Car Names

[Carnut]

When I was growing up (and starting to take an interest in cars - when I was about 2 months old...) cars generally seemed to have such exciting and interesting names.  In the UK you only ever really saw British cars apart from the very occasional VW Beetle (whose owners always used to wave to each other!), so the names you saw were ones like Zephyr, Zodiac, Tiger, Avenger, Vanguard, Continental, Jupiter, Californian – as well as the thoroughly boring Oxford, Cambridge, Somerset etc from BMC!  In the US there was the Mustang, Fury, Challenger, Coronet, Monterey, Comet, Cobra and lately Viper.

The French had some interesting names too, like the Citroen DS conjuring up images of Goddesses, or the Renault Fregate (who but the French could get away with calling a car after a ship?  Bentley Battleship?  Rover Barge?  Er, no thanks, although I'm surprised names like Destroyer haven't been used, and the non-marine Annihilator).

So what's happened to the exciting names conjuring up faraway places and vicious animals?  Do the Asian manufacturers have whole departments charged with inventing the most awful names imaginable, like Optima for the latest Kia?  What does that mean exactly?  That you have to be a real optimist to buy one in the hope that it's some good?  Or the mis-spelt Carisma of Mitsubishi, naming it after the one thing it really did not have?  Not that that was the only name they couldn't spell: what about the Mitsubishi Starion?  Perhaps some non-English speaking employee thought Stallion a really good name for a sports car but never really got it across properly and it got all the way to production mis-spelt?  Kia don't seem to have found a copy of an atlas either, what with their Sorento..

How much do Toyota spend inventing their boringly dreadful names?  Avensis?  Auris?  Verso?  What on earth do they all mean?  And what's a Rodius, as SsangYong insist on calling the most hideous car ever made?

Although not exactly having the monopoly on awful names the Japanese nevertheless are far and away in the lead, with cars like the Mitsubishi Chariot Grandio Super Exceed,  Mazda Bongo Friendee,  Honda Life Dunk, Isuzu GIGA 20 Light Dump etc.  Do they know what 'Dump' means? And just who would be seen dead in a car named the Yamaha Pantry Boy Supreme?  Some people apparently!

Even the Germans seem to have taken a leaf out of Japan's book though.  Who precisely at VW was responsible for calling their new city car the "up!"?  I was thinking about getting one for my wife as it's had such good reviews, but frankly I just coudn't live with that stupid name, so another Fiat Panda it's going to have to be.

Numbers have always been used but they are so boringly efficient, usually  just describing the engine or body size.  Thankfully Ferrari have rediscovered the magic of their old names like Monza with new cars like the 458 Italia; long may it continue. Their numbers must have been the most confusing ever and I wonder if even the people at Ferrari themselves can tell you which is which out of the 365GTC, 365GTS, 365GT 2+2, 365GT/4 2+2, 365GTB/4, 365GTC/4, 365GTS/4, 365GT4/BB - all completely different cars!  And Fiat does still try with cuddly names like the Panda, although fellow Fiat Group company seem unable to grasp how awful a Lancia Dedra must have sounded to an English speaker!

Surely there are enough exciting words out there to give cars decent names without having to invent idiotic ones or use boring ones?

Boycott cars with crap names I say!

[Paul Jaray]

.... although I'm surprised names like Destroyer haven't been used , and the non-marine Annihilator...

Well, in the McFarlan line-up of 1918,1919 and 1920 there was a 4-passenger touring called "Model 127 Destroyer" in 1918-1919 and "Model 90 Destroyer" in 1920 

[Otto Puzzell]

Well stated, Carnut!

[woodinsight]

I enjoyed that read Carnut, thank you.
Why car manufacturers don't do their homework before announcing the name of a new model beats me......

