How Starbucks Got's It's Name

The company is named in part after Starbuck, Captain Ahab's first mate in the novel Moby-Dick, as well as a turn-of-the-century mining camp (Starbo or Storbo) on Mount Rainier. According to Howard Schultz's book Pour Your Heart Into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time, the name of the company was derived from Moby-Dick, although not in as direct a fashion as many assume. Gordon Bowker liked the name "Pequod" (the ship in the novel), but his then creative partner Terry Heckler responded, "No one's going to drink a cup of Pee-quod!" Heckler suggested "Starbo". Brainstorming with these two ideas resulted in the company being named after the Pequod's first mate, Starbuck


International names
Starbucks is known internationally by the following names:
  • Arabic-speaking countries: ستاربكس (transliteration: stārbaks)

  • Bulgaria: Старбъкс (transliteration: Starbâks)

  • China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan: 星巴克 Pinyin: xīngbākè (星 xīng means "star", while 巴克 is a transliteration of "-bucks")

  • Israel: סטארבקס (transliteration: sṭārbaqs)

  • Japan: スターバックス (transliteration: sutābakkusu), and the abbreviation スタバ is also used in slang

  • Russia: Старбакс (transliteration: Starbaks)

  • South Korea: 스타벅스 (transliteration: seutabeokseu), but the Korean translation 별다방 (star-teahouse) is also used in slang

  • Quebec, Canada: Café Starbucks Coffee