I recently purchased a emerald green 99 volkswagon Jetta and am completely in love with it but I’m curious as to the origions of the name. I know that the Jetta is actually what used to be know as the volkswagon fox but were did the name Jetta come from, and for that matter what the heck does Passat mean??? Are they German words because they sure as heck don’t sound german to me. 
My pet theory is that Golf and Jetta come from gulf stream and jet stream as Scirocco means a type of desert wind and the original versions of all three cars (Mk 1 Golf known as Rabbit in the US) were built on the same platform.
Hadn’t thought about that in a long time. I wonder if I still have the black Golf[sup]GTi[/sup]ball shift knob from my '78 Rabbit.
When I purchased my VW Golf, I was told that “Golf” is from the German word for “Gulf,” as in “gulf stream.” I would imagine that “Jetta” is from “jet stream.”
As for Passat, can’t help you.
Tracking Volkswagen (or many other car names) from country to country can be a real PITA. The Jetta (in the U.S.) was a different car than the Brazilian-built Fox and was being built and sold before the Fox was designed (although the Fox design may have grown closer to the Jetta design and the names may have been shifted. I believe that in Germany, the Jetta is called the Bora, which would indicate that Jetta was a U.S. marketing staff creation. The Passat is known as the Passat in Germany, so it may have some meaning there.
(The Golf was always the Golf in Germany, although the same car was the Rabbit for 10 years, or so, in the U.S.)
I own a Jetta, and remember reading that Jetta was, in fact, referring to…um…some wind or another. Don’t recall what, specifically, it was…but definitely wind.
Must be named after famed silent-film star Jetta Goudal!
Yep, the US Jetta is the Bora in Germany. The name isn’t used here because Maserati (IIRC) used the “Bora” nameplate first in the US market.
Zap!
Yup. Jet stream winds. Volkswagen has been using wind names extensively ever since they started giving their cars names instead of numbers. The Golf is indeed named for the Gulf Stream winds, Scirocco is a desert wind, Passat is the German name for the trade winds, Santana for the Santa Ana winds…
Incidentally, the Jetta name was originally used in Germany, too. I’ve also seen the name Vento, and currently Bora. I’m not sure if all of these are the Golf-with-a-trunk model, however, or if one or two are a Passat-with-a-trunk. Their smaller station wagon is sold as the Golf wagon in Europe, the Jetta wagon in North America.
[Homer]Woo Hoo! I was the first one to respond and everyone ('cept Eve with a terrific obscure reference, welcome back) agreed with me. <happy dance> I am so smart! I am so smar! s-m-r-t I mean s-m-A-r-t[/Homer]