McDonald’s changed its corporate name from McDonald’s Systems, Inc. to McDonald’s Corporation in 1960.
The change reflected the company’s growth beyond the original restaurant operation and its expanding franchise system. Ray Kroc had joined the McDonald brothers’ business as a franchise agent in 1954, and the first restaurant under his broader expansion strategy opened in Des Plaines, Illinois, in 1955.
The corporate-name change also occurred during the period when McDonald’s was developing a more unified national identity. Restaurant design, signage, operating procedures, and advertising increasingly followed standardized systems.
The year is sometimes confused with 1955, when the Des Plaines restaurant opened, or 1962, when the familiar Golden Arches logo was developed. Those were important milestones, but the corporate renaming occurred in 1960.