50 Popular Things That You Probably Didn't Know Originally Had Different Names

Before it was an iconic daytime show, it was a tv series about the protagonist Ellen and her friends. For the first season they called the show ‘These Friends Of Mine’, but considering the main plot was concentrated on Ellen and her life, they changed the name. It’s safe to say it stuck!

Until 2013 the once-popular cell phone company was called ‘Research in Motion’ but it changed its name after everyone started referring to them after their best selling product ‘Blackberry’.

Did you know that the famous cotton candy treat has been around for more than 600 years. However, back then it was was made in a much more expensive and difficult way. This delicious candy came back on the market in the 20th century and cost $25 cents (which was rather expensive at that time), and was not known as ‘cotton candy’ but by its original name, ‘fairy floss’.

If it wasn’t for the last minute changes there would be another Spice Girls member named Michelle, known as ‘The Smart Spice’. Also, their name was originally ‘Touch’. Well, at the end of the day, as long as we can enjoy the masterpiece ‘Wannabe’ at karaoke and office parties, we’re all good, even if it is performed by a group called ‘Touch’.

Before they were an iconic band called Maroon 5, they were a band under the name ‘Kara’s Flowers’, and the name was actually a reference to a groupie who was crushing on all of the band members. After they released two albums under this name, they changed their name for the third one back in 2002.

What is now a classic karaoke song that people enjoy singing along to, was almost called ‘Brown Skinned Girl’ instead of ‘Brown Eyed Girl’. The author of the song, Van Morrison, says he changed the name by accident: "That was just a mistake. It was a kind of Jamaican song. Calypso. It just slipped my mind. I changed the title. After we'd recorded it, I looked at the tape box and didn't even notice that I'd changed the title. I looked at the box where I'd lain it down with my guitar and it said 'Brown Eyed Girl' on the tape box. It's just one of those things that happen."

75 years ago a Montgomery Ward department store started selling a coloring book about a reindeer, written by Robert May. This reindeer's character was based on Robert himself, and the author first named the protagonist not Rudolph but Reginald. Imagine singing ‘Reginald the red nosed reindeer’, weird, right?

Radiohead were formed when the band members were in high school, so the only time they were able to rehearse was friday evenings after school. This is what inspired the original band name ‘On a Friday’. The band changed its name after they were signed by the EMI Records who suggested they might think of a better name. Since the band were a huge fan of the Talking Heads they chose their name from a 1986 song ‘Radio Head’.

Opened in 1971 this coffee shop was named ‘Starbucks Coffee, Tea and Spice’. Later, in 1983, the CEO of Starbucks, Howard Schultz left the company and opened his own coffeehouse called II Giornale. Four years later he returned, purchased the original company and chose to leave the name Starbucks. However before that, one of the names the company had considered using was ‘Cargo House’, which according to co-founder Gordon Bowker would have been ‘a terrible, terrible mistake’.

During different times in the past, the White House was also called“President’s Palace,” the “President’s House,” and the “Executive Mansion.”