Car Name Origins
What’s a Kia? Or a Fiat? Here are the stories of how your car got its name.
Alfa Romero
The company began in Italy in 1910 as Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobil, or ALFA. Nicola Romeo bought the company in 1915 and added his name.
Kia
In Korean, the name means “rising from Asia.”
Toyota
Originally called Toyoda, after founder Sakichi Toyoda, the company held a contest to come up with a better name. The winner: Toyota.
Aaston Martin
Lionel Martin started the company in England, near Aston Hill.
Hum-Vee
It’s an approximate pronuncitation of HMMWV—an acronym for “High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle.”
Hyundai
“Modern” in Korean.
Volvo
The Latin word for “I roll” is volvo. But that’s not a reference to the company’s cars: Volvo’s first product was a ball bearing.
SAAB
The Swedish company started in 1937 as Svenska Aeroplan Aktiebolaget, or SAAB for short.
Daihatsu
Was a cheap, compact Daihatsu your first car? In Japanese, dai means “first”; hatsu means “engine.”
Audi
In 1899 August Horch started a car company—he called it Horch (“hark” in German)—but left it in 1909 to start another car company, which he called Audi, Latin for “hark.”
Fiat
It’s an acronym for Fabbrica Italiana Automobil Torino (“Italian Factory of Cars of Turin”).
Rolls Royce
Engineer Frederick Royce built his first car, the Royce, in 1904. In 1906 he partnered with auto dealer Charles Rolls—Royce made the cars, and Rolls was the exclusive sales agent. In 1998 the company was sold to Volkswagen.
Volkswagen
German for “peoples’ car.”
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