ASDA is one of the UK's biggest supermarkets and people across the country will have been using the name for years - without a clue where it comes from. In fact the name has been in use across the UK since 1965 - meaning people have had decades to learn the secret.
ASDA was started by the Asquith family, who were butchers based in Knottingley, Wakefield, West Yorkshire. In the 1920s, they expanded their business to seven butchers shops in the area.
Around the same time, a group of West Riding dairy farmers, including the Stockdale family and Craven Dairies, joined under the banner of J.W Hindell Dairy Farmers Ltd. The company diversified in 1949 to become Associated Dairies and Farm Stores Ltd, with Arthur Stockdale as the managing director.
In 1963, the Asquith brothers converted an old cinema, the Queens in Castleford, into a self-service supermarket. Another followed in the old indoor market at Edlington. Both stores traded under the name of 'Queens'. Their next store was a purpose-built supermarket in South Elmsall
In 1965, the Asquith brothers approached Associated Dairies to run the butchery departments within their small store chain. A merger was proposed and the Asquiths' business was joined with Noel Stockdale's to form a new company, ASDA (Asquith + Dairies).
It has been capitalised as ASDA since 1965.
Newsreader Alastair Stewart tweeted: "Without Google, do you know what the name ASDA derives from?" reports The Mirror.
Someone wrote: "I don't know anything without Google, so no."
Another said: "No, sorry, but about 35 years ago I used to know what BEJAM stood for! It was all the initials of the owners/children, I think! We had to learn about the company to 'earn' stars on our name badges, like McDs!"
Some did know what it stood for though, and one woman gushed: "YES! I had a four-week summer job on George and they had a week's training about this!!!"
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Another mentioned that it had come up in a quiz recently, so they'd learned the answer.
