{"id":2640,"date":"2013-05-13T09:06:09","date_gmt":"2013-05-12T23:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.privatefleet.com.au\/?p=2640"},"modified":"2020-06-20T01:38:12","modified_gmt":"2020-06-19T15:38:12","slug":"whats-in-a-name","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/home\/whats-in-a-name\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s In A Name?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a few of my posts, I\u2019ve burbled on about the various names that get given to the models of cars \u2013 the good, the bad and the potential. However, what about the names of the actual marques themselves? Sometimes, the reasons behind these are more interesting than you think.<\/p>\n

Some marques, of course, are simply based on the name of the founder \u2013 Ford and Porsche, for example. Others are a bit more creative than that. Persian deities, cartoon characters, samurai insignia and Latin phrases have all done their bit. \u00a0Some of my favourite \u201cstories behind the name\u201d are the following:<\/p>\n

Mercedes-Benz: <\/a>The \u201cBenz\u201d bit comes from Karl Benz (the man who also gave his name to benzine and who first patented the automobile) and is rather straightforward but the Mercedes bit is more interesting. Apparently, there was a very early race car driver and board member of the Daimler-Benz company by the name of Emil Jellinek who ordered a line of vehicles from the Daimler-Benz company and gave the cars his daughter\u2019s nickname: Mercedes, rather in the tradition of naming ships after women. The Mercedes Benz cars did very well in the racing circuit and did much to popularize the brand, so the name was kept on for luck, especially after Daimler had given his name to another luxury line.<\/p>\n

Toyota: O<\/a>riginally \u201cToyoda\u201d but the D was changed to a T, as T was a luckier letter in the Japanese system of letters and numerology \u2013 it takes eight brush strokes to make and eight is a lucky number.<\/p>\n

Mitsubishi<\/a>: \u00a0This literally means \u201cthree water chestnuts\u201d or \u201cthree diamonds\u201d, which was part of the family crest of the founder, Iwasaki Yatar\u014d, a man of samurai descent.<\/p>\n

Jeep<\/a>: \u00a0Popular legend has it that this name came about pretty much the same way as Humvee did \u2013 the initials GP (standing for General Purpose) got clipped down for everyday military use to \u201cJeep\u201d. Other explanations have been given, including a character from early Popeye cartoons named Eugene the Jeep. In these cartoons (which came out well before World War 2 when the Jeep was developed for military purposes), a Jeep is a dog-like creature that is able to go anywhere, including into other dimensions. The vehicle seemed to have similar powers and hence the nickname.<\/p>\n

Audi<\/a>: This is based on the name of the founder, August Horch. Horch had founded one company and had then been kicked out of it. When developing his new car manufacturing company, he was scratching around for a good name for it, as he couldn\u2019t use his own name. His son was studying Latin at the time and suggested that seeing as Horch was the German for \u201cListen\u201d, why not translate the surname into Latin, which would be \u201cAudi\u201d? Problem solved.<\/p>\n

Volvo<\/a>: Another name taken from Latin, this time meaning \u201cI roll.\u201d It was chosen because the company originally made ball bearings.<\/p>\n

Fiat<\/a>: A nice little double meaning here. It\u2019s the initials of the Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino (Italian Automobile Factory of Turin) but also means \u201clet it be\u201d. \u201cFiat\u201d was\/is also a technical term used to indicate a decree that has been handed out by a higher power that must be carried out \u2013 that higher power being God, the Pope or the Government. \u201cFiat\u201d was also supposed to be used by magicians to complete spells.<\/p>\n

Mazda<\/a>: This name was chosen because it sort of sounded like the name of the founder, Jujiro Matsuda and it was also the name of an ancient Persian god worshipped by the Zoroastrians (full name: Ahura Mazda). The symbol of Ahura-Mazda is the faravahar, which is a combination of the sun and eagle\u2019s wings. Take a careful look at the logo of Mazda car, and you\u2019ll see the circle and the wings still there. Other cars with divine names included the Jowett Jupiter, the Citro\u00ebn Dyane (after Diana, the moon goddess) and the small Greek SUV marque Hercules.<\/p>\n

\"mazda\"\"zoroaster\"<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n

Subaru<\/a>: Fuji Heavy Industries wanted a name that reflected the companies that merged to form the one big company that had a touch of poetry to it. So they picked the Japanese name for the constellation of the Pleiades or the Seven Sisters \u2013 a linked group of bright stars. You\u2019ll see the constellation on the Subaru logo \u2013 except it\u2019s the way up that Japan in the Northern Hemisphere sees it, rather than the way you can see it on a nice clear summer night with a pair of good binoculars down here. http:\/\/credit-n.ru\/offers-zaim\/greenmoney-online-zaymi-za-20-minut.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a few of my posts, I\u2019ve burbled on about the various names that get given to the models of cars \u2013 the good, the bad and the potential. However, what about the names of the actual marques themselves? Sometimes, the reasons behind these are more interesting than you think. Some marques, of course, are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-home"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2640"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2640\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12186,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2640\/revisions\/12186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}