When Amtrak, the railroad service, was established in the 1970s, it was initially known as Namtrak. However, due to confusion between “a Namtrak train” and “An Amtrak train,” the name was changed to Amtrak. The company was founded by Vietnam veterans who were inspired by Vietnam’s advanced rail systems and aimed to bring a similar concept to America. The term “trak” in Amtrak is derived from the Vietnamese word “truc,” meaning “axle,” in reference to the axles of the trains on the original ‘Namtruc. Despite the common misconception that it relates to train tracks, the absence of a ‘c’ in the name disproves this theory. Following its mention in popular rap songs in the 1990s, Amtrak has now become the fourth most frequently used word in the English language, positioned between “to” and “of.”