[Iluvatar]

What about the strange grammatic rules and special characters of some new names...
iQ, Qubo, C-Zero, Cee'd, Pro_Cee'd... 
What was wrong with normal names like the wonderful Aprilia, Appia, Aurelia, Giulietta?
The worst: Opel Mokka... 
MPC

[Carnut]

What about the strange grammatic rules and special characters of some new names...
iQ, Qubo, C-Zero, Cee'd, Pro_Cee'd... 
What was wrong with normal names like the wonderful Aprilia, Appia, Aurelia, Giulietta?
The worst: Opel Mokka... 
MPC

Fully agree: I had quite a few of those names lined up to mention but couldn't fit them in anywhere!  Just who would rather drive a car called a c'eed than a Giulia? I can't imagine.

[Arunas]

Well, Chinese car names cannot be compared with anything else:

- Hi, dude, what's the name of your ride, huh?
- Ah, well, it's BCS 5010 TYN-C1! And yours?
- Mine is HBJ6460...
- Oh, nice!

[Allan L]

We can only make a guess at how some of those Oriental names that are supposed to look English are pronounced.
I assume that the "q" without a following "u" has a "k" sound, so I can only assume that "ai" must be the same as "ow" to make any sense of Nissan's Qashqai.

Why can't we have names like "Jordan Playboy" any more? My late friend, Roy Jordan, knew where he was with that - and he wanted one!

[Carnut]

and he wanted one!

Don't we all?!

[Carnut]

Well, Chinese car names cannot be compared with anything else:

- Hi, dude, what's the name of your ride, huh?
- Ah, well, it's BCS 5010 TYN-C1! And yours?
- Mine is HBJ6460...
- Oh, nice!

Yes, what a dreadful lack of imagination.
Mind you, the Brits are no better: how sexy does a McLaren MP4-12C sound?
Why didn't they call it a McLaren Maori or a McLaren Marlborough (after the wine-producing region rather than the cigarettes, which would be Marlboro!)?  After all, Bruce was a Kiwi..

[knightfan26917]

Surely there are enough exciting words out there to give cars decent names without having to invent idiotic ones or use boring ones?

Boycott cars with crap names I say!

Amen!

Great article, Carnut.  Agreed whole-heartily.  And, include using old names on cars that have NOTHING to do with the original ... such as the 1995-2007 Ch#$r%*et "monte carlo", 2000-2012 Ch#$r%*et "impala", 1997-2012 Ch#$r%*et "malibu", etc.....  JUST SAYIN'



Cort | 38.m.IL | pigValve + paceMaker + cowValve | 5 MCs + 1 Caprice Classic
* post-surgeryPARTY = 5:30p-10:30p, SAT, 02/11/12 | Beef Villa, 1225 W Spring St, S Elgin IL *
"You were history with the slamming of the door" __ Celine Dion __ 'It's All Coming Back To Me Now'

[Allemano]

I once watched a feature on German TV about a man who "invented" names for Opel.
if I recall it right "Vectra" and "Calibra" were two of his accomplishments. It was interisting to see how he found names that give a certain kind of abstract feeling (or not!), without saying too much. (harmful, disturbing)

We all know that it can be quite hard as you can't be sure that somewhere on this planet exactly this particular name is used in vulgar or ridiculous context. (Pajero, Vixen etc.)

I guess todays car makers resp. their marketing departments don't give a s*** what we think about them. We're simply not their target group anymore..

[Carnut]

I was behind a car yesterday called a "Kia Carens".
If I'd been asked I would have said "Carens" is an anti-wrinkle cream for middle-aged ladies..
The name probably suits the car, then!

[Allan L]

Then there's the pronunciation problem.
Obviously Hyundai is an attempt to write a Korean name so that we can say it, but has it two syllables or three? In other words do you pronounce "yu" as one sound (as in Yugoslavia) or two - and if two is the "Hy" bit spoken as in "hyperbole" or as in "hymn"?

Mercifully we no longer have to work out how to pronounce "daewoo" - it's "chevrolet" hereabouts now.

[Paul Jaray]

I was behind a car yesterday called a "Kia Carens".
If I'd been asked I would have said "Carens" is an anti-wrinkle cream for middle-aged ladies..
The name probably suits the car, then!

