The company now known as Colgate-Palmolive was once known as Colgate-Palmolive-Pete (or maybe it was Peet). I wonder what happened to poor Mr. Pete.
The initials of the company now called GSK stand for Glaxo Smith Klein, which was formed by a merger of the UK firm Glaxo with the American Smith, Klein and French. Again--what happened to Mr, French?
There is a company that I hear of because they are listed as a contributor or supporter of a Public Television program that's called BDO. I suspect that here, too, the name of one of the partners has been dropped. My brother-in-law, who was an accountant, once--years and years ago--told me that one of the big accounting firms was Batten, Barton, Durstein and Osborne. That would be BBDO, and if one of the b's has been dropped, as in those two other cases above, that would give us today's BDO.
Maybe this de-partnering is a phenomenon well known and even
common in the business world. I'd welcome it if anyone can tell me more about this.