Historical Events  Brands
KitKat

Alternate:
Kit-Kat

Current:
Kit Kat

Dash or no dash?

Few people realise the name "Kit Kat" or "Kit Cat" for a type of food goes back to the 18th century, when mutton pies known as a Kit-Kat were served at meetings of the political Kit-Cat Club in London.

It seems the popular chocolate bar took its name from this, which definitely had a dash in when used by the Kit-Cat club. Those experiencing the Mass Memory Discrepancy Effect say they too remember the dash in the chocolate snack's name years ago, but today it has none and no references to the version with the dash ever existing can be found.

Time for a break?

Brand

The usual rules around corporations and branding apply here. Basically, they invest millions in the name alone for the long-term game, building brand recognition and loyalty which will return handsome dividends in the future. When the product is designed for a global market with the maximum lifetime possible, often measured in decades, there is no way they would alter any part of it without a really good reason. And if they did, it would be very obvious when in happened. There would be no questions over when and why they changed it, and that applies just as much to the style and format of the mark, including the dash.

By the way, the formal word for the dash is the hyphen, which could confuse some people who've not seen that term before.

Nestle

In 2016 Nestle got caught up in these missing dash rumours so put out a statement.

I can categorically say that the KitKat name was not hyphenated (either on the UK or US wrappers), and that the only time I have seen the name hyphenated is on one very rare wrapper from the Second World War (which I don’t have a photograph of) and on our 1920s Kit-Cat chocolate boxes.