From H&M to Ikea and B&M, here’s what the initials in big shops and firms’ names stand for

HOW well do you know the names of the shops on your high street?

Some of the shops we see everyday have surprising origins to their names.

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We are all used to seeing these shops on the high street on a regular basis.

But how many of these shops do we actually know the full name of?

Some are obvious like KFC or M&S.

But a lot of the shops on the high street have full names which might actually surprise you.

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H&M

When H&M was first founded in Sweden in 1947 the shop only sold women's clothing.

Because of this, the shop was originally called Hennes, which is Swedish for "hers".

It wasn't until 1968 when the business took over a hunting shop called Mauritz Widforss and started selling menswear that they decided to change the name to Hennes and Mauritz, or H&M for short.

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B&Q

In 1969 Richard Block and David Quayle got a hefty loan from the bank to take over a former furniture warehouse.

They both worked for sixty hours a week for six months to pay off the debt for the purchase, but they then went on to create one of the UK's largest DIY shops.

Originally called Block and Quayle, the company shortened its name to B&Q after noticing that their stock delivery notes and invoices were already abbreviating the name for brevity.

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HSBC

Started in Hong Kong by Scotsman Sir Thomas Sutherland in 1865, HSBC is a shortening of "The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation".

Despite it being illegal in the early 19th century, the bank sold opium to the Chinese.

It was the discovery at a HSBC board members' warehouse full of opium in 1839 that triggered the beginning of the first opium war.

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Ikea

The name Ikea is an acronym made up of the name of its Swedish founder, Ingvar Kamprad, the farm he grew up in, Elmtaryd, and the village he grew up in, Agunnaryd.

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Odeon

In ancient Greece an odeon was a public theatre meant for performing music, poetry and having musical competitions.

The Odeon chain of cinemas were founded in 1928 by Oscar Deutsch.

Odeon still claim that the chain is an acronym for "Oscar Deutsch Entertains Our Nation"

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Lego

The name Lego is a shortening of the of the Dutch phrase "Leg godt" which translates as play well.

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ASOS

Asos stands for "As Seen On Screen", the company started in 1999 selling unbranded clothes for celebrities to wear on TV.

Customers would then see those clothes and be able to buy them.

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Tesco

Tesco was originally just a group of market stalls in Hackney.

It wasn't until founder Jack Cohen bought a shipment of tea from trader T.E.Stockwell in 1924 that he decided to merge their two names and create Tesco.

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Asda

Asda was founded in 1965 when the supermarket owning Asquith family merged with the Associated Dairies company of Yorkshire.

The two combined their names and created what is now the third largest supermarket chain in Britain.

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B&M

B&M was named after its founder Malcolm Billington as Billington & Mayman and was later shortened to B&M.

The shop first opened in Lancashire in 1978 and now has more than three million customers a week.

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