Etsy, the online craft/retail site, is known for its diverse array of homemade goods. Homemade, as it turns out, was actually the inspiration for the name, as well.
“I wanted a nonsense word because I wanted to build the brand from scratch,” Rob Kalin, founder of Etsy, told Readers Digest in 2010. “I was watching [director Federico Fellini’s film] '8½' and writing down what I was hearing. In Italian, you say etsi a lot. It means ‘oh, yes.’ And in Latin, it means ‘and if.’ ”
Etsy now brings in about $500 million in revenue every year. "Oh, yes" indeed.
