The name Coca-Cola in China was first rendered as ‘Ke-kou-ke-la.’ Unfortunately, the Company did not discover until after thousands of signs had been printed that the phrase means ‘bite the wax tadpole’ or ‘female horse stuffed with wax’ depending on the dialect. Coke then researched Chinese characters and found a close phonetic equivalent, ‘ko-kou-ko-le,’ which can be loosely translated as ‘happiness in the mouth.’