This past week CNN devoted a lot of hours to celebrating Larry King's 50 years in broadcasting. We too salute and respect the king!

Notice how easily his name slips into good English sentences of praise even though that was not his original name!

Yes, Larry King is one of those many Hollywood characters who changed their name at the behest of the studio, their producers, their publicists or their own whim. Would we have all followed his great interviews as avidly if the program was called Larry Zeigler, since his given name was Lawrence Harvey Zeiger?

When he was about to go live originally on a small talk radio station in Miami Beach, his producer said that his name would never do. They opened the daily paper, and there was a big ad for King's Wholesale Liquors. So King was it! Wow.

Fifty years later he is so famous it probably isn't needed, but we only rated this name a 9 on technical merit since there has never been a trademark claim or registration on the name.

Everyone knows to find Larry on CNN on your TV or at www.CNN.com/larryking.

For other famous company and product name changes see Famous Name Changes. For more celebrity name changes, visit Hollywood Name Changes.