Toyota's founder is Kiichiro Toyoda (with a 'd'), and the company was originally named Toyoda, named after the founder. It was later changed to Toyota because it looked better in Katakana script (8 brush strokes, which is a lucky number), and it had a better meaning in Japanese. Apparently Toyoda is a farmer's name, and the company did not want to be associated with farming.
Similarly, Mazda comes from it's founder's name Matsuda, but was changed to Mazda when the first wheeled vehicles were produced (Mazda-Go). The official claim from Mazda is that it was named after Ahura Mazda, a God, but it is widely speculated that the name change was done to make it more appealing for international markets. I don't speak Japanese, but I have seen several videos on social media where the Japanese still pronounce Mazda as Matsuda.
"main farm", "rich farm", "pine farm", "bell tree", "sun field", "river cape", "fifty bells", it's all just surnames. Nothing particularly more awe inspiring than any regular surnames would be.
Doesn't look like it has a deep meaning does it? I'm thinking that's how the Honda name looks to a Japanese.
The one major Japanese company whose name does have a deep meaning - that I know of - is Mazda, which is explicitly derived from Ahura Mazda.
Like, to a non-english speaker? Because it looks loaded with meaning to me. Would you think that all instances of the word "morgan" refer to the bank "jp morgan"? Do you think that people who gamble are referring to the company you brought up? Why would you just give a top level domain name to a single company? No company is that interesting by itself. Hence, my question.
But maybe I'm just weird when it comes to language.
Anyway, I'll wait for a japanese person to fill me in ig—I can google where a name comes from, but this doesn't answer how it's actually perceived by someone who speaks the language.
> a country known for its rich traditions and cultural heritage
For example, the US in its current form is older than China, which was taken over relatively recently by the CCP who are also actively destroying most vestiges of cultural heritage through forced migration and erasing of inconvenient history.
Perhaps even the only place that can top Japan in this regard.
But maybe that's because USA has a tendency to make everything a super commercial event which gives us that idea.
Notably:
> The name “Honda” has its roots in Japan, a country known for its rich traditions and cultural heritage. In Japanese, the name is written as 本田, which can be broken down into two characters: 本 (“hon”) meaning “origin” or “root” and 田 (“da” or “ta”) meaning “rice field” or “paddy field.” The combination of these characters conveys a sense of familial roots or origin tied to agricultural land, which was historically significant in Japan’s agrarian society.
> Traditionally, Japanese surnames like Honda were often linked to geographic locations or land ownership, reflecting the agricultural lifestyle of early Japan. Thus, the name Honda could have been used to denote a family that owned or worked on rice fields, marking them as stewards of the land.