robloc93

Here's a list I found describing how car manufacturers got their names

- AC Cars - A shortening of the name "Autocarrier". "Autocarriers & Accessories Ltd." was the name of the original company which was later renamed "Autocarriers Ltd.", and after WWI was further shortened to AC Cars Ltd.
- Acura - Meaningless marketing speak supposed to allude to the concept of "accuracy" or "accurate" or perfection (hence the caliper logo)
- Alfa Romeo - An Acronym for Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili. When the company went into bankruptcy it was bought by Nicola Romeo in 1915, the source of the second name.
- Aston Martin - "Martin" is the founder's last name and "Aston" comes from the Aston Clinton Hill climb race where the cars had had great success.
- AUDI - A Latin translation of Horch (the founder, August Horch's, last-name), meaning ‘Listen!’. Contrary to popular belief, it is NOT an acronym for Auto Union.
- Avanti - Company named after the Studebaker model of the same name. after Studebaker collapsed the Avanti model was spun into a separate company which continued producing the car under it's own brand name. The name is Italian and it means "ahead" or "forward".
- Bentley - Named after the founder's last-name
- Bristol - Named it's original parent company, the Bristol Aeroplane Company, which was named after the British town it was located in.
- BMW - Acronym for the German name "Bayersiche Motoren Werke" (Bavarian Motor Works). Generic industrial name.
- Brilliance China Automotive -
- Bufori - Named after the founder's last-name
- Bugatti - Named after the founder's last-name
- Buick - Named after the founder's last-name
- Cadillac - Named after the 18th century French explorer Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac, founder of Detroit, Michigan
- Callaway - Named after the founder's last-name
- Caterham - Named after the town which serves as the company’s headquarters in Surrey, England. Caterham used to be a lotus 7 car dealership (most British dealerships being named after their location) before they bought a license from Lotus to produce the lotus 7 and entered car fabrication.
- CHERY -
- Chevrolet - Named for Frenchman Louis Chevrolet, a race car driver who raced in the first Indy 500 for W.C. Durant, founder of General Motors. Durant founded the Chevrolet Motor Car Company to build Chevrolet's dream car. Durant eventually merged the company back with GM where it became its biggest brand.
- Chrysler - Named after the founder's last-name
- Citroën - Named after the founder's last-name
- Dacia - Named after the ancient european Kingdom (and later Roman province) that occupied most of what is today modern Romania, which is the home country of the modern car company.
- Daewoo - Romanized form of the korean word Daeu, which means "Great Universe." Named after the large Korean conglomerate Daewoo Industrial, of which the car division was a former part of, and which was the company's second corporate parent. Interestingly the company's founding corporate parent was General Motors. Financial difficulties led to the purchase of most of Daewoo Motors assets (after very troubled bidding) to General Motors, who renamed the part it purchased, GM-Daewoo.
- Daihatsu -
- Damlier Chrysler - compound name derived from Damiler-benz and Chrysler.
- Dodge - Named after the founder's last-name
- Dongfeng - Romanized spelling of Mandarin Chinese meaning "Wind from the east" or "East Wind". Dong Feng is also a reference to a famous slogan used during Mao Zedong’s Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution: “The wind from the East prevails over the West” (Communism prevailing over Capitalism and China emerging as a power on the world stage). The slogan originates from the following excerpt from Mao’s “Little Red Book”:
There are two winds in the world today, the East Wind and the West Wind. There is a Chinese saying, 'Either the East Wind prevails over the West Wind or the West Wind prevails over the East Wind.' I believe it is the characteristic of the situation today that the East Wind is prevailing over the West Wind. That is to say, the forces of socialism have become overwhelmingly superior to the forces of imperialism."
The slogan has been used to adorn other products, the most famous of which are all of China’s intercontinental Ballistic Missiles and the modern car company.
- Ferrari - Named after the founder's last-name
- Fiat - Acronym for Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino
- First Auto Works -
- Ford - Named after the founder's last-name
- Gaz-Volga - Gaz is an acronym for Gorkiy Automobile Factory (in Russian and Named after the writer Maxim Gorkiy). The Volga part is named after the largest river in Russia.
- Geely -
- GM - Acronym for General Motors. Generic industrial name
