Alyson Shontell described the origins of some of the stranger company names around. The list includes:

• The founders of Twitter first called the service “status” and then “twitch”. Eventually they looked in the dictionary and found a word that meant: “a short burst of inconsequential information”. Thus, “Twitter” was born.
• Zynga was inspired by Zinga, the pet dog of the company’s founder.
• Skype was based on peer to peer technology and so the service got its name from “Sky-Peer-to-Peer”.
• Pandora got its name from the curious Greek Goddess who received multiple gifts, including the gift of music.
• Zillow, the real estate service, wanted a “Zillion” data points of places which you could call home – or put your head on a “pillow”. Zillion pillow. Zillow.

Click here to read the full list of 16, and to find out about the origins of “Google”, “Apple”, “Yahoo”, “Hulu”, and “Meebo” among others.

Source: Business Insider