Tales behind goodies

What does "Doritos" mean? The naming of our favourite snacks

Image: Nelly Antoniadou

Doritos, Kit Kats, Oreos… We don’t think twice about the names of these products when we pick them up. It feels like those words have been in our vocabulary forever –and, indeed, the history of some of these brands exceeds our lifetimes! Today, we want to look into the motives and creative associations that gave birth to the names of the world’s favourite snacks.

Image: DENİZ ÇAĞLUSU

The name Doritos is thought to come from the Spanish doradito, meaning "little golden thing". A fitting description for the bright, fried tortilla chips, don’t you think?

Their story begins in the 1960s at Disneyland, where a restaurant run by Frito-Lay began repurposing leftover tortillas by cutting and frying them instead of tossing them.

Image: Obi

Launched by Nabisco in 1934, Ritz crackers were named to conjure an image of luxury in the middle of the Great Depression.

"Ritz" evoked the glamour of the Ritz hotels, offering people a small "bite of the good life" during hard times.

Image: Justin

Kit Kat snacks were born as "Rowntree’s Chocolate Crisp" in the UK. Not very catchy.

However, they were eventually rebranded with a name inspired by London’s 18th-century "Kit-Cat Club," a gathering spot for political and literary figures. And "Kit Kat" was certainly easier to market globally!

Image: No Revisions

Nabisco trademarked Oreo in 1912, but they never explained the true meaning of their cookie’s name. Theories abound: some say it comes from the French or ("gold"), others suggest the Greek oreo ("mountain"), or that it was simply a short, punchy word chosen to be memorable.

Image: Shyam Mishra

When Mars introduced this nougat, caramel, and peanut bar, they named it after the family’s favorite horse, Snickers.

The bar went on to become one of the best-selling candies in the world, though in the UK it was marketed for decades as "Marathon" before aligning with the global name.

Image: Midas Hofstra

Another favourite treat launched in the UK! Twix got its name as a clever contraction of "twin sticks," referring to the two cookie-and-caramel bars packaged side by side.

It was important for the name to indicate the bar’s unique double format, which would set it apart from single-stick competitors like Mars or Milky Way.

Image: Oksana Zub

The two "Ms" derive from Forrest Mars and Bruce Murrie, the unlikely business partners who brought the candy.

Mars had the recipe for chocolate coated in a hard shell (inspired by similar treats eaten by Spanish soldiers), while Murrie, son of Hershey’s president, secured access to wartime chocolate supplies.

Image: Giorgio Trovato

Originally styled as "Chee-tos," the name was meant to be playful, quirky, and easy for kids to say. And, of course, to remind them of cheese!

The brand took off nationally after partnering with Frito-Lay, and later introduced the mascot Chester Cheetah, which became a snack-world cultural icon.

Image: Zoshua Colah

Lay’s logo and bright colors are a signature aesthetic, but the origin of their name is quite straightforward: The brand was founded by Herman W. Lay.

This chip company was one of the first to successfully market packaged potato chips nationwide in the US.

Image: Michelle Riach

The bite-sized chocolate drops earned the name "Kisses" from their smooch-like shape and possibly the gentle kissing sound made by early machines. Today, Kisses remain one of the company’s signature products.

Image: Zoshua Colah

The name of Kellogg’s toaster pastry was a pun on the trendy Pop Art movement of the era, the 60s. Funnily enough, nowadays, some people might struggle to define pop art, but they can certainly describe the snack!

Image: Nikolaos Kofidis

Did you know that Ferrero’s famous spread began as a wartime improvisation? Scarce cocoa was mixed with hazelnuts, and it soon became the crowd’s favourite.

It first appeared as Giandujot, then Supercrema, before Michele Ferrero rebranded it, combining the English word "nut" with the friendly Italian-sounding suffix "-ella."

Image: Safwan C K

Created in Switzerland by Theodor Tobler, the bar fused his family name with torrone, the Italian word for nougat. Its triangular shape was a nod to Alpine peaks that are also a trademark of their packaging. It remains one of the most iconic Swiss exports.

