Starbucks was named after a doomed man.
Before Starbucks, Gordon Bowker and Jerry Baldwin had a film company named Pequod Productions, after Moby-Dick’s doomed ship. It sank too. For their 1971 coffee shop, the designer Terry Heckler’s rule that words starting with “st” sound strong led them to an old mining map and the name Starbo. Starbo recalled Starbuck, the Pequod’s first mate.
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