Sweets that changed their names

Changing a well known sweet's name is a big step, and old names can linger for decades. Some changes were made to mark history, and more recent ones were made so that a sweet has the same name everywhere it is sold.

Jelly Babies: three names

Jelly Babies began in 1864 as Unclaimed Babies, made by an Austrian immigrant working at Fryers of Lancashire. By 1918 Bassett's of Sheffield were making them as Peace Babies, to mark the end of the First World War. Production stopped during the Second World War, and in 1953 they were relaunched as Jelly Babies: see what were Jelly Babies originally called?

Kit Kat

Rowntree's launched the bar in 1935 as Rowntree's Chocolate Crisp. It became Kit Kat Chocolate Crisp in 1937, and simply Kit Kat after the Second World War.

The Creme Egg

The Creme Egg in its modern form was launched in 1963 as Fry's Creme Egg, and renamed Cadbury's Creme Egg in 1971: see sweets from the 1960s

Marathon becomes Snickers

Snickers arrived in Britain in 1968, but in Britain and Ireland it was sold as Marathon. In 1990 Mars changed the name to Snickers, to match the rest of the world, and many people still call it Marathon: see when Marathon became Snickers

Opal Fruits becomes Starburst

Opal Fruits were launched by Mars in 1959. When they went to the United States in 1967, they were sold as M&M's Fruit Chewies, and by 1968 they had been renamed Starburst there. In the UK and Ireland the Opal Fruits name was phased out, by 1998, to standardise the product in a global market. The old name has come back for limited runs, with Asda in 2008 and in Poundland and Dealz shops in 2020: see Opal Fruits

Dime becomes Daim

Daim is a Swedish bar of crunchy almond caramel in milk chocolate, launched by Marabou in 1953 as Dajm, a Norwegian spelling of the American dime. It was renamed Daim in most countries in 1990, but in the UK and Ireland it kept the name Dime, advertised by Harry Enfield in 1995, until the spelling changed in 2005.

More name changes

• Treets to M&M's. In the 1990s, the M&M's name replaced older Mars brands in Europe, including Treets.
• Mars Men to Sour Patch Kids. The sour gummies were called Mars Men when they were made in Ontario in the late 1970s, and renamed Sour Patch Kids in the mid 1980s: see the history of sour sweets
• Sweet cigarettes to candy sticks. In the UK they are now sold as candy sticks, to remove the link with smoking: see sweet cigarettes

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