[kurthr]

I thought Mitsubishi was 三菱 for Three Diamonds? Seems to go better with their log.

Mitsuboshi, 三つ星, would I think be for three stars, particularly the stars of Orion's belt.

"According to Samsung's founder, the meaning of the Korean hanja Samsung (三星) is three stars."

https://news.samsung.com/global/20-things-you-didnt-know-abo...

[nine_k]

菱 is "water chestnut", a nut that actually is spiky, the <> figures are a stylization of that.

菱形, that is, "water chestnut-shaped" is indeed used for what's called "diamond-shaped" in English, maybe hence the confusion.

[moandcompany]

Technically correct is the best kind of correct. Symbolically, in this context, they were seen as diamonds in the sky, aka stars :)