Why Toyota is Toyota and not Toyoda

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Akio Toyoda is in Washington to deal with the crisis at car giant Toyota, the company set up by his grandfather more than 70 years ago. But why did the company change its name from Toyoda to Toyota?
The change is largely down to the fact that the word Toyota is associated with the lucky number eight, according to the company's English-language website.

After learning this, we felt more explanation was needed.
The Toyota Motor Corporation has its origins in a company that manufactured automated looms for Japan's weaving industry.
"Toyota originated from Toyoda Industries (Kariya) when they started its automotive division in 1933," explains Dr Seijiro Takeshita, director of investment banking firm Mizuho International, London.
"Toyoda (in English) and its kanji version were used in the beginning, but as the company started exporting heavily into the US, it wanted an emblem that would work in Japanese and English.
"In 1936, the company held a competition for a new name. Toyota was a popular choice among many. "
According to the company, it received some 27,000 entries.
It says the winning design led to a change in the name of the automobiles and plants from "Toyoda" to "Toyota."
The name was chosen "because the number of strokes to write Toyota in Japanese (eight) was thought to bring luck and prosperity," it goes on.
Lucky eight
The modern Japanese writing system uses three main scripts:
kanji, which is made up of ideographs from Chinese characters
hiragana, used for native Japanese words, and is phonetic
katakana, which is mostly used for foreign words
A Romanised script is also sometimes used.
The presentation of kanji is highly symbolic, and an art form in itself. The name Toyoda is represented by two ideographs - the first "toyo" means "abundant", while da means "rice field".
The kanji for "da" can also be read as "ta".
Translate Toyoda into katakana and the result contains 10 "brush strokes".

Akio Toyoda was facing tough questioning at the US Congress
"Eight is a lucky number in Japanese because when you write it in Chinese characters, the shape of the character is wider towards the bottom," explains Mika Kizu, a lecturer in Japanese at London's School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS).
"So people think that it indicates a thing or person is gradually prospering."
The "lucky eight" theory is certainly an interesting one, says Dr Christopher Hood, of Cardiff University's Japanese Studies Centre.
He says that it is more usual in Japan to see the company's name written in the katakana script - unlike, say, Nissan, which is more often written in kanji.
He also points out another "eight" link with the company.
The company has strong ties with the Japanese Association football club Nogoya Grampus Eight football, which is based in Nagoya - about an hour from Toyota's headquarters in Toyota City - and plays home games at the Toyota Stadium.
The "eight" part of the team's name comes the maru-hachi (circle eight), which is the city's official symbol.

While the company's version of the symbolism certainly sounds good, Soas's Dr Kizu doubts that this would have been the deciding factor in changing Toyoda to Toyota.
"I personally doubt that the founder of Toyota or his successor chose "Toyota" rather than "Toyoda" because of the number of strokes. The Japanese normally care about the number of strokes for the Chinese characters [kanji] but not for hiragana," she told the BBC News website.

In recent months, Toyota has recalled more than 8.5m vehicles
A number of Japan experts told the BBC news website that the number eight is culturally not that significant in Japan. It is more of a Chinese phenomenon (hence the start date and time for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, on 8 August, at at 8.08), they said.
And Dr Hood said the BBC News website's phone call to him had prompted him to do "some more digging on the Japanese websites and the eight theory doesn't seem to get a mention".
"Japanese sites mention more the internationalisation of the company," he says.
"It was originally called Toyoda, it seems, but later changed to Toyota (although it was felt that some in America continued to call it Toyoda for some time).
"Timing wise this happened around the same time that the town of Koromo, where the company was based, changed to be Toyota."
In 1959, the city of Koromo, in the Aichi Prefecture, was renamed Toyota City, after the company that aided its growth in terms of job creation.
Koromo, which was a major producer of silk, had already been associated with the Toyoda family via the company's Toyoda Automatic Loom Works.
"More appealing"
Another explanation for the name change could be that Toyota simply sounds better.
"The sound of the word "Toyota" was also deemed more appealing," says the firm's English-language website.
Dr Kizu concurs: "While there are many "voiced sounds" [such as da] in Japanese, they are less preferable to voiceless sounds."
The car giant is not the only Japanese firm to have tweaked its name in this way. The company Bridgestone, for example, was founded by one Mr Ishi (Stone) bashi (Bridge).
But that is a whole different story.

