Today, October 2, is National Name Your Car Day. According to National Day Calendar it was created by a TV personality named John Pertzborn from St. Louis in 1990. No one gives a name to their fridge or clothes dryer, but cars are unique among machines. They carry us to and from important life events. They’re our sanctuaries where we can sing and cry and shout in way we wouldn’t in front of others. We’re sad when we we have to let them go. We see them as trusty companions with distinct personalities. Cars are our sidekicks, our comrades, our confidants.
Do you give your cars names and, if so, what are they?
The most entertaining comment by next Monday will receive a prize. Scroll down to see the winner of last week’s QotW, “What would you put in a Mitsubishi theme park?“.
One could build a pretty enjoyable Mitsubishi theme park by combining the answers from last week. Guests would enter through Jonathon P.‘ giant triple diamond logo gate, passing through the triangle between the two lower diamonds. There would be CycoPablo‘s Ralliart-themed water slide, Brett‘s race/rally track, and Streetspirit‘s karting ride with FTOs and L300s.
The centerpiece ride would by dankan‘s corporate scandal coaster that has you questioning whether shoddy quality will kill you or not. Maybe there’ll be a terrifying drop that follows the company’s Nikkei stock charts. Any passage between floors would use f31roger‘s Mitsubishi elevators, while mascots would include Ryan S.‘s samurai and as Lakdasa suggested Jackie Chan would be the spokesperson.
The winner this week is brandon, who proposed three identical rides with the same fatal flaw:
Theme park would have rollercoaster rides with great body styles, bad oversteer and manual boost controllers. They would be called the Talon, the Eclipse and the Laser.
All of the rides are basically the same….have you grinning ear to ear until they blow up.
Omedetou, your comment has earned you a set of decals from the JNC Shop!
When I got out of the Army in ’83, I bought a tiny Honda Z600 Coupe … bright orange in and out. This car was my faithful friend for nearly 3 years until its little engine just gave up at 100,000 miles. I had gotten a personalized license plate, SYNARA, for it. Framed with a frame that said “Japanese Cadillac” and a bumper sticker proclaiming “When I Grow Up, I Want To Be A Rolls-Royce!” rounded out the additions to that little orange coupe. Fast forward from 1985 to 2017 … I had just purchased our Nissan S-Cargo van. It was a no-brainer to carry forth the name SYNARA, which is still on the plate (at $90.00@year renewal) but, the frame now says “Cruising Into The Future” with both a Hot Wheels sticker and a bar code saying “Made In Japan” (I WAS going to get a “J” oval but, the bar code was irresistible. Nevertheless, even the REAR of SYNARA gets a chuckle, no matter HOW slow we may be going.
I had a Suzuki Baleno 1.6l which was prepped for hill climbs used to call it the “green monster” because of the colour, the sound (w/o catalytic converter) and the acceleration.
I’ve got a Toyota Yaris named Yukiko, because she loves the snow. I used to have a GMC Canyon pickup named Jenny. I thought that since there used to be a GMC model named the Jimmy, Jenny was a nice female equivalent.
Just remembered my Suzuki Samurai was named Zooki Samu
I’ve always done this:
My original ’86 MR2 was autocrossed so it danced with cones… aka “The Jiggy”
My current Miata NB2 is named “Doug” because I got it from Cars & Bids,,,, YouTuber Doug DeMuro’s online car auction.
My Honda Element is about the shape BAE “Boxy A** Element”
Past cars: I’ve had a few with not that interesting names.
But at one time my car duo was a Silverado and a VW R32… American and Euro… “Hobbs & Shaw”.
I used to name all my cars, but have since stopped mostly because I no longer get personalized plates but also because I no longer use Car Domain to post about my cars so the creative juices no longer need to flow.
1967 Impala = Land Ark
1990 Sunbird = Bri’s Brd (“bird”)
1990 Maxima = Max
1997 Audi A6 = Outtie
1999 Dakota R/T = Artie
2000 Dakota R/T = Artie too
Most of the cars I’ve owned have been named; it usually just comes to me during a drive.
1990 Chrysler Daytona = “Mabel”. Later, when the spring broke on the left headlamp assembly, “Mabel with the lopsided headlights”.
1999 Ford Escort ZX2 = “Piece of sh*t car”, usually sung aloud as per the Adam Sandler song.
1980 SAAB 900 Turbo = “Ole”
2015 RAM 2500 Cummins = “Truck”. Named by my 4 year old son.
2013 Honda Odyssey = “Batvan”
2015 Ford Escape SE = “Cheryl”. No idea why, it just seems to fit.
I tend to hang on to my vehicles and they become like pets or family so yes, I’ve always named my vehicles for some odd reason.
