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A few years ago a friend told me that he was surprised that an antivirus company was called “Panda” because he associated the name with that of a loving and cute animal.

Okay, a panda bear may seem loving and cuddly, but let’s not be fooled, it is also is fierce and with a strong capability to attack. So, in my opinion, the name reflects perfectly on one hand, our passion for the customer and the desire to make him feel satisfied, cared for and protected and at the same time, the name represents the effectiveness of the security solutions the company offers to combat all types of cyberattacks and threats.

But why the name Panda for a security company? Have a guess! Is it:

a. Because the panda bear is not native to China, as believed, but to Spain, the country of origin of Panda Security.
b. Because the company was founded by a bunch of friends, and bunch of friends in Spanish translates as “panda”.
c. Because one of the creative’s favourite stuffed animal was a panda.

Send us your comments and next week we will announce the correct answer.

The truth is that the origin of the names of some of the most emblematic companies in the technology industry, for example, is somehow curious.

For example:

• Google: The Google case is well known. It was named in honour of the googol, which is a one followed by one hundred zeros, referring to the number of pages you would be able to find when the famous search engine was created.
• Hotmail: It was called so because it included the letters HTML, the language used to program web pages.
• Linux: It is named in honor of its first developer, Linus Torvalds. They changed the “x” for the “s” in honor of Unix, the operating system from which it originates.
• Apple: I have read several theories regarding the name of Apple and it is still not very clear to me what inspired Steve Jobs. Apparently, Jobs decided to sell computers with the name of this fruit paying homage to the Beatles’ record label named alike. Others suggest that Macintosh is a Californian apple variety. Others say that Jobs actually had a good memory of a summer he spent working at an apple farm in Oregon.But other theories suggest that Steve Jobs said to his colleagues, when they were thinking of the product name:”If by 5 pm, we don’t come up with anything better, the company name will be anything that I like. ”

  By 5 pm, no one had thought of a good name, and Jobs was eating an apple … so he called the company Apple Computers.

  However way the true story goes, it turned out to be a cool, fun, and innovative name!!

Know more curious names? We would love you to share them with us!

And remember, next week, we tell you a bit more about the history of Panda Security.