BAMCO Lives!

When W. S. Burroughs and his three moneyed associates formed a company in St. Louis in 1886 to market Burroughs' invention, they named it the American Arithmometer Company.  This turned out to be a poor choice of name since few people could successfully spell (or even pronounce) "Arithmometer."

In 1905, after relocating to Detroit, the company was renamed as Burroughs Adding Machine Company a name that lasted until 1953 when the name became The Burroughs Corporation.  Burroughs Adding Machine Company was easily and frequently abbreviated to BAMCO internally.  So imagine my surprise upon seeing this T-shirt on a server at McDonalds in southern Minnesota.

Apparently the name is now used by BAMCO, Inc., the local McDonalds franchisee in Mankato.  I don't know if they have battled for the legal rights with other folks like the Bon Appetite Management Company.

Similar name confusion exists with the name Datatron which now is usually associated with a game in the form of a card-based game, Morphtronic Datatron.

Likewise, ElectroData searches will usually lead to the Electrodata company a manufacturer of communications testing equipment.