‘Zara’ almost named ‘Zorba’ for fashion store.

The Humble Origin of Zara’s Name

Zara, the multi-billion pound clothing chain, was started by a tailor named Amancio Ortega in A Coruña Galicia, Spain, in 1975. However, it wasn’t originally named Zara.

Excited about his new project, Ortega originally named the store Zorba after the classic 1964 film Zorba the Greek. However, he soon discovered that a bar with the same name was situated just two blocks away, and having two Zorbas in the same town would be too confusing.

Despite having already made the moulds for the letters in the sign, Ortega rearranged them to see what other names he could come up with. The name Zara proved an economic success, and Zara now has nearly 3000 stores worldwide.

The Legend Behind Zara’s Name

Legend also has it that the extra ‘a’ in Zara came from an additional set of letters that had already been moulded for the company. The bar owner even went to Ortega’s clothes shop to tell him about the confusion the two Zorbas would create.

According to a user on US social forum Quora, “Ortega had already made the moulds for the letters in the sign, so he simply rearranged them to see what other names he could find. And as you can likely guess, he came up with the name Zara, and the rest is history!”