Here is the full story:
In 1912 a young man by the name of Masujiro Hashimoto founded the
Kwaishinsha Motor Car Company, and produced an automobile called the DAT.
Each letter of DAT was the first initial of a man's family name;
i.e., "D" was for Kenjoro Den, "A" was for Rokuro Aoyama, and the
"T" was for Meitaro Takeuchi.
These three men financed Masujiro Hashimoto when he started his automobile
manufacturing company, and the DAT name was given to the cars produced there
in honor these financiers.
A merger between Kwaishinsha Motors and Jidosha Seizo took place in 1926. The
new company was named "DAT Jidosha Seizo Company Limited; and it continued
to produce the DAT line of cars.
In 1930 a reorganization took place and the Directors decided a new name was
needed for their cars; the name DATSON was chosen, being "the son of DAT"
The spelling of the name was later changed to DATSUN.
In 1931 the assets and shares of DAT Jidosha Seizo were acquired by THE
TOBATA IMONO COMPANY.(a foundry company). Thus making it a division of
Tobata Imono. Two years later it was separated from the parent company and
established as an independent company named Jidosha Seizo Kabushiki Kaisha,
and moved to a new 32 acre site at Yokohama. Funding for the new firm came from
a holding company managed by Yoshisuke Ayukawa (the owner of TOBATA
IMONO), and that holding company was named Nihon Sagyo. That holding
company was already known to the financial community as "Ni-San" (ed. stock
exchange listing letters).
In May of 1934 the name of the now independent auto company, was changed to
NISSAN MOTOR COMPANY LIMITED.
Rockjaw's note: The switch from Datsun to Nissan as the brand name for their cars occurred gradually over a couple of years (82-85). During those years most cars had both names on them somewhere (Nissan by Datsun was common).
Rockjaw
89 Nissan KingCab 4x4
