During the run up to Blackstone Group LP's initial public offering last week,
an interesting post about the etymology of the firm's name on Reuters'
DealZone blog went overlooked. As the post explains, the info wasn't made
readily available in Securities and Exchange Commission documents related to
the IPO. However, people "in the know" told DealZone. The first half of the
name doesn't take much effort to figure out, but the second half involves more
creative thinking. As most people on Wall Street are probably aware, "Schwarz"
in German means black, so there is the first half. By now, its easy to guess
that the second half perhaps came from Blackstone's other founder: Pete
Peterson. However, its far less obvious, without knowing that Peterson is an
anglicized name from Greek. So Peterson is likely related to the Greek words
“petra” and “petros” which mean rock or stone. Voila, Blackstone! It was far
more creative than simply naming the firm Schwarzman, Peterson & Partners.
—Matthew Wurtzel
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story from DealZone
See IPO story from TheDeal.com
