[Omkar]

For most of us, the automobile journey started off by being able to name any car on the road. That’s how important car names are! A good name may not be able to save a bad car from its eventual fate of being a flop, but it will surely be stuck in the minds of car enthusiasts for a long time. So, here’s a list of some interesting car name trivia, and mind you that this is just a start. Requesting you to please contribute with additional points on car names. Do check out the Fun & Interesting Trivia on the Indian Car Scene thread too.

• Most popular alphabet for car names - Surprisingly the letter 'C' is the most popular when naming cars followed by the letter 'S'. The letters 'A' and 'T' are the next most popular letters.

• Mahindra’s obsession with the letter ‘O’ -
It may seem like there's some deep-rooted meaning behind Mahindra ending all its car names with the letter 'O'. However, it was purely due to the fact that two Mahindra vehicles, the Scorpio and Bolero became immensely popular. They just thought it was lucky and carried on with it as a tradition.

Source

• Iconic names - We’ve had some really iconic car names that will be remembered for a very long time. Some of them are Fortuner, Thar, Safari, Scorpio, Ambassador, City, etc.


• New Generation, New Name - Manufacturers have sold a car and the new generation car alongside in the market with different names.

1. Skoda Octavia - Laura
The Octavia was Skoda’s first car in India, and it did quite well for itself. When the second-gen car was being introduced, Skoda used the Laura name and sold both generation cars alongside each other with the Laura being priced at a premium. This didn’t work out that well for Skoda and the Octavia numbers dropped, leading to it being discontinued. Skoda then brought back the Octavia moniker with the third-gen car.


2. Hyundai Accent - Verna
Hyundai introduced the internationally second-generation Accent in India. Interestingly, it was called Verna in South Korea and Accent in India. When the new generation Accent came to India, it was rebadged as Verna and the previous generation Accent was sold alongside. Hyundai decided to carry on the Verna name for the upcoming generations of its C2 segment sedan.


• Using Nostalgia - Bringing back a car name that has worked in the past is a good strategy. However, it does not work every time.

1. The Maruti Zen managed to create a niche for itself during its time. The Zen Estilo in no way resembled the old car and people didn’t relate to it the way they did with the original Zen. As a result, the car was a flop.
2. The Tata Safari had a cult following in its time. After considering various names for the 7-seater Harrier, Tata decided to bring back its tried and trusted nameplate.
3. Maruti Grand Vitara is a legendary name in Indian Motorsport history. While the car was discontinued, it carried on the legacy in the international market. Maruti introduced a sub-4 m SUV and named it Vitara Brezza. Its next generation dropped the Vitara name and Maruti introduced an all-new product with the Grand Vitara moniker.


• Keeping it in the family - We’ve seen manufacturers stick to the names of successful products. Here are a few examples -

1. The Hyundai i10 was a strong performer in its segment. Hence the following generations carried the name with Grand i10 and then Grand i10 Nios.
2. The Toyota Innova has seen massive success in the Indian market. This led to its successors being called the Innova Crysta and most recently, the Innova Hycross.
3. Mahindra took a similar approach to the Scorpio. Since the new generation Scorpio was a major revamp, they decided to name it ‘Scorpio-N’ which is just brilliant.


• The Toyota-Tata Harrier - When Tata wanted to showcase the 7-seater Harrier at the Geneva motor show in 2019, they couldn’t use the Harrier name. Since the Harrier name is trademarked by Toyota globally. Hence, Tata called it the Buzzard concept at the motor show, which was later called Gravitas. In 2021, Tata decided to bring back the ‘Safari’ moniker.


• Ford - Mahindra Scorpio - Similar to the previous point, Ford had been selling the Scorpio sedan in the European market. So, when Mahindra wanted to sell their Scorpio in Europe, they had to rename it since the trademark was with Ford. Hence, Mahindra sold the Scorpio as 'Goa' in Europe.


• Zica – Zika fiasco - Tata’s small car was codenamed ‘Kite’ during development. While naming, Tata finalized the name Zica which was short for “Zippy Car”. Then out of pure misfortune, the launch of the car coincided with the outbreak of the Zika virus. In order to avoid any negative impact due to the similarity of the names, Tata decided to call the car ‘Tiago’ after Thiago - son of Tata's then brand ambassador, Lionel Messi.


• Names with a story

1. Premier Padmini – Was named after the 14th-century Rajput princess Padmini (also known as Padmavati).
2. Skoda Kushaq – The name Kushaq is derived from the Sanskrit word ‘Kushak’ which means ‘King’.
3. Skoda Kodiaq – The name comes from Kodiak Island, Alaska which is home to the largest brown bear.


• Pattern names

1. Volkswagen names some of its cars after different winds - The Polo refers to ‘polar winds’, Vento means 'wind' in both Italian and Portuguese, Passat means ‘trade wind’, Jetta is German for ‘jet stream’ and Golf refers to ‘Gulf stream’.


2. Hyundai names some of its cars after cities - Tucson and Santa Fe are named after cities in the USA.


• Although not official, BHPian Astargea had an interesting take on the Maruti Invicto's name -
INnoVa In Collaboration with TOyota

Officially, INVICTO means 'Undefeated' in Latin (Source).



As mentioned above, do share any trivia on car names that you may know.

[Aditya]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[fhdowntheline]

VW India is lucky that the Tiguan is not a hot property as such because people would easily confuse it with its smaller sibling Taigun.Its a good thing that the smaller car also has some of the "gun"(attributes) of its Tai (elder sister) especially in its 1.5 DSG avatar.

