A successful company has a successful company name. That is the case of VOLVO. When you hear this name you instantly think of words like safety, quality, concern for the environment, family car, and the list could go on. But did you ever wonder how the guys at VOLVO came up with the company name?
“Volvere” is the infinitive form of the word “roll” in Latin. In its singular form, “volvere” becomes “volvo” which stands for “i roll”. Interesting isn’t it? The idea came from a smart member of the company’s management who also stated that writing the name in capital letters will have a greater impact, and right he was!
The choice for the company name was smart for several reasons. First of all, it has a symbolic connection to the company’s activity domain. Secondly, it is simple and easy to pronounce in almost every language and even more, it is slightly probable to get misspelled.
Another smart thing that VOLVO did was to register the name covering a wide range of different products linked to their activity domain that at that time didn’t even exist: “Ball bearings, roller bearings, machines, transmissions, automobiles, bicycles, railway materiel, transportation devices, means of transport of all kinds and parts of and accessories for the aforementioned products”. By doing this they made sure that the company name would cover any product that they may develop in the future and would have the freedom to use the name for it.
Since VOLVO was born, over 15 million cars bearing its name have been produced and also millions of trucks, buses, engines and so on. Is it possible for Evald Delmar, the engineer who signed the application documents for the company name, to have foreseen the important role he would play in creating what was to become a global industrial concern whose name is still well-known all around the world more than 90 years later?