Kellanova From Kelloggs Is Latest Rebrand to Draw on Latin Words

• Kellogg renames its snack shop “Kellanova” – a combination of Kellogg and a Latin word for “new”.
• Companies that make everything from cars to cigarettes have relied on other languages ​​to name themselves.
• From Pandora to Altria, here’s a rundown of company names with unusual origins.

A mythical land in a fantasy novel? Your uncle trying to name the college basketball team that just finished its season?

No, it’s the new name for one of the largest food companies in the world.

Kellogg is naming its snacking division “Kellanova,” the latest step in breaking up the company, it said Wednesday.

The new company will include Pringles, Pop-Tarts and Cheez-It crackers. Kellanova will also include frozen and chilled foods like plant-based Incogmeato brand and overseas grain products like Coco Pops sold in the UK.

The name is inspired by the Kellogg name and a common Latin word, Kellogg CEO Steve Cahillane said in a statement.

“The ‘Kell’ openly acknowledges our enduring association with the Kellogg Company, while ‘anova’, combining the ‘a’ and the Latin word ‘nova’, meaning ‘new’, signals our ambition to continually innovate as the next company generation, global snacking powerhouse,” said Cahillane, who will become Kellanova’s CEO.

The new company’s logo uses the curvy letter “K,” which Kellogg has used for decades, Cahillane said. It also includes a lowercase “v” with a curved right side, which “represents our drive forward as we begin this next chapter,” he said.

Brands of cereals such as Special K, Froot Loops and Rice Krsipies are managed by a separate company called WK Kellogg Co. The company will focus on sales in North America, Kellogg said.

According to the announcement, packaging for the products of both companies will retain the “Kellogg’s” name. The new names are the latest phase in food giant Kellogg’s dissolution. The process began last summer when Kellogg announced it would split into three separate companies: one focused on snack foods, one on cereal, and a third on its plant-based brands. Since then, Kellogg has decided to split into just two companies.

Etsy and Mondelez are among other companies with Latin names

Kellanova is hardly the first rebrand from a company to take inspiration from Latin.

Automaker Fiat Chrysler and the PSA Group merged in 2020 under the name Stellantis, CNBC reported at the time. The title was based on the Latin verb “stello,” or “to shine with stars,” and according to the company, was a nod to the well-known car brands brought together by the merger, including Jeep and Alfa Romeo.

Etsy founder and CEO Robert Kalin named the online marketplace after seeing an Italian film and hearing the phrase etsi. In Italian, the word means “oh yeah,” and in Latin it means “and if,” Kalin told Reader’s Digest in 2012.

There are also examples from major consumer brands. When Kraft Foods spun off some of its snack food brands in 2012, the new company chose the name “Mondelez” based on the Latin word for “world,” The Wall Street Journal reported at the time.

Previously, cigarette maker Philip Morris said it would change its name to “Altria,” a nod to the Latin word for “high,” the Journal reported in 2001.

Of course, other companies have also incorporated well-known English words when naming their companies.

The founders of Twitter initially considered calling the company “Status” or “Twitch”. They chose “Twitter” after searching the dictionary for related words.

Steve Jobs decided to name his company Apple Computer while driving on a freeway between Palo Alto and Los Altos, his co-founder Steve Wozniak said Apple Confidential 2.0: The definitive story of the world’s most colorful company.

But a typical English word has at least one downside. “I immediately thought, ‘We’re going to have a lot of copyright issues,'” Wozniak said.