According to George Eastman, founder of Eastman Kodak, the name is his invention:
“I knew a trade name must be short, vigorous, incapable of being misspelled . . . and in order to satisfy trademark laws, it must mean nothing. . . . The letter k had been a favorite with me, it seemed a strong, incisive sort of letter. . . . Then it became a question of trying out a great number of combinations of letters that made words starting and ending with k.”
The name Kodak is the result.