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If you’re the pedantic type, you might notice that the name “Tim Hortons”, if associated with its original meaning is gramatically incorrect. (An apostrophe is missing.) There’s a reason for this. Read on to find out why.
As you probably know, Tim Hortons is named after Tim Horton, the late NHL hockey player. Originally, the chain was known as “Tim Horton”. Later, it became known as “Tim Horton’s”, which would be the gramatically correct way to spell the name of the chain given its intended meaning.
However, as Tim’s expanded into Quebec, they were faced with a problem. Quebec has language laws that require all signs to be translated into French. Since “Tim Horton’s” was considered an English phrase (meaning, something that belonged to Tim Horton), all of the stores in Quebec would have had to have their signs renamed accordingly in French (”Les donuts de Tim Horton” would be the proper translation, meaning “Tim Horton’s Donuts”).
The folks at Tim’s found a loophole around the language law, though. If a business is just a personal name, even if the name is not French, it doesn’t need to be translated into French. Instead of changing all the signs, they simply renamed the chain “Tim Hortons”, without the apostrophe, and used that name for all their stores to simplify things.
That’s why “Tim Hortons” is spelled the way it is, without the apostrophe. If you’re ever sitting at Tim’s and someone asks why there’s no apostrophe in the name, now you know and can explain it to them.
For more news and information about Canada’s favourite coffee and donut shop, visit Tim Hortons Fan.
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