Food Lovers Stunned: The Out-of-This-World Truth Behind Häagen-Dazs' Alien Name

• The creator of the ice cream thought up the name while sitting at his kitchen table during the 1960s.
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Gourmet dessert lovers are buzzing following their discovery of the real significance behind the name of premium ice cream label Häagen-Dazs.

Many assumed the treat was named after its founders, while others believed it was a Swedish, German or Danish phrase.

It turns out though, the Nordic-style moniker was entirely fabricated by its American creators.

Häagen-Dazs was introduced in the United States during the 1960s by its creators, the married couple Reuben and Rose Mattus.

Reuben came up with the oddly-named brand title to make it seem European and made up an explanation for it.

He said it means 'the best,' but there's a deeper emotional significance hidden within this made-up expression.

Reuben and Rose are both Jewish-Polish immigrants and came up with the Danish-inspired name to honour Denmark's protection of its Jewish population during the Second World War.

"The sole nation that protected Jews throughout World War II was Denmark, hence I created an entirely fictional Danish moniker and got it registered," Reuben stated, as per Tablet Magazine .

'Haagen-Dazs doesn’t have any meaning. [However], it would grab people’s attention, particularly because of the umlaut.'

The tribute was also depicted by including an outline of a map of Denmark on Häagen-Dazs’s initial label designs.

After he perfected the ice cream formula, the businessman - who died in 1994 - said he wanted a name to make it stand out to an American market.

'If you're the same like everybody else, you're lost. The number one thing was to get a foreign-sounding name,' he said.

During a 1981 interview with People Magazine, Reuben elaborated that his aim was for Americans to 'give the label another thought' and question whether it originated from abroad.

In 1996, during a PBS documentary called "An Ice Cream Show," Reuben’s daughter Doris Hurley remembered her father perched at the kitchen table generating a roster of nonsensical names for his brand. He finally chose Häagen-Dazs as it struck him as sounding both ‘distinctive’ and ‘novel.’

Fans of Häagen-Dazs were taken aback by the explanation, with numerous people confessing that they believed the brand name was either German or belonged to the company’s founders as their surname.

"I often thought it was German due to the umlaut," someone admitted on Reddit.

'Basically, it’s like the Mötley Crüe of ice cream,' one jested.

"I always thought it was a mix of two German surnames. Strange," a third remarked.

Nonetheless, the title has led to confusion for Swedish and Danish speakers who argue that the expression lacks grammatical coherence.

'A Swede mentioned that the name has always irritated them since adding an A after an Ä isn’t logical either verbally or grammatically,' a commenter noted.

'I'm Danish, and I can't think of any product in this country with a more alien-looking name than Häagen-Dazs,' a second agreed.

"I converse in Danish and Häagen-Dazs doesn’t make any sense whatsoever. It seems they didn’t even attempt," a third person concurred.

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