Yep - I know that most people (including Chrysler) will tell you that the word "Jeep" is a contraction of "GP =General Purpose vehicle" describing the Willys jeep first produced in the 1940s.
BUT Didn't Popeye have a strange pet that looked half dog half cat that could be come invisible and walk through solid objects such as doors, walls etc. So it could literally go anywhere. In the late 1920s/early 30s?

And wasn't that pet called "Jeep"?

Does anybody know of an earlier example or alternative usage/origin of the term? Why "Jeep" exactly?
Not world-shatteringly important but I just like to know these things!
And EVERYBODY tramps out the same old GP=Jeep explanation...but I'm not convinced that's other than a co=incidental coinage.
D