A fun tidbit of information I just learned: The car company Mazda was named by its founder after Ahura Mazda, a deity in the ancient Persian religion of Zoroastrianism.

It is said[who?] that Mazda coincides with the anglicized pronunciation (or more likely, Mazda reflects a German rendering of the Japanese pronunciation of Matsuda) of the founder’s name, Jujiro Matsuda, who was interested in spirituality, and chose to rename the firm in honor of both his family and Zoroastrianism.[4] The word Mazda derives from Ahura Mazda, the Avestan language name for a divinity exalted by the ancient Iranian prophet Zoroaster, as the source of wisdom, intelligence and harmony.

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