Starbucks takes its name from this North Yorkshire Village… Really! History of Starbucks/ Starbeck

One mile from Harrogate, North Yorkshire is the small village of Starbeck. An ancient community with a Nordic name left over from the Vikings*. Discover how this would go on to be the direct root of the world famous Coffee Brand.

With Thanks to Mark Forsyth and his wonderful book The Etymologicon, Starbucks Coffee and the people of Starbeck.

for more info visit harrydoeshistory.com

Music Credit
Chaz Thorogood – Early Levels

Script Editor
Rebecca Evans

Filmed in Spring 2024 on the Starbeck to Ripley cycle path

*more specifically the Danes but everyone knows the Vikings

hello and welcome in the 8th Century Ragnar lothbrook LED his gang of Vikings across the North Sea landing at lindes Fan 150 Mi to our Northeast over the next three centuries they gradually made their way down south take about half of Britain this new land they called The Dan Law and the capital was based at York all those Rivers help them get those long Viking Dragon ships right into the center of the north of England and we know that harut in North Yorkshire was incredibly important to at least one of these Vikings as in 200 7 two local metal detectorists the Father and Son team discovered what’s now known as the veil of York Corde this was a treasure Trove over 700 Viking coins there was items of jewelry and bracelets but it wasn’t just treasure they were leaving behind they also gave us the place name of star Beck it translates to a leafy stream star meaning leafy and Beck in regards to the stream that I’m cycling alongside now thousands of years ago not many people had surnames so much so that as Taxation and immigration became a thing you had to make one up so you can name yourself after your profession Taylor Boya Smith or you can name yourself after where you’re from a family from the starbeck decided to change just one vowel in the name and become the Starbucks this is recorded as far back as the 1300s and the Starbucks move around not only Yorkshire but the whole of England and eventually across the Atlantic to N Net Island where they became very successful Whalers if that’s not contradiction in terms so much so when the book Moby Dick was written they named the first mate of the vessel Starbuck in honor of the family from North Yorkshire then in the 1960s three friends in Seattle were looking to open up a coffee shop and their favorite book just so happened to be Moby Dick now originally they wanted to name it after the whale pquad however someone in marketing soon pointed out that having the word p in your drinks company probably wasn’t a great idea so they settled on the first mate meaning that Starbucks coffee shop is named after starback in North Yorkshire which has a Costa ooh that’s a shiny coat look at this shiny coat hello [Music]