Originally Posted by vividracing

Cliff notes while googling...

While Mr. Katsuji Kawamata, the President of Nissan Motors of Japan Ltd., was visiting the United States in 1958 he attended a performance, on-Broadway, of the hit musical "My Fair Lady".

A couple of years later (1960), when Nissan was about to introduce its new Sports Car Line, Mr. Kawamata gave it the official name of "Fairlady". He had been so impressed with the beauty of the music and the leading lady in that Broadway Musical, that he thought everyone would relate the name of Nissans new sports car "the Fairlady" to the beauty of the music and the leading lady in the play. Indeed, that is what happened in Japan, the name made perfect sense there and was readily accepted in that market.