While the official details are murky, there are several origin stories of our favorite 4x4 brand. The most popular story claims that since Jeeps got their start as military vehicles, they were first referred to as “GPs”—or General Purpose vehicles. GPs (also often shortened to “jeeps”) were primarily used to transport people between bases or around camps, and they needed to be able to handle a variety of terrain.
That said, the term “jeep” existed as far back as World War I to mean a new, untested vehicle. Ford’s GP vehicle—which did not stand for “general purpose”—was the first jeep to be widely distributed to soldiers in 1941. In 1940, however, the first Jeep model was born, called the Willys Quad. The brand’s vehicles didn’t officially wear the “Jeep” name until 1945.