Stories Behind the Car names.

[Murugan]

Originally Posted by Mayavi

J.C and K.C Mahindra

Mahindra & Mahindra was originally Mahindra & Mohammed

Mahindra Newsletter

Mahindra & Mohammed was set up on October 2nd, 1945 by the Mahindra brothers along with Ghulam Mohammed. The company's main asset was a franchise for assembling jeeps from Willys, USA. The company underwent a change of name after Ghulam Mohammed migrated to Pakistan post Partition. He went on to become the first Finance Minister of Pakistan and Mahindra & Mohammed was renamed Mahindra & Mahindra. The Company commenced its steel trading business in association with suppliers in the UK during the same year.

[vasudeva]

Honda [after Mr. Soichiro Honda, company founder)
Accord ["for the harmony it creates with the driver"]
Acura [variant of Latin acurare 'precise']
Civic ["for the convenience of the world's citizens"]
Isuzu [after the Isuzu River, Japan] (company founded in 1916; assumed present name in 1949)
Mazda [variant of Matsuda, the founder's last name, perhaps suggested by Mazda, the Persian god of light] (founded in 1920; took present name in 1927)
Mitsubishi [Japanese 'three stones', reference to the family crest of the founder Yataro Iwasaki)
Galant [French 'gallant']
Lancer ['English mounted soldier who carried a lance']
Nissan [founded in 1933, name first used in 1934)
Datsun [Den + Aoyoma + Takeuchi, original three financial backers, + sun] (founded in 1933 when its first model name was DAT; in 1984, Nissan officially dropped the Datsun name)
Landcruiser (rough-terrain vehicle, jointly built by Toyota)
Maxima [variant of maximum]
Subaru [Japanese 'unite' and Japanese name for the Pleiades constellation]
Toyota [after Sakichi Toyoda, company founder, Toyoda was changed to T'oyota because the former is written with ten characters in Japanese, and ten is an unlucky number in Japan; Toyota is spelled with a luckier eight characters)
Camry ( 'crown']
Celica [Spanish 'celestial']
Corolla [Spanish 'crown of flowers']
Corona [Spanish 'crown of the sun']
Cressida [Trojan princess and heroine]

[supremeBaleno]

Originally Posted by vasudeva

Datsun [Den + Aoyoma + Takeuchi, original three financial backers, + sun]

Hmm. Reminds me of a joke doing the rounds many years ago about how the Datsun name came to be.

It seems the Japanese were good (and fast) about bringing new cars to market, but would be at their wit's end to find suitable names for them, especially names that appeal to the English-speaking world, who would be the target market.

So, they have this car all ready, except for the name and call up the Americans for some name suggestions. The Americans are like, "That soon ?" meaning "You guys came up with a new car that soon?".

The Japanese think that it was a name suggested and take it, after modifying it to the way they would pronounce it ie. Datsun.

[vintagepoint5]

William Robert Morris (Morris)
James Ward Packard (Packard)
Morris Garages (MG)
William Hillman (Hillman)

AUDI (In 1932 amalgamation of four independent Car Manufacturers to one company Audi AG). (Audi, DKW, Horch, Wanderer)

Source: Audi UK > About Audi > History

Mercedes named after daughter of Emil Jellinek, who was car enthusiast
and dealer, for details: Mercedes-Benz - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia