Curious about peoples car names...

[VenturaTii]

Was curious, having been in the Navy and knowing a bit about history of such; Curious why some of the 'male owned' car names are 'Guy' Names. Men usually give their ships or aircraft Female names and women give them Male names. Just a curious I guess... My '94 Jetta was Sabine, '03 Passat was Ilse and now my '74 BMW is Gretchen. When I was on Deployment our Helos were 'Christine', that was based on the Demonic car movie because she had a mind of her own (just like our Helo...lol) and Samantha because she was Sexy and new (at the time)!

[dubois]

I wish it was something thought provoking, meaningful or historical, it is rather more hysterical than anything.

It may look like a fat guy riding a turtle, but it is actually art: Valerio Cioli's 1560 statue in Florence's Boboli Gardens. It shows Pietro Barbino, Cosimo I's court dwarf, as Bacchus.

[m-racer]

I have always enjoyed observing the car name thing. I have had lots of cars and have never thought about giving them a name. Not saying that means anything at all. One of my favorites belongs to my friend Anita Patton who is an E24 and Alpina affectionado. She went through great pains to aquire a white M635CSi that was in Japan. Rare color and the only J-Spec M car I have actually seen. It is named the Geisha. I thought it was perfect for the car. Feminine with a nod to it's Japanese history. Again, not my thing. I do, however have a Great Dane named Little Walter (after the blues singer), so Iam not claiming a lack of quirkyness here. Should be an interesting thread.

[VenturaTii]

My dog's name is Finlay which is Scottish for White Warrior and I'm half Scottish...even though he is 'Techniaclly' an Irish Dog Breed...lol (Soft Coated Wheaton Terrier)

[smassoni]

I used to name my cars: Ruth was the last one, a beater American hunk of plastic that, while she didn't give me big problems, was tough to deal with all the same. I tend to side with Tom and Ray Magliottzi (or however you spell it) from cartalk and not name my cars anymore; they once devoted a great deal of time talking about how naming a vehicle is like the kiss of death.

I tend to agree with them, as not only does it personally involve you more with the vehicle (well, let's face it, who among us is not "personally involved" with their '02s? we wouldn't be here if we weren't), but also it brings on "bad juju". What do you think? Does naming your car make it mechanically, supernaturally unsound?

Cheers

_______________________

Sean

'76 Jadegrun '02

[Paul7002]

I tried Oskar (From the Tin Drum) for a while, but it didn't stick.

My pets are named after dead musicians. Miles (Davis), (Charlie) Parker, Elvis (obvious)

[H_Krix]

"Phoenix" was more or less an obvious choice, as the poor girl has been saved from the crusher at least three times that I know of. Its also a bit of a nod to the fact that she's gone through so many different forms.

My e36 is named "Zsu" after an old girlfriend of mine.

My 1996 Jeep Cherokee was named "Heidi" after a girl I met while driving the car through the mountains of Colorado. The name seemed appropriate, somehow, given mountains and off-roading heritage.

My first 2002, a 1974 automatic, I named "Alexis." I never drove Alexis, since I bought her when I was 14. Most of the car was rusted through (although in hindsight, perhaps not as badly as I'd thought) and she was really little more than a series of annoying problems that just kept costing me more and more money.

I named her after another ex-girlfriend, for obvious reasons.

Others include a 1990 Ford Bronco II named "Ringo," a 1997 Jeep Grand Chreokee Laredo dubbed "The Green Lantern," a 1992 Jeep Cherokee named "Jane," and my soon-to-be-finished 1991 318is, who's name is "Foehammer" (from the videogame HALO)

[Mike Self]

My Bimmers are all named after German composers: Wolfgang (Mozart), Ludwig (Beethoven) and Johannes (Brahms)--cause they make beautiful music.

My other cars have names typical of their country of origin: Benito and Luigi (Fiats); Anatole, Lucky Pierre and Brigette (Renaults) and Kermit (Bugeye Sprite).

Brigette is about the only car I've owned with a female name; she's a '56 Renault 4CV convertible. 1956 was the year Brigette Bardot burst (so to speak) on the scene, and the convertible was the closest to a sexy 4CV ever built--particularly with a light metallic green paint and grey interior--what mine will have when finished.

My three Datsun trucks were The Red Menace (brakes kept failing), The Silver Bucket (painted silver, but too slow to be a silver bullet) and Captain Midnight (it's all black).

mike

[yeewiz]

I don't name mine, but I'm always trying to guess the psychology. Is it related to occupation/left brain-right brain, as in engineers don't, but art types do? I'm a programmer/pseudo engineer, so I don't. FWIW, just rambling ...

[Kidasters]

I don't know if it has given me bad ju ju (or gre gre if you are from South Louisiana).

