How did the International Giants get their Names?

BENZ (Germany):
Karl Benz (1844-1929)

BMW (Germany):
BMW as a company was born on 20 July 1917 when the former 'Rapp-Motorenwerke' was renamed 'Bayerische Motoren Werke'. Shortly after this, the Imperial Patent Office approved the company's trade mark, a stylized rotating propeller against a blue-and-white sky and with the letters 'B.M.W' in the outer border.

DAIMLER (Germany):
Gottlieb Daimler (1834-1900) designed the first workable four-stroke internal-combustion engine, and the Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft was founded in 1890 to produce cars. The British Daimler Company was also formed later, which purchased the UK rights and built cars using Daimler engines.

FIAT (Italy):
Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino, was founded by Giovanni Agnelli in 1899, and his family still run the company.

FORD (America):
Henry Ford (1863-1947), first set up the Henry Ford Company in 1901, and later in 1903 the Ford Motor Company.

HONDA (Japan):
Soichiro Honda (1906-1991) was a mechanic who founded Honda in 1948. The company originally produced only motorcycles, and Honda cars were introduced in 1964.

MERCEDES :
Emil Jellinek was the Austro-Hungarian consul in France, who had the rights to sell Daimler's cars in Austria, Hungary, France and USA. Mercedes was the name used by Jellinek to sell Daimler's cars, and was in fact the name of his daughter. In 1902, Daimler registered the name "Mercedes" as their car trademark.

MORRIS (UK):
William Richard Morris (1877-1963), started off as a bicycle-repairer (in 1893) at Cowley St. John near Oxford. Later he went into the business of motorcycles in 1901, and subsequently built the first Morris 'Oxford' in 1913.

TOYOTA (Japan):
Sakichi Toyoda (1894-1952) invented the automatic loom in 1925, and a year later formed the Toyoda Automatic Loom Works Ltd. The company diversified into cars and the first Toyoda car was produced by Kiichiro Toyoda (son) in 1935. The name of the company was changed to Toyota Motor Company in 1937.

VOLKSWAGEN (German):
German translation ' Peoples car '

VOLVO (Sweden):
Was founded by Gustaf Larson and Assar Gabrielsson in 1925. Volvo is Latin for - "I roll"