McDonald’s Corporation adopted its current corporate name in 1960, replacing the earlier name McDonald’s System, Inc.
The name change reflected the company’s growth beyond the operating system Ray Kroc had joined in the 1950s. Kroc acquired the rights to franchise McDonald’s restaurants and built a standardized national organization around the brand.
This date is sometimes confused with 1955, when Kroc opened the first restaurant in the McDonald’s Corporation system in Des Plaines, Illinois. It is also distinct from 1948, when the McDonald brothers introduced their redesigned, self-service restaurant concept in San Bernardino.
The corporate-name change helped establish “McDonald’s” as the enduring public identity of the business. Later branding developments, including the Golden Arches and Ronald McDonald, made that name recognizable worldwide.