Eskimo Pie picks new name after acknowledging term is derogatory

The Eskimo Pie brand will rename itself Edy’s Pie after company founder Joseph Edy, manufacturer Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream announced Tuesday, according to CNN.

The company acknowledged the original name was derogatory in June and said it would decide on a new name. The term has long been used for Indigenous people living in arctic regions including Greenland, Siberia, Alaska and northern Canada. It primarily applies to the Inuit and Yupik peoples.

Indigenous rights groups have frequently called for an end to the term, saying it derives from a word meaning “person who eats raw meat” in Algonquian, although the more common theory is now that it comes from the French for “person who ties a snowshoe.”

The new name will tie the ice cream bars to another of the company’s brands, Edy’s ice cream, which is sold predominantly on the East Coast.

“Our mission at Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream is to bring joy to everyday life with ice cream and we look forward to our Edy’s Pie ice cream bars continuing to do just that,” Elizabell Marquez, head of marketing for Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream, said in a statement.

Numerous other brands and products have announced name changes or the discontinuation of iconography with racial overtones in 2020. Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben’s rice, both of which have been criticized for marketing invoking racial stereotypes, have announced similar changes.