Kodak

Brand Name

• Kodak
• 1888

Preferred Etymology | Origin

• Coined by George Eastman

Folk Etymology | Alternative Theories

• Kodak, Tennessee
• Kodiak, Alaska
• Kodok, Sudan
• NoDak (North Dakota)

Citation | Reference

• “Philologically, the word Kodak is as meaningless as a child’s first ‘goo’ — terse, abrupt to the point of rudeness, literally bitten off by firm and unyielding consonants at both ends, it snaps like a camera shutter in your face. What more would one ask!”
• “I devised the name myself. The letter “K” had been a favourite with me — it seems a strong, incisive sort of letter. It became a question of trying out a great number of combinations of letters that made words starting and ending with ‘K.’ The word ‘Kodak’ is the result.” (System Magazine 1920s)
• “He and his mother devised the name Kodak with an anagram set. He said that there were three principal concepts he used in creating the name: it must be short, you can not mispronounce it, and it could not resemble anything or be associated with anything but Kodak.”