OT Good product names don't last for ever

I’m after once great company names that are commonly used to discribe what a product does often by newer and better copies.

Like Hoover
You may hoover your floor but you use a Dyson or a Vax.

Can you think of any other examples of this please?

Tannoy

Sellotape

Thermos – though they may not have been actually bettered.

Rolls Royce – as in “a Rolls Royce solution”

Rollerblade
Frisbee
Bubble wrap

Did you Google that?

Coke? Though I guess you could debate whether they’ve been beaten.

Biro

Allen – hex keys. Again, maybe still a leader.
Phillips – cross-headed screws/screwdrivers.

Kleenex
Duc[t|k] tape
Durex

must be millions though I can’t think of any more just now …

chapstick
kindle
band aid (More of an American one, granted)

Fridge from Frigidaire, possibly.

Aspirin
Heroin

both Bayer

Fridge is from Refrigerator, their brand is a play on that.

Happy to be corrected below! 🙂

Fridge is from Refrigerator, their brand is a play on that.

twas why I said possibly

fridge (n.) Look up fridge at Dictionary.com
shortened and altered form of refrigerator, 1926, an unusual way of word-formation in English; perhaps influenced by Frigidaire (1919), name of a popular early brand of self-contained automatically operated iceless refrigerator (Frigidaire Corporation, Detroit, Michigan, U.S.), a name suggesting Latin frigidarium “a cooling room in a bath.” Frigerator as a colloquial shortening is attested by 1886.

I like this info! Love this place!

Ah – product names rather than company names (yes – the OP is confusing). I suspect many drugs will fall into that category.

Corn Flakes/Sugar Puffs/Bran Flakes etc – some are copyrighted and other manufacturers have to label their products differently but they’re still referred to by their original name.

JCB
[ Tarmac ]
Irn Bru (though I personally don’t like the stuff..)

Tupperware.

Scalextric

Xerox

What you’re describing is a genericised trademark. There’s lots of these:
[list][*]Lino
[/*][*]Escalator[/*][*]Bubble Wrap[/*][*]Hula Hoop[/*][*]Aspirin
[/*][*]Zip[/*][*]Yo Yo[/*][/list]

edit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_generic_and_genericized_trademarks

Fantastic help

Cheers all

Heroin

Relevantly……

Mountain Bike

Rizla.

Phillips – cross-headed screws/screwdrivers.

Ah yes I remember the glee on my D&T teacher’s face as he caught us all out on the difference between cross-head and Phillips screws in our mock GCSE exams

I once went for an interview at Dyson. As we left the interview room, I made small talk asking if they got a discount on Hoovers…. I didn’t get the job

Perspex

App

Cashpoint

Fibreglass

Ah yes I remember the glee on my D&T teacher’s face as he caught us all out on the difference between cross-head and Phillips screws in our mock GCSE exams

You’re thinking of Pozidrive I think. Philips and Pozi are both types of cross-head driver.

Velcro

App

My understanding of App is that it came from the phrase ‘Killer App’ – ie an application on a new device that made that device more desirable (like Super Mario on a Nintendo machine). It almost certainly wasn’t tied to a brand until Apple tried to co-opt it. Am I wrong?

Ah yes I remember the glee on my D&T teacher’s face as he caught us all out on the difference between cross-head and Phillips screws in our mock GCSE exams

You’re thinking of Pozidrive I think. Philips and Pozi are both types of cross-head driver.[/quote]

Possibly yes, still no one got it right

Blutac

Irn Bru

😕

Muzak.

Just thought of another, Lycra, it’s a brand name for spandex. Actually, given it’s still good that may not count.

Pritstick.

My wife just asked me to pass her a J cloth, I gave her a Power Force All Purpose Cloth. She was happy.

Personal euphemisms?