Here's How KitKat Really Got Its Name
The favorite of many, Kit Kats have long been an iconic treat with a super catchy jingle. Today, we think of Kit Kats as a household name, but do you ever wonder where it all started?
Kit Kat wasn't always the name of this delicious wafer-y snack. Before the brand was purchased by Nestlé and then licensed by Hershey's, the bars were invented and sold by Joseph Rowntree in London. When Kit Kats were first made in 1935, this treat was known as Rowntree's Chocolate Crisp. Maybe that didn't quite roll off the tongue, and in 1937, the chocolate was renamed to the famously singable "Kit Kats" we know and love today.
Candy fans have many theories as to how he came up with the name. One popular theory involves Rowntree's wife, who was rumored to have been a member of a sorority with the slogan "Keep in Touch, Kappa Alpha Theta", or K.I.T.K.A.T. While this theory is very juicy, there isn't much evidence to back up the claims. So what about the other theories might explain the Kit Kat name?
The Kit-cat Club theory
Another theory behind the name involves a popular London-based club that operated in the 1600s and got its name from well-known mutton pies called kit-cats. The club was also known as the Kit-cat Club and originally met at Christopher Cat's Tavern — that's a lot of cats!
More evidence in support of this theory is that, according to the National Portrait Gallery, the Kit-cat Club itself happened to have low ceilings which posed a problem for artist Sir Godfrey Kneller. He was tasked with creating portraits of Kit-cat members to hang on the walls. To deal with this problem, legend has it he created special-sized portraits that had to be "broken" from the top to fit in the room. Give me a break, anyone?
Although the Kit-cat Club sounds like a rather silly organization, this club was quite politically influential. It could be that the fame and historical importance of the club influenced Joseph Rowntree. However, it is also true that the word kit-kat was generally in fashion at the time. There was even a well known magazine by the same name.
So, where does the name really come from?
The truth is that no one is sure. It's possible that Joseph Rowntree got the name from the Kit-cat Club, or that the club was unrelated and he was influenced by the popularity of the word.
According to Culinary Lore, Rowntree trademarked the name in 1911 but didn't use it until 1920 and that was for a different type of chocolate entirely! Rowntree Kit Kats were originally a box of chocolate pieces and didn't have the famous wafery inside or breakable bars. Today's Kit Kats weren't invented until over a decade after the name was first used by Rowntree and two decades after he had it trademarked.
But, no matter why the name was chosen, there's no denying the popularity of the candy today. Purchased by Nestlé in 1988, Kit Kat is now sold in over 80 countries around the world and comes in many creative and intriguing flavors like apple pie and birthday cake in the U.S. and matcha green tea and sake in Japan.