[robmcvey]

Many years ago, my father told me the story/joke of how the US-based marketing department at Mitsubishi had mis-heard the proposed name for the follow up to the "Colt" on a phone call from Japan.

Based on the horse theme, it seemed fairly legit. Turns out, there might even be some truth in the "Stallion" that never was!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitsubishi_Starion#Name

[amyjess]

Though Mitsubishi did have a history with painful portmanteaux in the '80s.

The Starion was sold alongside the Cordia and Tredia. Tredia was an abbreviation of "three diamonds", the literal English translation of Mitsubishi (and note that their logo references this too). Cordia apparently was a portmanteau of "cordorite diamond".

So I can totally believe that Starion was a portmanteau of "star Orion".

Mitsu just had a really weird naming sense back then.