Famous Brands Quiz
A bitten fruit, a raging bull, a word meaning play well: 15 questions on logos, slogans and brand names.
Which company uses the silhouette of a piece of fruit with a bite taken out of it as its logo?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Apple
Apple's bitten apple logo was designed by Rob Janoff in 1977. The bite was added partly for scale, so the shape would not be mistaken for a cherry.
Apple's very first logo, drawn in 1976, showed Isaac Newton sitting under an apple tree and was replaced within a year.
Which sportswear brand's slogan is "Just Do It"?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Nike
Nike launched Just Do It in 1988 in a campaign by the agency Wieden+Kennedy, and the three words helped the company's sales grow from around $800 million to over $9 billion within a decade.
The Nike swoosh was designed in 1971 by graphic design student Carolyn Davidson, who was paid just $35 for the work.
Which fast food chain's logo is known as the Golden Arches?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
McDonald's
The Golden Arches began as actual yellow arches built into the architecture of McDonald's restaurants in the 1950s and were turned into the M-shaped logo in the early 1960s.
The McDonald brothers opened their first restaurant in San Bernardino, California, in 1940, before Ray Kroc turned the business into a global franchise.
Which car maker's logo is a three-pointed star inside a circle?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Mercedes-Benz
The three-pointed star has represented Mercedes since 1909, and the three points stand for the company's ambition to motorise land, sea and air. The surrounding circle was added in 1916.
The Mercedes name came from Mercedes Jellinek, the daughter of an Austrian businessman who sold the company's early cars.
Which coffee chain's logo features a crowned, twin-tailed siren from mythology?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Starbucks
The Starbucks siren was taken from a sixteenth-century Norse woodcut when the company opened in Seattle in 1971, chosen to reflect the seafaring origins of the coffee trade.
The company is named after Starbuck, the first mate on the whaling ship Pequod in Herman Melville's novel Moby-Dick.
Which car maker's badge shows a raging bull?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Lamborghini
Ferruccio Lamborghini was born under the star sign Taurus and loved bullfighting, so he chose a charging bull for his badge. Many of the company's cars are named after famous fighting bulls.
Lamborghini built tractors before cars, and legend says he started making sports cars after Enzo Ferrari brushed off his complaints about a Ferrari's clutch.
Which pharmacist invented Coca-Cola in Atlanta in 1886?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
John Pemberton
John Pemberton created Coca-Cola as a syrup sold at Jacobs' Pharmacy in Atlanta in May 1886. His bookkeeper Frank Robinson named the drink and wrote its flowing script logo.
Caleb Bradham invented Pepsi-Cola in North Carolina in 1893, and Charles Alderton created Dr Pepper in Texas in 1885, a year before Coca-Cola.
Which mobile phone giant began in 1865 as a wood pulp mill?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Nokia
Mining engineer Fredrik Idestam founded Nokia as a pulp mill on the Tammerkoski rapids in Finland in 1865. The company later made rubber boots and cables before turning to electronics.
Nokia takes its name from the town of Nokia, where the company built a second mill on the Nokianvirta river.
Which sportswear brand takes its name from the nickname of its founder, Adolf Dassler?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Adidas
Adolf Dassler was known as Adi, and he combined the nickname with the first letters of his surname to form Adidas when he registered the company in 1949.
His brother Rudolf founded rival firm Puma in the same German town, Herzogenaurach, after the two fell out.
Which company's logo includes a curved arrow running from the first letter of its name to the fourth, suggesting it sells everything from A to Z?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Amazon
Amazon's arrow links the A and the Z in its name to signal that the store sells everything from A to Z, and it is also drawn to look like a smile.
Jeff Bezos originally registered the company as Cadabra in 1994 before renaming it after the world's largest river.
The name of the Danish toy company LEGO is a contraction of a phrase meaning what?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Play well
Ole Kirk Christiansen formed the name from the Danish words leg godt, meaning play well, in 1934. The company made wooden toys for years before its plastic bricks arrived in 1949.
By coincidence, lego in Latin can mean I put together, which the company has said it only discovered later.
