27 Mar /13

Mercedes

Did you know? Mercedes was the name given to the daughter of a successful distributor of cars made by Daimler and Benz. As early as 1899, Emil Jellinek took part in road races using a Daimler. He drove using the name of his daughter, Mercedes. He was equally successful as a driver and businessman, so much so that the name Mercedes was adopted by many other owners of the car – a Daimler-Mercedes. A man with the confidence to back his own judgment, Jellinek then ordered 36 of the vehicles and became a distributor for Daimler cars. The cars proved so popular that the Daimler company decided to register the name Mercedes as a car in 1902. One year later Jellinek himself followed suit, legally changing his name to Emil Jellinek-Mercedes and famously commenting “this is probably the first time that a father has taken his daughter’s name”.