Thread: How did the car manufacturers Audi get their name?

Hi All;

Does anyone know how Audi came to be called Audi?
I've heard two different reasons, one that it came from the American slag I'm Audi (meaning I'm going/off) and the other that Audi is the Italian word for horse.
It would be a great help if someone knew, as Ive been having a heated debate with friends about it!

Regards
BerryK

Originally Posted by berryk

Hi All;

Does anyone know how Audi came to be called Audi?
I've heard two different reasons, one that it came from the American slag I'm Audi (meaning I'm going/off) and the other that Audi is the Italian word for horse.
It would be a great help if someone knew, as Ive been having a heated debate with friends about it!

Regards
BerryK

Audi - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

On November 14, 1899, August Horch (1868–1951) established the company A. Horch & Cie. in the Ehrenfeld district of Cologne, but because of dispute between him and the supervisory board, he had to leave the company. A few years later, he established a second company, Horch Automobil-Werke GmbH. The company traces its origins back to 1909 and August Horch. The first Audi automobile, the Audi Type A 10/22*hp (16 kW) Sport-Phaeton, was produced in 1910 in Zwickau.[3]
In 1909, Horch was forced out of the company he had founded.[4] He then started a new company in Zwickau and continued using the Horch brand. His former partners sued him for trademark infringement, and the German Supreme Court (Reichsgericht in Berlin)[5] finally determined that the Horch brand belonged to his former company.[4]
August Horch was barred from using his own family name in his new car business, so he called a meeting with his best business friends, Paul and Franz Fikentscher from Zwickau. At the apartment of Franz Fikentscher, they discussed how to come up with a new name for the company. During this meeting, Franz's son was quietly studying Latin in a corner of the room. Several times he looked like he was on the verge of saying something but would just swallow his words and continue working, until he finally blurted out, "Father*– audiatur et altera pars... wouldn't it be a good idea to call it audi instead of horch?"[6] "Horch!" in German means "Hark!" or "hear", which is "Audi" in Latin. The idea was enthusiastically accepted by everyone attending the meeting.[7] The first Audi car, the Type B, 10/28PS was delivered early in 1910.[8]

What would we do without google...

/thread

Let me google that for you

Audi is short for Auto Union Deutchland Ingolstadt.

Originally Posted by david9962000

Audi is short for Auto Union Deutchland Ingolstadt.

This, sorry Akiruno.

The "Auto Union" company is a combination of 4 companies, which is signified by it's trademark logo, the 4 rings... each ring representing a company: Audi, Horch, Wanderer and DKW back in 1932. Today, it's simply known as Audi. But above posts are correct as to the actual "audi" name from the latin root for "listen".