I've got a quiz on company names giving their names and looking for the full meaning, this is in the reverse. Here are some answers needing questions, ie names in full or translations into English. Some well known, some pretty obscure.

One example to start you off: Humphrey Brothers- answer Umbro (name is a contraction of course).

What are the companies associated with these answers?

Kyoto ceramics
Marsh and Costin
Pleiades (star system)
Three diamonds
Sonic
Mike and Terry
Standard Oil

Kyoto Ceramics = Kyocera
Three Diamonds = Mitsubishi

Well done Silver Moonsong!

Pleiades (star system). The Japanese name for the Pleiades is Subaru, hence the logo with its stars.

Subaru is the automobile division of Fuji Heavy Industries: the stars are said to represent the smaller companies which merged to form the division.

One more down Tom

Marsh and Costin --- Marcos Cars --- car company (Mantula Coupe, Mantula Spyder & Mantara) (Jem MARsh and Frank COStin first formed the company in 1959 --- first 3 letters of their last names)

Mike and Terry --- MITEL (MIke and TErry's Lawnmowers --- when the lawnmower business/idea fell through due to a missing shipment of lawnmowers, MITEL turned to making touchtone receivers instead)

I'm assuming on this one- Standard Oil is Esso short for it's initials S and O.

Well done both of you, good to get the history as well. Just the sonic one is left, and is tough because few sources actually know about it. There are a few other explanations knocking around but this is the official one. I'll also give the previous name of the company when it's answered, which explains the need for a new one.

A clue will arrive if no answer in a few days

I'll take a crack at Sonic - maybe it is Boom? An international stock trading place.

Is this a reference to the "SONIC Drive-ins"?

Originally called the "Top Hat Drive-ins", the name was changed when the owners were informed that the {Top Hat" name was copyrighted --- The owners then consulted their dictionaries to find a new name. When they came upon the word sonic (meaning "Speed of sound"} they knew they had the perfect name --- the slogan of the "Top Hat Drive-ins" had been "Service With the Speed of Sound".

What was a "Sonic Drive-in"? It was a hamburger stand with a canopy for the cars to park under --- a speaker system let you order your food (hot dogs, root beer and Frozen Favorites desserts) from your car, and car-hops brought your order to your car.

I believe the company still exists. (History of the SONIC Drive-in)

Sounds similar to the A&W to me!

OK, time for a clue, or two actually. One, it's nobody obscure, two, the answer is partly contained in the question. Any more and I'll be giving it away. I will add I read a few explanations before I discovered the true one, so there are a couple of others about, but this appears to be direct from the company.

Sonic = Sea Sonic Electronics Co., Ltd.

Not that one, the answer isn't totally in the question, but about 80%

There are still Sonics on every corner down here-don't know if any are left in other areas of the US. But there must be, because I see national ad campaigns on television. When I was a little girl, the carhops wore roller skates, carrying trays. Almost as good an entertainment as the coneydogs and rootbeers.
I don't know any actual history.

After thinking it over,I would suppose the name would be picked because of the space program, which exploded in the 1950's. It was trendy in the States to name your product something with a space age sound. Only a guess.

It's a big and incredibly well-known company! One we almost all know. But think of the satisfaction of being the one who gets it if I keep waiting without giving the answer!

Maybe Sony? I really don't know...

I think you're right Gats, I see something about Sonic Foundry associated with Sony so perhaps it's just a matter of taking the first 3 letters and the last letter and getting rid of the middle letters.

Gats and Makebeleaffan, I believe you are correct. I found this website Sony/Sonic-Foundry, which hopefully explains how they came to be one entity.

Well, David are they right?


---------
Agnes (JTJ)

Yay Gatsby!

The whole story is as follows, the company had a Japanese name, Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha (Tokyo communications industry joint-stock company), hardly a market friendly name. As one of their tape recorders was called soni, from sonic, they decided to adopt that as an international name, and changed the i to a y to make the pronunciation clear. It also sounded like sonny, which they thought sounded American, and was adopted in 1958.