McDonald's first used the name “McDonald's” when Richard and Maurice McDonald opened their San Bernardino restaurant in 1940. The brothers' original drive-in restaurant was called McDonald's Bar-B-Q and offered a broad barbecue-oriented menu.
The business later changed direction. In 1948, the brothers closed the restaurant temporarily, simplified the menu, and introduced the Speedee Service System, emphasizing hamburgers, fries, and rapid counter service. That change created the operating model associated with modern McDonald's.
The name came from the McDonald family name, not from Ray Kroc. Kroc joined the story later, becoming the company's franchise agent in the 1950s and helping turn the regional restaurant concept into a national and international chain.
The original 1940 identity should also be separated from later visual branding. The golden arches were designed more than a decade afterward, so the company had its name before it had its best-known symbol.