Seagate

Hard disk and storage company Seagate was founded in 1978 as Shugart Technology by Al Shugart, Tom Mitchell, Doug Mahon, Finis Conner and Syed Iftikar.

In a 2013 interview with the Computer History Museum, Iftikar said the founders chose the Shugart Technology even though Xerox had recently acquired Shugart Associates. They figured a little bit of publicity might do them some good.

Both Shugart-named companies were developing hard disks, but Xerox didn’t bother challenging the name as they didn’t believe the startup would be able to deliver a product on time.

As the upstart company neared completion of its first product, Xerox hit them with a lawsuit. According to Iftikar, Al Shugart came up with the alternative name as it contained the letters S, G and T from his surname, and rhymed with the Watergate scandal, which still fresh in everyone’s mind.

Despite the negative connotations of Watergate, the name was approved and has stuck around ever since.

Source: Computer History