Originally posted by Wickedgood:
The short answer is, ever since Mattel bought out Pleasant Company back in the late 1990's, they have been phasing out the name and replacing it with the name American Girl. Probably because the original company was named after its founder, Pleasant T. Rowland and they wanted to distance themselves from her. Anyway, now it seems that newer dolls USUALLY have American Girl LLC on the back of their neck although there have been reports of recent purchases still having the Pleasant Company stamp.
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I thought the name change on the necks was fairly recent, and probably only since they officially changed the name of the company from Pleasant Company to American Girl, which was in 2004?

Welcome to the board, Krisla!