right-of-way was already leased or owned.

3. Taco Bell – named after founder Glen Bell.

4. 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.

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

6. Wachovia Corporation – From the Latin version of the German wachau, the name given to a region in North Carolina by German settlers because it reminded them of a river near their home in Germany. Many companies founded in or around Charlotte, N.C., have Wachovia in their name.

Added extra: Yoplait – Created from the merger of Yola and Coplait in 1965.

!