Is Citgo the ugliest name for an oil company? Is Terrible Herbst the funniest for a gas station?
IIRC Citgo was a new name for Cities Service, sometime in the late 1960s. Logo color also changed, from green to red. Maybe a merger/acquisition was part of it all.
I donāt know about Ugly Name; how about Stupid Names to name a companyā¦
Analtech ā They make Chromatography Plates for manufacturingā¦
Morning Wood Company ā They build hand-made and custom hardwood furnitureā¦
Bunghole Liquors ā They are a full-service liquor store as well as Bungwear for any occasionsā¦
Passmore Gas ā They deliver propane to residential, commercial and agricultural businessesā¦
There are so many more, but these are my favoritesā¦ Youāve got to admit that these businesses are memorableā¦
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Exactly why they have those names, or at least why they kept them. My guess is that analtech was pronounced by the owner as in analysis.
Our good friends that introduced my wife and I first wanted to name their daughter Amanda Lynn until my wife told them to say it real fast. Alternate meanings for names didnāt stop my cousin and her husband from nicknaming their son Tad. His last name is Poole, and he still uses it today.
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I used to work for Harry Couch, and work with Jim Pees and Harry Glasscock.
All had a sense of humor about it.
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Pump-n-munch is pretty good
The Baltimore Sun newspaper had a long-time sports reporter and later columnist named Peter Schmuck. In his first column he said right away that it is his given name, and he didnāt know why his parents burdened him with that name.
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They didnāt have much choice on the āSchmuckā and, well, what are you going to do with that?
āGee, dear, how about naming him Peter?ā Yeah, maybe Joseph or Michael or Alex?
The guy is probably about 70 now and Peter may not have had the same slang meaning it does now, especially for his parents, likely born in the 1920s or 1930s. I wonder if it helped him with dates? 
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Iām afraid I disagree with you. The āgoā connotation is kind of nice from a marketing psychology perspective for a product thatās supposed to make your car go (even though I assume it really came from āGulf Oilā). In any event, the name is short but unique and easy to spell, which means that web searches will bring up the desired pages with no confusion and their URL is short, all of which is important these days.
CITGO was a brand name established by Cities Service Company in 1965. Nothing to do with Gulf Oil. I havenāt found an explanation of where the āGā came from.
I donāt think Citgo is any worse than Sohio (Standard Oil of Ohio) or Socony (Standard Oil of New York). Then there was Enco which stands for something.
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If I told what my neighbors name is, I would be unfairly exposing him. Heās a nice guy but I still snicker a little. First name Harry.
I thought it was cit co not go but who knows? At any rate at the farm store, this brand is all recycled oil and not to be used in anything you care about. Talk about ruining a brand. Lots of brands seem to be intent on destroying their brand so maybe just ahead of their times. I suspect there was an mba summer course taught as a joke on how to destroy your employer and some didnāt know it was a joke.
Yes. They also used the name Sinclair. I guessed they thought Cities Service long and dorky, hoped that Citgo would be fast and hip.
Start your own thread.
Donāt be afraid. āCitā reminds me of %$#!, which teams up with go. Made me want to use their restroom.
Ft Wayne had a long time city councilor and mayor named Harry Baals, pronounced as though it had 2 ls instead of 2 as. A few years ago the city held a vote to name the new government center - his name won in a landslide, much to the councilās chagrin.
You buy a brand then sell it out: make cheesy stuff, get people to buy it on the brandās reputation, until everyone figures out itās now bad. This was a plot element on an episode of āPerry Masonā, the original.
I donāt think they ever did that.
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Popular car dealer in our area, porcaro, thinking poor car oh!
Virginia is still a tobacco producing state and we grow about 30 million pounds a years. I know several folks who still invest in the industry. I learned that there are various small cigarette companies that stay in business just shy of 5-years and close up/shut down/sell out (Iām not sure what specific legal maneuver they useā¦) so that they cannot be made party to legal action against the health risks caused by smokingā¦ I guess itās like the "Bank Secrecy Act " (commonly referred to as the Russo Act) where bank must report money transfers over $10,000. Transfer less, like $9,000, at one time and it goes unreported. And if the Tobacco Company is in business for less than 5-years, something also to do with the IRSās 5-year Profit rulingā¦ They cannot be enjoined in a class action suit against an industryā¦
+1
Citgo and Sinclair are separate corporationsāboth years ago, and today.
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IMO they changed the name to make it more ambiguous yet still somewhat familiar. Cities Service has an urban connotation, and my suspicion is that they wanted something more universal.
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Itās only my guess but I think the GO in CITGO stands for Gas and Oil which is what the company was known for at the time.
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