Audi is its founder’s surname, translated into Latin by a schoolboy.
August Horch left the car company that bore his name in 1909 and was not allowed to use his own name for the next one. At a meeting to find another, a business partner’s son who was doing his Latin homework suggested audi, Latin for “listen”, which is what horch means in German. The new firm took the name in 1910.
Audi on Brandseum