Most people assume that the name Arby's is to be
intrerpreted as the two letters R and B,
having some connection with
Roast Beef.
The first half of that is true, but the acronym actually stands for
"Raffel Brothers", (Forrest and Leroy), who opened the
first Arby's restaurant in 1964 but were unable to get the rights to
use their first choice of names, which was "Big Tex".
In a curious recursion, however, the rb in
the word Arby's did stand for "Roast Beef"
in a 1990's advertising campaign that used the slogan
America's Roast Beef, Yes Sir!
As of the year 2001, there are more than three thousand Arby's restaurants
in operation. (Unfortunately, that does not include the one in
Goleta, CA which closed in 2000.)