The Q in Q-tip stands for quality. Q-Tips were created by American Leo Gerstenzang, who came up with the idea after watching his wife attach wads of cotton to toothpicks to clean their infant's ears. Q-tips were originally named Baby Gays and was later renamed to Q-tip Baby Gays before it was finally shortened to its current and most famous name Q-tips. Though the Q-tip name is a brand owned by Unilever, it is still used by many people as a name for generic cotton swabs.