In 1923, Polish-American inventor Leo Gerstenzang watched his wife Ziuta attempt to clean their newborn daughter Betty with a precarious combination of cotton and a toothpick. He thought there had to be a better way—and thus invented the ready-made cotton swab. But what he called his invention might raise some eyebrows today: Baby Gays.

According to Gerstenzang, he chose the name because his product was designed to keep infants happy (or "gay" in the old-fashioned sense) while their ears and other delicate areas were safely cleaned. The word "gay" simply meant cheerful and carefree in the 1920s, making "Baby Gays" a perfectly innocuous product name for the era.

The Great Rebranding

By 1926, Gerstenzang clearly recognized he needed a catchier brand. He renamed the product "Q-Tips Baby Gays," with the "Q" standing for quality. The dual name stuck around for about a year before the company wisely decided to go all-in on the Q-Tips branding.

In 1927, they dropped "Baby Gays" entirely and began developing Q-Tips as their primary trademark. The company formally applied to register "Q-Tips" on September 14, 1933, cementing the name that would eventually become so ubiquitous it's now used generically for all cotton swabs.

A Revolutionary Baby Product

Before Gerstenzang's invention, parents had few safe options for cleaning their babies' delicate areas. The toothpick-and-cotton method was dangerous—one slip could cause injury. Gerstenzang's sterilized, ready-made swabs were a genuine innovation in infant care.

He founded the Leo Gerstenzang Infant Novelty Company to manufacture his creation. The swabs featured cotton tips on both ends of a small stick, initially made of wood and later plastic. They were marketed specifically for baby care—cleaning ears, applying ointments to belly buttons, and other gentle hygiene tasks.

From Nursery to Everything

While Q-Tips started as a baby product, they quickly found uses far beyond the nursery. Today, people use them for:

Applying and removing makeup
Cleaning electronics and hard-to-reach spaces
Arts and crafts projects
Applying first aid ointments
Cleaning jewelry

Ironically, the one thing you're not supposed to use them for is the thing most people do: cleaning inside your ears. Modern Q-Tips packages explicitly warn against inserting them into ear canals, as this can push wax deeper or damage the eardrum.

The name "Baby Gays" has been relegated to trivia history, but it serves as a fascinating reminder of how language evolves. What seemed like a wholesome, cheerful name in the 1920s would be impossible to market today—proof that context and cultural shifts matter just as much as the product itself.

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