Wendy’s founder regretted naming burger company after his daughter — here’s why

Just like Wendy’s burgers, she thought she’d be treated like a square.

Having a multinational food corporation named after you might sound like anyone’s dream. However, Wendy Thomas Morse felt that being the face of her father’s burger franchise was so “awkward” that she kept her mascot status a secret from others.

“I mean, there were times I didn’t want people to know because I didn’t want them to have assumptions,” the 64-year-old fast food scion told PEOPLE. “I guess my assumption was that they wouldn’t think I was cool or hip or whatever at the time.”

Morse was eight years old when her father, Dave Thomas, decided to name Wendy’s after her.

“He wanted a character, because he worked (previously) for the Colonel at Kentucky Fried Chicken and knew how much that persona mattered,” she recalled, per Food & Wine magazine. “He said, ‘Wendy, pull your hair up in pigtails.’ So, I did. He got his camera and took pictures of me and my sister and said, ‘Yep, it’s going to be Wendy’s Old-Fashioned Hamburgers.’

The hamburger magnate opened his flagship restaurant in 1969 in Columbus, Ohio, which became a resounding success, prompting him to build other branches around the nation.

By 1978, the burger monger, famous for its square meat patties and frosty drinks, had opened 1,000 outlets — a milestone it reached faster than any of its competitors.

In addition to carrying Morse’s name, the outlets also bore her likeness — her freckles, bright red pigtails, and toothy smile — on their glowing 120-foot signs.

This meat-eoric rise proved uncomfortable for Morse, who, despite being “very proud” of her fame, rarely disclosed her celebrity status.

“I would never, if I met a lot of new people, I would never tell them who I was,” she admitted. “It’s usually someone else that says it. And then it gets awkward and then it gets all better.”

And while she eventually came to appreciate being the face of the franchise, her father Dave came to regret the decision, and even apologized to her 10 years before his death in 2002.

“Probably 10 years before my dad passed, we talked about my name and namesake, and he just goes, ‘I’m really sorry I did that to you,’” Morse recalled. “To hear your father say, ‘Probably should’ve just named it Dave’s and that would have been a lot easier,’ was a lot.”

However, she admitted that it was nice to hear that her dad empathized with her over the “pressure and the responsibility of being the namesake of a restaurant.”

Now, over 20 years since his passing, Morse has come to associate the sign with pride rather than embarrassment, seeing it as a symbol of her father achieving his lifelong dream.

“He always just wanted to serve quality hamburgers — fresh, never frozen beef — and just really good products and have customer service be friendly and have a clean restaurant,” Morse reminisced. “So now when I see the sign, I just think of my dad a lot because he’s there in spirit.”