Nissan is one of the most popular Japanese car brands, but what does its name mean? Do its letters stand for anything in particular?
The name Nissan is actually a contraction of Nihon Sangyo (日本産業) or Japan Industries, a conglomerate or zaibatsu formed in 1928 that still includes Hitachi.
In 1933 Nissan effectively bought out the parent company of Datsun. While the Nissan Motor company was formally established in 1934, most cars continued to be sold under the DAT or Datsun brands.
It wasn’t until the early 1980s that the company controversially decided to ditch the well established Datsun brand in favour the corporate name Nissan.