Which company's name is a misspelling of the word for the number 1 followed by 100 zeros?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Google comes from googol, the mathematical term for 10 to the power of 100, reflecting founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin's aim of organising a near infinite amount of information.
The word googol was coined in the 1920s by Milton Sirotta, the nine-year-old nephew of American mathematician Edward Kasner.
Which car maker's name is Latin for "I roll"?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Volvo
Volvo is the Latin for I roll. The name was first registered by the Swedish bearing maker SKF for a line of ball bearings before being used for the car company founded in 1927.
Audi is also Latin, meaning listen, a translation of founder August Horch's surname, which means hark in German.
The Swedish retailer IKEA takes its name from founder Ingvar Kamprad's initials together with what?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
The farm and village where he grew up
IKEA stands for Ingvar Kamprad, Elmtaryd and Agunnaryd: his own initials followed by the family farm, Elmtaryd, and the nearby village of Agunnaryd in southern Sweden.
Kamprad founded IKEA in 1943 at the age of 17, initially selling pens, wallets and picture frames by mail order.
The confectionery brand Haribo takes its name from founder Hans Riegel and which German city?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Bonn
Haribo is an abbreviation of Hans Riegel Bonn. Riegel started the business in his kitchen in Bonn in 1920 and invented the gummy bear, originally called the dancing bear, in 1922.
The company's famous jingle promises that Haribo makes children and grown-ups happy, a slogan used since the 1930s.
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All General Knowledge quizzes →About the Famous Brands Quiz
You see hundreds of brands a day, but how well do you really know them? A sportswear giant is named after its founder's nickname, a toy company's name means play well in Danish, and a mobile phone pioneer began life in 1865 as a wood pulp mill.
These 15 questions describe famous logos in words, test the slogans drilled into you by decades of advertising and dig into the origins of names like IKEA, Volvo and Haribo. The early questions are everyday logos almost anyone will know; the later ones reward people who have wondered where a name actually came from. Ideal for marketers, pub quiz teams and anyone who loves a good origin story.
You will find 15 multiple choice questions here, each with four options. Difficulty: Easy. Most people finish in about 6 minutes, and every answer comes with a short explanation and one extra fact worth keeping.
How to play
Read the question and pick one of the four answers. The correct answer is revealed straight away with a short explanation, then press Next question to keep going. At the end you get your score out of 15 and a full review of your round. Play again any time and the questions arrive in a fresh order. There is no timer and no account.
Good to know before you play
What does the Famous Brands Quiz cover?
Logos described in words, famous slogans like Just Do It, company founders and the surprising origins of brand names such as LEGO, IKEA, Volvo and Haribo.
How difficult are the questions?
It is rated Easy. Logo and slogan questions are easy for most people, while the name-origin questions towards the end are the real test.
Which brands appear in the quiz?
Apple, Nike, McDonald's, Mercedes-Benz, Starbucks, Lamborghini, Coca-Cola, Nokia, Adidas, Amazon, LEGO, Google, Volvo, IKEA and Haribo.
Answer key: all 15 questions with explanations
- Which company uses the silhouette of a piece of fruit with a bite taken out of it as its logo?
Apple Apple's bitten apple logo was designed by Rob Janoff in 1977. The bite was added partly for scale, so the shape would not be mistaken for a cherry. Apple's very first logo, drawn in 1976, showed Isaac Newton sitting under an apple tree and was replaced within a year. - Which sportswear brand's slogan is "Just Do It"?
Nike Nike launched Just Do It in 1988 in a campaign by the agency Wieden+Kennedy, and the three words helped the company's sales grow from around $800 million to over $9 billion within a decade. The Nike swoosh was designed in 1971 by graphic design student Carolyn Davidson, who was paid just $35 for the work. - Which fast food chain's logo is known as the Golden Arches?
McDonald's The Golden Arches began as actual yellow arches built into the architecture of McDonald's restaurants in the 1950s and were turned into the M-shaped logo in the early 1960s. The McDonald brothers opened their first restaurant in San Bernardino, California, in 1940, before Ray Kroc turned the business into a global franchise. - Which car maker's logo is a three-pointed star inside a circle?
