Honda was named after the founder Mr. Honda, Toyota ws named after the founder Toyoda, but what is the origin of the word Mazda.

I have searched this and can only find that:

Mazda was the name of the Zoroastrain God in ancient Persia, about 600 B.C.

But I doubt the a Japanese company would adopt a name based on that.

Does anyone know ?

not sure but read this

http://www.autobidclub.com/history/mazda.html

This does confirm my search re the Zoroastrian God, but it seems odd for a Japanese guy in the 20th century to pick this name since most Japanese comapnies are named after the founder or have a profound Japanese word.

Thanks for the URL.

well the founders name sounds a little like mazda also.

From that link:The name Mazda stems from Ahura Mazda, the highest Zoroastrian God of reason who granted wisdom and united man, nature and the other gods. It also closely resembles the sound of the company founder’s name, Mr Jujiro Matsuda. He started the company in 1920 as Toyo Cork Kogyo Co., Ltd. In 2001 the company celebrates 70 years of automobile production.

IIRC, it went the other way around - the founder's name was Matsuda, so they picked Mazda (after the god) because of the similar sound. The company was known as Toyo Kogyo well into the 1970s, maybe even 1980s, before officially changing the name to Mazda (the cars were known as Mazdas, but the parent company name wasn't).

Regards,
Gordon

Yup, and the RX 8 book reiterates that the cars were named after the Zoroastrian god. Don't ask me why, but I guess that if you are coming from shintoism, zoroastrianism looks as good as any other religion.

So I guess Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. is to Subaru, what Toyo Cork Coygo at one time was to Mazda. Wonder if Fuji will ever make the change to just Subaru?

The founder is MATSUDA, Jyujiro. Matsuda is a pretty common last name for Japanese. They use Mazda b/c it looks better in English.

The Zorastra religion predates Christianity, and some say the Revelation in the Christian Bible was stolen from their writings. Just a useless fact.