Why is Pepsi so called?

skysmom65

U.S. conglomerate. The soft drink Pepsi-Cola was created by a pharmacist, Caleb D. Bradham, who gave his tonic its name (from Greek pepsis, “digestion”) in 1898 and incorporated the Pepsi-Cola Co. in 1902. After two bankruptcies and several reincorporations, the Pepsi-Cola trademark and assets were bought in 1931 by Charles G. Guth, who improved the formula and marketed a 12-ounce bottle for five cents with huge success. Pepsi-Cola merged with the soda-fountain chain Loft, Inc., in 1941, and in 1965 it merged with Frito-Lay, Inc., adopting its current name, PepsiCo, Inc. In the 1970s and '80s PepsiCo bought restaurant chains such as Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and Kentucky Fried Chicken, but in 1997 it spun off its restaurant business into a separate company, Tricon Global Restaurants. In 2001 the Quaker Oats Co. merged with PepsiCo. http://www.answers.com/Pepsi%20history Dec 05 06, 8:26 AM

zbeckabee

In addition to skysmom65's reporting: There are several theories on the origin of the word "pepsi". The only two discussed within the current PepsiCo website are the following: 1) Caleb Bradham bought the name "Pep Kola" from a local competitor and changed it to Pepsi-Cola. 2) "Pepsi-Cola" is an anagram for "Episcopal" - a large church across the street from Bradham's drugstore. There is a plaque at the site of the original drugstore documenting this, though PepsiCo has denied this theory. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepsi Dec 05 06, 8:35 AM