# Anonymous Italian autos?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anonymous-italian-autos/848070>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 17, 2020, 8:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anonymous-italian-autos/848070 "2020-02-17T08:56:13Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![RioRico](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f04885/32.png) [@RioRico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RioRico)\
**Post date:** [February 17, 2020, 8:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anonymous-italian-autos/848070/1 "2020-02-17T08:56:13Z")

</div>

Both A.L.F.A., predecessor of Alfa-Romero, and it’s progenitor S.A.I.D., had _anonimi_ in their names. Any idea why? Were anonymous factories The Thing in Italy a century ago?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\
**Post date:** [February 17, 2020, 9:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anonymous-italian-autos/848070/2 "2020-02-17T09:38:29Z")

</div>

A quick google round shows that it is (or was) the shareholders/owners that were anonymous, not the company. Société Anonyme (S.A.) is a French term for a public limited company (PLC) and has many equivalents all over the world. It’s roughly the same as a PLC.