[The Monty]

I thought it was because the original guy, whoever Toyoda, went to a clairvoyant, and they said to change the D to a T and make something everyone will want, and he will be rich, so he did. I might be slightly off the mark though.

[AndrewR_AUII]

[mcnamg]

Originally Posted by AndrewR_AUII

Well at least she wont have sudden acceleration problems with Toy Yoda

[flappist]

And in the silly car name stories......

Mitsubishi Pajero is called Shogun in may parts of the world as Pajero is Spanish slang for "word that rhymes with banker".

Chevrolet Nova (remember Holden Nova, same car) failed miserably in sales in USA and latin/south america as "no va" mean "does not go" in spanish.

Lexus was an acronym for Luxury Export United States.

Mitsubishi Starion (their first sports car) was named after the US marketing group misheard their Japanese headquarters.
It was supposed to be the big brother to their best selling vehicle at the time, the Mitsubishi Colt following the equine theme. i.e. "Rittle Colt, big Starion"

[Kamshaaft]

Originally Posted by Flappist

Chevrolet Nova (remember Holden Nova, same car) failed miserably in sales in USA and latin/south america as "no va" mean "does not go" in spanish.

Uhhhhh Flappist, Chevy Nova and Holden Nova couldn't have been more different. Also, I'd like to mention that the Holden Nova was an absolute POS.


Holden Nova:


Chevy Nova:



The same car? As you can see the Chevy Nova is closer to the XA GT than it is the Holden Nova. And that's saying something.

[Mr Hardware]

Holden Nova was an absolute POS

Well not really. Many a 90s family has utilised the AE92 corolla (what the nova really is) with the sweet yet economical 4AGE motor to their advantage.

[Kamshaaft]

Originally Posted by Mr Hardware

Well not really. Many a 90s family has utilised the AE92 corolla (what the nova really is) with the sweet yet economical 4AGE motor to their advantage.

They were P.O.S. Their engines were awesome but they rusted out fairly easy and their accelerators stuck.

[trippytaka]

Originally Posted by AndrewR_AUII

Holy crap, I just wet my pants.

[Zed7fiddy]

lol there ya go, leanr soemthign new every day, kawasaki started the same way toyota did too it seems, kawasaki used to make sewing machines

[Kamshaaft]

Ferrari, Porsche, and Lamborghini all made tractors. Mitsubishi or was it Nissan(back in their Prince days, or technically, even earlier) used to make playing cards or something similar too I believe. Actually no, I think that may have been Nintendo. Mitsubishi and BMW both made aircraft, which actually so did Holden and Pontiac though before that both fo those made horse drawn coaches.

[Martyvan]

surely it has to do with a typo on the company registration form??????????????????????????????????? the secretary (effy?) couldnt spell toyota?

[Elks]

Originally Posted by Kamshaaft

Ferrari, Porsche, and Lamborghini all made tractors. Mitsubishi or was it Nissan(back in their Prince days, or technically, even earlier) used to make playing cards or something similar too I believe. Actually no, I think that may have been Nintendo. Mitsubishi and BMW both made aircraft, which actually so did Holden and Pontiac though before that both fo those made horse drawn coaches.

And Yamaha made/mase piano's. The logo on bike is still 3 tuning forks.

[Elks]

Originally Posted by AndrewR_AUII

Just gold, LMAO,

[ebxr8240]

G.M use to make cars...Lol...

[Kamshaaft]

I knew they made pianos & keyboards, and also good audio equiptment, but didn't know about the tuning forks on the logos, or that they ORIGINATED with pianos. Very interesting, I've owned a few of them too.

I just remembered that Henry Ford created another car company before Ford Motor Company. It was called Cadillac, as in GM's flagship brand

[Barry_v]

Originally Posted by ebxr8240

G.M use to make cars...Lol...

many many years ago they used to make money too..

[Barry_v]

Originally Posted by flappist

Chevrolet Nova (remember Holden Nova, same car) failed miserably in sales in USA and latin/south america as "no va" mean "does not go" in spanish.

http://www.snopes.com/business/misxlate/nova.asp

[steamin63]

Originally Posted by AndrewR_AUII

hhmmmm, a feeling oh what young skywalker.

