An excerpt below from an interesting history of Minolta I stumbled over, the company was founded by Kazuo Tashima in 1928, originally as Nichi-Doku Shashinki Shoten (Japan-Germany Camera Company). The name was changed to Minolta in 1933.

"A new model introduced in 1933 first carried the Minolta brand name, a name Tashima created to sound like the Japanese word "minoru-ta," which means ripening rice field. The name reminded Tashima of a proverb his mother frequently used, meaning that the more successful one becomes, the more humble one must be: "The ripest ears of rice bow their heads lowest." The name, however, also has a Western meaning, as an acronym for Machinery and Instruments Optical by Tashima."

You can read a lot more about the Minolta history here. http://companies.jrank.org/pages/2818/Minolta-Co-Ltd.html
Greg

I heard the man responsible for the "Kodak" name just really liked the letter "k."

Yes that's the way it looks alright, George E. and his Mum just made it up...I've lived all this time and never knew.
Greg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastman_Kodak#Kodak_name

Thanks for the links. Nice reading.