Ever wondered what the numbers mean in these brands?
We have the answers
So many of our favourite brands have numbers in their names, but why?
We set out on a quest to find out why some of the nation's favourite brands have that number in their name.
3M 3M is known for the office favourites Post-It notes and Scotch tape, but why 3M? It was originally a mining venture known as the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company until 2002 when it became 3M.
Did you know that the adhesive for Post-It notes was discovered by accident?
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7Up Originally given the catchy name of 'Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-Lime Soda' it was relaunched as 7Up in 1936 and named after the seven main ingredients included in the drink.
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99 Flake There are several ideas behind the 99 Flake here are four of them. 1. It was named after 99 Portobello High Street where Italian Stephen Arcari owned an ice cream shop. He used to serve his ice creams with half a flake in them. 2. It was named by ice cream sellers in Italy in honour of the conscripts from the First World War, born in 1899 and referred to as "i Ragazzi del 99" - the Boys of '99. 3. The owner of a sweet shop in Gorton, Manchester lived and worked at no. 99 Wellington Street. He wrote on the pavement outside his shop "Buy your 99 from 99". These "99"s had the flake with ice cream between two wafer biscuits. 4. According to Wikipedia the old Cadbury's website said that although the reason has been "lost in the mists of time", an old Cadbury works paper said the name came from the guard of the Italian king which has 99 men. Unfortunately Cadbury no longer has this information on their website.
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Boeing 747 Boeing divided its engineering departments into different numbered divisions with 300s and 400s for military aircraft, 500s for turbine engines, 600s for rockets and missiles and 700s for jet-aircraft transportation.
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Chanel No. 5 This popular perfume was launched on 5/5/1921. Although it was the first fragrance released by Coco Chanel it was the fifth one that perfumier Ernest Beaux created for her. The number five also had significance for her growing up.
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Heinz 57 According to heinz.co.uk 57 was the founder's lucky number. It became popular despite having more than 57 varieties at the time they started using the slogan. Now the company has more than 5,700 varieties!
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Jack Daniel's "Old No. 7" Apparently all records were destroyed in a fire so the reason behind the No. 7 is unknown, however there are a few theories. Peter Krass wrote a book about Jack Daniel's and came across an old newspaper cutting which gave the reason for the Old No. 7 naming. At 8mins 30secs he explains, Jack was initially given the No. 7 by the government for tax purposes, however it was changed a couple of years later. By then Jack had made a name with his No. 7 brand so he decided to name his whiskey Old No. 7.
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Levi's 501 According to the official website lot numbers are first assigned to the products being manufactured. 501 was used to designate the famous copper-riveted waist overalls, although they aren't sure why that number was chosen. 201 jeans were also made. Although men's Levi 501s have been around since the end of the 19th century women's 501s were only introduced in 1981.
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MI5 According to the MI5 website MI5 was the fifth branch of the Directorate of Military Intelligence of the War Office, the Ministry of Defence's predecessor. Although MI5 was renamed the Security Service in 1931 it is often referred to as MI5 - even to this day. There were originally up to 10 MI sections, however all of them except for MI5 and MI6 have been absorbed into other organisations or discontinued.
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Pimm's No. 1 Cup Over the years there are been a number of different numbers, however Pimm's No. 1 Cup is the most well-known. It is believed that originally it was served in a small tankard called a No. 1 Cup which is how it got its name.
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Porsche 911 The iconic sports car was originally named the Porsche 901 after the VW spare part range in view of future cooperation, however Peugeot was not happy as they claimed naming rights to models with a three-digit number with a 0 in the middle of it. The decision was then made to replace the zero 0 a 1.
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'Six Flags' amusement park The American amusement park was formed in Texas which has been governed by six countries, France, Mexico, Spain, the Republic of Texas, the Confederate States of America, and the US. The original park is split into different areas with many named after the countries.
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WD-40 WD-40 stands for Water Displacement 40th Formula. It was first used to protect the outer skin of the Atlas Missile in the 1950s.
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While we can't confirm that these are definitely the real reasons, but we have done a lot of research and found out what we can.