How Carmakers Play the Name Game

This week’s flap about Renault giving their new electric car a popular female first name piqued our interest in how cars get their names. From animal imagery to alphanumeric codes, a name is a car’s first opportunity to sell itself. It can become the stuff of legend or the butt of jokes.

Typically, an automaker’s product development team will name a car in the concept phase. If executives are fans of the name and it tests well, it may stay with the car through production. Other times, a carmaker will outsource name development to a naming firm. We wanted to find out just what some carmakers were thinking when naming their products (Ford Probe, anyone?) so we caught up with Laurel Sutton, a principal at the naming firm Catchword Brand Name Development in order to get a better idea of how cars are christened and what names do and don’t work.

Take AMC’s lineup in the mid ’70s, famous for quirky cars with fittingly bizarre names. “Gremlin is a terrible name and it’s surprising it was ever launched,” Sutton told Autopia. “Pacer and Matador are not terrible names at face value.” Still, the relatively more normal names weren’t enough to save lousy cars from the same ridicule associated with the Gremlin.

A naming trend popular with luxury automakers is the cryptic code, from the famed BMW 3- 5- and 7-series to the alphabet soup of Lincoln’s current lineup. Automakers such as Acura and Cadillac have followed the lead of Mercedes and Lexus, abandoning Coupe d’Elegance and Integra for CTS and TL. Sutton says such tactics convey an “insider” status for owners and help promote a brand over a particular model. Abbreviations and numbers are “like a secret language that you learn as an enthusiast and owner of the luxury car,” but “it also requires that the parent brand carries all the weight and communicates all of the brand message.”

Heritage also plays a key factor. Iconic names such as Beetle and Mustang have a place in automotive history, but should only be put on cars fitting of their stature. Ford revived the Cougar and T-Bird nameplates, but the cars didn’t live up to the history behind the marques.

Bringing back the Taurus nameplate, however, was a smart move according to Sutton.

“It was one of the most popular selling cars and although associated with mediocrity, it wasn’t necessarily a terrible car,” Sutton told Autopia. “The name itself conveys strength and has a lot of name recognition. Why reinvent the wheel when you put an existing wheel into motion?”

As for Sutton’s favorite names, the Dodge Caravan ranks highly. It’s a “great meaning for a minivan,” combining the words “car” and “van” into a single word that also conveys transportation of large loads. The multiple vowels and unfamiliar pronunciation of the Volkswagen Touareg, however, is “just plain unattractive sounding, no matter how you pronounce.”

And, finally, what on earth could convince an automaker to put the name “Probe” on the decklid of a brand-new car? “Thousands of people are abducted by aliens every year and I think this name was selected to appeal to them,” Sutton said.

Posted in: car name,Carmakers