Prophetic hits

10 times fiction turned into fact: predictions that became reality

Image: Drew Beamer

No one can know what the future holds, but there’s no harm in trying to guess! Throughout history, some people have had a knack for making predictions that, no matter how impossible they seemed at the time, turned out to be true. From robotic assistants to the tragedy of the Titanic, there’s no shortage of eerie predictions that became reality. Here, we’ve gathered 10 of the craziest for your enjoyment!

Image: Justin Wolff

Twain famously predicted his own death. He stated that he would die with Halley’s Comet, which was visible in the sky in 1910. He said, "I came in with Halley’s Comet in 1835. It is coming again next year, and I expect to go out with it." Remarkably, Twain passed away on April 21, 1910, just one day after Halley’s Comet made its closest approach to Earth, making his death one of the most uncanny and accurate personal predictions in history.

Image: Paula Lavalle

Nikola Tesla envisioned a wireless, global communication system that would allow people to transmit voice, images, and information anywhere in the world. In a 1926 interview, he speculated about the future of mobile technology, saying, "When wireless is fully applied, the Earth will be converted into a huge brain, capable of solving the problems of humanity." This prediction is strikingly close to modern smartphones, though the "huge brain" part is a bit more questionable.

Image: Chris Karidis

Nostradamus’s quatrains are often cited as predictions of major events, and one of his verses is believed to foresee the Great Fire of London in 1666. The quatrain reads: "The blood of the just will be demanded of London, burnt by fire in the year ‘66." In fact, the historically infamous Great Fire of London did break out in 1666, devastating much of the city. Though Nostradamus' cryptic style leaves much room for interpretation, this one is as accurate as predictions can get!

Image: Brian McGowan

Jules Verne’s 19th-century novel From the Earth to the Moon imagined a moon landing, complete with remarkable details such as launching from Florida and returning via splashdown in the ocean. His fictional spacecraft even bore a resemblance to the Apollo command module. To make this even more impressive, in Verne’s time, the idea of actually reaching the Moon was as alien and impossible as it gets! Space travel was purely the stuff of fantasy, and no one had yet conceived of the technology needed to make it a reality.

Image: Danting Zhu

In Morgan Robertson’s 1898 novella Futility, a ship called the Titan strikes an iceberg and sinks—all of this obviously sounds eerily familiar, but surprisingly it was written 14 years before the actual Titanic disaster! The many similarities are striking: both ships were deemed "unsinkable" and carried insufficient lifeboats.

Image: Dan Meyers

In his 1914 novel The World Set Free, H.G. Wells described a future with "atomic bombs" many decades before their invention. His fictional weapons used radioactive decay to unleash destructive power, in an eerily similar fashion to nuclear weapons. Unsurprisingly, when the first atomic bomb was detonated in 1945, physicists referenced Wells’ work, acknowledging its role in sparking public imagination about the potential and dangers of atomic energy.

Image: Two Paddles Axe and Leatherwork

Edward Bellamy’s 1888 novel Looking Backward envisioned a utopian future in which citizens used a card to access funds from a central bank—a concept that closely resembles modern credit or debit cards, which didn’t emerge until the mid-20th century. While Bellamy’s vision was rooted in fiction, it’s clear he had a very good understanding of how emerging economic trends could shape the distant future.

Image: Leon Seibert

Mark Twain certainly had a knack for predicting the future. Not content with foreseeing the date of his own death, he also described a global "telectroscope" network that connected people instantly across the world—a concept we now easily recognize as an early imagining of the internet.

Image: Chris Montgomery

The silent 1927 film Metropolis featured a video phone, many years before such technology was even considered possible. This futuristic device envisioned real-time, face-to-face communication, remarkably similar to how video calls work today. The film captured early 20th-century optimism about technological progress, highlighting how fiction can inspire real-world innovation.

Image: Possessed Photography

In Asimov’s I, Robot (1950), he envisioned a world where robots worked alongside humans, governed by ethical guidelines such as the famous "Three Laws of Robotics." While we aren’t quite there yet, the issues and concepts Asimov introduced continue to resonate today. His work not only anticipated the potential of artificial intelligence but also sparked ongoing ethical debates about AI development and the complexities of integrating advanced technology into society.