Vol. 69 No. 4 (2021)
Articles

Corn Belt as an Enterprise-Naming Custom in the United States

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  • Michael D. Sublett
Michael D. Sublett
Illinois State University
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5195/names.2021.2254

Published 2021-11-15

Keywords

  • Corn Belt,
  • United States,
  • business names,
  • organiziation names,
  • ergonym,
  • dialectology
    • ...More
    Less

Copyright (c) 2021 Michael D. Sublett

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

Enterprises, be they for-profit businesses or not-for-profit organizations, require names to differentiate themselves from other entities. Over a span of more than a hundred years entrepreneurs, corporate boards, and organizational founders have chosen to use Corn Belt or some spelling variant to identify their enterprises, perhaps believing that naming after this admired agricultural region will bless their enterprise with its longevity, productivity, and favorable image. This essay looks at the beginnings of Corn Belt as a vernacular term for an agricultural region, picks up the earliest uses of Corn Belt as an inspiration for enterprise names, tracks Corn Belt enterprises through time at one of the core locations of the naming practice, and presents the enterprises that in 2020 greeted the public with Corn Belt in their names.

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