No menu item gave McDonald’s logo its nickname; the “Golden Arches” are named for the restaurant’s architectural arches.
Early McDonald’s buildings used large yellow arches as eye-catching design elements. Architect Stanley Clark Meston incorporated them into the restaurant structures, where they could be seen by passing motorists. Their color and shape made the buildings identifiable before customers even read the name.
The arches were later combined into a logo resembling an M. That graphic identity became so strongly associated with McDonald’s that people began referring to the symbol as the Golden Arches. The nickname describes the physical and graphic design, not a food product.
The question can invite confusion because McDonald’s has used menu names such as the Big Mac and Arch Deluxe. Neither created the Golden Arches name. The Arch Deluxe was a separate burger introduced in 1996, decades after the arches had become a core brand symbol.