What name did McDonald’s use for its 1955 corporate company before adopting its current name?

McDonald’s used the name McDonald’s System, Inc. for its corporate company before adopting its current name.

The company was incorporated in 1955 as McDonald’s System, Inc. The name reflected Ray Kroc’s emphasis on a repeatable restaurant system: standardized food preparation, service procedures, equipment, and branding.

In 1960, the corporation changed its name to McDonald’s Corporation. That change aligned the legal corporate identity more directly with the restaurant brand already familiar to customers.

The name is easy to confuse with the brothers’ original restaurant business or with the Speedee Service System, which described the operating model rather than the later corporate name. McDonald’s System, Inc. belongs specifically to the corporation’s early period under Kroc’s expansion strategy.