- GMC - In the early 1900's there was a man named Max Grabowski who established a company called the "Rapid Motor Vehicle Company", which developed some of the earliest commercial trucks ever designed. In 1909 the company was purchased by General Motors and was renamed the "General Motors Truck Company". A year later the marque "GMC Truck" was first shown at the New York Auto Show. In 1996 GM dropped the word TRUCK from the GMC Truck name, thus creating the GMC name as we know it today. There never was a Grabowski Motor Company or a Grabowski Motor Corp. GMC is a rearranged acronym for "General Motors Truck Company" (with the word Truck removed).
- Holden - Named after a late 19th century saddler's shop in Adelaide, South Australia called the "Holden & Frost Company" that worked at repairing and building horse-drawn carriages and coaches (Holden being the last-name of one of the founders of that business). Though not the founder of the Holden we know today, one of this company's corporate descendants became the a body supplier to GM, and eventually joined with GM to form the company we know today.
- Honda - Named after the founder's last-name
- Hummer - Named after the nickname of the impossible to pronounce HMMWV military vehicle (High Mobility Multi-purpose Wheeled Vehicle)
- Hyundai - Romanization of the Korean word Hyeondae, which means (more or less) "Modern Times" or "Modernize". Named after former corporate parent.
- Infiniti - Meaningless marketing speak supposed to allude to the concepts of Infinity and luxury.
- Isuzu - Named after the Isuzu River in Japan that runs next to Japan's oldest shrine, Ise
- Jaguar - Named after a model produced by SS Cars during WWII. The name SS was not exactly popular with the British at the time so the company adopted the name of it's Jaguar model.
- Jeep - Not really known, but it's widely believed to be a mispronunciation of GP, which is an acronym for General Purpose [vehicle]
- Kia - A compound name claimed by the company to originate from two Chinese words (they do not specify which variant of Chinese). The fist syllable stems from the Chinese word "ki", which means "to arise or come out of". The second syllable stems from the Chinese word "a", which is supposed to be a reference to Asia. The combined word is supposed to mean to "arise or come out of Asia."
- Koenigsegg - Named after the founder's last-name
- Lada - Russian female name
- Lamborghini - Named after the founder's last-name
- Lancia - Named after the founder's last-name
- Land Rover - Named after a Rover Cars model line. The Land is meant to allude to the model's attributes on the land (off-road) as opposed to on the road. Ford turned the model name into a brand name when it acquired Rover's SUV's from BMW.
- Lexus - Meaningless marketing speak supposed to allude to the concepts luxury( I always thought it meant Luxury EXport to theU.S)
- Lincoln - Named after Abraham Lincoln, whom Henry Leland (the company's founder) voted for in the first presidential election he was able to vote on. The company was made to compete directly against Cadillac, a company Leland also founded but left over disagreements with GM management.
- Lotus - Origin Unknown, though it is believed that the source of the name was Colin Chapman's wife.
- Marcos - An acronym formed by the first three letters of the founders' last-names (Jem Marsh and Frank Costin)
- Maserati - Named after the founders' last-name
- Maybach - Former car line by Mercedes-Benz. Named after chief engineer Wilhelm Maybach in the 1890's. Maybach became CEO when Daimler died
- Mazda - Named after the Zoroastrian god of light
- Mercedes-Benz - Mercedes was a pseudonym (named after his daughter) under which Emil Jellinek used to race Damlier cars. Jellinek became so successful in racing his "Mercedes" cars and in selling them to European aristocrats, that eventually he convinced the company to change the company name to Daimler-Mercedes. During the economic recession that followed WWI, Damlier and their competitor Benz & Cie formed a syndicate in order to jointly streamline their backroom, design and production operations. 2 years later the companies merged. The resulting company used the compound name Damlier-Benz, and their products were renamed Mercedes-Benz.
- McLaren - Named in Honor of Bruce McLaren, the founder of the F1 team now owned by the founder of the Car company
- Mercury - Named after the Romanized version of the fastest of the ancient Greek gods, Hermes (the god of thieves and commerce, and Zeus' messenger).
- MG - Acronym for Morris Garages
- Mini - Named after the size of the vehicle
- Mitsubishi - Japanese term meaning "three diamonds"
- Morgan - Named after the founder's last-name
- Mosler - Named after the founder's last-name
- Nissan - Named after the founder's last-name
- Oldsmobile - Named after the founder's last-name (Olds) and part of the word automobile.
- Opel - Named after the founder's last-name
- Pagani - Named after the founder's last-name
- Panoz - Named after the founder's last-name
- Perodua - Acronym for the Malaysian name "Perusahaan Otomobil kedua", which literally means "Second [Malaysian] Automobile Manufacturer" (the first one being Proton).

