Reese’s Pieces

Indirectly, they’re named after a man: H.B. Reese.

He founded a company in 1923, the H.B. Reese Candy Company. They made all sorts of things, but hit it big with the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup in 1928.

Reese died in 1956. Hershey purchased his company in 1963, but retained his name in the branding of the peanut butter cups.

In 1978, Hershey created Reese’s Pieces, and presumably so-named them because they’re also a peanut butter-filled confection, so they were an extension of a prior product.

Interestingly, Reese’s pieces don’t get a page all their own on the Hershey website. "Reese’s” as a whole gets a page under “Our Brands,” and I found this under the FAQ section:

The REESE’S product line includes over 100 candy bars, spreads, cookies, and cereals, including REESE’S Cups made with milk chocolate, dark chocolate, and white creme in a variety of sizes.

I looked all over that page, and I could only find Reese’s Pieces mentioned in a cookie recipe. Using the search, I did find product pages for them (you can order directly from the site), but no “brand” page.

Other individual candies have their own brand pages. For example, PayDay and KitKat.

Weirdly, Hersheys consistently uses ALL CAPS in the names of their products on their website (even though they’re not capitalized on the packaging). So it’s hard to figure out if REESE’S is a product of a collection of products under a brand banner.

On a product page for Reese’s Pieces, they state this:

Grab a pack of REESE’S PIECES Candy for the deliciously unmistakable REESE’S Peanut Butter taste in a crunchy candy shell.

…so it’s “REESE’S” a product or a category? No idea.