I don't normally paste quotes from Wikipedia, but I ran across this today and thought it was worth sharing.
 
The Rode NT-1A is a popular starter condenser among home recordists - I have one - and one of the first of the Shanghai-manufactured microphones. It's a decent mic for not much money. I'd always wondered about the odd spelling of the company name "Røde", so this morning I decided to look it up. Here's the story...
 

Sales of the modified microphone began to take off in Sydney, which (in the Australian vernacular) was likened to “a rat up a drain pipe”. This gave lend to the unofficial title the ‘Rodent-1’, which was later broken up to become the RODE NT-1. Peter Freedman dropped in the ‘Ø’ character as a salute to his Scandinavian heritage, and Rode was born.

 
The Swedish connection is that Peter Freedman had grown up in Stockholm, although his parents were British.
 

That's interesting.  Thanks, Bit. 

Ha!  I guess you never know what will inspire you to name something. 

So, it's not pronounced like "road" but more like "red"?  I can't think of any English words that have a sound like the 'Ø' character.  

I'm sure glad they didn't call it the Rodent...Rode sounds much better. Who knows though, might have still sold well. The geiko lizard seems to have made a great mascot for the insurance company by the same name.
 
 

My Rode Video Stereo Mic for a camera - camcorder has a 10 year warranty, so Rodent away I guess.
 
 

Thanks Bit - very interesting.  I just got my pair of Rode M5's. 

Very happy with my Rode NT1, pair of m5's and NT55's.

The NT-1 has its uses. I still get mine out on occasion, as it sounds great on some other peoples' voices - just not mine. Unless I'm going for an intentionally sharp, thin-sounding vocal. It works OK on acoustic guitar. I wouldn't stick it up next to a guitar speaker. I probably wouldn't use it on a female vocal, but you never know. 
 
One of the unexpected advantages of the NT-1 is its light weight. Yeah, it feels cheap in your hand, it's prone to picking up rumble and handling noise. But it's much less likely to cause a stand to tip over!
 
 

bitflipper
I don't normally paste quotes from Wikipedia, but I ran across this today and thought it was worth sharing.
 
The Rode NT-1A is a popular starter condenser among home recordists - I have one - and one of the first of the Shanghai-manufactured microphones. It's a decent mic for not much money. I'd always wondered about the odd spelling of the company name "Røde", so this morning I decided to look it up. Here's the story...
 

Sales of the modified microphone began to take off in Sydney, which (in the Australian vernacular) was likened to “a rat up a drain pipe”. This gave lend to the unofficial title the ‘Rodent-1’, which was later broken up to become the RODE NT-1. Peter Freedman dropped in the ‘Ø’ character as a salute to his Scandinavian heritage, and Rode was born.

 
The Swedish connection is that Peter Freedman had grown up in Stockholm, although his parents were British.
 

The Swedish Ø connection was a bit strange since the Swedish Ø is written like the German, an O With two dots over it.
The Ø like that is Norwegian and Danish. It is prononced like the u in the English words turn and burn.