Was the Frisbee named after a pie company?
What most people think: Many people assume the Frisbee must be named after its inventor, a Mr Frisbee.
Guess before the Apple does
Just tell me the answer
Yes. Wham-O renamed its Pluto Platter disc the Frisbee in 1958 after hearing that students called flying discs 'Frisbies', a name borrowed from the Frisbie Pie Company of Bridgeport, Connecticut, whose tins were tossed for fun.
The Frisbee is one of the most recognisable toys on Earth, and its name sounds like it belongs to some cheerful inventor. In fact, the man who designed it was called Morrison. The name came from a bakery that had been selling pies for decades, and the inventor reportedly was not thrilled about it.
The short answer
Yes. The Frisbie Pie Company was founded by William Russell Frisbie in Bridgeport, Connecticut, in 1871. Its pies came in tin plates, and college students in New England reportedly took to throwing the empty tins. When the toy company Wham-O noticed students calling flying discs ‘Frisbies’, it renamed its plastic disc the Frisbee in 1958, tweaking the spelling.
The real story
There are really two stories that collided. On the East Coast, campus lore says students, most famously at Yale, were tossing Frisbie pie tins by the 1920s. That part is tradition rather than hard record, but the bakery was very real. By the 1950s it was turning out tens of thousands of pies a day.
On the West Coast, Walter Frederick ‘Fred’ Morrison had his own flying-tin moment. In 1937, as a teenager, he and his future wife Lucile were tossing a popcorn tin lid around, then switched to cake pans. When someone on a beach offered a quarter for one, Morrison realised people would pay for flying tins.
After serving as a pilot in World War II, Morrison worked on a plastic version. With business partner Warren Franscioni he made a disc in 1948 they called the Flyin’ Saucer, cashing in on the UFO craze. The pair later split, and Morrison developed an improved design in 1955 called the Pluto Platter.
Wham-O, the company behind the hula hoop, bought the rights, and its factory produced its first discs in January 1957. A year later came the rename. Wham-O’s Richard Knerr had heard about East Coast students calling flying discs ‘Frisbies’, and the new name stuck far better than anything with Pluto in it.
The pie company did not get to enjoy the fame for long. It stopped trading in the late 1950s, and its Bridgeport plant closed around 1959. The toy has since sold in the hundreds of millions.
Why people get it wrong
Most products named after a person are named after the person who made them, so ‘Frisbee’ sounds like a surname with a patent attached. The spelling change also hides the link: Frisbie with an IE does not instantly suggest Frisbee with a double E. And a pie bakery is just about the last place anyone would look for the origin of a sports toy.
“So the world’s most famous flying toy was named after a pie tin. Fair enough. I was named after the bottom of a shoe, and I’ve done alright.”
Sources
- A Brief History of the Frisbee - New England Historical Society
- How an Empty Dessert Plate Inspired the Frisbee - Mental Floss
- Toy company Wham-O produces first Frisbees - History.com
Fact-checked 31 Oct 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us and we'll fix it in public.
