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Travel Business Names

Travel words carry their own receipts. Viaticum is Latin for the provisions you take for a journey, from via, road, and it is the word that became voyage. Here are 55 travel business names with their parts and their real etymologies on the table: road roots, borrowed words, and the working vocabulary of navigation.

Open these in the generator →every name comes with a receipt

Travel business names, decomposed

Three pools, one table. The root rows come from Latin and Greek words that already meant going somewhere: viaticum, iter, peregrinus, excurrere, expedire, transitus. The borrowed rows are words English took from other travelling cultures and never gave back: safari from Swahili, karwan from Persian, Wanderlust and Fernweh from German, trek from Afrikaans. The navigation rows are working terms off charts and instruments: meridian, azimuth, zenith, astrolabe, sextant, portolan, windward. Every etymology in the middle column is the documented one; the combinations are ours and say so.

NameBuilt fromMeaningTradition
Viaticum Travelviaticum + travelviaticum is Latin for the provisions taken for a journey, from via, road; it is the ancestor of the word voyageLatin or Greek root (etymology documented; the business name is ours)
Voyage & Co.voyage + companyvoyage came through Old French veiage from Latin viaticum, so the name still carries road in itLatin or Greek root (etymology documented; the business name is ours)
Voyage Collectivevoyage + collectivethe same root with the trade word for a group of independent agentsLatin or Greek root (etymology documented; the business name is ours)
Bon Voyage Travel Co.bon voyage + travel companyFrench for a good voyage, borrowed whole into English as a send-offLatin or Greek root (etymology documented; the business name is ours)
Iter Traveliter + traveliter is Latin for road or march; its stem itiner- gives English itineraryLatin or Greek root (etymology documented; the business name is ours)
Itinerary Co.itinerary + companyfrom Late Latin itinerarium, an account of a road, from iter, itinerisLatin or Greek root (etymology documented; the business name is ours)
Peregrine Travelperegrine + travelLatin peregrinus, from abroad, literally through the fields; the peregrine falcon was the bird taken on its migrationLatin or Greek root (etymology documented; the business name is ours)
Pilgrim Travel Co.pilgrim + travel companypilgrim descends from the same peregrinus, by way of Old French pelerinLatin or Greek root (etymology documented; the business name is ours)
Excursion Travel Co.excursion + travel companyLatin excursio, a running out, from ex- plus currere, to runLatin or Greek root (etymology documented; the business name is ours)
Expedition & Co.expedition + companyLatin expeditio, from expedire, to free the feet: ex- plus pes, pedis, footLatin or Greek root (etymology documented; the business name is ours)
Transit Travel Co.transit + travel companyLatin transitus, a going across, from trans plus ire, to goLatin or Greek root (etymology documented; the business name is ours)
Sojourn Travelsojourn + travelOld French sojorner, from Latin sub plus diurnum: to spend the day somewhereLatin or Greek root (etymology documented; the business name is ours)
Terra Travel Co.terra + travel companyterra, Latin for earth or landLatin or Greek root (etymology documented; the business name is ours)
Terra Firma Travelterra + firmaLatin for solid ground, the phrase sailors used for the shoreLatin or Greek root (etymology documented; the business name is ours)
Orbis Travel Co.orbis + travel companyorbis is Latin for a circle or disc; orbis terrarum, the circle of lands, was the Roman name for the known worldLatin or Greek root (etymology documented; the business name is ours)
Nautilus Travelnautilus + travelGreek nautilos, sailor, from naus, shipLatin or Greek root (etymology documented; the business name is ours)
Antipodes Travelantipodes + travelGreek antipodes, with the feet opposite: the people on the far side of the globeLatin or Greek root (etymology documented; the business name is ours)
Safari Collectivesafari + collectivesafari is Swahili for a journey, taken in turn from Arabic safarBorrowed word (source language documented; the business name is ours)
Safari & Co.safari + companythe same Swahili noun in front of the oldest English trade suffixBorrowed word (source language documented; the business name is ours)
Caravan Travel Co.caravan + travel companycaravan came into English through French from Persian karwan, a company of travellers moving togetherBorrowed word (source language documented; the business name is ours)
Karwan Travelkarwan + travelthe Persian original of caravan, before French and English reshaped itBorrowed word (source language documented; the business name is ours)
Wanderlust Travel Co.Wanderlust + travel companyGerman, wandern (to hike) plus Lust (desire): literally the desire to wanderBorrowed word (source language documented; the business name is ours)
Fernweh TravelFernweh + travelGerman, fern (far) plus Weh (ache): far-sickness, the exact counterpart of Heimweh, homesicknessBorrowed word (source language documented; the business name is ours)
Trek & Co.trek + companytrek is Afrikaans and Dutch, from trekken, to pull or to migrateBorrowed word (source language documented; the business name is ours)
Nomad Travel Co.nomad + travel companyGreek nomas, nomados, one who wanders for pasture, from nemein, to pastureBorrowed word (source language documented; the business name is ours)
Odyssey Travel Co.odyssey + travel companyfrom Homer’s Odysseia, the poem of Odysseus and his ten-year return from TroyBorrowed word (source language documented; the business name is ours)
