You'll Never Guess What Eggos Were Originally Called

Hitting the snooze button one time too many and needing to head out the door quickly is a morning routine many of us have experienced. Days like this are when frozen breakfast items work in a pinch. One of the best frozen waffle brands, Eggo is an iconic breakfast staple for the when you need most important meal of the day, stat. 

A fan-favorite of real customers as well as characters like Eleven from "Stranger Things," Eggo waffles and that iconic yellow box are freezer staples. So it's hard to believe that the classic brand almost went by a different name.

According to Frank Dorsa's obituary in The New York Times, Dorsa and his brothers, Sam and Anthony, started a food company in 1932, and they invented several successful food products, one of which was the frozen waffle. But inventing the frozen waffle wasn't enough — in the 1950s, Dorsa invented a machine that could make thousands of waffles an hour. The brothers sold Eggo to Kellogg in 1966.

L'Eggo my frozen waffle

The name "Eggo" almost didn't exist. According to the South Florida Reporter, when Frank Dorsa and his brothers first made their frozen waffle mixture in 1953, they called their waffles "Froffles." The original name only stuck around for two years; the breakfast food was rebranded as Eggo in 1955.

It's hard to picture "Froffles" splattered over the yellow box, but the name makes sense. A pragmatic word combination (like "froyo" for frozen yogurt), the funny name was a combination of "frozen" and "waffles." However, "Froffles" didn't get the same treatment as froyo, which is now in the dictionary, per The Washington Post.

While "Froffles" is an admittedly clever name, "L'Eggo my Froffle" just doesn't have the same ring to it. Perhaps it's for the best that the original name didn't stick — and that "Eggo" is now synonymous with reliable frozen waffles for those busy mornings.