History of Product Names & Trademarks: Chevrolet

About the history and origins of famous product names and trademarks, in this case Chevrolet.

CHEVROLET In the early 1900s, 2 race car drivers, Louis Chevrolet and William C. Durant, met on a racetrack in Michigan. French driver Chevrolet was also a car designer and American driver Durant was an executive of the Buick car plant in Flint, Mich. The cars designed by Chevrolet were large and costly, but Durant modified them into smaller, less expensive models. He kept the name, "Chevrolet," because it "had a musical sound and the romance of foreign origin." The rectangle-superimposed-upon-a-parallelogram trademark designed for Chevrolet cars was discovered by Durant while he traveled in France. He was attracted by the pattern which appeared in the wallpaper of a hotel room and ripped off a sample to take back to the U.S.