While these partners were discussing name options—and almost finalised Cargo House—one of the partners who also owned an advertising agency suggested and convinced the others that names that started with “st” were powerful.
So, one of them took out an old map of the western part of North America and started looking for names that started with “st”.
Then they found a small town called Starbo.
The town of Starbo immediately reminded the group of “Starbuck,” the name of the chief mate (a position under the captain) in the book Moby-Dick.
Moby-Dick was an 1851 novel narrating a sailor’s account of the captain of a ship.
But Moby-Dick wasn’t the only marine book the trio referred to—they checked out several others looking for a sea-related inspiration for the logo.
This was because their coffee came from across the ocean, and the company started in Seattle, a seafaring (that involves regular sea travel) town.
In one of the books, they came across the print of a Siren—a mermaid with one tail was a mermaid, but a mermaid with two tails was a siren.
They liked the mysterious, nautical feel that the image created and decided to use it as the logo.
