A 90 year history of the LEGO® name
Before LEGO® bricks existed, creativity was already at work in a small town in Jutland, Denmark.
In 1932, the deep economic crisis of the Great Depression encouraged master carpenter Ole Kirk Kristiansen to turn his hand to a new craft: the creation of wooden toys and small household items. At that time, the name of his business was Billund Joinery and Woodworking Shop (Billund Maskinsnedkeri in Danish).
By the mid-1930s, the quality and creativity of Ole’s toys meant they had become popular with local families. Ole made a defining decision: to concentrate on the production of toys – a decision he later reflected on, sharing:
“It wasn’t until the day I told myself, ‘You’ll either have to drop your old craft or put toys out of your head,’ that I began to see the long-term consequences. And the decision turned out to be the right one.”
It was a new future, and that called for a new name.
The name game
A perfectionist at heart, choosing a name for his new venture proved more challenging than OIe had anticipated. According to company lore, Ole held a naming competition among his employees, promising a bottle of his homemade fruit wine as a prize for the best idea.
In the end, the winning idea came from Ole himself. He came up with it by combining the two Danish words - “LEG GODT”, meaning “Play Well” - to form a single, simple word: LEGO.
The name first appeared in company documents in early 1936 and officially became the company’s name that January. It placed Ole's desire to encourage good, quality play at the heart of the company’s identity.
What a coincidence
In a serendipitous twist, Ole later discovered that “LEGO” in Latin can be translated to “I gather” or “I collect”.
It’s an almost perfect linguistic match for the brick-based system the LEGO Group would eventually become known for. However, when the name was created, LEGO toys weren’t construction toys, making the Latin connection purely coincidental.
Ninety years on, the LEGO name remains a short word with a big meaning. Visually, the LEGO name has appeared in many different forms, but at the heart, it's always stood for the same thing - good, quality play.
Did you know: The name almost took a different shape, as Ole Kirk contemplated “LEGIO”, inspired by the idea of long rows (legions) of toys. Ultimately, he opted for the LEGO name instead.