Founders

The Chevrolet brand, or Chevy for short, was named after company co-founder Louis Chevrolet, an auto racer from Switzerland. Chrysler was named after its founder, Walter P. Chrysler, and Ford is named for its founder, Henry Ford. Similarly, Ferrari was named after Enzo Ferrari, while Audi is Latin for the company founder's last name, Horch.

Other People

Porsche was named after Ferrari Porsche, son of the company's founder. Mercedes is from the first name of the daughter of Emil Jellinek, a member of the board of Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft at the car's inception.

Acronyms

Datsun is derived from the acronym DAT, the former name of the company. DAT represents the initials of financiers Den, Aoyama and Takeuchi. Eventually, the name was changed to DATSON to denote a smaller version of the original car, since son means "loss" in Japanese. When acquired by Nissan, "son" became "sun." SAAB is another acronym, derived from the Svenska Aeroplan aktiebolaget (Swedish Aeroplane Co.). FIAT is an acronym for Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino (Italian Automobile Factory of Turin).

Deities

Mazda Motor Corp. was named after Ahura Mazda, the chief deity of the Zoroastrians. Lada is the name of a Slavic goddess and the trading name of Russian automobile manufacturer AvtoVAZ.

Other Sources

Volkswagen is German for "the people's car," while Volvo is a Latin word meaning "I roll."

Source:

General Motors

Chrysler Corp.

Mazda