Sony first called it the Stowaway in the UK, the Freestyle in Australia, and the Soundabout in the U.S. — but eventually it would become known everywhere as the Walkman.
From Untapped Revenue: Smartphones, A Smart Move for the Music Industry by Hunter David Ripley:
One of the first portable cassette players that Sony introduced in 1979 was named the Soundabout (Bottoms, 1999). Due to its size and its $200 price tag, it was not considered a product for mass marketing. However, with the 1981 invention of Sony's Walkman II, a 25% smaller version with 50% fewer moveable parts and a considerably lower price, cassette tapes began their climb to become the most popular format for the distribution and consumption of music (Sony, 2012). For the first time ever, the Walkman allowed a music lover to take music just about anywhere with a device no larger than an adult hand (Alderman, 2001, p. 83).
Bonus fun fact: Sony held the trademark for Soundabout until 2002. You can see a screenshot from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office registration below.
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Image: Sony Chairman Akio Morita holds a Walkman in Tokyo in 1982