- Peugeot - Named after the founder's last-name
- Pininfarina - Named after the founder's nickname
- Plymouth - Named after Plymouth Rock in Massachusetts, the supposed original site of disembarkation of the Mayflower pilgrims who founded Plymouth colony (They actually first landed at Provincetown not Plymouth). The colony and the name Plymouth have deep recognition amongst Americans, and the reason for it's founding if seen as an example of the ideals this country is founded upon and what it means to be an American. When Chrysler sought to introduce a good all around inexpensive car in 1928 that would appeal to the masses, they picked a name that already carried a distinct meaning and recognition that they hoped to make synonymous with their new brand. They picked the name Plymouth. Interestingly however, that name was already used by a truck manufacturing company called the Plymouth truck company, which built truck in 1909 (and one car), and named itself and it's cars after the town of Plymouth, Ohio. The company never produced many vehicles and instead focused on the production of locomotives and clay machinery. The worldwide depression of 1929 almost killed the locomotive business and in order to avoid gong under the company switched to production of a line of small tractors they called Plymouth. The tractors proved very popular and Chrysler took notice. In 1934, Chrysler objected to what they saw as the use of their brand name in a line of lowly farm tractors, so they sued. The courts ruled that the name actually belonged not to Chrysler but to the old truck manufacturer (who remember had built 1 car branded as a Plymouth 20 years before Chrysler used it - and before Chrysler Corp even existed). In order to save their brand Chrysler was forced to buy the name from the truck manufacturer. So you see in reality The Plymouth brand is named after a little town in Ohio.
- Pontiac - Directly or indirectly named after the 18th century Ottawa indian chief Pontiac, who led a rebellion against the British and eventually surrendered in what is today Detroit.
- Porsche - Named after the founder's last-name
- Proton - Supposed acronym for "Perusahaan Otomobil Nasional Berhad"
- Renault - Named after the founder's last-name
- Rolls-Royce - Named after the founders' last-names
- Rover - Named after the company's 19th century predecessor the Rover Cycle Co Ltd (a bicycle manufacturer), whose products (Rover Bicycles) where named after the freedom they gave their users to wander and explore (i.e Rove).
- SAAB - Acronym for the Swedish name of the founding corporate parent, Svenska Aeroplan Aktiebolaget (the "Swedish Aeroplane Company").
- SAIC - Acronym for "Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation"
- Saleen - Named after the founder's last-name
- Samsung - Korean word meaning literally "three stars". Named after the predecessor of it's original corporate parent (a small family trade export business that primarily sold dried Korean fish, vegetables, and fruit to china during the late 1930's)
- Saturn - Named for the planet
- Scion - English word meaning "offspring of" [Toyota]
- Seat - Acronym for "Sociedad Espańola de Automoviles de Turismo" (Spanish Society of Tourism Automobiles)
- Shelby - Named after the founder's last-name
- Skoda - Named after the founder's last-name
- Smart - Acronym for "Swatch-Mercedes-ART". The name is also supposed to allude to the obvious attributes of the vehicle's characteristics and their owners.
- Spijker - Named after the founders' last-names
- SsangYong - Ssangyong means "twin dragons" - hence the double "s" at the start of the name. It refers to a legend in which two dragons waited 1000 years to fly to dragon heaven. Finally, a single cintamani (In Hindu and Buddhist mythology, it is a magical jewel that is believed to possess the power to grant every wish, hence an epithet of God - or in the case of Buddhism, an attribute of the Buddhas and bodhisattvas, hence a symbol of a mind that has attained its proper desire), which was necessary for the journey was released. Each dragon encouraged the other to take it and make the trip until both missed the opportunity. The king of heaven was so touched that he released a second cintamani and thus the two dragons entered heaven together.
- Subaru - Japanese name for the Pleiades star cluster in the Taurus constellation. Also a Japanese word meaning "unite". Named after the union of 5 Japanese companies into Fuji Heavy Industries (the car company's corporate parent).
- Suzuki - Named after the founder's last-name
- Tata - Named after the founder's last-name
- Toyota - Named after the founder's last-name (Toyoda)
- TVR - Made-up abbreviation for "Trevor" [Wilkinson], the company's founder.
- Vauxhall - Named after the company's founding corporate parent. The name is a phonetic corruption of the name of the original site that housed the company in London, a medieval knight's (Fulk le Breant) house called "Fulk's Hall". The company is NOT named after the Vauxhall section of Liverpool.
- Venturi -
- Volkswagen - German for People's Car
- Volvo - A derivative (not a translation) of the Latin for "I roll", which was supposed to create connotations of bearings in action.

kissbang

So all Japanese luxury brands for the US have meaningless names!! So that's what they think of us!! LOL!!

Awesome list. Informative. Thanks robloc!

mmarshall

Great list. It seems to be quite accurate. The only slight glitch is that Dodge did not have a " founder " per se but two founders.....the two Dodge brothers....in 1924. The company was later bought out by Walter Chrysler and absorbed into his new Chrysler Corporation.

The " GP " foundation mentioned in the list for Jeep's name is correct...not just widely believed. It derives from the U.S. Army's request in the late 1930's for a simple, 4-wheel-drive, General Purpose ( GP ), go-anywhere vehicle for battlefield conditions. Ford, Kaiser, and ******-Overland were the primary contractors for the project....eventually Jeep became a ****** product, then Kaiser-Jeep, then a division of American Motors, then Renault-AMC, then the Chrysler Jeep-Eagle division, then the Chrysler-Jeep as it is today when Eagle was dropped. The spirit of the original World War II Jeep lives on most closely in today's Wrangler.

Gojirra99

Interesting info Thanks for posting.