Buck Frobisher wrote:

Does anyone know:

Was their name meant to imply a level of vigour, or "pep"? Or was it simply
the owner's name (or an abbreviation of it)?

In 1921, Emanuel (Manny) Rosenfeld, Maurice L. (Moe) Strauss, and W.
Graham (Jack) Jackson opened the first "Pep Auto Supplies" store in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They took the original name from a product
carried in the store, called "Pep Valve Grinding Compound."

A neighborhood cop may have led to the name change "Pep Boys." As the
story goes, every time he stopped a car that didn't have an oil wick
burning, he would tell the driver to go see "the boys down at Pep." The
"Manny, Moe and Jack" portion of the name was added after Manny and Moe
visited California and saw a dress shop called "Minnie, Maude and
Mabel's." Manny and Moe's visit to California also started a new market
for the company. Manny's brother Murray Rosenfeld opened the West Coast
operation in 1933 and Pep Boys began to grow on both sides of the
country. The company reached about 159 stores around 1986.

Northe
N6KO
Green Valley AZ