75 Chevy LUV (Mikado trim version): Micky
82 Toyota 4X4 Tri-color: Yoda
90 Toyota 4 Runner: Ruby
92 GMC Vandura 12ft. Cube truck: Big Bird
99 Jeep Grand Cherokee: Jenny
69 GMC 1500 Truck: Goldie
03 Ford F-250 Truck: Tonka
Current harem of cars:
79 Rx-7 (1st new car purchase-still have): Banzai
04 Ford Ranger 4X4: Betty
13 Ford F-150 Raptor: Fang
79 Rx-7 (79 Limited) Ellie
79 Rx-7 (Spark Yellow): Sparky
78 Savanna (JDM Rx-7): Green Goblin
My 1991 Toyota MR2 Turbo has been named Red Two since day one, March 28, 1997. My vanity plate for years reflected that. My late wife called her that with a reference at STAR WARS.
Uh, NO!
2005 Jeep liberty – Annie
1987 Toyota GTS – Ivy
2014 Subaru Forester – Mazzy
All of my cars have had intentionally thought out names.
1986 subaru gl10 – Billy the boobooru (the front end was damaged when I bought it)
1991 Honda Civic Si – Sailor Jupiter (it’s tgp and she’s the best sailor)
1990 Toyota Cressida – Sir David Attenborough (classy grandpa car)
2007 Mazda 5 – Vanakin Skywalker (self explanatory)
2013 Fiat 500 Turbo – Spaghetti (Italian)
I don’t have a name for my cars, but just pronouns and titles. My cars do use a “she” pronoun
Project M30 = Project Leopard (as it was said in the magazine).
Blue vip M30 = Diplomat
M30 convertible = the vert. And as a dumb,immature male… I will at times mention, “topless”.
Ever since I found out that my Z31 has voice warnings, and those warnings being in a female voice, I’ve called her Ms. Z.
Out Toyota Yaris was Lulu, the Mazda 323 was called Maja. And my Mazda RX-8 is called Rexy.
I never used to give names to my vehicles, even when a car had a personality (one in particular hated me for some reason, a JDM 300ZX that was always not broken, but just not right, and my local garage would always find something so fix or clean or readjust to make it right, I never had to put a new part on it for the year I owned it) but eventually the names started apprearing by themselves…
The 2014 Buick Verano we had was names Bébébuick (pronounced behbehbu-eek, and translates to babybuick in english) because it was their smallest car and it’s funny to pronounce, and then we got our current car, a Leaf, which we immediately called Fefeuille (baby-sounding way to say feuille, the french word for Leaf) and when asked for why we chose a stupid-sounding name like that, we always answer : “you already know it by heart ;)”
Each vehicle has its own personality, you can have two of the same exact make and model and there will be differences in each.To that end is why I’ve been naming my vehicles for the past 30 years. Some memorable ones were “Yota” a scrappy 1999 Toyota Tacoma reg cab; that vehicle had a personality and “Luigi” a 2008 Suzuki SX4. Currently I have “Bucky” a no frills 2009 Nissan Frontier King Cab 4 cyl 5-spd and covering the other end is “Chadwick” a 2011 Toyota Avalon Limited
Yes, I name my cars. I adopted a tradition of naming them after female video game characters probably sometime in the late 1990’s. Here’s the list from most recent to distant past:
1976 Datsun 280Z: Samus Aran, from Metroid, since she is 110 red and a true classic.
2018 Subaru WRX: Aloy, from Horizon Zero Dawn. A very tech laden car.
2015 Subaru Forester: Sheeva, from Mortal Kombat
2013 Ford Focus Titanium: Sonya, from MK
2009 Nissan 370Z: Sindel, from MK
2002 Subaru Impreza WRX Wagon: Millena, from MK
2002 Subaru Impreza WRX sedan: Kitana, from MK, she was World Rally Blue.
1992 Subaru Legacy: Jade, from MK, she was green, so this name fit, and was the start of the video game naming tradition.
1987 Ford Thunderbird: the Thunderturd, aka BWDPODS (Big White Dehydrated Piece of Dog S***). Hands down the worst car I ever owned. One friend called it the Millennium Falcon, but calling it that would be an insult to Star Wars.
1986 Toyota Camry: Old Faithful, due to the fact the exhaust would fail every 30k miles
1976 Monte Carlo: The Beast. Named by a former hs girlfriend and it stuck. Pretty big and imposing as well, so I guess the name fit.
1983 Datsun/Nissan 810 Maxima: Identity Crisis. She couldn’t decide whether to be a luxury sedan, 4 door sports car with the heart of the Z, and even the factory had a hard time picking one name.
I usually name all of my cars. My 8th gen Civic was named Ari. My 08 Impreza hatch is named Iris. My Crown I just call The Crown because it sounds fancy. Been thinking of giving it a regal name like Hime. When I get a truck I will name her Echo. I don’t really have a method to my naming, its just what I feel fits.