When Honda debuted its Acura brand in 1986 it was navigating uncharted territory. Launching a Japanese luxury marque had never been done before, and it had to come up with the entire concept out of thin air, including the name. Acura recently celebrated its 40th anniversary, using the occasion to reflect on its past, including some (thankfully) rejected names for the brand.
With Soichiro Honda’s name already being used by the parent company, Honda couldn’t just slap the founder’s name on the building. Brainstormed names are typically guarded from public view, but for its 40th birthday Acura gave us a peek behind the curtain by releasing a couple of memos from the desk of Tom Elliott, then Vice President of Automobile Operations at American Honda, on names that could have been.
The first page seems to be an earlier draft, with several names associated with words of Spanish origin. Artiga is a surname from Catalonia and Aragon regions of Spain. Tamano, or tamaño, could mean “size” in Spanish. And Jarama is a river in Spain, but also a racing circuit. Companies often choose made-up names to avoid an embarrassing outcome, and perhaps that’s why Jacaro, Spanish for “handsome boasting man” was nixed. He sounds like a real Pajero.
There’s a couple of words with avian affiliation, like Tucano, the Portugese word for “toucan” or Fulma, which sounds like fulmar, a seabird of the petrel family. Avatar predates the before James Cameron movie about lanky blue aliens, but in 1986 we would’ve instantly though of main character in the Ultima video game series.
On the second sheet it looks like Elliott narrowed the names down. Cigna from the first sheet turned into Signa, but it’s probably a good thing they didn’t go with either. The health insurance company Cigna formed in 1982 and Honda could’ve had a Lexis-Nexis situation on its hands.
Monde, French for “world” and Ultra were crossed out, as was Trion, a subatomic particle or a town in Georgia. Formula could have been a reference to Honda’s role as an engine supplier in F1, but Americans weren’t that clued in to the sport. Even though it would coincided with a historic era of racing dominance starting with Williams in 1986-87 and then with McLaren in 1988-91, people may have associated the word with powdered milk for babies.
Of all the ones that aren’t Acura, we like Asama the best. It recalls the Mount Asama Volcano motorcycle race, held in Japan in the 1950s. Honda motorcycles achieved a notable victory there in 1959, leading to the development of high-performance engines that would make Honda an international juggernaut in both two- and four-wheeled motorsports.
Ultimately, Honda went with a name based on the Latin root acu, meaning “done with precision” or “mechanically precise”, and used a stylized caliper as its logo. That’s fitting, given Honda’s engineering-driven ethos and masterful engine-building proficiency. Also, Aranda Integra just sounds weird.
