I'm not American and because of the name I've always assumed federal express was government-related.

And don't confuse UPS (United Parcel Service) and USPS (United States Postal Service).

Then there's the band "The Postal Service" that got a cease and desist from USPS to stop using their trademark.

However it had a happy ending: the United States Postal Service -- the real one, as in stamps and letters -- signed an agreement with Sub Pop granting a free license to use the name in exchange for working to promote using the mail. Future copies of the album and the group's follow-up work will have a notice about the trademark, while the federal Postal Service will sell the band's CD's on its Web site, potentially earning a profit. The band may do some television commercials for the post office.

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/06/arts/music/postal-service...

For the longest time I thought these were the same companies

Or Uninteruptable Power Supply. When I got my first job, I always wondered why our company designated the UPS with their own room on the floor map...

This is fascinating; I had no idea that non-Americans thought this. Every American knows it's a private company and most know it's a classic rags-to-riches story started by a guy named Fred. It simply never occurred to me that anyone might assume it was a government entity, even though now I get why.

Oh, come on. It's plausible that most Americans know it's a private company, but most people do not know it was started by a guy named Fred. (or do you mean a guy named Fed?)

Frederal Express don't have the same ring to it.

I don’t know, Busby, I think you’re onto something ;

Maybe I should have said "Americans my age." Fred Smith got a lot of news coverage in the 80s. He used to be a case study in business schools.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_W._Smith

...and apparently I was wrong about the rags part.

He did get close to rags in the middle there

Well, then, clearly it should be called Frederal Expresss.

A long time ago when I lived in Pakistan, the local franchise holder for Federal Express processed and handled visa applications to United States. The final interview if needed was still conducted by Consulate employees but everything else was Federal Express. I want to be clear that nobody wa strying to imply that Fedex was a government agency but it acted almost like USPS does for US passports.

USPS has a contract with Fedex to carry its mail, by the way, so the US passports are also most likely handled by Fedex at some point.

Government Employees Insurance Company

Their products were originally only offered to/available to government employees. The name was purely - and accurately - descriptive. There was no intention to deceive, in this case.

Yup, GEICO.

It hasn’t been called federal express for decades.

Sort of a difference without distinction given it still has the Fed part, which is a pretty common shorthand for things that are, well, federal.

yeah, now we call it fedex, very clear what that means ;-)

Same goes for the Federal Reserve, which is why there's so many conspiracy theories around it:

>The stockholders in the 12 regional Federal Reserve Banks are the privately owned banks that fall under the Federal Reserve System. These include all national banks (chartered by the federal government) and those state-chartered banks that wish to join and meet certain requirements. About 38 percent of the nation’s more than 8,000 banks are members of the system, and thus own the Fed banks.

https://www.factcheck.org/2008/03/federal-reserve-bank-owner...

The Federal Reserve is not misleadingly named. It was created by an act of the US Congress. The board is appointed by the President and the Congress sets their salaries. It’s completely appropriate for it to bear the word “Federal” in it’s name.

The conspiracy theories are because people make up stories to fill in what they don’t understand.

The FRB is often described as "private", but it really isn't, certainly not in the way that FedEx is. It:

1. Has the website https://www.federalreserve.gov/ 2. Seems to be considered a federal agency, given that it is subject to FOIA request 3. Was created by the federal government 4. Is run by a Presidentially appointed chairman

...etc....etc...