What was McDonald's restaurant called before it adopted the McDonald's name in 1948?

Before adopting the McDonald's name in 1948, the restaurant was called McDonald's Bar-B-Q.

Richard and Maurice McDonald opened their first restaurant in San Bernardino, California, in 1940. It began as a drive-in barbecue restaurant with a broad menu and carhop service. The name reflected that original barbecue-focused identity.

In 1948, the brothers closed the restaurant temporarily and reorganized the business around a faster, simpler self-service system. They reopened with a much smaller menu centered on hamburgers, cheeseburgers, fries, milkshakes, and soft drinks. The restaurant's name was shortened to McDonald's during this transformation.

The 1948 change is easy to confuse with Ray Kroc's later involvement. Kroc did not join the business until the 1950s, after the McDonald brothers had already developed the core restaurant concept and branding.