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Photo: Lestat (Jan Mehlich), CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Brand Quiz: Stories Behind Iconic Brands

This Brand Quiz is about the stories behind famous brands: who drew the logo, where the name came from and what the company first sold. 15 questions, each explained.

15 questionsMixed (easy → hard)~3 minNo timer

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About this Brand quiz

This brand quiz is about the stories behind famous names: who drew the Nike swoosh and what she was paid, why Amazon was nearly called Cadabra, which goddess gave Canon its name and what Nokia made long before phones. It is brand trivia for people who like knowing where everyday names come from.

You do not need to spot logos from a picture. Each question tells part of a brand's origin story and asks you to name the company, the person or the detail behind it. The questions run from easy ones on LEGO and Pepsi to harder ones on Samsung, Adobe and Bata that surprise most players.

It works as a quiz about brands for a marketing team, a business school club or a corporate quiz night, and every answer comes with a short explanation you can read out. Play alone and share your score, or use the answer key below the quiz to host your own brand name quiz.

Brand questions with answers

Show answers

  1. Co-founder Ronald Wayne's 1976 logo showed which scientist sitting under a tree?

    A plain black apple silhouette with a bite taken out.
    Photo: Original: Rob Janoff, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
    • Charles Darwin
    • Albert Einstein
    • Isaac Newton
    • Galileo Galilei

    Answer: Isaac Newton. Isaac Newton under the apple tree, before the bitten apple took over.

  2. A Portland State student drew Nike's swoosh in 1971. What was she paid?

    A curved, tick-shaped sports logo.
    Photo: Carolyn Davidson, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
    • $35
    • $350
    • $3,500
    • $35,000

    Answer: $35. Carolyn Davidson got $35, and later Nike shares.

  3. Nike takes its name from a winged Greek goddess. What did she stand for?

    • Wisdom
    • Speed
    • Victory
    • War

    Answer: Victory. Victory, which is why the swoosh is said to suggest her wing.

  4. Its 1994 logo hides an arrow in the white space between two letters. Which courier?

    • DHL
    • Blue Dart
    • UPS
    • FedEx

    Answer: FedEx. FedEx. The arrow sits between the E and the x.

  5. A Danish carpenter joined 'leg godt', play well, into one name in 1934. Which brand?

    • LEGO
    • Playmobil
    • Meccano
    • Hasbro

    Answer: LEGO. LEGO, coined by Ole Kirk Christiansen.

  6. Google is a misspelling of 'googol'. A googol is 1 followed by how many zeros?

    A multicoloured letter G icon.
    Photo: Original: Google Vector: Designism, Liquinoid, and YeBoy371, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
    • 100
    • 10
    • 1,000
    • 1 million

    Answer: 100. A hundred, a nod to the huge amount of information online.

  7. Starbucks is named after the first mate aboard the Pequod. Which novel?

    • The Old Man and the Sea
    • Treasure Island
    • Robinson Crusoe
    • Moby-Dick

    Answer: Moby-Dick. Starbuck is Captain Ahab's first mate in Herman Melville's Moby-Dick.

  8. Adi Dassler's brother Rudolf set up a rival across the river in their town. Which brand?

    A pair of white trainers with three stripes on the side.
    Photo: Yahoo! Blog from Sunnyvale, California, USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
    • Reebok
    • Puma
    • Asics
    • Fila

    Answer: Puma. The Dassler brothers split in 1948: Adi made Adidas, Rudolf made Puma.

  9. Pharmacist Caleb Bradham first sold this fizzy drink as 'Brad's Drink' at his shop in North Carolina. Which brand did it become?

    • Coca-Cola
    • Dr Pepper
    • Pepsi
    • 7 Up

    Answer: Pepsi. Pepsi. Bradham renamed it Pepsi-Cola in 1898.

  10. Long before mobile phones, Nokia began in Finland in 1865 as what kind of business?

    A small grey mobile phone with a keypad.
    Photo: Multicherry, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
    • A rubber boot maker
    • A wood-pulp mill
    • A cable factory
    • A telegraph company

    Answer: A wood-pulp mill. A pulp mill, set up by Fredrik Idestam. Rubber boots and cables came later through the companies Nokia merged with in 1967.

  11. Jeff Bezos first registered his online bookshop as Cadabra, until his lawyer misheard the name as 'cadaver'. What did he rename it?

    • eBay
    • Flipkart
    • Barnes & Noble
    • Amazon

    Answer: Amazon. Amazon. Bezos picked the name of the world's biggest river for what he hoped would be the world's biggest bookshop.

  12. Its Korean name means 'three stars', and it began in 1938 as a small trading company in Daegu, long before it made phones. Name it.

    • Samsung
    • Hyundai
    • LG
    • Kia

    Answer: Samsung. Samsung. Its founder Lee Byung-chul chose "three" for something big and powerful, and "stars" for something lasting.

  13. Two Xerox researchers named their 1982 software company after the creek that ran behind one founder's house. The company later gave us the PDF. Name it.

    • Oracle
    • Adobe
    • Autodesk
    • Corel

    Answer: Adobe. Adobe, after Adobe Creek near John Warnock's home. He and Charles Geschke started the company in his garage.

  14. Many Indians think of it as a desi brand, but this shoe company was founded in 1894 in Zlín, in today's Czech Republic. Name it.

    • Liberty
    • Paragon
    • Khadim's
    • Bata

    Answer: Bata. Bata, started by Tomáš Baťa and his siblings. It has made shoes in India since the 1930s, at Batanagar near Kolkata.

  15. In 1934 a Japanese camera prototype was named Kwanon, after the Buddhist goddess of mercy. Which brand grew out of that name?

    • Nikon
    • Olympus
    • Canon
    • Fujifilm

    Answer: Canon. Canon. The engineers hoped the goddess would bless their effort to build the world's best camera.

Frequently asked questions

Where can I find brand quiz questions with answers?

On this page. Play the quiz to see each answer with a short explanation, or open the answer key below to read all 15 brand quiz questions with answers at once.

Do I need to recognise logos to play this Brand Quiz?

No. This Brand Quiz is about the stories behind brand names and logos, so every question gives you a story to work from. A few questions show a photo, but you never need to recognise a logo to answer.

How many questions are in this Brand Quiz?

There are 15 multiple-choice questions on brands such as Apple, Nike, LEGO, FedEx, Amazon and Samsung. Most people finish in about four minutes.

Can I play the Brand Quiz online for free without signing up?

Yes. It is free to play with no account or login. Press Start, answer the 15 questions and your score appears at the end.