CVS Has a “Full Name” and People Are Just Finding Out — Did You Know What It Was?

Some commonly used words and phrases that folks have no idea are actually acronyms or just brand names that have become so popular they've become interchangeable with the actual monikers of whatever they're indicating.

Take Band-Aids for example, that's Johnson & Johnson's name for its adhesive bandages and folks have been referring to any type of sticky wound care solution as a "Band-Aid" since they were first introduced to consumers in 1920.

The word "SCUBA" didn't actually originate as a word, but it's actually an acronym for self-containment underwater breathing apparatus. Since that's a mouthful, folks have just opted to say they're going "scuba diving" or that they need to prep their "scuba gear" before they tempt fate and swim with sharks for some psychotic reason.

The same applies to popular pharmacy retailer CVS: the drug store chain is actually an acronym, something that TikToker @chemicalcleanedmeme discovered after viewing a post from a fellow user on the platform.

It all started with Nisa (@nisipisa) who shows off a bottle of dry mouth spray she bought from CVS. She talks about the experience of using it in a viral clip she posted to the popular social media platform.

"I got this dry mouth spray from Consumer Value Stores, and the experience of using it is kind of like someone who's in the middle of chewing gum is spitting into your mouth."

Nisa then tests the spray by peppering some of it into her mouth, which causes her to recoil a bit, "like it's fine but it's like ugh."

A number of commenters who replied to Nisa's video couldn't believe that she "deadnamed" CVS, with many expressing their shock that the name of the retailer was actually just an acronym.

Including @chemicalcleanedmeme who also went viral on the platform, recording her own shock at learning CVS stands for Consumer Value Stores.

One commenter who saw her clip remarked: "CVS is in trouble in that video, being called by the full name"

While another quipped: "yeah, most stores do. walmart's actually short for walter marthompson"

It wasn't long before other folks were piling on their own jokes: "County Vampire Store"

Someone else said: "Consumer value store ??! I thought it meant Cotton, Vaseline and stuff"

And then there was another person who said that they thought it was an acronym for something else when they were younger: "When I was little I thought it stood for ConVenience Store"

Interestingly enough, there were folks who said that they were CVS employees and even they weren't aware that it stood for Consumer Value Stores: "I work at cvs never knew its real name"

CVS was first established on May 8, 1963 in Lowell, Mass., and by the following year, it had developed a shield logo with the three letters as part of its official branding.

Were you aware of CVS' real name? Or did you think that was just the three letters company founders decided to go with because it just rolled off the tongue well?