Richard Branson's full name is Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson. His very first business venture was in his schooldays; at the age of 16 he started a magazine called Student. (He had tried some other business projects even before that, but this was the first successful one). In this magazine he advertised records for sale, selling them more cheaply than the retail price. He used the name 'Virgin' for this business (this idea may have been suggested by someone else, because Branson and his fellow workers were all very new and inexperienced at the time).
However, he first started in the business that would make his fortune at the age of 20. In 1970 he started a mail order business selling records. This was so successful that after a year he was able to open a record shop in Oxford Street in London. Then in 1972 he opened Virgin Recording Studio and the brand name became very famous.