Imagine walking through a supermarket with your child, choosing Halloween candy, when suddenly they point at a packet of M&M’s and ask a surprisingly simple question: “What do the two M’s stand for?”
You pause. You have bought these colorful little chocolates for years, enjoyed them at the cinema, added them to cookies, and perhaps handed them out during Halloween. But have you ever stopped to wonder where the name actually comes from?
The answer is much more interesting than you might expect.
The two M’s stand for Mars and Murrie, the surnames of the two men behind the original business partnership that brought M&M’s to life.
It is a small detail hidden in one of the world’s most recognizable candy names, but the story behind it involves business, chocolate, wartime history, and an idea that changed the confectionery industry.
1. Who Were Mars and Murrie?
The first M belonged to Forrest E. Mars Sr., an American businessman and son of Frank C. Mars, the founder of the Mars candy company.
Forrest had experience in the confectionery business and wanted to develop a chocolate product that would be easier to transport and less likely to melt than ordinary chocolate.
The second M belonged to R. Bruce Murrie, whose father, William Murrie, was a senior executive at the Hershey Chocolate Company.
The partnership brought together two important advantages:
- Forrest Mars brought the business idea and the ambition to develop the product.
- Bruce Murrie brought a connection to Hershey, which helped provide access to chocolate and other resources during a period of wartime shortages.
The two surnames were combined to create the name M&M’s: Mars and Murrie. The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History confirms this explanation in its historical collection. National Museum of American History+1
2. How Did the Idea for M&M’s Begin?
The story of M&M’s goes back to the late 1930s and the years leading up to World War II.
According to a popular historical account, Forrest Mars had seen soldiers during the Spanish Civil War eating small pieces of chocolate covered in a hard sugar coating.
Unlike ordinary chocolate, which could melt easily in warm temperatures, these little candies had a protective outer layer.
This gave him an idea: What if chocolate could be made into small pieces covered with a hard shell, making it easier to carry and enjoy in different conditions?
He developed the concept and worked with Bruce Murrie to bring it to market.
Although the exact details of the Spanish Civil War inspiration are sometimes presented as a historical anecdote rather than a fully documented event, the development of M&M’s in the early 1940s is well established. HISTORY+2
3. Why Were M&M’s Originally Made for Soldiers?
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