What was the name of the 1962 McDonald's logo formed by joining two restaurant arches?

The Golden Arches was the 1962 McDonald's logo formed by joining two restaurant arches.

McDonald's restaurants had used large yellow arches as architectural features before the logo was created. In 1962, designer Jim Schindler combined the two visual elements into a single stylized mark that resembled the letter M. The design preserved the arches' roadside visibility while making them usable in many forms of communication.

The name “Golden Arches” refers both to the original architectural features and to the resulting corporate symbol. The logo became especially powerful because it could identify the company without requiring customers to read the word McDonald's. That made it effective in countries with different languages and writing systems.

The logo is sometimes casually called “the McDonald's M,” but “Golden Arches” is the established branding name. The arches have appeared in different sizes and graphic treatments over the decades, yet their basic form has remained one of the world's most recognizable commercial symbols.