Archipelago Travelarchipelago + travelItalian arcipelago, first a name for the Aegean Sea, from Greek arkhi- (chief) plus pelagos (sea)Borrowed word (source language documented; the business name is ours)
Compass Rose Travelcompass rose + travelthe compass rose is the figure of the directions drawn on a chart; compass is Old French compas, from com- plus passus, a paceNavigation or chart vocabulary (real term; the business name is ours)
Compass & Co.compass + companythe instrument, and the pacing-out sense the Latin root carried before itNavigation or chart vocabulary (real term; the business name is ours)
True North Traveltrue north + traveltrue north is the direction of the geographic pole, as against magnetic north, which wandersNavigation or chart vocabulary (real term; the business name is ours)
Due North Travel Co.due north + travel companydue, from Latin debitum, owed, used in navigation for exactly on the bearingNavigation or chart vocabulary (real term; the business name is ours)
Cardinal Points Travelcardinal points + travelnorth, south, east and west; cardinal is Latin cardo, cardinis, a hinge, the point everything turns onNavigation or chart vocabulary (real term; the business name is ours)
Meridian Travel Co.meridian + travel companyLatin meridianus, of midday, from medius plus dies: the line the sun crosses at noonNavigation or chart vocabulary (real term; the business name is ours)
Prime Meridian Travelprime meridian + travelthe zero line of longitude through Greenwich, fixed by international conference in 1884Navigation or chart vocabulary (real term; the business name is ours)
Zenith Travel Co.zenith + travel companyzenith reached English through Old Spanish from Arabic samt ar-ras, the path over the headNavigation or chart vocabulary (real term; the business name is ours)
Azimuth Travelazimuth + travelArabic as-sumut, the directions, plural of as-samt: the bearing measured round the horizonNavigation or chart vocabulary (real term; the business name is ours)
Lodestar Travellodestar + travelthe guiding star, Polaris; lode is the Old English lad, a way or courseNavigation or chart vocabulary (real term; the business name is ours)
Astrolabe Travel Co.astrolabe + travel companyGreek astrolabos, star-taker: the instrument that measured a star’s altitude before the sextantNavigation or chart vocabulary (real term; the business name is ours)
Sextant Travelsextant + travelLatin sextans, a sixth part: the instrument’s arc is sixty degrees, a sixth of a circleNavigation or chart vocabulary (real term; the business name is ours)
Atlas Travel Co.atlas + travel companyAtlas the Titan, who held up the sky; Mercator put his figure on a collection of maps in 1595 and gave the word its modern senseNavigation or chart vocabulary (real term; the business name is ours)
Atlas & Anchoratlas + anchorthe map book and the ground tackle; anchor is Latin ancora from Greek ankyraNavigation or chart vocabulary (real term; the business name is ours)
Mercator Travel Co.Mercator + travel companyGerardus Mercator, whose 1569 projection let a sailor draw a constant bearing as a straight lineNavigation or chart vocabulary (real term; the business name is ours)
Portolan Travelportolan + travelthe medieval sailing chart, from Italian portolano, a book of ports and sailing directionsNavigation or chart vocabulary (real term; the business name is ours)
Mappa Mundi Travelmappa + mundi + travelLatin for cloth of the world; mappa, a cloth, is where the English word map comes fromNavigation or chart vocabulary (real term; the business name is ours)
Loxodrome Travelloxodrome + travelGreek loxos (slanting) plus dromos (course): the rhumb line, a track of constant bearingNavigation or chart vocabulary (real term; the business name is ours)
Waypoint Travel Co.waypoint + travel companya fixed intermediate position on a planned route, the working unit of a modern itineraryNavigation or chart vocabulary (real term; the business name is ours)
Landfall Travellandfall + travellandfall is the sighting of land after a passage, and the place where it happensNavigation or chart vocabulary (real term; the business name is ours)
Equator Travel Co.equator + travel companyfrom Medieval Latin aequator diei et noctis, the equalizer of day and nightNavigation or chart vocabulary (real term; the business name is ours)
Tropic Travel Co.tropic + travel companyGreek tropikos, of the turning: the latitudes where the sun turns backNavigation or chart vocabulary (real term; the business name is ours)
Latitude & Longitudelatitude + longitudeLatin latitudo, breadth, and longitudo, length, from the shape of early world mapsNavigation or chart vocabulary (real term; the business name is ours)
Windward Travelwindward + travelthe side a vessel meets the wind on, the harder side to workNavigation or chart vocabulary (real term; the business name is ours)
Leeward Travel Co.leeward + travel companythe sheltered side; lee is Old English hleo, shelterNavigation or chart vocabulary (real term; the business name is ours)
Harbour & Havenharbour + havenharbour is Old English herebeorg, shelter for an army; haven is hæfen, a portNavigation or chart vocabulary (real term; the business name is ours)
Passage Travel Co.passage + travel companypassage is Old French, from passer: both the crossing and the fare paid for itNavigation or chart vocabulary (real term; the business name is ours)
Grand Tour Travel Co.Grand Tour + travel companythe circuit of Europe young British travellers made in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries; tour is Latin tornus, a lathe, hence a turnNavigation or chart vocabulary (real term; the business name is ours)

