History IAmNotShazam / RealLife

** Binney & Smith changed their name to Crayola LLC in 2007.

* The developers of AVG were known as Grisoft until they changed their name to AVG Technologies in 2008.

* During the Second World War, American soldiers came across railroad stations with a large sign stating simply, "HALT," and mistook this for the name of the town. In reality, "halt" in German means "stop," and the signs were put there so that people would not attempt to trespass. By the end of the war, there were several instances of towns named Halt across the country.

* Strictly speaking, Big Ben is the name of the bell that strikes the hour in the Elizabeth Tower[[labelnote:*]]Renamed from the "Clock Tower" in 2012, partly to honour Queen Elizabeth Ⅱ’s sixtieth year on the throne and partly to put and end to the confusion over what the tower is called.[[/labelnote]], rather than the clock itself or its clock tower.
** Double example here, since most people who know the tower isn't called Big Ben persist in correcting people who get it wrong by informing them it's actually called St. Stephen's Tower. It isn't. St Stephen's Tower is a small tower at the main entrance to the Palace of Westminster (called St. Stephen's entrance), but the error is so widespread most tourist information websites still get it wrong. The tower which contains Big Ben was simply called the Clock Tower. [[http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/06/26/uk-britain-bigben-queen-idUKBRE85P0O220120626 As of the Diamond Jubilee]], said tower shall be called "Elizabeth Tower" after [[UsefulNotes/HMTheQueen Queen Elizabeth II]].

** Same with Mercedes, which is called after the daughter of one of the employees of Daimler-Benz.

** This has caused some problems for real world Biblical historians when people bring up Tacitus as "proof" that Jesus really existed (a question that is still being debated by historians). In his book, "The Annals," Tacitus mentions "a certain man named Christus." Christus, unlike "Christ," was in fact a name used in the Holy Land during the appropriate time... but it has nothing to do with Jesus despite what some people claim.

** Another famous example is the Mercedes-Benz. The name of the company which manufactures it is Daimler. Naturally, they don't make Daimler cars, Jaguar does: Daimler was originally a brand if Daimler-Motoren-Gesselschaft (prior to merging with Benz), but due to a contract mistake accidentally handed the right to the name over to a licensee.
*** For a time in the 2000s Daimler corporation was merged with Chrysler while the rights to the Daimler name were owned by Ford.

** Many years ago the paint manufacturer Berger ran a campaign in the UK to try to raise awareness of its own name rather than that of its various paint brands.
** Of further note are several companies that, while they did not originally share their names with their better-known brand names, have changed their names to avoid confusion. Convenience-store chain 7-Eleven's corporate presence was known as Southland Corporation until 1999, and fast food chain Jack in the Box was incorporated under the name Foodmaker until the same year.
*** With 7-Eleven it's a bit more complicated. To make long story short, the company just went bankrupt and was bought out by its Japanese partner, Seven & I. Holdings.

*** The American division took the same name in 2005, but changed back at the same time as the UK division; everyone, even the business media, just kept calling them "M&M Mars" anyways, while almost nobody knows they make Pedigree and Whiskas pet foods. Besides, Mars is a family business--wholly owned by the Mars family.

** Not even products are safe from this. In several cases, people tend to use the trademarked name of a well known product as a catch-all name for the same product made by other companies. For example, no matter who makes petroleum jelly, people will likely call it "Vaseline". The same goes for adhesive bandages, which are almost exclusively called "Band-Aids".[[note]]In North America. In the UK, they are generally called "plasters".[[/note]] And that generic box of toasted whole grain oat cereal that looks like Cheerios, but definitely isn't called that? Doesn't matter. ''They're still Cheerios!'' The term is referred to as a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generic_trademark generic trademark]].
** Once upon a time, Pentax cameras (named for the roof pentaprism viewfinder they used) were produced and sold by Asahi Optical Company, Ltd, as one of several lines of cameras the company sold. They proved so popular that the company renamed themselves Pentax. Additionally, the cameras' popularity caused the lens mount they used, the M42 lens mount, to be known as the "Pentax Screwmount" in the US. Similarly, the same lensmount was known in Japan as the "Praktika thread mount", after a brand of East German cameras that used them. The lensmount in question was actually designed and first used by VEB Zeiss Ikon[[note]]based at the time in Soviet-occupied Germany, before they changed their name to Pentacon under pressure from Zeiss Ikon, a similarly named firm in the US Zone of Occupied Germany. Germany copyrights were presumably a complicated issue in the early Cold War years.[[/note]] for the Contax S, the first camera to use the roof pentaprism viewfinders that Pentax would take its name from.

** In 2016 Fuji Heavy Industries joined the club of companies changing their name to that of their flagship consumer product, becoming Subaru Corporation.

