So many toys have become household names; Crayola, Tonka, Lego for example. While they may be common now do you know where they came from? Let us dig into these names came into being.

Where did the name Crayola come from? Well it comes from the French words "Craie" for chalk and "oléagineuse" for oily. Crayola literally stems from the phrase oily chalk. When you think about it what else is a wax crayon but oily chalk?

The iconic Barbie doll commands a whole aisle at toy stores around the world. But why Barbie? Well the doll is named after the creators daughter. Barbie's (both the doll and the daughter) full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts. 

PEZ and the PEZ dispenser have had a long and varied life. These candy dispensers are a rectangular column with a figure on the top. Bending back the figure dispenses one candy. The dispensers have come in over 500 distinct figures on the top. Where did the name come from? How about the word pfefferminz? That is the German word for peppermint and PEZ was invented by an Austrian company (originally selling breath mints to adults). A few letters were cherry picked from the word PfEfferminZ and PEZ was created. 

Mr. Potato head has been a multi-generational toy but where did it come from? The original Mr. Potato head was just accessories and you were to plunk those into your own real potato! Not the greatest hand me down toy after a bit that is for sure. Later a plastic body was introduced. 

Kids love Tonka trucks. Their bright yellow bodies scream out to be driven around making all sorts of construction noises. The company started by Lake Minnetonka so the later half of the name. What does Tonka mean? The word "Tonka" means great in Sioux. 

Lego is another household name around the world. The name comes from a contraction of the Danish phrase "leg godt" which translates to "Play Well". As a funny coincidence, "lego" exists in the Latin language and means "to gather or collect". So telling your kids to "lego the LEGO" is a great multilingual way to tell the kids to clean up! 

The two biggest names in toys have to be Hasbro and Matel. Matel was founded by Harold Matson and Eliot Handler and they joined their first names together to from Matel…. Wait…. Where is the MAT part? Well Harold actually went by the nickname of Matt (assumedly for Matson). Hasbro was actually named from the three Hassenfeld brothers (Herman, Hillel, and Henry) who founded the company. Hasbro started out selling textile remnants and then expanded into school supplies and eventually the toy giant we know today. 

While not a toy, Toy Story was a hit movie about toys. It may have taken a while to come up with the name but some of the possibilities considered were "Moving Buddies", "Mae in Taiwan", and my personal favorite "Toyz in the Hood". 

Do you remember Pogs? The game in which you had disks and a slammer you threw your slammer down on to win all the face up disks. What an odd name though. Well Pog comes from the POG juice brand which contained Passionfruit, orange, and guava juices. The use of the POG bottle caps was used to play the game (which is actually called Milk Caps) by children. In the 1990s the World POG Federation and the Canada Games Company formed the POG brand name and marketed them to create the great POG fad.