32 Car Name Meanings - mental_floss on YouTube (Ep.203)
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- Опубліковано 29 кві 2014
- Where do the names for popular cars come from? Who even comes up with car names? John breaks down the origins of popular car brand and model names.
The List Show is a weekly show where knowledge junkies get their fix of trivia-tastic information. This week, John looks at the origins of many popular brand and model car names.
This week's episode is supported by Audible.com. You can download a free audiobook, such as "The Fault in Our Stars" by John Green, or one of 150,000 other titles at www.audible.com/mentalfloss
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I thought FIAT stood for Fix It Again Tony.
What are you doing not talking about crazy pokemon theories?
*****
*sarcasm
King of the Hill though>>>
No, but Ford stands for Fix or Repair Daily,
Found In A Toilet
7:45 "Fire, are you seriously buffering?" XD
"Hi, I'm John Green."
No you're not. You're the man who broke my heart in less than 400 pages!
Well, that's what's on his birth certificate, but he prefers to be called John.
DanThePropMan
But who the eff is Hank?!
SlimThrull Isn't it his brother
OwlCityMerlinZelda
Well, yes, technically. Its a thing from elsewhere.
OwlCityMerlinZelda Yes. "Who the eff is Hank" is a long-running vlogbrothers inside joke. The answer is always something ridiculous like "Hank is currently the world's tallest man-made structure. Hank stands 2722 feet tall and was opened to the public on January 4, 2010."
MISS PIGGY? BUT.. BUT THE PORK CHOP PARTY FUND
Did the party ever happen?
"Mispronouncing things is my thing."
Porsche is two syllables.
Only if you don't live in America.
My dad always said that KIA meant:
Killed
In
Automobile
which is why we never got one.
Back in the days, I did a radio ad for the newly released Chevy Vega. The copy read something like, "A star is born. Not just any star. Vega - the brightest star in the constellation Lyra".
Every time he says Mental Floss it sounds like 'menopause'
El Camino means "the way" in Spanish. So if you're driving in an El Camino, you are literally in the way.
El Camino no only does it mean the way. It also means the road, path, journey, and others.
😂
@Emergency Personnel you question the honor of Google Translate? dishonor on you!
also my comment was a joke, as was my reply
I speak Spanish...El Camino means "the road"
Episode 203?!?!? I HAVE MISSED SO MANY EPISODES!!!! =p
Season 2 episode 3?
My mind blowing question: Who the eff is Hank?
Hank Green: John's brother
Hank is any one or more of a group of roughly 12,000 species of plants belonging to the botanical group known as Pteridophyta.
Love your videos John but what I'd really like is a tour of all the fun stuff on the shelf behind you! :)
I always thought Jeep was named after the car horn, with the originals having a sharper sound than the standard beep. JEEP JEEP.
Jeep is Jest Emptying Every Pocket
another confusion is "g wagon". mercedes still uses it.. a ten geared subaru (dual range forestry wagon) also had the nickname. Funny enough..the subaru is literally the "wagon" while the mercedes is a top heavy SUV. Jeep is lucky to get one name out of such a bland common acronym.
pronouncing Hyundai "Hondae" I was SO sure you talked about the "Honda" brand until I saw the logo...
Also, V in german is pronounced like an F, and W like the english V, so it should technically be pronounced "FolksVagen"
edit: this was written prior to watching the whole thing :P
Also, Subaru, Cadilliac. I think there were even more mispronounciations.
Hyundai put out a commercial in the US a while back that told us to pronounce it "like Sunday".
MrHypnofan
weird
The only one he mispronounced was Porsche, it's two syllables according to Porsche: por-sha. In their native languages Volkswagen, Sabaru, Hyundai (?), Toyota and probably alot more are pronounced differently but how he pronounced them are how the companies themselves do... atleast in the states.
Luckily he didnt get into Lamborghini model names, even if he had pronounced "Murcielago" one of the many accepted pronunciations thered be people telling him "it's not mercy-ah-lah-go its mercy el ago/merchy-ah-lah-go"
On buying one, I asked Subaru about their name. The star cluster Pleiades, in Japanese, is *Subaru* ("to govern" or "gather together"). It also goes by the name *Mutsuraboshi* ("Six Stars")-one of the clusters much loved by the Japanese from ancient times. Subaru is the automotive division of Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. (FHI), which was created by the merger of six companies, hence the evocative name.
