What name did McDonald's use for its restaurant before shortening it to simply McDonald's?

McDonald's used the name McDonald's Bar-B-Q before shortening it to simply McDonald's.

Richard and Maurice McDonald opened their first restaurant in San Bernardino, California, in 1940. It was initially a drive-in barbecue restaurant called McDonald's Bar-B-Q. The brothers later changed the business model after recognizing that hamburgers, fries, and milkshakes generated more efficient service than a broad barbecue menu.

In 1948, the brothers closed the restaurant temporarily and reopened it with a simplified, self-service format. The revised menu focused on hamburgers, cheeseburgers, fries, soft drinks, and milkshakes. The business name was then shortened to McDonald's.

That change matters to the brand's history because it accompanied a major operational redesign, not merely a cosmetic rename. The restaurant's later franchising success grew from this streamlined concept. Some accounts refer to the original business as a barbecue drive-in, but its early name was specifically McDonald's Bar-B-Q.