"Abundance of rice" and "supreme deity": how the names of foreign cars are translated

On the streets of Russian cities, in addition to domestic cars, you can find a wide variety of foreign brands. And if the names “Volga” or “Lada” are relatively simple, then not every fan of the foreign automobile industry will be able to answer the question of what Lexus or Mazda means. Meanwhile, it is quite possible that you are the owner of an “endless universe” or an even more romantic car.

Brands of foreign cars can be divided into several categories. The first of these will include cars that get their name in accordance with the name of their creator or an outstanding personality. There are quite a few such names in the vastness of Europe and America; occasionally they are found in Asia. We will get acquainted with the most common of them.

German mark Opel named after the name of its founder Adam Opel, as well as Porsche named after Ferdinand Porsche, the famous automobile designer. Brand car company Audi, was named after Augustus Horch. Last name Horch from German translates as “listen, listen”, and in the Latin version it sounds like audi. Bentley was founded in England and named for its creator Walter Owen Bentley. Cadillac cars began to be produced at an automobile factory called Cadillac automobile company, which was named after the Frenchman Antoine Lome de La Mot de Cadillac, the founder of the city of Detroit. A famous brand Chevroletwas named after the racing driver Louis Chevrolet.

In the list of cars named after their creators, one can mark the brand Ford who got a name by the name of Henry Ford, Renault - in honor of the founder Louis Renault, Citroen - by the name of Andre Citroen, Ferrari - in honor of Enzo Ferrari, Italian Lamborghini - by the name of the founder Ferruccio Lamborghini and brand Peugeot, given the name of the family that owned the company that originally engaged in the production of coffee grinders.

There are few cars in the East named after their creators or owners. You can call these Japanese brands: Hondawhich is named after the founder of Soichiro Honda and Suzuki, named after Michio Suzuki.

The second category includes automobile brands whose names come from automobile enterprises that first launched their production. So, for example, for the abbreviation BMW hiding a rather prosaic "Bavarian Motor Plant", and behind the brand Fiat - "Italian Automobile Factory of Turin". In the Same Series and Company Logo Nissan, which translates as "Japanese industry" (from the first syllable Nihon - "Japan" and san-gyo - "industry"). And Nihon Sangyo is the name of the company that became part of the Nisan Motor concern. But the emblem of the company, the inscription Nissan in the circle, symbolizes the motto of the company: "Sincerity brings success."

Well, perhaps the most interesting values ​​of automobile brands belong to the third category. These are often representatives of the Japanese or Korean automobile industry, in the name of which a creative approach or deep oriental wisdom can be traced. But there are also European brands. For example, Volvo Translated from Latin means "I'm spinning", or "I roll", and Volkswagen Translated from German means "people's car".
Korean brand name KIA can be translated as “born in Asia” and the car Mazda named after the Zoroastrian supreme god Ahura Mazda, who is the creator of the sun, moon, earth and man. Mark Daewoo translates from Korean as "infinite universe", and Hyundai translated from the same language means "modernity".

A brand transfer Subaru has a pretty romantic meaning. This is the Japanese version of the name of the Pleiades star cluster, which is located in the constellation Taurus. No less interesting is the value of the brand Toyota. The founder of the company is Sakishi Toyoda. But over time, the letter "d" was transformed into a "t", as this gave the name a new meaning. The phrase "toyo" and "ta" in Japanese means "abundance of rice" and is considered in Japan the personification of wealth.
Mark Infiniti was created by Nissan specifically for the US market and translates as "infinity." Lexus - Another car brand created specifically for the American market, now by Touota. According to the manufacturers, there is no translation for this brand of “premium class” car, it’s just a good combination of letters.

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