IKEA is a store that many of us will know and love - but we might not know what the four simple letters mean, or how to pronounce them.
Visiting a huge IKEA store can be a great way to spend an afternoon as you drift along picking up new homeware, dreaming about the famous meatballs at the end of the trip.
But the story of how IKEA came to get its name isn't very well known - to find out we have to go back to the founder.
As it turns out, the four letters hold quite the story as the first two letters are the initials of the original founder of IKEA, Ingvar Kamprad.
The E relates to the farm he grew up close to, named Elmtaryd, while the A is for a nearby village called Agunnaryd, The Sun reports.
Ingvar Kamprad started his business journey when he was just five-years-old, selling matches in 1931.
As it was a much needed item for households back then, his products were in demand.
After a while he decided he could start selling to more people and rode to farms further afield to market his products.
From there he started selling all sorts - from fish and magazines. When he was a teenager, he would sell school supplies to his classmates.
It was only then he started to look into whether he could sell things like furniture - and the rest is history.
But there is some debate on how to pronounce those four simple letters.
Some believe it should be pronounced 'eye-keeya', but others say 'ee-kay-uh' instead.
Thankfully, the brand has set the record straight on the correct pronunciation, but have stressed they are happy for everyone to pronounce it in any way they wish.
Back in 2021, the official Instagram page for IKEA Singapore shared fun facts about the brand, one being that the actual pronunciation of its name is 'ee-kay-uh.'
Do you have a story to share? We want to hear all about it. Email yourmirror@mirror.co.uk.
