McDonald's used the name Speedee for its original 1948 mascot before adopting Ronald McDonald.
The mascot's name expressed the restaurant's central operational idea: food could be prepared and served quickly. In 1948, brothers Richard and Maurice McDonald reorganized their San Bernardino restaurant around a streamlined self-service system, a limited menu, and standardized preparation. Speedee visually represented that approach.
The character was not a burger product or a later advertising villain. It was an early brand device used during the period when McDonald's was building its identity around speed and efficiency. The restaurant's later visual language shifted toward the Golden Arches and a larger cast of family-oriented characters.
Ronald McDonald eventually replaced Speedee as the chain's most prominent mascot during the 1960s. Because both characters belong to McDonald's history, they are sometimes conflated, but Speedee is the earlier figure and Ronald is the later one.