Mercedes celebrates 120 years since named after 11-year-old girl

Mercedes-Benz is celebrating the introduction of the Mercedes moniker into the Daimler automotive family.

On April 2, 1900, Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft decided to call its cars Mercédès, after the daughter of Emil Jellinek, an Austrian businessman.

Jellinek traded in Daimler vehicles and registered them for racing events, where he saw tremendous success, establishing the German automaker’s vehicles as some of the most advanced machines of the era.

The Mercedes name was registered as a trademark on June 23, 1902, and legally protected on September 26, 1902. The company’s name was changed to Mercedes-Benz after the merger of the Daimler and Benz companies in June 1926.

“Women like Mercédès Jellinek or Bertha Benz shaped the success story of Mercedes-Benz from the start,” commented head of Marketing Mercedes-Benz AG Bettina Fetzer.

To this day, Mercedes-Benz is the only automotive brand that bears a female name.

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