Great Channel. Love this Show!
The "Jeep" was the US Army's General Purpose vehicle, or GP. At the time there was a very popular cartoon, Popeye (perhaps you've heard of it) and in the 1930s and 1940s Popeye had a little creature called a Jeep. Its did not take long for the G.I.s to turn GP into Jeep and the name stuck.
you forgot Ettore Bugatti! how do you forget the fastest car on Earth?
A Bugatti isn't the fastest anymore.
Cameron Smith Bugatti Veyron Super Sport is FASTEST SERIAL CAR on Earth!
DMtheMinecrafter Not in accceleration,or top speed.
Cameron Smith Whats a eater boogaty? (RHETORICAL)
Yeah I saw it but I read somewhere that Hennesey i a firm that tunes cars,but maybe it is official I don't know honestly.
"Fire, are you seriously buffering?" LOL
John you are seriously funny. Keep the videos coming!
audible, sponsoring ALL THE THINGS
It sounded like you said, "Thanks for watching Menopause..."
These videos are invaluable for quiz-heads like me!! Thanks!
I am so incredibly happy about this video because I've alway been curious about why cars are named such weird names!
One thing you forgot to mention about "Cadillac" is that he was a fraud, was not of noble birth, and invented that name for himself (and the coat of arms). He did found Detroit, though!
It is generally accepted that he lifted the name and the coat-of-arms which the Cadillac logo is based on today from an actual family of nobility in France. Also, the inventor of the first Cadillac, Henry Leland believed that he was a distant relative of the "fake" Cadillac and that is why he chose the name. Later in his life after GM bought the Cadillac car and name Henry became fed up with the corporate mind set and left GM and started a new car brand to compete with his beloved Cadillac and named it after his favorite president - yep - that same guy invented the Cadillac and the Lincoln.
Lots of Volkswagen names come from wind-ish words. You mentioned Passat and Jetta, but Golf is short for "golfstrom" the German word for gulfstream, Scirocco is a Mediterranean/Saharan wind, and Corrado is a Spanish word for the gulfstream. I think there are some others, (Bora, Vento, Polo) but I don't know what they mean specifically.
Also, the Buick LaCrosse was marketed for some time in Canada as the Buick Allure, to avoid a pretty nasty Quebecois slang for having some "me-time."
I JUST FINISHED THE FAULT IN OUR STARS THIS VERY SECOND AND IT IS FRICKIN' AMAZING!!!!!!!
This video was great thanks Audible!
Ford is an acronym too!
F-fix
O-or
R-repair
D-daily
F-found
O-on
R-rubbish
D-dumps
F-found
O-on
R-road
D-dead
Fucking
Original
Random
Dildo
Fundamentalist
Overtly
Racist
Dickhead
Fucking
Over
Rated
Disaster
You see me volvo'in
I love knowing what next week's episode covers. Gives me something to look forward to. :)
An old Ford book that I had referred to it as the Willys-Overland Quad. The name "Jeep" was an unofficial nickname given to the Willys in an homage to Popeye's Eugene the Jeep. A mythical and magical character that could go anywhere and do anything.
Great topic! This was so interesting and fun.
Number 20 reminds me of Dutch dj Hardwell, because the name is kind of far-fetched. Hardwell's last name is 'Van de Corput'. Cor is Latin for heart, but 'hard' sounded cooler. Put is Dutch for 'well'. There you go, best name ever :P
"Hun-day"
>being this american
Omg he made the fault in out Stars!!!!I love that book!!!
Who dusts the shelves behind you?
😁 yup
Just a heads up, the shire in English place names isn't pronounced like the place where the hobbits live but in the way shear as in shearing sheep is pronounced :)
Don't forget the ham suffix is pronounced 'um in most cases too :) (source- grew up in Buckinhamshire)
Doesn't apply to Cheshire though. That rhymes with "fresher".
