ComScore

9 Famous Brand Acronyms You Never Knew the Meaning Of

We have some shopping to do at Hennes and Mauritz

You see these acronyms everywhere. And we’re not talking about the LOLs or the BRBs--we’re talking about the names of your favorite retail stores, cell service providers and candies. Here, we break down nine acronyms you always see, but never gave a second thought. Cue the "Ohhhhs."

H&M 
Stands for:
Hennes and Mauritz
Two Swedish brands (Hennes and Mauritz Widforss) merged to form this one-stop shop for last-minute outfits.

AT&T
Stands for: American Telephone & Telegraph
Telegraph?! That explains why we can never get any service.

EOS 
Stands for:
Evolution of Smooth
The name of our next R&B album. 

IKEA
Stands for:
Ingvar Kamprad Elmtaryd Agunnaryd
Founder Ingvar Kamprad grew up on a farm called Elmtaryd in his hometown of Agunnaryd….thank God for acronyms.

m m list
Mars

M&M's 
Stands for: 
Mars and Murries
Two geniuses responsible for many a cavity.

CVS
Stands for:
 Consumer Values Stores.
But now they say it stands for "customer, value and service." Probably a stretch.

aflace list
Aflac

AFLAC
Stands for:
American Family Life Assurance Company
As long as they keep that duck around, we’re good. 

GEICO
Stands for: The Government Employees Insurance Company
Ditto the gecko. We love that cheeky little chap.

ESPN
Stands for:
Entertainment and Sports Programming Network
Not so sure about the “entertainment” part, but W/E.



Rachel Bowie Headshot

Royal family expert, a cappella alum, mom

Rachel Bowie is Senior Director of Special Projects & Royals at PureWow, where she covers parenting, fashion, wellness and money in addition to overseeing initiatives within...