So what's the deal with naming your car.

[Brooklands]

I have only named three cars in my life. The first was an 82 Cavalier Wagon that was bright yellow and named "the Lemon".
My 91 Explorer was named "Eddie" by my girlfriend du jour because it was an Eddie Bauer, and my TR3B became "Fagin" because my family wanted the car to have a name, and since I keep having to take a little here or a little there from my finances to keep the car looking and running okay, I used the name of the most famous British pick pocket.

 

[amcboy]

I usually takes a few months for the name to settle in.

Sometimes it obvious, sometimes it just fits.

Prior Examples:

'77 F-250 (Painted R/W/B): "The Flagship"
'70 AMX: "Ace"
'71 Cuda: "Dexter"
'72 Javelin/AMX: "The Blue Beast" (T'was Blue... duh.)
'78 CJ-7: "Muddy the Mudskipper"
'78 F-250: "The Texas Terror"
'90 Caravan: "Smokey" (Traded a VCR for this car, it burned some oil...)
'91 Chevy 72 pass. school bus: "The Titanic"
'78 Fiat: "Frances"
'69 TR-6: "That @$%@$ !!@$# car"
'83 SECA 900: "The Nut Number"
'72 Piper Cherokee 180: "Ol' Powhaten"

Still working on the current TR-6. Guess I'll add it to my sig file when I figure it out...

 

[PeterK]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:] Anybody go so far as to have a tattoo of their car's given name?

No name for mine and even I'm not sick enough to do the tattoo routine.

Someone here dubbed it a "big banana" once, which I thought was funny at the time. Just that time, though.... [/QUOTE]

That would be a funny tatoo if people didn't know what it meant /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/blush.gif

 

[amcboy]

Zoinks! I'd have to cover both arms and my back!

Only really ever loved one car enough to do something like tatoo its name forever on my body...

But it didn't love me back, so it didn't last.

(Sigh)

 

[PeterK]

OW!That first photo(crusty)really hurts.Bury that sucker,put an "RIP" on it.

I still have the front clip that I'm saving until I do the wiring on my 4A.

Poor Crusty.

 

[AltaKnight]

Olive Oyl from Popeye fame
named after it's color and it's leavings on the driveway!

 

[swift6]

The only cars I ever named have been my Triumphs. For some reason they seem more female than male. Mostly because they would be referred to as my mistresses by my friends. They also seem to be named after women in History.

The TR6 is named 'Josephine'. After Napoleon's 'Josephine', THE very definition of unrequited love. She was named during her rebuild and many, many late nights and little sleep. Repaying my glut of attention with a new found attitude after her makeover. The showqueen instead of the girl next door.

The TR8 has a little more whimsical, yet naughty, namesake. Having a V8 in a small light car tends to bring out the hooligan in me. For that I blame the car. Thus her namesake is 'Jezebel'.

 

[gsalt57tr3]

MMM, the tradition of naming cars...

My mother always named our family cars.

My wife's family owned an insulation business and had to name the trucks the company used to be able to decern which truck they were talking about. The tradition seemed to extend to the family cars.

I owned many cars before we got married and I never named any of them. Until I got my TR3, I don't think we named any of the cars we owned together. However, since then we have named every car we own, including my Yamaha Motorscooter.

'57 TR3 - Isoldir, which I found on a Celtic language website. It means "little brat" and was appropriate on so many levels.

'53 Standard Vanguard - Katrina, because I had to wait 6 weeks for a truck to transport it due to the fact that they were all transporting trailer to New Orleans.

'72 Series 3 Land Rover - Fiona, my son had just performed in the play Brigadoon and the female lead charactor was named Fiona.

'99 Honda CRV - didn't have a name for this car until my son inherited it, he has named it Miko.

'06 Honda Fit - Little Blue Shoe, because thats what it looks like.

'93 Toyota Pickup - Little Red, another name given by my son.

and finally,

'06 Yamaha Vino (125cc Scooter) - Lapin Vite (The fast rabbit) named after a pizza place where we ate in Limoges France. They were primarily a delivery operation and they used scooters for their deliveries.

Still working on a name for my Triumph 10, the working name is Miss 'Liza, after Eliza Doolittle of My Fair Lady fame, as she has much refining to be done.

