Abbreviations in the names of automakers

An abbreviation is a word formed by abbreviating a word or phrase and read by the alphabetic name of the initial letters or by the initial sounds of the words included in it.

Most often, abbreviations are used to abbreviate the names of state institutions, but in the USSR, which is also an abbreviation, which stands for the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, abbreviations were used almost everywhere.

Perhaps this is due to the fact that in the USSR there was no such thing as a trademark. Therefore, no one really bothered with beautiful names, and all Soviet enterprises, including automakers, were assigned names in the form of abbreviations, many of which have survived to this day.

However, if it seems to you that the use of abbreviations as a name or trademark is typical only for the USSR, then you are mistaken, because this occurs even outside the post-Soviet space.

Here are the most famous automakers whose names are abbreviations:

AZLK – Automobile plant named after Lenin Komsomol

BelAZ — Belarusian Automobile Plant

VAZ – Volzhsky Automobile Plant

GAS — Gorky Automobile Plant

ZAZ – Zaporizhia Automobile Building Plant

ZIL – Plant named after Likhachev

ZIS — Plant named after Stalin

KAMAZ — Kama Automobile Plant

KrAZ — Kremenchug Automobile Plant

LAZ – Lviv bus plant

LiAZ – Likinsky bus plant

MAZ – Minsk Automobile Plant

GROOVE — Pavlovsk Automobile Plant

RAF – Riga bus factory

UAZ – Ulyanovsk Automobile Plant

Alpha Romeo – Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili Romeo (Anonymous Lombard car factory Romeo)

AMC – American Motors Corporation (American Automobile Corporation)

BAW – Beijing Automobile Works (Beijing Automobile Plant)

bmw – Bayerische Motoren Werke (Bavarian Motor Works)

BYD – Build Your Dreams (Build your dream)

DAF – Doorne’s Automobiel Fabriek (Dorn’s Automobile Factory)

DMC – DeLorean Motor Company (DeLorean Automobile Company)

D.S. – Distinctive Series (Distinctive Series)

FAW – First Automotive Works (First Automobile Plant)

FIAT – Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino (Italian Automobile Factory of Turin)

GAC – Guangzhou Automobile Company (Guangzhou Automobile Company)

Haval – I Have All (I have everything)

Kia – in Sino-Korean it is written 起亞, which is read as “ki a” and means “from Asia”

Ktm – Kraftfahrzeug Trunkenpolz Mattighofen (Trunkenpolz Cars from Mattighofen)

MAN – Maschinenfabrik Augsburg-Nürnberg (Augsburg-Nuremberg Machine-Building Factory)

MG – Morris Garage (Morris Garage)

Nissan – Nihon Sangyo (Japanese industry)

SAAB – Svenska Automobil Aktie Bolaget (Swedish Automobile Joint Stock Company)

SEAT – Sociedad Española de Automóviles de Turismo (Spanish Society for Touring Cars)

VAG — Volkswagen Aktien Gesellschaft (Volkswagen Joint Stock Company)

More related posts:

“Car models with indecent and ridiculous names”

“Folk names of cars”