* The proposed Strategic Defense Initiative ICBM defense project was often referred to as the ''Franchise/StarWars defense project''. The public naturally assumed it was a ShoutOut due to the projects proposed use of lasers and particle beams. However, this nickname was never employed by the government agencies or in any of their research proposals. It has its origin not as a {{Fanboy}} homage but an insult from a senator who was clearly opposed to the idea. [[note]]Ted Kennedy being the senator in question. President Reagan didn't get the memo on that and unwisely made references to Star Wars in his speeches supporting the proposal. This undoubtedly led to the pop cultural osmosis of the general public doing the same.[[/note]]

* The proposed Strategic Defense Initiative ICBM defense project was often referred to as the ''Franchise/StarWars defense project''. The public naturally assumed it was a ShoutOut due to the projects proposed use of lasers and particle beams. However, this nickname was never employed by the government agencies or any of their research proposals. It has its origin not as a {{Fanboy}} homage but an insult from a senator who was clearly opposed to the idea. [[note]]Ted Kennedy being the senator in question. President Reagan didn't get the memo on that and unwisely made references to Star Wars in his speeches supporting the proposal.[[/note]]

* The proposed Strategic Defense Initiative project was often referred to as the Franchise/StarWars defense project. The public naturally assumed it was a ShoutOut due to the projects proposed use of lasers and particle beams. However, this nickname was never employed by the government agencies or any of their research proposals. It has its origin not as a {{Fanboy}} homage but an insult from a senator who was clearly opposed to the idea. [[note]]Ted Kennedy being the senator in question[[/note]]

* Jokingly invoked by Creator/NormMacDonald in one of his appearances on ''Series/LateNight'' with Creator/ConanOBrien. He talks about having a stimulating conversation with a complete stranger who he met on a recent airplane flight, and learning several interesting facts along the way. One fact was that the spaceship from ''Series/StarTrek'' was actually called "The ''Enterprise''"; [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} before that, he had always assumed that it was called "The]] ''[[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} Star Trek]]''[[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} ."]]

* The famous Italian organized crime group is called Cosa Nostra(which depending on who you ask either means "This Thing Of Ours" or "Our Thing and Our Family"), not the Mafia.

** Rome's third Emperor is generally known today as Caligula, but at the time he was known simply as Gaius.

*** A similar phenomenon occurs with Charlemagne, whose actual name was simply Charles (or 'Karl'). 'Charlemagne' means 'Charles the Great'.

* Maximilien Robespierre's rule over France between 1793 and 1794 is generally referred to as 'The Terror'. Most people assume this was the name given to it by terrified ordinary people who were at risk of being executed by Robespierre. Actually it was the name Robespierre and his government themselves gave to their policies, and the people who they were supposed to be terrorising were not ordinary French people, but the foreign armies fighting against France.

** Not even products are safe from this. In several cases, people tend to use the trademarked name of a well known product as a catch-all name for the same product made by other companies. For example, no matter who makes petroleum jelly, people will likely call it "Vaseline". The same goes for adhesive bandages, which are almost exclusively called "Band-Aids". And that generic box of toasted whole grain oat cereal that looks like Cheerios, but definitely isn't called that? Doesn't matter. ''They're still Cheerios!'' The term is referred to as a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generic_trademark generic trademark]].

** Has anyone ever actually gotten this confused? I've never heard of that. Though I have heard plenty refer to the show itself as ''Jon Stewart'', as if it's named after its host.
** At least professionally. He was born Jon Stewart Leibowitz. (He legally changed his name in the 2000s.)

** Funny, as "halt" is also a perfectly common English synonym for "stop" (English and German are related languages, both being West Germanic languages, so this is not an example of a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_cognate false cognate]]).
*** The English word "halt" isn't an inherited cognate from Proto-Germanic via Anglo-Saxon, but rather a direct borrowing from German. The former does exist however, that would be the word hold.
** Also, foreigners driving on German motorways often believe at first that "Ausfahrt" is a town's name.

** Another famous example is the Mercedes-Benz. The name of the company which manufactures it is Daimler. Naturally, they don't make Daimler cars, Jaguar does: Daimler was originally a Daimler-Benz brand, but due to a contract mistake accidentally handed the right to the name over to a licensee.

* The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels is actually called 'The Manifesto of the Communist Party'. Marx and Engels did not invent communism and never claimed to have done. The manifesto is no more a reference point for what communism is than the US Democratic Party Platform is a reference for what democracy is.

* The founder of "Wendy's" was Dave Thomas. "Wendy" refers to his daughter [[note]]extra example here in that her name is actually Melinda. Wendy is her nickname[[/note]], who was ''mentioned'' often in commercials by Thomas, but didn't actually start appearing in the commercials until 2011 - at about the same time as a [[SexSells cute red-headed twenty-something]] in braids ''also'' started to appear as "Wendy" [[note]]yet another example here in that the character's actual name is "Red", not Wendy[[/note]] in other commercials. Then there is the ''cartoon'' Wendy: the ''PippiLongstocking'' type who appears on the logo, and eventually became an animated mascot much like Ronald [=McDonald=]. Very confusing.

** Back in the late 70's and early 80's, you didn't play Video Games, you played Atari - regardless if you had a Colecovision or Intellivision.
*** From the mid-80s to the early 21st century, the same went for Nintendo. It didn't help that for most of the NES's life span, Nintendo refused to call it a video game console due to fear of a repeat of the 1983 crash.

* [[MemeticMutation "I think Halo is a pretty cool guy. Eh kills aleins and doesnt afraid of anything."]]

** Creator/DavidMitchell on ''Radio/TheUnbelievableTruth'': "You're standing at the bottom of Big Ben--you know what I mean by Big Ben and everyone will write in and say it's not called Big Ben, the tower with the clock in that makes the bongy noise!"

* The name of the first emperor of the Roman Empire is generally given as "Augustus". That's actually a title - and indeed, one granted to virtually *all* Roman Emperors.