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Name stories · Amazon · 1994

Its first name sounded like "cadaver" over the phone

In July 1994 Jeff Bezos incorporated his online bookstore as Cadabra, a play on "abracadabra". His lawyer pointed out that over the phone it sounded like "cadaver". Bezos switched to Amazon: the biggest river for the biggest bookstore, and an "A" name that sat near the top of alphabetical lists.

Bezos on why the river won:
“It blows all other rivers away.”
Jeff Bezos, founder, as told to biographer Brad Stone

Say your name on a bad phone line before you commit: Cadabra failed the Radio Test.

Sources (3)

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