Haagen-Dazs Ice cream?

What on earth does Haagen-Dazs mean?

If you have trouble guessing at the meaning of “Häagen-Dazs,” there’s a good reason — the made-up phrase doesn’t actually mean anything.

The brand name was invented by Bronx residents Reuben and Rose Mattus when they founded the ice cream company in 1959, and was designed to simply sound different.

According to Reuben, “the number one thing was to get a foreign sounding name.” However, even though Häagen-Dazs doesn’t mean anything in and of itself, it was very much meant to elicit a specific place: the nation of Denmark.

The Mattuses were both Jews of Polish descent, and Reuben admired Denmark as it was, “The only country which saved the Jews during World War II.” Ironically, even though the Mattuses intended Häagen-Dazs to sound Danish, the Danish alphabet doesn’t include the letter “ä” (that would be the Swedish alphabet).

Who knew?

Have a great week!