Sony was originally called 'Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo' (Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation), often abbreviated as 'Totsuko' in Japanese, before rebranding to Sony in 1958.
Sony's Original Name Was a Total Mouthful
Try saying "Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha" five times fast. Better yet, try getting an American businessman in the 1950s to remember it. That was the exact problem facing the Japanese electronics company that would eventually become Sony.
A Name Only a Founder Could Love
When Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita founded their company in 1946, they called it Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo, which translates to "Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation." In Japanese business circles, it was commonly shortened to Totsuko.
The name was perfectly respectable for a post-war Japanese startup. But as the company began exporting products internationally, a problem emerged: nobody outside Japan could pronounce it, spell it, or remember it.
The Search for Something Universal
Morita, who handled the company's international business, became obsessed with finding a name that would work globally. His criteria were specific:
- Easy to pronounce in any language
- Short and memorable
- Didn't mean anything embarrassing in other languages
- Could be written in Roman letters
The founders spent months poring over dictionaries. They landed on the Latin word sonus, meaning sound, which connected to their audio equipment business. They also liked sonny, an American slang term that conveyed a young, energetic spirit.
Born in 1958
Mashing those influences together, they created Sony - a word that existed in no language but worked in all of them. In January 1958, the company officially changed its name from Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo to Sony Corporation.
The rebrand was considered radical at the time. Japanese companies simply didn't adopt Western-style names. But Morita understood something his competitors didn't: in the global marketplace, perception matters as much as product quality.
A Calculated Gamble
The name change wasn't just cosmetic. It signaled Sony's ambition to compete on the world stage, not just survive as a domestic manufacturer. Within a decade, Sony had become synonymous with Japanese innovation and quality.
The Walkman, PlayStation, Trinitron televisions - none of these iconic products would have the same ring if they'd come from "Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo." Sometimes the difference between a good company and a legendary brand comes down to four easy syllables.