The american equivalent is United States Steel (which is owned by the Japanese ironically.)

>> Rheinmetall AG[a] (German pronunciation: [ˈʁaɪnmeˌtal]) is a German arms manufacturer, headquartered in Düsseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.

>> The most important rivers flowing at least partially through North Rhine-Westphalia include: the Rhine, [...]

Yes and 'Missouri Metalworks' is not a real steelmaker, and there are plenty of real *American corporations with names just as cool as Rheinmetall: Advanced Micro Devices/AMD, Texas Instruments/Ti, General Dynamics, General Motors/GM, International Business Machines/IBM. If you bring in defunct ones you get even more: Digital Electronic Corporation/DEC, Standard Oil.

I concede that I missed your Riverine connection between Missouri-Rhine but I think the first guy was focusing on the majesty/exotic-ness of "Rheinmetall" while "Missouri Metalworks" just sounds lame, most likely due to the fact that its fake!

That feels a little cynical. I think partly up to perception: "Target" would be a badass name for a weapons company, but we all know they actually sell clothes, so it's not particularly interesting.

In tandem, we're less familiar with them, which gives them that alure. Think of Rheinmetall and you think vaguely of a hulking corporate giant encompassing metalworkers manging molten metal to men in suits pitching fully automatic anti-aircraft turrets to entire nations; think of Missouri Metalworks and you just imagine a dingy suburban factory your mate reckons he worked at once. And no doubt that's how Germans would think of Rheinmetall too.

I think companies like Tesla, IBM, Lockheed, GE, etc. have the potential to sound "cool" like Rheinmetall were they not so ingrained in Anglophone culture. We just know them all too well, so they've become boring.

At least thats how I see it :-}