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FEW consumers give much thought to how and where the brands they buy get their names – some are obvious, some can be inferred correctly or otherwise through an educated guess, but many of their origins are explained on company websites in case shoppers are curious.
Supermarket chain Mercadona does not refer to the source of its name anywhere on its portal, but the majority of those who have ever speculated on this assumed it was a fusion of mercado, or market, and dona, the valenciano word for 'woman'.
Others thought it was an augmentative of mercado, but 'feminised': Some Spanish nouns are emphasised, or made 'bigger', colloquially, by adding -ón to them, or -ona if they are feminine nouns, with the plurals being -ones and -onas.
This does not always work, however: Hormiga is 'ant', but hormigón is 'concrete', as in building material; bodega is a wine merchant or wine cellar, and bodeguón is a still life painting; although in these cases, hormiga and bodega are feminine and hormigón and bodeguón are masculine, so they do not follow the pattern.
Recently, though, Twitter user @psesasoyyo asked the company via the social media platform to clarify.
“Hi @Mercadona, could you explain to me the origin of your name? I've read that it comes from mercado and dona; that it comes from an Italian pasta known as mercadonna, and that it's simply a form of mercado, but I don't know which is real.”
The supermarket chain responded swiftly: “Hi! We can advise you that the origin of the name of Mercadona came from Francisco Roig, brother of our chairman [store founder Juan Roig, pictured above], when he saw the name of some pasta in Italy, and they decided to use it but remove one 'n'. Thanks and best regards.”
Twitter comments that followed revealed that the public had not expected this – although international daily newspaper ABC reports that this little-known fact had been revealed by Juan Roig himself during a conference run in October 2017 by the Association of Large Consumer Companies (AECOC).
Tweets in reply largely said they had searched for an Italian pasta named 'Mercadonna' and been unable to find any reference to it.
In fact, Twitter user Quella Che Vive in Spagna ('She Who Lives in Spain'), @nancyaiello, replied: “Which part of Italy is this pasta from? I'm Italian and I've never heard of it. I've searched for it, but there's nothing.”
She adds in a later reply that 'when you're Italian and have spent your life eating pasta, you know every single one of the brand names'.
As yet, Mercadona has not replied.
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