Our cars seem to be always female or neuter, no idea why.

 

[DrEntropy]

It's akin to naming a ship or boat...

Some of mine have been named, some not. First Wife named first MGB "Megan B" back in '69. Never named any of the Lotus cars I've owned, just referred to as their model names. The first two Alfa GTV's were nameless. Third GTV was dubbed "Luigi" by a friend and that stuck, it got passed to this Spider. SWMBO dubbed Der Benz "Diesela", it fit. Her last car was an Aries K and I commonly referred to THAT as "Th' DamDodge" and considered it both female and a man-hater. She called it her Dodge "Insipid". The current MGB hasn't a name.

I guess it all depends on the car's exhibited traits around here.

:shrug:

 

[PeterK]

Of course, these's always names we call other peoples cars that use the letters of the cars maker like:

FIAT = Fix It Again Tony, or Fix It All the Time
FORD = Found On Road Dead
...

 

[vagt6]

Naming the machine is universal, it would seem. Folks all over the planet do it, it's not just here in the 'states.

Seems natural: you put so much into your vehicles, especially if it's an older one. Naming it gives it a life of it's own, makes it a part of the family!

 

[Bugeye58]

Personally, I've always thought that naming cars was pretty silly.
Mine are just referred to by year and color, as in the green '65, the gray '61, the orange '72, etc.
Jeff

 

[TRDejaVu]

FIAT = Fix It Again Tony, or Fix It All the Time
FORD = Found On Road Dead

LOTUS = Lots Of Trouble Usually Serious.
I had 2 Elans back in the day and wish that I still had my S4 Sprint.

FORD = Fix Or Repair Daily.
I had some Cortinas and Escorts and that definitely applied

 

[swift6]

In the UK it seems more common to refer to the cars by their registration numbers (license plates). Especially since they tend to stay with the car. Sort of becomes the public identity for the vehicle.

 

[jjbunn]

I agree with the Rt. Hon. Doc. Entropy: sometimes a name is appropriate, feels right, sometimes not. I had an MGB GT before this TR6, which was so obviously a "Harold" that the name stuck. But the TR6 is referred to as "the TR6". So far, anyway. My 911 is called "Bimbo" for fun, but in practice, when mentioned, it's "the Porsche".

 

[AngliaGT]

Our '72 Cortina MKIII had (BC,Canada) license plates
that said "OUR MAG" on them for "Maggie".When it was licensed in California,the first 3 letters were "RBK",
which I took for "Rebekka".
But they just get regerred to as "the Green Cortina",
"the TR6",etc.

- Doug

 

[PeterK]

Julian,

I've owned both a 73 911T CIS Coupe and a 79 SC Targa. I really miss the sound and rear-engine handling and hope to have another someday.

I stopped at an ice cream shop in Beaufort SC in my 73 many moons ago (I sold it in 82) and the woman serving the ice cream was obviously German by her thick accent.

So I asked her to settle a long dispute about what the proper pronunciation of the name of my car was, not giving away how I pronounced it; I always thought a 2-syllable [Pors+Cha] not [Porsh] is correct.

Well she looked at me and then out the window at my car and turned to me then said (in her very thick accent) Kaaman Gia. We laughed!

 

[PATR8]

I have never really named any of my cars but they all seem to eventually end up named. The 8 is simply known as the "8", my H3 is called blue after the neighbor said it looked like babe the blue ox next to my 8. My Dodge Ram was known as the terminator because it's front was always covered with dead bugs. My Scout was called Bertha cause the ex said it looked like a Large lady with big hips. Now when I am along the road trying to fix the 8 from a variety of Lucas electrical issues I call it many of the samne 4 letter names that others may mutter

 

[TRED]

Back in the 1970's a friend gave me the nickname Tred=TR Ed
When I first got my TR6 back on the road with the V8 some people called it Frankenstien due to the 6 different colors and welds that hadn't even been ground smooth on the sheet metal.
Today I call HER the Triumph, she's my metal mistress.

 

[DrEntropy]

Today I call HER the Triumph, she's my metal mistress.

/bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/lol.gif

Kinky, babee. Very kinky. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif