I'm not sure how relevant this is outside of Ireland, but while doing basic mechanics, if you ever see acceleration denoted as $f$, as it is in the "log tables" here, as in $v=u+ft$, the $f$ in this case stands for the Latin for acceleration, festinatio (with festino meaning "I hurry", so festinatio would very roughly and more literally translate as "hurriedness"), which is funny because adcelero is the Latin for "I speed up" which looks a lot more like acceleration.
Similarly, displacement denoted by $s$ as in $s=ut+frac12 at^2$ is from the Latin for displacement, summoveo (with moveo meaning "I move [something]").
And, of course, velocitas, the Latin for speed. I can imagine u being used for velocity as well since the Romans actually pronounced "v" as "u", so the two are pretty much interchangeable.
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