My first was a 1969 Chevy Blazer. We called it the Orange Crate. It was a box of crap. My favorite converstaion:

Mechanic: #1 is down to 15 psi.

Me: You mean it's down 15 psi.

Mechanic: No - it's down TO 15 psi. Might work if you change the plug every day.

Second car was a 1970 Dodge Coronet w/ a 318. It was metallic green, and a girl named it "The Green Bean".

Third car was a 1996 Dodge Ram pickup. Strangely, it had no name, and was the car that was easiest to get rid of.

Fourth car - 1998 Jeep wrangler - My wife's car. It was green, and for some reason we named it Kermit.

Fifth car - 2001 Honda Accord - it was silver, and one of my friends named it "Belle". That stuck.

Sixth car - 1998 Volkswagen Jetta turbo diesel. The easiest car in the world to drive (5 speed). Wife named him "George" (George Jetta?). Anyway, he was a great car until t-boned by a Mercury Mountaineer.

Seventh car - 1989 Porsche 911 - "Jessica". This car was the beautiful woman who treated me like crap. This car was broken on average once a month. Named after a girl a friend of mine was dating. She would say "I'll call you back" and never would. She was completely unreliable - just like my Porsche.

Eighth car - 1991 Mercedes E320 - "Benzo". My wife's car after the VW got run over, since it was built like a tank (that W124 chassis is awesome). However, this one was really lemony. And - it was black on black - so the wife hated driving it - "I feel like a drug dealer".

Ninth Car - 2004 Mini Cooper - "Mia". This is my wife's current car, and she named it. It has been a great, reliable car, although I wish we had gotten the "S".

Tenth car - 2004 BMW 330i (E46) - "Smith". I owned this car for two weeks, and then noticed about 150 other silver 330's driving around town. So - I named him "Smith", since he is just as unique as "Smith" in the phonebook.

Eleventh car - 1973 BMW 2002 - "Deuce". Yeah - not very creative, but it fits so well......

[KFunk]

I've never even been tempted to give a car a name. I dunno why, just doesn't seem to make sense to me. It's a piece of metal.

It's strange that I see it this way, since I am the least likely person to ever sell a car since I get attached to them. Once I have one, I stick with it. Same for the rest of my family. Our currently inactive cars include a 72 Cutlass, original 53 Chevy Bel Air, 33 Model A, 37 Ford fire truck, an 03 Crown Vic police interceptor (wish dad would let me RallyX it), and my 92 miata is mostly stationary/backup duty these days.

I hated to give up my roofless Dodge before.... but it was too expensive to register/park/insure in Hawaii. I also had to give up a crapper '86 Escort when I moved to the islands... and wish we would've kept that car.

[inkatouring]

My current cars are named rather cleverly:

Inka touring is called "inky" (the kids call it "stinky inky" due to the gas smell)

Golf yellow/green CSL is called "greenie" (I am in the minority in the house thinking it yellow and should be called "yellowie" -- when I mention it, my wife reminds me that only males have the color blindness gene -- never married a geneticist

Avus blue 318ti is called "bluie"

Alpine white 328it is called "the white car"

But the 2002s used to be all named Janet (like boats, Janet I, Janet II, Janet, III, etc.) after the song in Rocky Horror; the chorus: damnit Janet, I love you!

My pets are named after dead musicians. Miles (Davis), (Charlie) Parker, Elvis (obvious)

But Elvis isn't dead. I saw him in Vegas last week.

[auggiemize]

Not usually. The Manila car (69 in 02 heaven, I guess..), the truck (only ever had one at a time), the wagon (same), your car, my car (Kota the dog's Volvo 850T wagon), the coupe, etc. Only my old 72 Riviera 02 earned a real name; "Ol' Blue", dependable like an old dog. I still miss her...Replaced by a 77 320i that was referred to as "G*d*mmit" with frequency("start, G*d*mmit!").

Currently the only names are by color; the Nevada car (76 02), the Silver car (Polaris 3.0cs), my car, your car, and the truck. All white, and nameless. Truck is so generic, that I'm thinking about putting a giant bar-code on each door. Work (supposedly) in progress is the Taiga car (74 02). Tony the Taiga, Apple, Acid Queen, are candidates but, if I start this naming thing, they'll all want names. Dave V. in NC

[Dave_PA]

For her nice PA tina (the PA being the state that she now resides in)...

brad IS GOOD at naming cars...he's named a few for others too.

ironically there's a Sinatra song called Tina that we now mix in there with my 3 year olds favorite 02 tunes, 'bad to the bone', and alike.

dave

[Guest Anonymous]

I have both male and female names for mine ( besides the unprintable ones I use when having difficulty working on one of them lol)