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Automobiles were originally sold under the name “Toyoda”, from the family name of the company's founder, Kiichiro Toyoda. In September 1936, the company ran a public competition to design a new logo. Out of 27,000 entries the winning entry was the three Japanese katakana letters for “Toyoda” in a circle. But the name preferred was “Toyota” because it took eight brush strokes, a fortuitous number, to write in Japanese, was visually simpler. Since “Toyoda” literally means “fertile rice paddies”, changing the name also helped to distance the company from associations with farming. The newly formed word was trademarked and the company was registered in August 1937 as the “Toyota Motor Company”.

After the birth of the Toyota Motor Corporation, the flaming Forties saw the coming of many passenger cars and even a pickup. By the end of the decade, the automaker had produced more than 100,000 automobiles.

Toyota grew bigger in the 1950s and expanded its catalogue with a slew of new small cars. It launched the BJ truck which is actually the precursor to the Land Cruiser. By the end of fiftes, Toyota had started exporting its automobiles to the US market with the establishment of Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A., Inc. The first Toyota to be sold in America was the Crown; it held the distinction of being the first ever Japanese car to be sold outside the country. The Swinging Sixties witnessed a steady growth. Toyota introduced the Corolla which is still in production till date. The decade closed with Toyota reporting annual domestic sales of 1 million units and cumulative exports of 1 million.

The successful Celica sports coupe was rolled out in the Seventies and this remained in production for more than 30 years. By this point, Toyota showed its presence in many parts of the world. The oil crisis of 1973 had made Toyota's compact, fuel-efficient cars more popular than ever in the United States. By the time the '70s drew its curtain, the automaker had exported more than 10 million vehicles.