Two existing companies came together to form the company that would later be known as Enron. The original companies were Houston Natural Gas (HNG) and InterNorth. The new company was called HNG/InterNorth, but constant power struggles between the two sides lead management to believe they needed one name to help unify the company.

The company hired expensive consultants to come up with a new name. It took three months and millions of dollars.

The new name would be “Enteron” – “En” for the business of energy, “ter” for international and InterNorth, and “on” because it sounded cool.

As part of this pricey project, the consultants searched around the world to make sure that no other company was using the name and that the word didn’t mean anything offensive in another language.

However, they forgot to check the English dictionary. “Enteron” is the digestive tube that runs from the mouth to the anus. And it didn’t go unnoticed that the company’s core business was natural gas.