I guess the Cheshire thing depends on the person, I know some people would say it like that but I'm more of a shear person at the end xD
Wow, a buffering fireplace. I don't think I've seen that one before!
I love how he squeezes in another interesting fact about 8 being a lucky number in Japan. John Green is awesome.
It’s actually considered a very lucky number in China, a Hong Kong businessman paid close to £1,000,000 for the vehicle registration number ‘888’
Reporter:"What does Camaro mean?"
Represntative:Well,it means a large animal that eats mustangs.
Shots fired. (But in my opinion Mustangs are better than Camaro.)
Pour-shah, not Poursh; you pronounced Dime-lar correctly why not Pour-shah?. Ford (yes Henry) founded Cadillac. Jeep has the "G.P." origin AND Eugene the Jeep from Popeye comic, they're unsure which came first (and why the Cossack picture instead of a Jeep?). There were a couple of other boo-boos but I can't be bothered to re-watch.
Because Porsche is German and its pronounced Porsche (Porche if you prefer) not poursh or pourshah.
POR-SHAH. I have a licensed t-shirt that states this fact.
A T-shirt? LOL
you are absolutely right. I've bin in England, Portugal, Spain and now i live in Germany, and in all of them they say Porsche (Porsh) no emphasis on the "e" but they emphasize the "o"... In order to be poursha it has to be written porscher. But i understand that in every language there is a different way of pronouncing it.
Por-sha.
There are two explanations about the origin of the name Camry: (1) "Camry" is an Anglicized phonetic transcription of the Japanese word kanmuri (冠, かんむり), meaning "crown"; and (2) "Camry" is an anagram of the phrase "My Car". Both come from Toyota.
I'd like to see a variance of this with the meanings of shoe maker names.
You, ahem, "forgot" to mention that the Honda Fitta had to be renamed the Honda Jazz because "fitta" means "cunt" in the Scandinavian languages. True fact.
John - you are wonderful, but sometimes when you say "mental floss" it sounds like "menopause."
I know you already did a video about funny names... but I believe a redo is in order. Here in Costa Rica we have some people called: Spiderman, Adolfo Hitler Gonzales, Kitchenaid, Coffeemaker, and... to top it of... I myself had a student called Silverstone. Totally worth the video.
This channel is amazing!
"Horch" is Pronounced with a soft "ch" like the word "China" oh wait now we ent up in Horsch ... meh, just do as you do! I Love this show.
It's really hard to describe the german pronounciation of "ch" to people who don't have a similar sound in their native language.
Actually, the ch is more like the aspirated "h" that you find in words like human, huge and humid.
It's not Buckinghamsh-ire, it's Buckinghamsh-eer. We live in counties, not places from The Hobbit.
and the '-ham' is more 'hm'.
Matt99J Considering that Tolkien took the pronunciation from the British counties.. it is indeed Buckinghamsh-ire
i don't know where you was taught English, because if an American is more correct than you.. jeez something is wrong
MarkOfTzeentch Are you kidding? I am British and have lived here all my life and yet I haven't heard a Brit use the Tolkien pronunciation. It's always "sheer" (like sheer drop.)
Matt99J Then you are an idiot.
Its Shire.. i have heard it pronounced that in the King's/Queen's English..
There is a reason Tolkien chose it. He was fanatical about languages..
you are just an ill informed idiot..
Good day Sir.
MarkOfTzeentch Language evolves. But yeah, I'm gonna take the word of the guy who's actually British when we're talking about a suffix pretty much only used in England.
Really enjoyed this video
This was awesome... Can you do an episode where you give the origins of sports teams names??
John Green,
ifiniti has an "i" and not a "y" so that the name can be trademarked.
If that's the case why are there hundreds of companies with un-misspelled words as names? Apple, for example. Not Appel.
Good question.
It was incorporated as the "Apple Computer Company" then "Apple Incorporated." They can have a common name within their incorporation and trademark but they can't have product just simply trademarked "Apple"
They will need..."The Apple Computer, Apple II, Macintosh Computer, etc." for a trademark.
For a car company wanting a trademark on a common word, say "infinity," they will have to misspell it.
