The McDonald brothers named their streamlined 1948 restaurant McDonald's after simplifying the menu and introducing faster counter service.
Before the change, their San Bernardino restaurant was called McDonald's Bar-B-Q and offered a broad barbecue menu. In 1948, Richard and Maurice McDonald closed it temporarily, removed most items, and reopened with a much smaller menu centered on hamburgers, cheeseburgers, fries, shakes, and drinks.
The simplified operation became the foundation of the modern McDonald's brand. The brothers also promoted their method as the Speedee Service System, but that was the name of the operating concept rather than the restaurant itself.
A common mix-up is treating the 1948 change as the start of Ray Kroc's company. Kroc joined the story later, becoming the national franchising force after visiting the San Bernardino operation in 1954.