Domino's was a mistake — an employee's typo became the world's biggest pizza chain

In 1960, Tom Monaghan and his brother James bought a pizza store called 'Dominick's' in Ypsilanti, Michigan. The store was a small local operation. Tom Monaghan later bought out his brother and owned the store outright. He planned to keep the name 'Dominick's.' The name was already established and customers knew it. There was no reason to change it.

After a few months, Monaghan ordered new order slips printed with the store's name. When the slips arrived, the printer had written 'Domino's' instead of 'Dominick's.' An employee or the printer had misspelled the name. Monaghan had a choice: reprint the slips at his own expense or keep the typo. The business was barely breaking even. He could not afford to reprint.

Monaghan kept the name because the order slips were already printed. The typo stayed. The company was renamed to Domino's Pizza in 1965. The domino logo — three dots representing three stores — was created to match the new name. The name that nobody intended became the company's identity.

Domino's Pizza grew from a single store in Ypsilanti to over 20,000 locations in 90 countries. It is the largest pizza chain in the world by revenue. The company was founded on a naming mistake that its owner could not afford to fix. A typo on an order slip became one of the most recognized brand names in the food industry.