Shouldn't you also appologizeto the Brits and explain that you can't help saying "shyer" in e.g. Buckinghamshire, when it's more like "sheer" or even better "shr".
This is awesome! Why have UA-cam not shown me this before?
John green I love your books please write more like the fault in our stars
The Lamborghini is actually named after a bull the creator liked and that's why the logo is a bull
Umm... and that bull just happened to have exactly the same name as Ferruccio Lamborghini's last name? That's quite the coincidence.
I think you're thinking of the Murcielago.
00PiggyCosmonaut Murcielago is bat in spanish.
I'll make it clear once for all, and for everyone: Lamborghini is named after his founder Ferruccio Lamborghini. The logo is a bull because Taurus was the zodiac sign of mister Lamborghini. Then, because of the logo, the company started naming cars after bull races or famous corrida bulls ( the first Lamborghini, Miura, is also a bull race ).
This is the only truth, try searching on wikipedia if you don't believe me.
What a bunch of bull....jk
Soooooo nothing about how Nii san is apparently Japanese for "brother"?
ani is Japanese for older brother
addressing your older brother would be ani San
Nii san and Nissan are 2 different things.
jojmum
Addressing Anakin Skywalker in a friendly, informal tone would be Ani-san.
Actually we don't call older brother ani-san. "nii-san" or "o nii-san" are correct.
The difference between Nissan (car brand) and nii-san (brother) is, while you stress "Nee" when you pronounce nii-san in Japanese, there is no stressed syllable in Nissan, although in English (and many other foreign languages) people, especially those who have American accents tend to pronounce Nissan like nee-san.
EightTimesNine May the 4th be with you.
Just thought I'd say it... seeing as it's International Star Wars Day in a few days and everything... :D
Also, your profile name, is that supposed to be a reference to The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy? With eight times nine supposedly being the ultimate question?
Have a nice day!
So true about the popcorn. Love the video. Keep it up.
Holden, Australia's home bred car brand is named after James Alexander Holden, who in 1856 established J.A. Holden & Co, a saddlery business in Adelaide.
Holden, Australia's home bred car brand was named after James Alexander Holden. In 2017, US Parent GM, killed the brand and manufacturing despite during the Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings a decade before, Holden was the only profitable arm in the entire of GM.
Here in 2020 (I have access to time travel), the lion was killed off and replaced with that stupid ugly golden bow tie.
>No Škoda
I'm disappointed
Did I understood correctly 17$ for a popcorn???
He was exaggerating a little but I've never seen a small popcorn go for less than $5 at a movie theater.
Fancy restaurant theaters is where you might find the elusive 17$ popcorn.
Fancy restaurant theaters is where you might find the elusive 17$ popcorn.
Liz Campbell **cough** Australia **cough**
Simon Vin so true
This was cool, I always kinda wondered how these car and companies came by their names. Well now I know :)
"Fire, are you seriously buffering?!" OMG that killed me xD
I swear it's pronounced high-un-die and niss-an. That's how we say it in the U.K. anyway.
By the way, this one's for all Americans. Although it is a shire, with an "I" sound, when referring to a specific county (eg. Yorkshire), it's better to pronounce it like so: York-sheer, with the latter sound being similar to the word shear.
EDIT: I forgot about mispronouncing things being his thing.
Just because that's the way you pronounce things in the UK doesn't meant that's the right way to do it.
Hyundai had a whole ad campaign dedicated to the proper pronunciation of their their name... it basically boiled down to "Hyundai like Sunday"... so unless you pronounce the first day of the week as Si-un-die, in the UK then John has it right.
Similarly Nissan in Japanese is essentially two separate syllables "Ni" (pronounced "Nee") and "San", Japan doesn't often change the pronunciation of things during combination like English does.. so it's "nee-san" not "nis-an"
For English words, I absolutely defer pronunciation to the UK, you invented the language. But Nissan and Hyundai aren't English words, they're Japanese and Korean and should be pronounced the way the Japanese and Koreans would pronounce them, not how they might make sense to the English tongue.
twistedsymphony I agree with your point. It's just slightly strange because everyone I know pronounces them that way.
twistedsymphony It's actually pronounced differently depending on where you are in the world. In Korean, it is "HYUN-day". In UK adverts they use our pronunciation, "high-UUN-digh", and in the USA it's pronounced as you say. So you're both right but I win.
