Xbox

In the late 1990s a small team at Microsoft wanted to build a games console around DirectX, the company’s software for handling graphics and sound in PC games. They described it in the plainest way possible: a box for DirectX. The “DirectX Box” soon got squashed to “Xbox”.

Nobody expected the nickname to last. Co-creator Seamus Blackley has said the team simply assumed a better name would come along. Microsoft’s marketing department disliked it and drew up a long list of alternatives.

Then came the twist. When the names were tested on focus groups, marketing kept “Xbox” on the list as a control, expecting it to show everyone how weak it was. Instead it scored higher than every name they had invented. Former Microsoft executive Ed Fries recalled that they had to admit defeat.

The console launched in North America in November 2001, still wearing its working title. Two decades and several generations later, the placeholder is one of the best-known names in gaming.

Look closer: Xbox is part of a family of names that were never meant to be permanent. Bluetooth is another, and it has a Viking king in it.