Can I Call It "De-partnering"?

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.

Added 12/17/24

This can work the other way, too: One or more names could be added, for euphony or just to fill out the corporate name, according to some ill-expressed criterion. The best example is the big movie studio, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (M-G-M). There were a Samuel Goldwyn and a Louis B. Mayer. I don't think there was ever anyone named Metro.

At one point I worked for the outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. There were Challengers--in fact lots of them, big and small, running about the place--but I saw nary a Gray nor a Christmas and don't believe there ever were any such.

People Who Voted for Trump

 A recent news story--post-election analysis--said that many young Black and Latino men voted for Trump because they see him as improving jobs and other financial/economic matters.

As  to those Latino folks: After January 20 they are likely to see their friends and relatives being deported. Plus, no one  has said a word about the cost to the US--us taxpayers--for flying these immigrants back to their countries of origin. (Not even touching on the fact that today, the news showed Trump's about-to-be "immigration czar" replying to a question about families being separated by these deportations; his reply was, to paraphrase a bit, no, we won't need to separate families, just deport (US-born) children along with their parents.

And--to another group of voters who voted for Trump because they are unhappy with the rising prices the country has been experiencing: Again, wait until after January 20. Trump has pledged to raise tariffs on imported goods. Those voters who have been buying cheap Chinese goods at Walmart are going to see those items hugely increase in their prices to US consumers after Trump's tariffs are added.

If Trump makes good on his promise (threat) to impose tariffs on Canada and Mexico, U. S. car manufacturers are going to be unhappy, and car buyers are going to see car prices go up. This is because car makers are making engines and transmissions in Canada and Mexico, for the sake of--can you guess?--cheaper labor. This was facilitated--maybe encouraged--by the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), signed by Bill Clinton in 1989 (and replaced and superseded by another agreement, of which I do not know the terms) during Trump's first term.