Local branding

I'm in New York at the minute, and I've been in America for the last two weeks. It's been an interesting experience, but there's something that's been bugging me. There's a clothing chain called T. J. Maxx here. In the UK, the same chain is called T. K. Maxx. Why, dammit? Who decided that that initial was so important? And what was his/her reasoning? I can see that things need to be marketed differently for the two countries (anyone who's watched a single commercial break on TV in each country will be aware of that), but is that one letter really going to make that much difference?