What was Amazon called when Jeff Bezos founded the company in 1994?

Amazon was called Cadabra, Inc. when Jeff Bezos founded the company in 1994.

Bezos incorporated the business in July 1994 while developing an online bookstore from his garage in Bellevue, Washington. The name came from “abracadabra,” the traditional magic word, reflecting his ambition to create something remarkable through the internet.

Bezos changed the name after his lawyer reportedly misheard “Cadabra” as “cadaver.” He also considered the name “Relentless,” which remains associated with the company through the relentless.com domain. The name Amazon was selected because the Amazon River was enormous, matching Bezos’s goal of building a very large online store.

Amazon began selling books online in July 1995. Its evolution from a specialized bookstore into a broad e-commerce, cloud-computing, advertising, and logistics company is why the original corporate name is often confused with the later brand name.