YKK – zipper manufacturer named from Yoshida Kogyo Kabushikikaisha (Yoshida Company Limited) after the founder, Tadao Yoshida. The letters YKK were stamped onto the zippers' pull tabs. Yoplait – from the merger of Yola and Coplait in 1965 Z Zamzar – based on the main character Gregor Samsa (Gregor Samsa) from Franz Kafka's story The Metamorphosis''. Kafka describes a young man who is transformed whilst sleeping into a monstrous verminous bug. A version of the man's name was used as the basis for the company name because of its powerful association with change and transformation. Zend Technologies – contraction derived from the names of Zeev Suraski and Andi Gutmans, the two founders Zero Corporation – Founded by Herman Zierold as Zierold Metal Corporation, it is the parent company of Zero Halliburton. In 1952, when then owner Jack Gilbert noticed that many of the company's customers mispronounced and misspelled "Zierold" as "Zero", he changed the name of the company to Zero Manufacturing. Zetor – from "zet", the Czech spelling of the letter Z, the first letter of the name of the arms factory Zbrojovka, and "tractor". ZF Group – car parts manufacturer named from Zahnradfabrik, the German for Gear Factory. Zimmer – named after Justin O. Zimmer, who co-founded the medical equipment company in Warsaw, Indiana, in 1927. Zippo – Founder George G. Blaisdell liked the sound of the word "zipper", and "zippo" sounded more modern. Zuse – pioneering German computer company named after its founder, Konrad Zuse (1910–1995). He built his first computer in his parents' living room at the end of the 1930s. Zuse was taken over by Siemens AG. The name is now supposedly echoed by SuSE (Software und System-E'''ntwicklung: "Software and system development"). Zynga – named after founder Mark Pincus's American bulldog, Zinga See also List of companies named after people List of oldest companies Lists of etymologies Orphan initialism Rebranding References Etymologies Company name etymologies Companies