Many years ago they put out an advert'...Hyundia, like Sunday.
I was completely not surprised to see the 'shire' comment on here. I've tried to educate some of my fellow Americans on this, but I usually just get looked at like I'm the president of the pedantic society or something.
John, I know it's your thing to mispronounce things, but when part of a word, '-shire' is pronounced '-shur', or /ʃə(ɹ)/, if you prefer it in IPA.
Only if you're British
I'm not British, and beside, it's an English placename, so there's that.
Cíat Ó Gáibhtheacháin
Exonyms.
Look it up and weep.
Benjamin Alexander I know what an exonym is. But last time I looked, English hadn't splintered into two mutually incomprehensible languages, so they're irrelevant in this case.
My favorite car anecdote is that Nova cars didn't sell well in Spanish speaking countries because "no va" means "it doesn't go."
Love this guy
It's pronounced "por-Shuh"
Not "Porsh"
So pornshush?
You were also successful in mispronouncing German.
Actually I meant Volkswagen and Porsche as well as Mecedes, but the most botched up was the name of the founder of Audi, Mister Horch. "Horch" in German sounds entirely different than what he said.
That said, I am not criticizing, I am commending him, since mispronouncing foreign words is his thing. I just wanted to point out that he had a talent for mispronouncing German that obviously was hitherto unbeknownst to him, or at least so it seemed.
I think he does know. German is a difficult language for foreigners as far as pronunciation goes. And isn't it normal that you have trouble pronouncing words in foreign languages? I've been studying English for 8 years now and I still can't say 'squirrel' right.
Lisa Arken They say 'squirrel' is the hardest English word to pronounce.
Oh wow...I did not know you were an author. (Sorry). I got your book "The Fault in Our Stars" as a gift more than a month ago, and it's been sitting on my floor since I got it. Now that I know you wrote it, I think I'll take a look at it. Haha glad you plugged your movie.
"Fire, are you seriously buffering?" Quote of the year.
Buckinghamshire! Not Bucking Ham Shire! the people of Buckinghamshire are not hobbits! Also Nissan not NEEsan. Oh John Green we love you but you do say words wrong a lot of the time lol
he said Hyundai wrong as well it's Hy un Dai .
Lol I actually had no idea what he was saying when he said hunday
Nissan pronounces it NEEsan in their U.S. commercials for whatever reason.
Lynx pronounces it Axe in their american adverts too, both are exceedingly odd to me lol
Lucia Willow Oh wow, I'd never realized that about Axe/Lynx. According to Wikipedia, the name Axe was already trademarked in UK NZ AU, so they changed it to Lynx.
'Shire' makes no sense for him to say because New Hampshire isn't Hamp-SHIRE either.
There is no such car as a Hunday. It's pronounced "Hi-Yun-Dai." I know mispronunciation is your thing, John, but Oh God does that drive me nuts when Americans do that...
+TacComControl I just can't let this go. It's two syllables. In Korean, it's two syllables. In American English, it's two syllables. Even in Canada it's two syllables. In the rest of the Commonwealth, we have to let you think you know better.
+Stan Baker It is two syllables, but TacComControl's pronunciation is closer than John's to the actual way it should be pronounced. The first syllable should sound more like the name Hugh with an 'n' tacked on the end, and the second syllable should rhyme with 'tie'. Hunday has zero relation to the actual spelling of Hyundai, not sure how the pronunciation got that badly butchered
+TacComControl
I have literally NEVER heard anyone say Hi-Yun-Dai. The only two pronunciations I have ever heard are Hun-Day and Hun-Dye.
Try leaving the country someday. Expand your horizons.
Yay! I knew most of these! Being a car guy is awesome!
I noticed that Miss Piggy was mentioned with anything being added to the Staff Pork-Chop Party Fund.
at least spell the brands right
Which brand(s) are you referring to? -mark
Mental Floss Volkswagen and Subaru are notably misspelled.
