Strange stories behind six car names

Have you ever thought of where car names come from? Vehicles across the board have all featured names from various different sources, and though some are easy to understand, there are a few strange origins on occasion.

Here, we focus in on a handful of those oddities…

Toyota Yaris

Yaris is a combination of words from Greek mythology and German. In Greek mythology, ‘Charis’ is a singular form of Charites, which is a term applying to goddesses with qualities such as charm and beauty.

However, the clever people at Toyota swapped the ‘Ch’ with ‘Ya’ – German for ‘yes’ – which was applied in a nod to the reaction it hoped for the little compact hatchback.

Kia Cee’d