車 – What do the names of Japanese Car brands mean?
So, What do the names of Japanese car brands mean? Not all but most of the names come from the founder’s last name. So let’s take a look at them.
https://japaneseuniverse.com/2024/02/18/pac-man-in-japaneseconcepts-behind-development-to-global-icon/INDEX
Toyota – Fertile Rice Field
First, probably the biggest card company is Toyota. The name comes from the founder’s last name, Sakichi Toyoda. Toyota was originally “Toyoda” but the’ changed to a ‘t’.
The last name is from two Japanese words ‘toyo’ meaning, ‘abundant’, ‘rich’, or ‘fertile’ and ‘ta’ meaning ‘rice field’. So, Toyota means, ‘fertile ricefield’ and in Japanese is written 豊田 or トヨタ.
Nissan – Made in Japan
Nissan literally means “made in Japan” and is written as 日産. The 「日」means Sun, but in this case is an abbreviation of Nippon which is the Japanese word for Japan, meaning origin of the Sun Written as 日本. The second character, 「産」is a suffix added to places to show where they were manufactured.
Mitsubishi – Three Water Chestnuts
This is written as 三菱 in Japanese. The first character 「三」”mitsu” means three, and the second 「菱」”hishi” means water chestnut. The name is also represented with the three diamonds of the Mitsubishi logo.
SUBARU – Pleiades
The word subaru comes from the star cluster Pleiades. Hence the logo which looks like stars. It is written as スバル or 昴.
Honda – Main Rice Field
This car company also gets its name from the founder, Soichiro Honda. The last name is written 「本田」. The second character is the same as Toyota. The 「本」”hon”, means ‘source’, ‘beginning’, ‘root’, or something along those lines. This is hard to translate but could be something close to the “main rice field”, or even “root rice field”.
Mazda – Pine Tree Field or Ahura Mazda
Mazda can have a few meanings. First, the word comes from the last name of the founder, Jujiro Matsuda. It is written 「松田」which again ends in the same ‘ta’. The 「松」”matsu” means ‘pine tree’, so the name can mean ‘pine tree field’.
‘Matsuda’ is the original word but it was shortened to ‘Mazda’ after the Zoroastrian god, Ahura Mazda.
If you are interested in learning more Japanese Vocabulary, check out some of my other posts. Thanks!
