What’s In A Name? Heritage Brands

By Matthew Longcore

What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.

– William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

In celebration of our nation’s 250th anniversary, let’s take a look at the stories behind the names of American heritage brands. A memorable name is an important part of a brand’s identity.

Here are 10 brands and the stories of how their names came to be. 

Brooks Brothers

Founded in 1818, Brooks Brothers is America’s oldest retailer.  On April 7, 1818, at the age of 45, Henry Sands Brooks opened H. & D.H. Brooks & Co. on the Northeast corner of Catherine and Cherry Streets in New York City, his childhood home. Brooks was known for sporting the newest and most novel of English tailoring. He was often stopped by strangers asking for a waistcoat or cravat exactly like the one he was wearing. He made a business of his love for clothing when he opened his shop in lower Manhattan.

Originally known as H. & D.H. Brooks & Co., the company was renamed Brooks Brothers in 1850 when his sons—Daniel, John, Elisha, and Edward—inherited and took leadership of the family business. By the 1920s, Brooks Brothers would have stores in Boston, Palm Beach, and Newport.

J. Crew

J. Crew was founded in 1983 by Arthur Cinader, who rebranded his father’s catalog business, Popular Merchandise, Inc. The word “Crew” was chosen to evoke the collegiate team sport of rowing in the same way that Ralph Lauren launched brands with sporting names, most notably Polo and Rugby.  The letter “J” was added purely for aesthetic appeal and perhaps as a nod to its predecessor, J. Press.

The Cinader family envisioned the brand as a preppy clothing line—aiming for the “Ralph Lauren look” but at a more affordable, accessible price point.

J. McLaughlin

J. McLaughlin was founded in 1977 by brothers Jay and Kevin McLaughin. A graduate of Fairfield University (class of 1970), Jay McLaughlin began his career working in his father’s real estate business before he and his brother Kevin opened their first clothing store, Sea Island Clothiers, on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.

In 1979, the brand was reimagined as J. McLaughlin, which has since grown into a nationally recognized American sportswear brand, with more than 180 stores in upscale neighborhoods across the country — including nine stores in Connecticut.

J. Press

Founded in 1902, J. Press is named after its founder, Jacobi Press. A Latvian immigrant who originally arrived in the United States intending to become a rabbi, Jacobi Press shifted his focus to tailoring and founded the first J. Press shop on the Yale University campus in New Haven, Connecticut in 1902. Originally starting as a custom tailor, he catered heavily to Yale students and the surrounding East Coast upper-class society.

The store quickly became the epicenter of the “Ivy League look” – pioneering classic American staples like the soft-shoulder suit, the Oxford cloth button-down, and the famous Shaggy Dog Shetland sweater.

Lands’ End

Lands’ End began in 1963 as a mail-order yachting supply company based in Chicago. The company is named after Land’s End, a headland and tourist and holiday attraction in western Cornwall, England.

After promotional materials were printed, the founder noticed the typographical error in the location of the apostrophe, but could not afford to reprint the material. Today, Lands’ End is headquartered in Dodgeville, Wisconsin.

L.L. Bean

L.L. Bean is named after its founder, Leon Leon Bean. An avid outdoorsman from Greenwood, Maine, he established the company in 1912 after inventing the “Maine Hunting Shoe” (now known as the Bean Boot) to solve the problem of keeping his feet dry during excursions.

Bean returned from a hunting trip with freezing, wet feet and came up with a revolutionary idea to stitch waterproof rubber bottoms to lightweight leather uppers. He started selling the boots from his brother’s basement in Freeport, Maine.

While the company has historically claimed the “L.L.” stood for “Leon Leonwood,” his grandson and former chairman Leon Gorman noted that the middle name was originally recorded as “Linwood,” which was later misspelled and adopted by the founder.

Murray’s Toggery Shop

Murray’s Toggery Shop on Nantucket was originally just called The Toggery Shop. The word “toggery” is a 19th-century slang term for clothing. The term “toggery” itself traces back to the early 1800s, originating from the British slang word “tog” (meaning to dress) combined with the suffix “-ery,” collectively meaning “clothes” or “a place that sells garments.

The shop was renamed when Philip Murray Jr. purchased the business in 1945 and attached his family name to the existing storefront.

The family-owned retailer is most famous for popularizing Nantucket Reds, a line of salmon-colored cotton-canvas trousers and apparel that are intentionally “guaranteed to fade” into a light, sun-washed pink.

Ralph Lauren

Ralph Lauren was born Ralph Lifshitz in the Bronx, New York, to Jewish immigrant parents. He legally changed his last name to “Lauren” at age 16 because his birth surname contained a profanity, which led to relentless bullying by his peers.

The origins of his new surname, Lauren, and his iconic brand, Polo, are distinct. Ralph and his brother Jerry decided to pick a new name when they were teenagers to escape the teasing. His brother suggested “Lauren”, and Ralph kept the “Ralph” he was born with.

When Ralph Lauren launched his first necktie collection in 1967, his brother Jerry suggested the name “Polo” because the sport of polo evoked the image of an elite, sophisticated, and athletic lifestyle, which became the foundation of his clothing empire.

Smathers & Branson

The name Smathers and Branson comes from the company’s founders, Peter Smathers Carter and Austin Branson. They launched the brand in 2004 as seniors at Bowdoin College after receiving handcrafted, needlepoint belts as gifts from their girlfriends.

The two friends quickly realized there was a gap in the market for mass-marketing and producing high-quality, affordable needlepoint accessories. They combined their last names (using Peter’s middle name as the first part of his moniker) to create the brand.

Vineyard Vines

The name Vineyard Vines honors a deep connection to Martha’s Vineyard, where the brand’s co-founders spent their summers. Brothers Shep and Ian Murray grew up in Greenwich, where they attended the Brunswick School. In 1998, they quit their New York desk jobs to sell colorful ties. They named the business as a direct homage to their favorite place and the coastal, nautical lifestyle it represents.

The brand’s famous smiling pink whale was designed by the brothers’ father and was inspired by his hobby of hand-carving wooden whales from driftwood.

Which heritage brands will you be wearing to celebrate the historic occasion of America 250?

Wishing everyone a happy and safe July 4th.