Etymology

In 1940 John W. Eckelberry of DuPont stated that the letters “nyl” were arbitrary and the “on” was copied from the suffixes of other fibers such as cotton and rayon. A later publication by DuPont (Context, vol. 7, no. 2, 1978) explained that the name was originally intended to be “No-Run” (”run” meaning “unravel”), but was modified to avoid making such an unjustified claim and to make the word sound better. The story goes that Carothers changed one letter at a time until DuPont’s management was satisfied. But he was not involved in the nylon project during the last year of his life, and committed suicide before the name was coined.

Two theories about the origin of the name claim that it is an acronym of “Now you’ve lost, Old Nippon” (N.Y.L.O.N.), or that it stands for “New York-London”. In the latter case, it is claimed that these were the two cities where the product was researched and developed, or that the inspiration came from a New York to London airplane ticket. There is no evidence for the ‘airline ticket’ theory, though some compelling evidence of the former from contemporary researchers at Oxford University who assisted in development…Oxford can be viewed as London from New York, but Nylox would have been more accurate.