Tuesday 22nd June 1915
‘Volvo’, which means ‘I roll’ in Latin, an appropriate name for the ball bearings from Swedish company, Svenska Kullagerfabriken (SKF), was officially registered as a brand name in Stockholm. Eleven years later in 1926, an SKF employee, Assar Gabrielsson, was eagerly campaigning the SKF board of directors to produce a Swedish car. Together with his friend Gustaf Larson, an engineer who had worked for Morris in England, they finally obtained SKF’s go-ahead and financial backing, along with some factory space and the name Volvo. After dismissing initial suggestions of ‘GL’ or ‘Larson’, after their names, the ‘Volvo’ brand was first used on a car, the ÖV 4 – nicknamed Jakob – in 1927, and has been used ever since.