YODA OR YOTA

 In 1926, Sakichi Toyoda established Toyoda Automatic Loom Works for the manufacture of sewing machines he invented.  Sakichi was known as the king of Japanese inventors.  

His son, Kiichiro Toyoda took over in the 1930s and moved the company's focus from sewing machines to automobiles.  In 1936, Kiichiro Toyoda changed the company name to Toyota.  There are a number of guesses why this change was made.  Here are a couple of possible reasons.

In spoken Japanese, the letter 'd' is silent.  Toyoda is pronounced by the Japanese something like "toy,yo,a".  Kiichiro thought this would be difficult for western language speakers to handle. Maybe, maybe not.

An alternate reason for the change is based on the Asian feeling that the number '8' is a lucky number.  You see Toyoda is written with 7 pen strokes while Toyota is made with 8 pen strokes.  To buy this explanation requires that you know Kanji.  Kanji is the system of writing the Japanese language using Chinese characters.  I know; I've lost you on this one.  Take my word for it.

I think it is most likely that Kiichiro wanted to establish that his company was more than a family endeavor but an international corporation; soon to be giant.  That is what it has become.  The Toyota Group now has over 600  subsidiaries and hundreds of affiliates; one of the largest, most profitable organizations in the world.  

I started buying Toyota Camrys in 1996 - here is our old 2015 Prius .  The car was old, not the driver..