Originally, yes it was an acronym, then they officially changed it to a word in 2006. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AOL

Really? And you downvoted me? My opinion stands: It's a stupid name.

Yep, just like KFC is no longer "Kentucky Fried Chicken" - it's just KFC.

"Yep, just like KFC is no longer "Kentucky Fried Chicken" - it's just KFC."

The very first words at KFC.com are "Kentucky Fried Chicken"

Doing a text search on the home page says Kentucky shows up two more times.

From 1991 to 2006, it was just KFC. http://www.snopes.com/lost/kfc.asp

NB: that Snopes page is part of its The Repository Of Lost Legends (TROLL) section, a cautionary lesson in false authority:

http://www.snopes.com/lost/false.asp

(And yes, I got sucked into the "Kentucky trademark" story too.)

While Kentucky Fried Chicken did change its name, it wasn't for the reasons given in that account.

Thanks for that. I did already know firsthand that KFC had changed its name for a time. I found a source (Snopes) that confirmed it. Internally I was skeptical of the reasoning that was provided (since it conflicted with what I knew from more reliable sources), but the actual reasoning was tangential to my point

Yeah but they didn't change the logo to Kfc.