What name did McDonald's restaurants use before they were called McDonald's?

Before they were called McDonald's, the brothers' restaurant used the name McDonald's Bar-B-Q.

Richard and Maurice McDonald opened their first restaurant in San Bernardino, California, in 1940. It was a barbecue drive-in with a broad menu, operating under the McDonald's Bar-B-Q name.

In 1948, the brothers closed the restaurant temporarily and rebuilt the business around a smaller menu and faster preparation. When it reopened, the operation emphasized hamburgers, cheeseburgers, fries, milkshakes, and speed rather than table-service barbecue.

The shortened McDonald's name became associated with the redesigned restaurant and its Speedee Service System. Ray Kroc later helped expand the concept through franchising, but the original name change occurred before his major role in the company. The barbecue name therefore belongs to McDonald's earliest restaurant history.