When
Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo was looking for a romanized name to use to market themselves, they strongly considered using their initials,
TTK. The primary reason they did not, is that the railway company
Tokyo Kyuko was known as
TKK.
Sony was chosen as a mix of the latin word
sonus, which is the root of
sonic and
sound, and the english word
sonny. At the time of the change, it was extremely odd for a
Japanese company to use roman letters to spell its name, much less the phonetic script used in the Japanese writing, instead of Chinese characters.
The move was not without opposition; TTK's principle bank at the time,
Mitsui, had strong feelings about the name. They pushed for a name such as
Sony Electronic Industries, or
Sony Teletech.
Akio Morita was firm, however, as he did not want the company name tied to any particular industry. Eventually, both Chairman
Bandai, and President
Masaru Ibuka gave their approval.