Punctuationcan be a headache , even when it ’s just inside a name . Here are eight brand names with problems because of those important petty mark .
1. Mini Moo’s
Mini Moo’sare piffling carton of one-half and half … wait , that ’s not right-hand … Mini Moo’sisa coffee cream pitcher product packaged in an individual serving size . That seems to be how the company wants you to say it . Why else would it have an apostrophe before thes ? Who is this Mini Moo that the creamer belongs to ? Is she a tiny moo-cow that doles out her milk in lilliputian helping ? Even if we liberally accept that was the intend reading , it is too tempting for people to conceive of a collection of separately box individual serving in the plural .
2. Land O Lakes
solid ground O’Lakes , the Lord of Mini Moo ’s , has other sort of apostrophe trouble , too . While the name of the potbelly is Land O’Lakes , with the apostrophe , the brand name on products isLand O Lakes , without the apostrophe . So Land O Lakes Mini Moo ’s is ( are ? ) made byLand O’Lakes , Inc.
3. Filet-O-Fish
Like theoin Land O’Lakes , theoin the McDonald’sFilet - O - Fishproperly stand forof . In other words that shortenofin this way — likeWill - o’-the - wisp , Jack - o’-lantern , cat o ’ nine tail , andman - o’-war — an apostrophe stands for the absent letterf . So is there anofin Filet - atomic number 8 - Fish ? Is a Filet - O - Fish really a filet of Pisces ? The only timeMcDonald’shas used an apostrophe in connexion with the Filet - O - Pisces was in the name of the sandwich ’s ( now bed ) mascot , Phil A. O’Fish . In that case , it looks like theO’of Irish last name , which does n’t come from the wordof , but from an Irish watchword stand for “ descend from . ”
4. Beef ‘O’ Brady’s
Are there two alphabetic character overlook from the name of theBeef ‘ atomic number 8 ’ Brady’ssports bar dealership ? “ Beef [ F]o[r ] Brady ’s ” ? “ Beef [ N]o[t ] Brady ’s ” ? expect , no . When a letter is set down from the starting time of a word , there should be a left - facing apostrophe , like the ones in’tisorget’em , not a decent - facing opening single quote . So what we have here is anOin undivided quotation . It ’s like theOis being used not for its meaning , but as an exemplar of something . Perhaps an example of a symbol of Irish ginmill themeyness .
5. Lands’ End
Land ’s End , with the apostrophe before thes , refers to the tip of a peninsula , as far out as you could go before there ’s no more land . But what isLands ’ Endsupposed to be ? The final stage of a bunch of different body politic ? Turns out , it ’s just an one-time mistake that never got righted . FounderGary Comer explained , “ it was a typo in our first print part , and we could n’t open to reprint and redress it . ”
6. Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse
Whose chophouse is it anyway ? In 1965 , a Louisiana woman namedRuth Fertelbought a eating house call off Chris Steak House . She got to keep the original name , which was already well - established , on the condition that she stay at the original location . So when she moved to a raw location after a ardor in 1974 , she had to commute the name , and it became the complicated mouthful that isRuth ’s Chris Steakhouse .
7. Toys “R” Us
The backwardRon theToys “ radius ” Ussign is a detectable part of the mark , but it ’s not a punctuation problem . The scare quotes around theR , however , are punctuation , and they do make things difficult . Though the quotation mark do n’t appear on every signboard , the original corporate name was Toys “ R ” Us Inc. before it was resurrected asTru Kids Inc. in 2019 . Why the panic attack quotes ? Do they think we might not realize that they are fully aware thatRis not how you spellare ? Most style guides apprise dump the quotes when writing about the company . In fact , most style guides recommend avoiding scare quotation completely . The Chicago Manual of Stylenotesthat they can “ irritate readers if overdrive . ”
8. Yahoo!
elan guide also advise against using the exclamation spot when writing aboutYahoo , which , like a few other brands ( Chips Ahoy ! and Oh Henry ! among them ) include the ecphonesis point as an prescribed part of the name . But not all publications adopt that advice , which can lead toexcitingly misdirect headlineslike “ Yahoo ! Investors Do n’t Need to Worry About the IRS . ”
A version of this article was originally published in 2015 ; it has been updated for 2022 .
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