The story of the origin of the name Wendy’s: This is why the founder of the chain named his hamburger company after his daughter and later regretted it | International | News

With a hamburger market almost saturated, businessman Dave Thomas, owner of a Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) franchise in Columbus, Ohio, managed in 1969 to find a name for the fast food chain that years later would become an empire.

Thomas had the vision of opening a business that would target the richest young adults, the well-known “baby boomer” generation, who were not convinced by the hamburger chains that were in the market at that time.

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Wendy’s founder named the burger chain after his daughter

Thomas’ desire from the start was to name the burger chain after one of his sons, but neither fit the nostalgic, family-values ​​personality he wanted to project in his business, he wrote. CNN.

Supported by the founder of KFC, Colonel Harlan Sanders, whom he described as his mentor, he learned the value of having a pet to create an emotional connection with customers and an identity to the restaurant, as he published in his 1991 autobiography “Dave’s Way”. ”.

For this reason, she found in the nickname “Wenda” of her daughter Melinda Lou, the perfect name and the character she wanted for her project. Her eight-year-old daughter was nicknamed that because her brothers couldn’t pronounce her name and shortly after her, she started calling her Wendy.

Thomas told his daughter at home to put her hair up in ponytails and took pictures with her camera. Little Ella wore a blue and white striped dress sewn by her mother for the photos of her that would eventually make her a world-renowned fast-food character.

“To me, nothing would be a more compelling ad than showing a little, smiling, rosy-cheeked girl” enjoying one of her burgers, Thomas said.

In this way he achieved what he wanted, an image that connected with the public. “It was her cleanly brushed, freckled face. She knew that was the name and image of the business.”

Why did he later regret naming the burger chain Wendy’s?

The company’s full name was “Wendy’s Old Fashioned Hamburgers” and its goal was to evoke nostalgia. However, Thomas later regretted naming the chain after his daughter.

The American believed that he put “too much” attention and pressure on her, assuring that “she has lost part of her privacy. Because some people still take her as the official spokesperson for the company, she sometimes avoids speaking her mind. I don’t blame her.”

In fact, before Thomas died on January 8, 2002, he apologized to his daughter for naming the restaurant after him. “I should have named it after myself, because she put a lot of pressure on you,” Wendy Thomas-Morse recalled at the brand’s 50th anniversary in 2019. She later became a Wendy’s franchisee.

The first restaurant opened in downtown Columbus, Ohio, in 1969. Wendy’s hamburgers cost twice as much as rival chains, because he believed his customers craved fresh meat and his own choice of ingredients, and they would be willing to pay higher prices. higher for a better quality burger.

Within a decade, there were more than a thousand Wendy’s locations in the United States. (I)

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