[bingoTE50]

Vehicles were originally sold under the name "Toyoda" (トヨダ), from the family name of the company's founder, Kiichirō Toyoda. In September 1936, the company ran a public competition to design a new logo. Out of 27,000 entries the winning entry was the three Japanese katakana letters for "Toyoda" in a circle. But Risaburō Toyoda, who had married into the family and was not born with that name, preferred "Toyota" (トヨタ) because it took eight brush strokes (a fortuitous number) to write in Japanese, was visually simpler (leaving off two ticks at the end) and with a voiceless consonant instead of a voiced one (voiced consonants are considered to have a "murky" or "muddy" sound compared to voiceless consonants, which are "clear"). Since "Toyoda" literally means "fertile rice paddies", changing the name also helped to distance the company from associations with old-fashioned farming. The newly formed word was trademarked and the company was registered in August 1937 as the "Toyota Motor Company".[8][9][10]

[Sprint XR8]

Toyoda/Toyota wasn't the only name change. From 1947-1963 Toyota marketed it's car range under the brand name Toyopet. Toyota was only used on it's truck range.

[nstg8a]

Originally Posted by flappist

Mitsubishi Starion (their first sports car) was named after the US marketing group misheard their Japanese headquarters.
It was supposed to be the big brother to their best selling vehicle at the time, the Mitsubishi Colt following the equine theme. i.e. "Rittle Colt, big Starion"

eeerr? starion was mitsu's first sports car? nup, at a guess id say the gto from the early 70s would have that title,

and starion is short for star of orion, it had nothing to do with stallion, thats just an urban myth.

gto

[Yellow_Festiva]

This happens in many different Asian countries.

In Korea, when Korean spoken language is translated into English, it can be spelt different ways for it to sound 90% the same. New tourists who try to read different versions of the Seoul Subway can get mixed up when "Jongno" "Chongro" and "Chogno" are actually the same place.

Same with the port city of Pusan, which is also just as commonly known as Busan (and the Korean word is a mixture of a P/B sound so they are both technically correct).

Re 'Nova'... I always interpreted it as a stretch of the word 'new' (as a whole word) personally, but can see how if broken up can be seen as 'no go / going'.

[DallasXR6]

Read in a car associated magazine ( cant remember which one but a well known published one) that "TOYOTA" is written in eight strokes in which ever language, with 8 being "lucky" ( to each their own) where as TOYODA is more....
Just what iv read

[flappist]

Originally Posted by nstg8a

eeerr? starion was mitsu's first sports car? nup, at a guess id say the gto from the early 70s would have that title,

and starion is short for star of orion, it had nothing to do with stallion, thats just an urban myth.

gto

http://www.snopes.com/business/misxlate/starion.asp

Lots of interesting stuff on that site although it seems that most "american" goofs are false yet most "non american" goofs are true......
Also interesting that there were two completely different Chevrolet Novas, one a muscle car and the other bubble car like the holden.

But then again I can think of another car name reused for a completely different vehicle. Anyone remember the 6 cylinder sedans called a Pursuit and the Super Pursuit?

[nstg8a]

same as the holden cruze, two very different vehicles.

[BOSHOG]

Originally Posted by AndrewR_AUII

if she kept it in the box itll be worth more than the toyota now anyway lol

[tezxr8man]

Originally Posted by nstg8a

eeerr? starion was mitsu's first sports car? nup, at a guess id say the gto from the early 70s would have that title,

and starion is short for star of orion, it had nothing to do with stallion, thats just an urban myth.

gto

WOW did everyone in japan make knock off Mustangs or what?? give me the real thing any day

[Kamshaaft]

Sure, there were some real cool cars sculpted from Jap tin to look like muscle cars. The RX-3, the GTO, and the real Japanese Mustangs, the first and second gen Celicas

[Bossxr8]

Originally Posted by Kamshaaft

I just remembered that Henry Ford created another car company before Ford Motor Company. It was called Cadillac, as in GM's flagship brand

Not quite. Henry's first auto company was called the Detroit Motor Company, but it essentially failed, and the remnants were bought out, and later became Caddillac. It was not Caddillac when he owned it.