How Domino's, Chick-fil-A and other fast-food restaurants got their names

Chick-fil-A says its "A" stands for "grade A top quality." (Reuters)

Plucked from a dream, an old map, a daughter's birth certificate — that's how the names of some of the most famous fast-food restaurants came to be.

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In 1946, there wasn’t much chicken at The Dwarf Grill in the suburbs of Atlanta. Later the restaurant became known as The Dwarf House, with signage including the Chick-fil-A logo we know it today. Truett Cathy created the simplest of sandwiches (chicken and two pickles on a bun) in 1964, and eventually, the Dwarf bit fell off as the empire grew.

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For the creator of the famous A-frame burger shack, bigger was simply better. In the mid-20th century, there was nary a patty bigger than four inches. But Harmon Dobson dreamed of a square five. A burger so grand, in fact, that it would make one exclaim, “What a burger!” And his chain’s name is an homage to that dream.

New York City, NY, USA - December 17, 2014: View of Wendy's fast food restaurant in Rego Park / Forest Hills, Queens. On Metropolitan Ave. (iStock)

Ever since he was a boy, Dave Thomas knew he wanted to have a restaurant. And after 20 years in the biz, he did just that, opening the first Wendy’s in 1969 in Columbus, Ohio. Wendy was the nickname of one of his children, Melinda. But he wasn’t playing favorites — he experimented with all five of his kids’ names before settling.

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In 1954, brothers Dick and Mac McDonald had a small but successful eponymous burger joint in San Bernardino, Calif. But it was the opportunistic Ray Kroc who bought the restaurant and the name, built the system around it, and made it the global powerhouse that it is today.

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In 1960, brothers Jim and Tom Monaghan bought a pizza shop in  Ypsilanti, Mich., called DomiNick’s. After some drama and subsequent rising success of the business, the original owner decided to retain the rights to the name. With a looming deadline for an ad in the phone book (remember those?), it’s rumored that a delivery driver named Jim Kennedy came up with Domino’s Pizza.

"Falls Church, VA, USA - August 19, 2011: Chipotle Mexican Grill sign. Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE: CMG) is a popular American chain of over 1000 restaurants specializing in burritos and tacos. The name ""Chipotle"" comes from the Mexican word for a smoked, dried jalapeAo chili pepper." (Reuters)

It was a bit of a eureka moment when founder Steve Ells came up with the name Chipotle. “It was just like a light bulb went off,” he told Bloomberg. While others close to him said it was obscure or too hard to pronounce, he stuck with it. And now, for the burrito-hungry, the name is on the tip of their tongue.

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In 1965, after med school didn’t work out, Frank DeLuca and his friend Peter Buck opened Pete’s Super Submarines in Milford, Conn., setting a goal to have 32 locations in 10 years. The sandwich slingers changed the name to “Pete’s Subway” a few years later. But in 1974, with just 16 locations throughout the state, they decided to franchise the business in an attempt to meet their goal. The name? Simply, Subway.

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The story of how Starbucks got its name literally starts with “st.” When co-founder Gordon Bowker was brainstorming name ideas with some friends, an ad agency colleague declared that he thought words starting with “st” were powerful. The group later came across an old map that included a town called Starbo. The name instantly reminded Bowker of the Moby Dick character, Starbuck, and thus an empire was born.