THE Glenlivet

Ever notice that there is a "The" affixed to Glenlivet on the bottle?  Ever wonder why this is the case?

Did you know that The Glenlivet is the most sold single malt scotch in the US and the 2nd most sold single malt scotch in the world? In their advertising, The Glenlivet, claim to be the scotch that started it all. 

The Glenlivet is named after the geographic region of it's production - the Glenlivet Parish, near Moray, Scotland. It is the oldest legal distillery in that area, having been in continuous operation since 1824. It did close only briefly during WWII.

But why should it be named so?

Well, in 1871, when George Smith (the distillery's owner) died and left his very successful business to his son, John Gordon Smith, other distilleries in the area tried to profit from the name and Glenlivet's high quality product.  These other distillers started naming their distilleries Glenlivet as well.  John Gordon Smith attempted legal action claiming rights to the Glenlivet name. Unfortunately, they were only partially suscessful. Other distillers could still hyphenate the Glenlivet name (presumably because the name was also a geographic entity). 

So, the name of the Glenlivet distillery became The Glenlivet, emphasizing, I suppose, their originality. 

Source: for the most part Wikipedia