Companies Named After Individuals

List of companies named after individual people. Many companies derive their names from the individuals who founded the companies, or other important early contributors. (On occasion, the company is named as a tribute to an individual who is not directly involved in its founding, as with the fast food chain Wendy's, named for founder Dave Thomas's daughter, Melinda "Wendy" Thomas.)

Many of these famous names have now become recognizable brands, with consumers not even realizing that the name they have grown to recognize and trust once belonged to an individual person. (Who remembers that Tiffany & Co refers to Charles Lewis Tiffany?) In other cases, the founder remains as iconic as the business he or she started, as with Walt Disney and his animated films and theme parks, or Michael Dell and his eponymous computer firm.