Kodak is an international company, a household brand and had nearly 11 billion dollars in sales in 2006.

And it's got an odd name.

I assumed for a long time that it was a family name, or a carefully devised name based on market research and popular trends.

Actually, it's because the guy who founded Kodak really liked the letter "K." Or more accurately, he thought the letter K was strong. The rest of the word, in part, was decided upon because the name couldn't be mispronounced.

I love this story because it sounds so unlikely and because it's so far from how things are often done now.

(For the curious, I first came across the origins of the word Kodak in a Bill Bryson book — Made in America. It's an immensely entertaining book filled with endlessly diverting and frequently useless knowledge.)