Why Is It Called Sonic?

By Jahanzaib · Updated October 11, 2026 · 6 min read

So the name did not come first. The slogan did, and the name was chosen to fit it.

It started as a root beer stand

Troy Smith was a World War Two veteran who had tried a few restaurant ventures in Shawnee. One of them was a log cabin steakhouse with a small walk up root beer stand next to it. The steakhouse was the main business. The root beer stand turned out to be the part that made money.

In 1953 Smith shifted his attention to the stand and called it Top Hat. At first it was a modest operation, reportedly averaging around 700 dollars a week from root beer, hamburgers and hot dogs.

The speaker that changed everything

The idea that made the business came from a road trip. Driving through Louisiana, Smith saw a drive in that let customers order through speakers from their parked cars instead of waiting for a carhop to walk over and take the order.

He copied it at Top Hat. Customers pulled into a stall, pressed a button, placed their order through the speaker, and a carhop brought the food out. Sales reportedly tripled.

Why Top Hat had to go

In 1956 a businessman from Woodward, Oklahoma named Charles Pappe saw the Top Hat and wanted one. He and Smith became partners, and Top Hat drive ins opened in Woodward and then in Enid and Stillwater.

The trouble came when they looked at expanding further. The Top Hat name was already trademarked by someone else, so they could not build a chain around it. They needed a new name, and the slogan made the choice easy. Sonic means relating to sound, and in particular to its speed. In 1959 the drive ins became Sonic.

The penny per bag deal

The early franchising arrangement was as unusual as the name. Smith and Pappe did not set up a formal royalty system at first. Instead they had their paper supplier add one extra cent to the price of every Sonic branded hamburger bag it sold to the drive ins, and the two partners split that penny.

It meant the founders earned a little on every sandwich sold without having to chase operators for fees. The chain kept growing across Oklahoma and neighboring states, and by 1967, when Pappe died, there were 41 Sonic drive ins.

Timeline

Sonic has changed hands since then. It was taken private in 1986, returned to the stock market in 1991, and was bought by Inspire Brands in December 2018, the same group that owns Arby’s and Dunkin. That story is in who owns Arby’s.

Does the name still fit?

Mostly. You still order from a speaker in a stall, a carhop still brings the food out, and some carhops still wear roller skates. The drive in format is the same idea Smith borrowed in the 1950s.

The other thing people associate with Sonic, the soft chewable ice, came much later and has nothing to do with the name. That is covered in why Sonic ice is so good. Current prices and the full lineup are on the Sonic menu.

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