Yes I know the company is Ka-Bar not K-Bar.  I'm guessing most everyone is aware of the 1219C2  Fighting knife developed by Camillus and manufactured by several companies including Ka-Bar.  The Marines adopted it as the Mk-II Combat Knife and later Mk II Fighting/Utility Knife but the knife quickly became known as the "Ka Bar" despite Camillus out producing the knife during the War and ever since.

So why did I say K-Bar instead of Ka-Bar?   Well because  I heard from several people including my Father that the knife was named after rations and not a company.  My Father gave me a Camillus made MK II Fighting Knife way back in 1975.  At the time he called it a K-Bar.   Now my dad was no stranger to that particular knife but he was not a person who collected knives. 

He had been a BAR gunner in WWII serving in the Army in Italy.  He claimed he was issued a K-Bar back then, despite the knife being a Navy and Marine Corp issue Knife.  (This may be a case of mistaken identity but he also claimed the M3 Trench knife was something the officers and paratroopers got. So he did know the difference between the Mk II and the M3.) 

He also said he used the same MK II knife that he still still called a K-Bar while serving in Korea and Vietnam while in the Air force. 

When I mentioned to him that Ka-Bar was a knife company. It did not phase him.  He said that they may be so, but the knife was called a K-Bar after the K-Rations issued in WWII and the name just kind of stuck.

This comes up now because I recently heard the same exact thing from another Vietnam vet who also isn't well versed in knife knowledge but does know something about that particular knife. And as far as he was concerned he knows what he's talking about and the DI that told him it was a K-Bar was God and God is never wrong!

So could it possibly be the nick name for the Marine Corp fighting knife might actually come from lousy food and not a company who once made it for the military?