Which company did William R. Hewlett and David Packard name after flipping a coin in 1939?

William R. Hewlett and David Packard named their company Hewlett-Packard after flipping a coin in 1939.

Hewlett and Packard had studied together at Stanford and formed an engineering partnership in Palo Alto. When deciding whose surname would come first, they reportedly flipped a coin, with Hewlett winning the ordering decision. The resulting name, Hewlett-Packard, became one of the best-known technology company names of the twentieth century.

Their first office was a one-car garage, but the company was not simply a garage story. Its early growth came from electronic measurement equipment, including the precision audio oscillator designed by Hewlett. An order from Walt Disney Studios for Fantasia helped establish the young firm commercially.

HP is sometimes incorrectly described as being named after a product or a place. It was a surname-based partnership name, and the order was settled informally. In 2015, the original corporation split into HP Inc. and Hewlett Packard Enterprise, adding a later chapter to the company's corporate history.