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From the Audi Website "1909 - Audi Automobilwerke is established in Zwickau In 1909 August Horch had a dispute with the supervisory board of A. Horch & Cie. Motorwagen-Werke AG and as a result, left the company he had begun. Shortly after, on July 16, 1909, he established a second company, Horch Automobil-Werke GmbH, in the same city. Horch lost the ensuing legal dispute over the company same. His solution was to use the Latin translation of his name (which means "hark!"). The new company name, Audiwerke GmbH, became effective on April 25, 1910." - 12/12/2004

The origins of Audi
The company traces its origins back to 1899 and August Horch. The first Horch automobile was produced by him in 1901 in Zwickau, East Germany. In 1910, Horch was forced out of the company he had founded. He founded a new company in Zwickau and continued using the Horch brand. His former partners sued him for trademark infringement and the German court stated that the Horch brand belonged to his former company. August Horch was obliged to refrain from using his family name in connection with cars. As the word "horch!" is old German for "listen!", August Horch used the Latin equivalent of his name, "audi!" for his next effort. It is also popularly believed that Audi is an acronym which stands for "Auto Union Deutschland Ingolstadt".

Established by August Horch in 1909 in Zwickau, and trading since 1910 under the Audi name, which was a Latin translation of Horch (in German: ‘Listen!’)