Here's what 24 of the most popular brand names really mean

After a few good hours of shopping, you head to Panera to meet a friend for lunch. You Venmo her for the meal and then you both decide dessert is in the cards: Next stop, Häagen-Dazs.

All these brands are staples in our lives. But do you have any idea what their names actually mean?

Pepsi was named after the medical term for indigestion.

Caleb Davis Bradham, originally wanted to be a doctor, but a family crisis meant that he left medical school and became a pharmacist instead, according to the company website.

His original invention, known as “Brad’s Drink,” was made from a mix of sugar, water, caramel, lemon oil, and nutmeg. Three years later, Bradham renamed his drink, which he believed aided digestion, to “Pepsi-Cola," taken from the word dyspepsia, meaning indigestion.

Panera is a portmanteau of the words "pan" and "era."

According to Panera's Facebook page, the sandwich chain's name "

Ron Shaich, the founder of Panera, also told Fortune the name comes from the Latin word for breadbasket.

Google owes its name to a typo.

Google's name emerged from a brainstorming session at Stanford University. Founder Larry Page was coming up with ideas for

"googolplex" one of the largest describable numbers. The name 'Google' came about after one of the students accidentally spelled it wrong. Page then registered his company with this name.

McDonald's is named after two brothers who ran a burger restaurant.

Raymond Kroc, the founder of McDonald's, was a milkshake machine salesman when he first met brothers Dick and Mac McDonald, who ran a burger restaurant in

Multimixers and he was so impressed by their burger restaurant that he became their agent and set up franchises around the US, Money reported. Years later, he bought rights to the McDonald's name.

Adidas isn't an acronym for "All Day I Dream About Soccer."

If you, like me, thought Adidas stood for "All Day I Dream About Soccer," you're wrong. It turns out the athletics-apparel brand is named after its founder,

J. Crew's name set it up to compete with Ralph Lauren's Polo line.

According to Forbes, "

"A genie whispered 'Rolex,'" in the founder's ear.

Lululemon means nothing at all. And it's intentionally hard to pronounce.

Lululemon founder Chip Wilson came up with the yoga-wear brand's name because he thought Japanese people wouldn't be able to pronounce it.

He wrote in 2009:

"It was thought that a Japanese marketing firm would not try to create a North American sounding brand with the letter 'L' because the sound does not exist in Japanese phonetics. By including an 'L' in the name it was thought the Japanese consumer would find the name innately North American and authentic."

"In essence, the name 'lululemon' has no roots and means nothing other than it has 3 'L's' in it. Nothing more and nothing less."

A representative for Lululemon told Business Insider that the brand's name was chosen from a list of 20 brand names and 20 logos by a group of 100 people.

Zara came from Zorba, its original name.

Ortega had already made the mold for the letters of his sign when the bar owner told him that it was too confusing for them to have the same name.

In the end, Ortega ended up rearranging the letters to make the closest word he could come up with — hence Zara, according to The New York Times.

ASOS is an abbreviation of AsSeenOnScreen.

The British online retailer was founded as AsSeenOnScreen in 1999 and lived at

IKEA isn't actually a Swedish word.

Starbucks is named after a character in "Moby-Dick."

In an interview with The Seattle Times, Starbucks cofounder

Soylent gets its name from a sci-fi novel.

Soylent — that meal-replacement drink that's a Silicon Valley favorite — got its name from theMake Room! Make Room!" which is about how population growth depletes the world's natural resources. In the book, soylent is a blend of soybeans and lentils.

Gap refers to the generation gap between adults and kids.

The first Gap store opened in 1969 with the goal of selling good jeans. The name referred to the generation gap between adults and kids.

Wawa is named after an area of Pennsylvania.

The convenience-store chain's name means two things: 1. It's the name of the area in Pennsylvania where the company's first dairy farm was located. 2. It's a Native American word for a

Häagen-Dazs may sound Danish, but it's completely made up.

Nike is the Greek goddess of victory.

Gatorade was developed for the Florida Gators.

A team of doctors at the University of Florida developed the sports drink for the Florida Gators football players, who were struggling to play in the heat.

Venmo was inspired by a dead language.

Under Armour decided to use the British spelling because it made a better phone number.

The name Under Armour came about somewhat accidentally, according to The Washington Post's interview with CEO Kevin Plank. Plank said he had landed on the name Body Armor, but couldn't get the name trademarked. He told The Post:

So how did Under Armour end up with that weird spelling?

Amazon was named after the world's biggest river.

When Amazon first launched in 1995, founder Jeff Bezos had a different idea for his brand name.

Bezos wanted to call his online bookstore first lawyer, Todd Tarbert, managed to convince him that the name sounded too similar to "Cadaver."

Bezos is also said to have favored the name Relentless, and if you visit today, you'll be redirected to Amazon's website, Business Insider reported.

Bezos finally settled on Amazon, named after the largest river in the world, and incorporated an image of the river in the company's first logo.

Monsanto is the middle name of the founder's wife.

Agrochemical company Monsanto was founded in 1901 by John F. Queeny. He named the business after his wife, Olga Monsanto Queeny.

Verizon stems from the latin word Veritas, meaning "truth."

Verizon was the product of a merger between Bell Atlantic and GTE, both telecommunications companies. The name is a mix between the latin word "veritas" meaning "truth," and horizon, which is meant to signify that the brand is forward-looking.

JCPenney is named after its founder, whose name is just too good to be true.

With a name like James Cash Penney, it's as if the retail founder was born to make money.

Here's what 24 of the most popular brand names really mean

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