The road is in the root

Latin left English an unusual number of ways to say travel, and each one specifies something different. Viaticum is what you pack, from via, a road. Iter is the road itself, and its stem gives itinerary. Peregrinus meant from abroad, literally through the fields, and it split into two English words, peregrine and pilgrim. Excursio is a running out and stayed short. Expeditio is stranger than it looks: expedire meant to free the feet, ex- plus pes, so an expedition is what happens once you are unencumbered. Transitus is a going across. Sojourn came a longer way, through Old French from sub plus diurnum, to spend the day somewhere.

Words English borrowed

Four of the best travel words in the language are loans, and none of them means anything decorative. Safari is Swahili for a journey, taken from Arabic safar; the wildlife sense is an English addition. Caravan came through French from Persian karwan, a company of travellers moving together. Wanderlust is German, wandern plus Lust, the desire to wander, and German also supplies its darker twin, Fernweh, an ache for distant places built exactly like Heimweh, homesickness. Trek is Afrikaans and Dutch, from trekken, to pull. Nomad is Greek nomas, one who moves for pasture.

Meaning spotlights

Twelve rows, etymologies attached. If the middle column says nothing, the name is doing nothing.

NameBuilt fromMeaningTradition
Viaticum Travelviaticum + travelviaticum is Latin for the provisions taken for a journey, from via, road; it is the ancestor of the word voyageLatin or Greek root (etymology documented; the business name is ours)
Peregrine Travelperegrine + travelLatin peregrinus, from abroad, literally through the fields; the peregrine falcon was the bird taken on its migrationLatin or Greek root (etymology documented; the business name is ours)
Terra Firma Travelterra + firmaLatin for solid ground, the phrase sailors used for the shoreLatin or Greek root (etymology documented; the business name is ours)
Safari Collectivesafari + collectivesafari is Swahili for a journey, taken in turn from Arabic safarBorrowed word (source language documented; the business name is ours)
Wanderlust Travel Co.Wanderlust + travel companyGerman, wandern (to hike) plus Lust (desire): literally the desire to wanderBorrowed word (source language documented; the business name is ours)
Fernweh TravelFernweh + travelGerman, fern (far) plus Weh (ache): far-sickness, the exact counterpart of Heimweh, homesicknessBorrowed word (source language documented; the business name is ours)
Meridian Travel Co.meridian + travel companyLatin meridianus, of midday, from medius plus dies: the line the sun crosses at noonNavigation or chart vocabulary (real term; the business name is ours)
Zenith Travel Co.zenith + travel companyzenith reached English through Old Spanish from Arabic samt ar-ras, the path over the headNavigation or chart vocabulary (real term; the business name is ours)
Azimuth Travelazimuth + travelArabic as-sumut, the directions, plural of as-samt: the bearing measured round the horizonNavigation or chart vocabulary (real term; the business name is ours)
Atlas Travel Co.atlas + travel companyAtlas the Titan, who held up the sky; Mercator put his figure on a collection of maps in 1595 and gave the word its modern senseNavigation or chart vocabulary (real term; the business name is ours)
Mappa Mundi Travelmappa + mundi + travelLatin for cloth of the world; mappa, a cloth, is where the English word map comes fromNavigation or chart vocabulary (real term; the business name is ours)
Grand Tour Travel Co.Grand Tour + travel companythe circuit of Europe young British travellers made in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries; tour is Latin tornus, a lathe, hence a turnNavigation or chart vocabulary (real term; the business name is ours)

