How did the car manufacturers Audi get their name?

Does anyone know how Audi came to be called Audi?


I've heard two different reasons, one that it came from the American slag I'm Audi (meaning I'm going/off) and the other that Audi is the Italian word for horse.


It would be a great help if someone knew, as Ive been having a heated debate with friends about it!





Thanks|||The Audi four-ring emblem symbolises the merger in 1932 of four previously independent motor-vehicle manufacturers: Audi, DKW, Horch and Wanderer.





AUDI





The company established by August Horch in Zwickau on July 16, 1909 could not take its founder's name for competition reasons. A new name was found for the company by translating Horch鈥檚 name, which in German means "hark!" or "listen!", into Latin. The second company established by August Horch therefore commenced trading as Audi Automobilwerke GmbH, Zwickau on April 25, 1910.





DKW





Originally founded in Chemnitz in 1902 as Rasmussen %26amp; Ernst, the company moved to Zschopau in the Erzgebirge region in 1907. It initially manufactured and sold exhaust-steam oil separators for steam power plants, vehicle mudguards and lights, vulcanisation equipment and centrifuges of all kinds. The company's founder J枚rgen Skafte Rasmussen began to experiment with a steam-driven motor vehicle in 1916, registering DKW (short for Dampfkraftwagen 鈥?steam-driven vehicle) as a trademark





HORCH





At the end of the 19th century, there were already a number of car manufacturers in Germany. One of them was August Horch %26amp; Cie., founded on November 14, 1899 in Cologne.





WANDERER





In 1885 two mechanics, Johann Baptist Winklhofer and Richard Adolf Jaenicke, opened a bicycle repair workshop in Chemnitz. Shortly afterwards they began to make bicycles of their own, since demand at that time was very high. These were marketed under the brand name Wanderer, and in 1896 the company itself began to trade as Wanderer Fahrradwerke AG. Wanderer built its first motorcycle in 1902. The idea of branching out into car production was finally put into practice in 1913. A small two-seater by the name of "Puppchen" heralded in Wanderer's tradition of car production that was to last for several decades.








This is how audi got the name and the logo that we all see today.|||"The company name is based on the surname of the founder August Horch, meaning listen 鈥?which, when translated into Latin, becomes Audi."


Horch decided to translate his name to latin, as his previous business collapsed and name Horch wouldn't convince potential customers and investors. Later he started cooperation with Auto Union where logo comes from.|||"Audi" is the Latin translation of the German name "Horch". The founder August Horch left the company after five years, but still wanted to manufacture cars. Since the original "Horch" company was still there, he called his new company Audi, the Latin form of his last name.|||'Audi' is the name of its founder, 'Horch', in Latin.





August Horch founded the company and his surname means 'listen', which in Latin, is 'Audi'|||In Italian it doesn't mean anything but coming from Latin it's used for things due to sound and ears.|||it was the re-organization of the old Auto Union company into Auto Union Deutsche Industrie(A.U.D.I.)|||the founder of audi was called august horch and it means listen in german. but in latin it is audi so there we go