This name has always surprised me...I studied Latin at school and I remeber a past participle of the verb Carere, that is Carens, Carentis: "Missing, devoid of something; inadequate: a character lacking imagination; deficient nutrition; culture lacking, inadequate, incomplete.

What a name for a car!

[Allan L]

I was behind a car yesterday called a "Kia Carens".
If I'd been asked I would have said "Carens" is an anti-wrinkle cream for middle-aged ladies..
The name probably suits the car, then!

This name has always surprised me...I studied Latin at school and I remeber a past participle of the verb Carere, that is Carens, Carentis: "Missing, devoid of something; inadequate: a character lacking imagination; deficient nutrition; culture lacking, inadequate, incomplete.

What a name for a car!

Well, as the logo spells the name KIΛ  which anyone who's familiar with the Greek alphabet would pronounce "kill", nothing would surprise me about them and their naming policy.

[Carnut]

I doubt if they know as much as you guys, so I think Kia are the ones who'd be surprised!

[Iluvatar]

Well, as the logo spells the name KIΛ  which anyone who's familiar with the Greek alphabet would pronounce "kill", nothing would surprise me about them and their naming policy.

(...or russian...)
MPC

[knightfan26917]

I doubt if they know as much as you guys, so I think Kia are the ones who'd be surprised!

LOL!


Also intriguing (well, at least, to me) is the different names a car takes on, before the final name is established.

For instance, iirc, the Camaro was originally named "Panther".

And, the Monte Carlo (the ORIGINAL, ~the late 1960s before the model was introduced September 1969 as a 1970 model) was originally dubbed "Concours".



Cort | 38.m.IL | pigValve + paceMaker + cowValve | 5 MCs + 1 Caprice Classic
* post-surgeryPARTY = 5:30p-10:30p, SAT, 02/11/12 | Beef Villa, 1225 W Spring St, S Elgin IL *
"Back in 1876 an old boy named Bell invented a contraption that we know so well" __ Reba McEntire __ 'Why Haven't I Heard From You?'

[Carnut]

[quote author=knightfan26917 link=topic=19534.msg198493#msg198493 And, the Monte Carlo (the ORIGINAL, ~the late 1960s before the model was introduced September 1969 as a 1970 model) was originally dubbed "Concours".
[/quote]

I can imagine why they changed that one.
After all, how could they name a car after the concreted area in front of a building...?!

[Wendax]

 

[billtorrance9999]

Then there's the Mitsubishi Starion.  In response to the Ford Mustang it was supposed to be the Stallion, but with the Japanese inability to pronounce the letter "L" ............

[Allan L]

Then there's the Mitsubishi Starion.  In response to the Ford Mustang it was supposed to be the Stallion, but with the Japanese inability to pronounce the letter "L" ............

Well it also seems they left the "t" out of Shotgun, but would we do any better in Japanese?
Perhaps they should have followed Armstrong Siddeley's lead and used wartime aeroplane names, in their case "Zero", "Raiden" and perhaps "Betty"

[Carnut]

Then there's the Mitsubishi Starion.  In response to the Ford Mustang it was supposed to be the Stallion, but with the Japanese inability to pronounce the letter "L" ............

..yes.. From my original article above:
Quote
Not that that was the only name they couldn't spell: what about the Mitsubishi Starion? Perhaps some non-English speaking employee thought Stallion a really good name for a sports car but never really got it across properly and it got all the way to production mis-spelt?
Unquote

[Siata1]

[/quote]
Well it also seems they left the "t" out of Shotgun, but would we do any better in Japanese?
Perhaps they should have followed Armstrong Siddeley's lead and used wartime aeroplane names, in their case "Zero", "Raiden" and perhaps "Betty"
[/quote]

Mitsubishi left nothing out of "Shogun": according to Wikipedia, a shogun (literally, "a commander of a force") was one of the (usually) hereditary military dictators of Japan from 1192 to 1867. In this period, the shoguns, or their shikken regents (1203–1333), were the de facto rulers of Japan though they were nominally appointed by the emperor.