Target was named so shoppers wouldn’t connect it to its owners.
In 1962 the Dayton brothers, who ran Dayton’s department stores in Minneapolis, opened a discount chain. Their publicity director, Stewart Widdess, weighed more than 200 names and let none of them carry the word Dayton’s. In 2000 the parent company renamed itself Target Corporation, and a year later the family’s department stores lost the Dayton’s name too.
Target on Brandseum