T i r u l i r u nope, they're spelt right. I rewatched the video and cross referenced the right spelling of Volkswagen and Subaru and they're spelt right
Also, it's easy when you're typing this on a phone and the phones autocorrect says that they're spelt Volkswagen and Subaru
MooshroomGaming No, both are being spelled with English phonemes, which is wrong. Volkswagen, for example, is spelled kind of like Folks-Vagen.
But they're spelt right in the English way of spelling it. Which means that, to the majority of viewers, they're spelt right
The thumbnail for this video is... So incredibly well done!
I would like to thank you for posting the Leif Erikson Day facts, believe it or not, I'm using that for a project!
I think this was a better than average mental floss video
That was wheelie fascinating. :D
I've never heard anyone pronounce Tiburon like that before!
Very interesting!
I heard that the Jeep was named after a Pop-eye cartoon character named Jeep Jeep. It was a magic cat looking character that could walk through anything and go anywhere.
It's a dog. From the fourth dimension.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_the_Jeep
Being one of the first people to see a video always feels like going to see an awesome movie and there are only two other people there. Both of them yelling, "FIRST"
you mentioned my state about five times. this made me very happy.
I LOVE MENTAL FLOSS
Oldsmobile was named after Ransom E. Olds...REO, as in REO Speedwagon (as in the band) which was the name of the 1915 Oldsmobile truck...
Never thought i'd hear Buckinghamshire mentioned in a Mental Floss video!
Wooooo Steve you talked about a Pig where is the quarter for the staff pork-chop party jar.
Toyota's crown-names-series has some other good stories, like the miscommunication which led to them naming one after Cressida, which was actually an old slang term for a counterfeit "crown" coin - because Cressida was a traitor at the battle of Troy and so her name became a byword for falseness and deception, and also Shakespeare referenced the practice of counterfeiting crown coins in his play about her.
A little piece of information. The last A and B in SAAB is shortened from aktiebolag which means joint-stock company. And those cars are still considered very safe and somehow reliable cars in nordic conditions :)
Two car brands I can think of also named after their founder are Oldsmobile and REO, after Ransom Eli Olds. Of their cars, I know the Oldsmobile 442 was named after some technical specifications of its original version, while the name Toronado has no meaning (although it sounds close to the Spanish for "tornado", which is spelled the same). Also, Lincoln is named for US President Abraham Lincoln, for whom founder Henry Leland (also the founder of Cadillac) had voted in the presidential elections of 1864.
Oldsmobile - named after Ransom Eli Olds, built the Speedwagon -> REO Speedwagon -> "Take it On the Run Baby"
I was around for the launch of the Chevrolet Camaro, and this is what we were told way back then about the genesis of the name. The Camaro was the first car ever to be named by computer! The parameters were as follows. The corporation wanted a three syllable name that started with a "C" like the other Chevy offerings, ( Chevelle, Chevy ll, Corvair, Corvette) and ended with a vowel. This was thought to add an Italian flair to this Ferrari inspired model. The computer spit out it's choices, and the rest is history.
It's good to see Wilson is still around after Cast Away
So Mental Floss is it me or when you are guys talking about the Jeep, you showed a picture or Niva a 4x4 model of Lada a Russian car company (which model btw is extremely well running). I mean i figured you'll be showing a picture of Jeep since from the chosen car company.
Loved your episode as always!
General Motors Australian subsidiary Holden has a few cars named after aboriginal names, Maloo means Thunder, Monaro is flat top and Torana is 'to fly'
A video on the origins of the word O.K? I would like it a lot. I saw something about this on tv once but I don't remember.
I've always found it interesting that the "Great American Car Company" has a very french sounding pronunciation with "Shev-ro-Lay."
A fun fact about car names: the new version of Honda Fit (or Jazz in some places) was going to be called Fitta which is Japanese for Fitter. Their Swedish office had to point out that Fitta wasn't such a good idea to name a car, since it is Swedish for Cunt. The Japanese company (who had already printed a lot of material) had to change the name. That's unlucky! :D