New name alert: Eskimo Pie becomes Edy’s Pie

The maker of Eskimo Pies has officially changed the name of the nearly 100-year-old sweet treat.

Dreyer’s, the parent company of the ice cream maker, announced the product will now be called Edy’s Pies.

“The name Edy’s Pie was chosen in honor of one of our company’s founders, candy maker Joseph Edy, as well as a form of tribute to the entrepreneurial origins of this treat,” Elizabell Marquez, head of marketing for Dreyer’s, said in a statement this week.

The name change comes a few months after many companies promised to reexamine names and logos of popular products linked to figures some said were racially insensitive, including Uncle Ben’s Rice and Aunt Jemima’s pancake mix and syrup.

“We are committed to being a part of the solution on racial equality, and recognize the term is derogatory,” Marquez said in a June statement. “This move is part of a larger review to ensure our company and brands reflect our people values.”

The newly named product will hit shelves in early 2021. For now, production of the ice cream bars has paused.

The term “Eskimo” is considered offensive by some groups, in part because the word refers collectively to multiple distinct groups of native people, including the Yupik, Aleuts and Inuit peoples of the Arctic regions of northern Canada, Alaska, Greenland and Siberia.

“This name is considered derogatory ... because it was given by non-Inuit people,” the Alaska Native Language Center at the University of Alaska explains.

Nestle-owned Dreyer’s will discontinue the use of the Eskimo character on packaging.

Cox Media Group