[SNA411]

Originally Posted by Omkar

2. Hyundai names cars after cities - Tucson and Santa Fe are named after cities in the USA.

This is quite an American thing, and quite popular.
Hyundai Santa Cruz
Kia Sedona
Dodge Dakota
GMC Yukon
Chevrolet Tahoe
Ferrari California
GMC Denali
Chevy Colorado
Kia Sorento
Dodge Durango


SEAT names all its cars after Spanish cities
Ronda, Ibiza, Malaga, Marbella, Toledo, Inca, Alhambra, Cordoba, Arosa, Leon, Altea, Ateca and Arona

[Geo_Ipe]

Eagerly waiting to see how Peugeot-Citroen will use the iconic Ambassador brand name in India!

[Potenza]

Originally Posted by Omkar

• Here’s another trivia regarding the Zen name – It is actually an acronym standing for Zero Engine Noise! It also means ‘Complete’ in Japanese.

Contrary to popular belief, the name ZEN does not stand for Zero Engine Noise. This has been confirmed by the very person who gave the car it’s name, it’s then Product Manager- Avik Chattopadhyay. Avik, also my former boss has recently written a few articles on the Zen and his time as its product manager. They’re available on LinkedIn under his profile and also on AutocarIndia. Make for some very interesting reading.

Link:
https://www-autocarindia-com.cdn.amp...ts-name-428446

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by Omkar

1. Volkswagen names its cars after different winds - The Polo refers to ‘polar winds’, Vento means 'wind' in both Italian and Portuguese, Passat means ‘trade wind’, Jetta is German for ‘jet stream’ and Golf refers to ‘Gulf stream’.
[

I think you are looking at this from a too small perspective. Volkswagen has a few names, internationally, that have nothing to do with wind, e.g. Touran, ID3, Arteon etc.

Naming convention are a pain for car manufacturers, because they have some 200 counties, potentially, to deal with.

When Fiat introduced its Croma in 1986, Dutch car journalist showed up with Croma butter. A Very well known type of butter in the Netherlands.

I have no idea how this works, but I assume they look at the world and where the majority of their sales is likely to be and figure out a term that appears not to be to offensive.

It is one of the reason I never ever went into marketing. Pleasing most, offending few, is not necessarily something I pry myself on.

Jeroen

[Latheesh]

Tata Sumo name has nothing to do with sumo wrestling. It was named after Sumant Moolgaokar, a former MD of Tata Motors.

[vigsom]

Originally Posted by Omkar

do share any trivia on car names that you may know

I'm not too sure but let's see if I remember right

1. Corolla - ring of petals to signify a beautiful eye catching car
2. Camry - crown in Japanese
3. FJ Cruiser = (FJ40 + LandCruiser)/2
4. Hilux - Hi with lux (luxury)
5. Vellfire - Velvet + Fire (Smooth, yet hot)

The variants in Lexus (correct me if I'm wrong)

1. ES - Economy Sedan?
2. GS - Grand sedan
3. LS - Luxury Sedan
4. RX - Radiant Crossover

In CVs, Ashok Leyland had the Cheetah (fleet footed, eapecially used in the hills), Tusker (the load puller), Beaver

[wheelguy]

Tata uses bird names for their cars, at times in the development phase or concept stage and at times for the actual car. But the naming convention is not consistent throughout their portfolio.

The bird names used so far that I can recollect are:

Harrier
Albatross(Altroz)
Kite
Buzzard
Pelican

[GTO]

Perhaps, the most abused moniker in India is "RS". RS / vRS best suited the iconic, sporty Octavias sold in India (including the Laura vRS). But soon, lots of manufacturers started using "RS" for lame sticker jobs. Maruti also used "RS" for accessory jobs of the Swift, Ciaz etc. although the Baleno RS with its 1.0 turbo-petrol was good.

The luxury German marques avoid using names like Polo, Civic, Innova etc. which can mean different things in different languages. They stick with an alphanumeric naming style that can be deployed across the world, in almost all countries. E.g. S500, 530d, A6 etc. This is the simplest & the best IMHO.

[ashutoshb]

Originally Posted by Omkar

• Although not official, BHPian Astargea had an interesting take on the Maruti Invicto's name -
INnoVa In Collaboration with TOyota
Attachment 2468805

INVICTO in Latin means, 'Undefeated'.

Shashank Shrivastav, Senior Director, Maruti Suzuki India, mentioned this in an interview with Jagran.

[Mustang Sammy]

The below site has some interesting names that did not translate well

https://www.goodwood.com/grr/road/ne...nslates-badly/

In addition, back in the day Chevy was having a hard time selling their Nova in Mexico. They finally figured out “No va” means “won’t go” in Spanish.

[100Kmphormore]

After considering various names for the 7-seater Harrier, Tata decided to bring back its tried and trusted nameplate

Gravitas sounded lovely and i thought that would have been the name. Should have kept that name instead of insulting the legendary Safari nameplate!
If Harrier was trademarked, how are they using it now in the 5 seater version?

[Chhanda Das]

Hyundai's Creta was named after the Greek island of Crete to invoke feelings of a relaxing holiday while also drawing inspiration from the word "creative". However, they changed the name to Cantus because apparently, Creta is urban slang for female genitalia in some Spanish-speaking countries

However, I cannot get over the fact that Hyundai still sells an EX variant of the Creta in countries like India, South Africa, etc after all these years