You may already know that Twix is a smart portmanteu, or that Haribo’s name is actually a series of initials that have a unique meaning for the brand.
Meanwhile, Lurpak refers to an ancient Icelandic instrument, and Lego is a Danish abbreviation. But what about that other Scandi giant, IKEA?
The Swedish furniture and decor business has a whopping 480 stores worldwide and its sales in 2024 amounted to €45.1 billion.
So I’m a bit embarrassed I only just learned what its iconic name really means.
What does IKEA stand for?
It turns out that, like HARIBO (which is a mish-mash of Hans Riegel Bonn, the founder’s name), there’s a good reason why the letters are all capped up.
The name is an acronym that works a bit like those stage name calculators I used to take on social media.
It’s made up of the “initials of founder Ingvar Kamprad; Elmtaryd, the farm on which he grew up; and Agunnaryd, the nearby village,” IKEA’s site reads.
Kamprad first registered the brand in 1943, when he was just 17 years old.
However it took until 1948 for the company to start importing and selling furniture; until then, IKEA dealt in goods like nylon stockings, pens and watches.
The first piece of flatpack furniture (a leaf-shaped table called the Lovet) was sold by the brand in 1956. It was designed by Gillis Lundgren, who also drew up the iconic Billy bookcase.
The change was so effective that IKEA became unwelcome at trade fairs, its site says. It led to a furniture price war in Sweden and was boycotted by some suppliers.
The brand has had much more of an impact than you may know
The huge stores are one thing, the colossal sales another. But some sources say the furniture behemoth has had more of a formative effect on our lives than we realise.
According to The New York Times, one in every 10 Europeans were likely conceived on an IKEA bed.
The more you know...