Mercedes-Benz The three-pointed star has represented Mercedes since 1909, and the three points stand for the company's ambition to motorise land, sea and air. The surrounding circle was added in 1916. The Mercedes name came from Mercedes Jellinek, the daughter of an Austrian businessman who sold the company's early cars. - Which coffee chain's logo features a crowned, twin-tailed siren from mythology?
Starbucks The Starbucks siren was taken from a sixteenth-century Norse woodcut when the company opened in Seattle in 1971, chosen to reflect the seafaring origins of the coffee trade. The company is named after Starbuck, the first mate on the whaling ship Pequod in Herman Melville's novel Moby-Dick. - Which car maker's badge shows a raging bull?
Lamborghini Ferruccio Lamborghini was born under the star sign Taurus and loved bullfighting, so he chose a charging bull for his badge. Many of the company's cars are named after famous fighting bulls. Lamborghini built tractors before cars, and legend says he started making sports cars after Enzo Ferrari brushed off his complaints about a Ferrari's clutch. - Which pharmacist invented Coca-Cola in Atlanta in 1886?
John Pemberton John Pemberton created Coca-Cola as a syrup sold at Jacobs' Pharmacy in Atlanta in May 1886. His bookkeeper Frank Robinson named the drink and wrote its flowing script logo. Caleb Bradham invented Pepsi-Cola in North Carolina in 1893, and Charles Alderton created Dr Pepper in Texas in 1885, a year before Coca-Cola. - Which mobile phone giant began in 1865 as a wood pulp mill?
Nokia Mining engineer Fredrik Idestam founded Nokia as a pulp mill on the Tammerkoski rapids in Finland in 1865. The company later made rubber boots and cables before turning to electronics. Nokia takes its name from the town of Nokia, where the company built a second mill on the Nokianvirta river. - Which sportswear brand takes its name from the nickname of its founder, Adolf Dassler?
Adidas Adolf Dassler was known as Adi, and he combined the nickname with the first letters of his surname to form Adidas when he registered the company in 1949. His brother Rudolf founded rival firm Puma in the same German town, Herzogenaurach, after the two fell out. - Which company's logo includes a curved arrow running from the first letter of its name to the fourth, suggesting it sells everything from A to Z?
Amazon Amazon's arrow links the A and the Z in its name to signal that the store sells everything from A to Z, and it is also drawn to look like a smile. Jeff Bezos originally registered the company as Cadabra in 1994 before renaming it after the world's largest river. - The name of the Danish toy company LEGO is a contraction of a phrase meaning what?
Play well Ole Kirk Christiansen formed the name from the Danish words leg godt, meaning play well, in 1934. The company made wooden toys for years before its plastic bricks arrived in 1949. By coincidence, lego in Latin can mean I put together, which the company has said it only discovered later. - Which company's name is a misspelling of the word for the number 1 followed by 100 zeros?
Google Google comes from googol, the mathematical term for 10 to the power of 100, reflecting founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin's aim of organising a near infinite amount of information. The word googol was coined in the 1920s by Milton Sirotta, the nine-year-old nephew of American mathematician Edward Kasner. - Which car maker's name is Latin for "I roll"?
Volvo Volvo is the Latin for I roll. The name was first registered by the Swedish bearing maker SKF for a line of ball bearings before being used for the car company founded in 1927. Audi is also Latin, meaning listen, a translation of founder August Horch's surname, which means hark in German. - The Swedish retailer IKEA takes its name from founder Ingvar Kamprad's initials together with what?
The farm and village where he grew up IKEA stands for Ingvar Kamprad, Elmtaryd and Agunnaryd: his own initials followed by the family farm, Elmtaryd, and the nearby village of Agunnaryd in southern Sweden. Kamprad founded IKEA in 1943 at the age of 17, initially selling pens, wallets and picture frames by mail order. - The confectionery brand Haribo takes its name from founder Hans Riegel and which German city?
Bonn Haribo is an abbreviation of Hans Riegel Bonn. Riegel started the business in his kitchen in Bonn in 1920 and invented the gummy bear, originally called the dancing bear, in 1922. The company's famous jingle promises that Haribo makes children and grown-ups happy, a slogan used since the 1930s.
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