Navigation words are precise

They were engineering terms before they were brand names. A meridian is the noon line, from Latin medius plus dies. Zenith is the point overhead, from Arabic samt ar-ras, the path over the head, mangled slightly in Old Spanish on the way in. Azimuth is from the same Arabic word in the plural, as-sumut, the directions. An astrolabe is a star-taker, Greek astrolabos. A sextant carries a sixtieth-degree arc, a sixth of a circle, which is what sextans means. Cardinal points hinge, from Latin cardo. Using one of these is borrowing a working instrument, not an atmosphere. This page names things and does not check availability, so put a shortlist through theUSPTO trademark searchbefore you print anything.

Atlas, Mercator and the map words that became brands

The map vocabulary has the best documented history of any pool on this page.Atlas was a Titan holding up the sky; Gerardus Mercator put that figure on the front of a collection of maps published in 1595, and within a generation the word had shifted from the giant to the book. Mercator himself is the other half of the story: his 1569 projection distorts area badly but lets a navigator rule a constant bearing as a straight line, which is exactly the trade every chart makes. Before both of them came the portolan, from Italian portolano, a book of ports, drawn with rhumb lines fanning out across the sheet. And the plainest word of all is the oldest: map is Latin mappa, a cloth, because the first ones were painted on one, which is why a medieval world map is a mappa mundi, cloth of the world.

Those four names, Atlas, Mercator, Portolan, Mappa Mundi, sit in the table with the rest, and they show the general rule this list runs on. A travel name works when the word had a job before you gave it one. Landfall is the sighting of shore after a passage. A waypoint is a fixed position on a planned route. Windward is the hard side and leeward the sheltered one. Harbour is Old English herebeorg, shelter for an army. To run this grammar across a longer shortlist,the generator pairs the roots and shows the partsfor every result it prints.

Travel business name questions, answered

What is a good name for a travel business?

One built from a word that already means going somewhere. The three reliable pools are Latin road roots (viaticum, iter, peregrinus, transitus), words English borrowed from other travelling cultures (safari from Swahili, karwan from Persian, Wanderlust from German, trek from Afrikaans), and the navigation vocabulary (meridian, azimuth, compass rose, atlas, portolan). Each one hands the client a meaning before you explain anything. The table above splits every name into its parts, and the generator builds more on the same grammar.

Where does the word safari come from?

Swahili, where safari simply means a journey. Swahili took it from Arabic safar, travel. It arrived in English in the nineteenth century attached to East African hunting expeditions, which is why it now carries a wildlife sense it never had in the source language. As a business name it is honest for a tour operator of any kind, because the plain meaning is the general one.

Why do so many travel companies use the word atlas?

Because of one publisher’s frontispiece. Atlas was the Titan condemned to hold up the sky. Gerardus Mercator used his figure on a collection of maps published in 1595, and within a generation atlas had stopped meaning the Titan and started meaning a bound book of maps. A travel business called Atlas is borrowing the second sense, and the first one is still underneath it.

What do meridian, zenith and azimuth actually mean?

All three are position words, and two of them are Arabic. Meridian is Latin meridianus, of midday, from medius plus dies: the line the sun crosses at noon, which is why lines of longitude are meridians. Zenith came through Old Spanish from Arabic samt ar-ras, the path over the head, meaning the point directly overhead. Azimuth is from Arabic as-sumut, the directions: the bearing measured around the horizon. They are working navigation terms, not decoration.

Where the meanings come from. Etymologies follow standard reference: viaticum and via, iter and itineris, peregrinus, excurrere, expedire, transitus and subdiurnare (Latin); nautilos, nomas, astrolabos, loxos and dromos, antipodes, arkhipelagos (Greek); as-samt and as-sumut (Arabic, by way of Old Spanish for zenith); safari (Swahili, from Arabic safar); karwan (Persian); Wanderlust and Fernweh (German); trek (Afrikaans and Dutch); herebeorg and hleo (Old English). The atlas sense dates from Mercator's 1595 map collection; the Mercator projection is 1569; the prime meridian was fixed at Greenwich in 1884. Combinations are ours. Where every name's receipt comes from →