The stories behind the brand names of automobiles is sometimes surprising. The name of the Audi derives from a bilingual pun involving a German word, and Mazda honors the central deity of Zoroastrianism, with which the car company’s founder had a fascination. This is part of a complete episode.
- Listen on:
- Apple
- Spotify
- Podcast Feed
- »
I suspect the fancy stuff about the heavenly meaning of Ahura-mazda was tacked on later. The founder was Matsuda, which would be pronounced Masda in rapid speech. He wanted to pick a less confusing spelling for Westerners. Mazda was already familiar as a brand of light bulbs.