Before “Grammy” was chosen, “Eddie” was proposed as a working title honoring Thomas Edison.
The Recording Academy was developing a new music-industry award in the late 1950s and needed a name for it. Edison was a natural candidate because his 1877 phonograph helped make recorded sound—and eventually the commercial recording industry—possible. “Eddie” was therefore suggested as a tribute to the famous inventor.
The award was initially described as the Gramophone Award, referring to the recording machine depicted by the trophy. In 1959, the Academy held a national mail-in naming contest. “Grammy” emerged as the winning name, helped by the fact that several people submitted it and one of those entries was the first to arrive.
The final name was not meant to honor Edison directly, although his connection to recorded music remained part of the award’s origin story. Edison later received a posthumous Technical Grammy Award in 2010. “Telly,” “Victor,” and “Tommy” were not the established Edison-related working title.