What does the name SAAB, the former Swedish car brand, stand for?

SAAB stood for Svenska Aeroplan Aktiebolaget, the Swedish Aeroplane Company Limited.

The name belonged originally to the Swedish aircraft manufacturer founded in 1937 to build military aircraft for Sweden. “Svenska” means Swedish, “Aeroplan” means aeroplane, and “Aktiebolaget” is the Swedish term for a limited company, commonly abbreviated AB. The acronym was written as SAAB, although the company later commonly used the shorter form Saab.

The automobile connection came afterward. Saab began developing cars in the 1940s, and its first production car, the Saab 92, entered production in 1949. The car business eventually became Saab Automobile, distinct from the aerospace and defense company Saab AB. General Motors bought a majority stake in the car division in 1990 and full ownership in 2000; Saab Automobile later ceased production in 2011. A frequent error is expanding the acronym with “Auto” or “Automobil”—those words describe the later car division, not the original aircraft company.