The Big Mac was the first McDonald's menu item to receive a trademarked name.
McDonald's franchisee Jim Delligatti created the Big Mac in 1967 at a restaurant near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The sandwich used two beef patties, a middle bun section, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions, and a special sauce. It was designed to provide a larger, more substantial hamburger for customers who wanted something beyond the standard burger.
The sandwich was initially called the “Big Mac” after a naming process that replaced an earlier proposed name, the Aristocrat. Its distinctive name helped make it more than a menu description: it became a branded product that could be advertised and recognized across restaurants.
The Big Mac entered McDonald's restaurants nationwide in the United States in 1968. It is sometimes confused with the Quarter Pounder, which identifies the approximate pre-cooking weight of one beef patty rather than the sandwich's position in the company's early trademarked product branding.