What Does Kia Mean? The Origin Of The Car Company's Name Explained

Car company names have a variety of origins. Some automakers like Ford, Chevrolet, and Honda took the surnames of their founders as a corporate moniker. Pontiac was named after the Michigan city where it was located, which took its name from an Ottawa chief who had contested British occupation of the Great Lakes area. In 2003, a year before Elon Musk took over as chairman, Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning named their innovative electric car company after inventor Nikola Tesla.

The origin of Toyota's upscale Lexus brand name is unknown, but some have speculated it is an acronym for "Luxury Exports to the U.S."  Volkswagen means "people's car" in German, and the name reflects the company's early mission to build a car anyone could afford. Hyundai is the Korean word for "modernity," and is apt for a company that makes the state-of-the-art Ioniq 6. Kia was founded in 1944 and purchased by Hyundai in 1998, but where does the Kia name come from?

Kia currently makes many of its vehicles in the United States, but the name reflects its roots in the Far East. Although the brand name is just three letters long, it points in two directions. The first syllable, 'Ki," means to arise or come up from. The letter "A" that makes up the second syllable notes the brand's birthplace on the continent of Asia. Putting the two together, we get a simple interpretation of "to rise or come up out of Asia." 

Since its founding about a year before the end of World War II in Europe, Kia has risen up to become the fifth-largest automaker in the world. Like Peugeot, Rover, and Triumph, Kia began as a maker of two-wheeled vehicles. Kia began making cars in the early 1970s, and since then its product line has grown to include more than a dozen models. Kia sold an all-time high of just over 3 million vehicles last year, earning almost 100 trillion Korean won (equal to about 72 million dollars).