Hmmm ... what else goes well with Prime?
You Won’t Believe What Amazon Was Almost Called
Updated on Sep. 30, 2024
It’s hard to remember life before Amazon. The ability to get practically anything shipped to your doorstep within two days (an integral Amazon Prime benefit) has made the online retail giant a staple for most U.S. households. But Amazon wasn’t always Amazon. In fact, when founder and executive chairman Jeff Bezos initially conceptualized the store in 1994, he had a decidedly different name in mind.
But dare we say he was relentless (hint, hint) in his pursuit of finding the perfect moniker for the e-commerce giant, and Amazon was born. Seriously, Relentless Prime and Relentless Fresh just don’t have the same ring to them.
Read on to find out what led to Bezos’s name decision—and which other handles he considered.
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What was Amazon almost called?
Before Bezos settled on Amazon, he strongly considered naming the website Relentless. According to the book The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon by Brad Stone, Bezos even bought the Relentless.com domain in September 1994. To this day, if you head to Relentless.com, you’ll be redirected to Amazon, as Bezos still owns the unused URL.
Tech-bro legend has it that his inner circle thought the name sounded too aggressive and encouraged him to nix it. By November 1994, Bezos had purchased the Amazon.com domain. (More below on why he thought Amazon as the perfect name.)
What other names did Bezos consider?
Aside from Relentless, Bezos had a few other potential company names on a short list. One of the front-runners was Cadabra, as in the saying touted by magicians—”abracadabra.” The name was registered in the state of Washington in July 1994, but didn’t get any further than that. In a 2018 interview with the Economic Club of Washington, D.C., Bezos recounted why it was a bust: “[My lawyer] said, ‘I need to know what name you want the company to be for these incorporation papers.’ … I said, ‘Cadabra,’ and he said, ‘Cadaver?’ And I was like, ‘OK, that’s not going to work.’ I was like, ‘Go ahead with Cadabra, and I’ll change it.’ Three months later, I changed it to Amazon.”
A few other names considered that didn’t pass muster include:
- Awake.com
- Bookmall.com
- Browse.com
In hindsight, Bookmall would certainly have been too limiting. Browse is too general, though it is pretty apt since it’s all too easy to go down a rabbit hole browsing the online retailer. Awake could have been a contender, but isn’t as exotic as Amazon. Interestingly, just like Relentless, Awake.com and Browse.com still get redirected to Amazon.
So how did Bezos land on the name Amazon?
As an entrepreneur, Bezos had big plans for his online retail concept that went far beyond its initial incarnation selling only books. Ultimately he wanted the site’s reach to expand to literally everything—from things you can buy for $1 to luxury goods. As he sought out the perfect name, he cracked open a dictionary, browsing the “A” section. In his mind, having a name that started with A would be good in terms of alphabetical placement.
“This (the Amazon) is not only the largest river in the world—it’s many times larger than the next biggest river,” Bezos once said. “It blows all other rivers away.”
He was reportedly so set on the name, he didn’t ask for anyone else’s opinion. The domain was registered on Nov. 1, 1994, and Amazon was born.
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Source:
- The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon by Brad Stone
- Tiktok: Jeff Bezos interview with the Economic Club of Washington, D.C.
