LIST OF COMPANY NAME ETYMOLOGY - 'B'

B&Q – from the initials of its founders, Richard Block and David Quayle
Bang & Olufsen – from the names of its founders, Peter Bang and Svend Olufsen, who met at a School of Engineering in Denmark.
Bally – originally Lion Manufacturing, the company changed its name to Bally after the success of its first popular pinball machine, Ballyhoo.
Banesto – from Banco Español de Crédito (Spanish Credit Bank)
BASF – from Badische Anilin und Soda Fabriken. Anilin and Soda were the first products. Badisch refers to the location in the state of Baden, Germany (Black Forest region).
Bauknecht – founded as an electrotechnical workshop in 1919 by Gottlob Bauknecht, and now a Whirlpool brand.
Bayer – named after Friedrich Bayer, who founded the company in 1863.
BBC – British Broadcasting Corporation, originally British Broadcasting Company.
BBVA – Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria.
BEA Systems – from the first initial of each of the company's three founders: Bill Coleman, Ed Scott and Alfred Chuang.
BenQ – Bringing Enjoyment and Quality to life
BHP – Broken Hill Proprietary, named after the town of Broken Hill, where BHP was founded (now BHP Billiton)
BIC Corporation – the pen company was named after one of its founders, Marcel Bich. He dropped the final 'h' to avoid a potentially inappropriate English pronunciation of the name.
Black & Decker – named after founders S. Duncan Black and Alonzo G. Decker.
Blaupunkt – Blaupunkt ("Blue dot") was founded in 1923 under the name "Ideal". Its core business was the manufacturing of headphones. If the headphones came through quality tests, the company would give the headphones a blue dot. The headphones quickly became known as the blue dots or blaue Punkte. The quality symbol would become a trademark and the trademark would become the company name in 1938.
BMW – Bayerische Motoren Werke (Bavarian Motor Factories).
Boeing – named after founder William E. Boeing. It was originally called Pacific Aero Products Co.
BSNL - from Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (India Communications Corporation Limited).
BP – formerly British Petroleum, now BP. (The slogan "Beyond Petroleum" has incorrectly been taken to refer to the company's new name following its rebranding effort in 2000.)
BRAC – Bangladesh Rural & Advancement Committee, world's largest NGO (non governmental organization). It works in development programs around the world.
Bridgestone – named after founder Shojiro Ishibashi. The surname Ishibashi (石橋) means "stone bridge", or "bridge of stone".
Brine, Corp. – sporting goods company named after founder, W.H. Brine. It was taken over by New Balance in 2006.
Bull – Compagnie des machines Bull was founded in Paris to exploit the patents for punched card machines taken out by a Norwegian engineer, Fredrik Rosing Bull.
Burroughs Corporation - founded in 1886 as the American Arithmometer Company and later renamed after the adding machine invented by William Seward Burroughs. The company took over Sperry Corporation and became Unisys.
Bultaco – Catalan company of motorcycles, which disappeared in the 1980s. Its name is based on the name of its founder, Paco Bultó.