Ever Wonder Where The Names Come From?

In the early days of the automobile, many of the brand names were the same as their founders. Here are but a few for your amusement, starting with the one most widely known...

Ford

Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) was an American industrialist, the founder of the Ford Motor Company, and sponsor of the development of the assembly line technique of mass production. Although Ford did not invent the automobile or the assembly line, he developed and manufactured the first automobile that many middle class Americans could afford.
Henry could be stubborn when it came to updating his engineering, often to the detriment of their product. Steve Jobs of Apple Computer showed similar traits, e.g. adamantly insisting on NO cooling fans in the original Macintosh and years later, the terrible "round" mouse of the first iMacs.

Chevrolet

Louis-Joseph Chevrolet (December 25, 1878 – June 6, 1941) was a Swiss-born American race car driver of French descent, founder of the Chevrolet Motor Car Company in 1911, and a founder in 1916 of the Frontenac Motor Corporation, which made racing parts for Ford's Model T.
Louis was never pleased that General Motors made sure "his" Chevrolet was the low-price offering from General Motors.





Cadillac

Antoine Laumet de La Mothe Cadillac,  (March 5, 1658 — Oct. 15, 1730), French soldier, explorer, and administrator in French North America, founder of the city of Detroit (1701), and governor of Louisiana (1710 to 1716 or 1717).
I find it ironic that one of the PREMIUM American automotive marques is named for a person whose life preceded the automobile by nearly 150 years! 

Mercedes-Benz

Mercedes Jellinek

Initially Gottlieb Daimler and Carl Benz worked independently of one another. Benz founded the firm Benz & Cie. in October 1883, and Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft (DMG) was formed in November 1890. Later, a new brand name for DMG products appeared, when Emil Jellinek became involved in the company. That new brand name was Mercédès, the name of his daughter.
Inflation after the First World War meant a difficult time for sales – especially of luxury passenger cars. Only financially strong companies were to survive – even these were frequently forced merge. It was in this way that the former rivals, Mercedes (DMG) and Benz & Cie., merged in 1926 to become what is now known as Mercedes-Benz.


Dodge

After meeting Henry Ford, the two Dodge brothers, Horace and John, were intrigued by his car and its engine. They were so impressed by Ford that they risked their business future on a contract with him. The Dodges agreed to give Ford the $7,000 worth of automobile parts and $3,000 in cash that he needed in return for a ten-percent stake in Ford Motor Company.

In 1913, Dodge announced they’d stop building Ford cars and would design, build, and sell their own car. On July 17, 1914, Dodge Brothers was formed with $5 million in common stock. Later that year, the first Dodge car rolled off the assembly line. Ford was not happy that the dividends he paid to Dodge were being used to bankroll his competition. In 1916 he announced that he would stop paying. The Dodge brothers sued and got appropriately $19 million in back dividends.

So there's the origins of just five automotive names. If you'd like to see more like: Maserati, Bugatti, Ferrari, Kaiser, Willys, Hupmobile, Chrysler, Essex, Jordan, and so on, just let me know.