Why so many Toyota names secretly mean crown
Camry comes from kanmuri, the Japanese word for crown. That is no accident: Toyota has spent decades naming key cars after crowns and royal regalia, from the Crown itself to the Corona, the Corolla, the Tiara and the Scepter. The Camry became one of the best-selling cars ever made, passing 22 million sales worldwide.
The tradition started with the Toyota Crown in 1955. The Corona of 1957 and the Corolla of 1966 took the Latin for crown and small crown, and the Tiara of 1960 borrowed another form of headwear. A Japan-only Cresta, introduced in 1980, is named for the ornamental crest atop a ceremonial helmet, and a rebadged Camry of 1991 was called the Scepter, after the rod carried with a crown. Even the Atara trim sold on Australian Camrys since 2011 means crown in Hebrew.
The Camry itself grew out of the oil shocks of the 1970s. Development began in August 1977, as carmakers shifted to lighter, more economical, more aerodynamic designs. Aimed squarely at export buyers, especially Americans, and at Honda's Accord, the first-generation model of 1982 was Toyota's first car with front-wheel drive and a sideways-mounted engine. Moving the fuel tank under the rear seat freed luggage space, and a chime warned drivers when brake pads wore thin. A predecessor, the Celica Camry, had appeared in 1980, but despite its name it was really a stretched version of a different Toyota, the Carina.
In the 1990s the car split in two. Japanese vehicle taxes favoured narrow cars, so home buyers kept a slim version while a wider one was built for foreign demand from 1991; the two coexisted until 1998. The Camry also fathered the first Lexus ES in 1989 and was rebadged in Australia as the Holden Apollo.
Its home market cooled. Toyota ended Japanese sales in late 2023 after 43 years of weak demand, but planned to bring the car back there in 2026.
Source: Toyota Camry
