The answer is “Yes” but only if one of two conditions exist:
You are a creative, artistic person that finds it easier to relate to people than to machines. In this case, you would find it easier to bond with your car and deal with the “bad days” and routine maintenance just as you do with a normal relationship.
You have more than one car… possibly a lot more. Then naming help distinguish being different vehicles and their unique needs and idiosyncrasies… especially if they are of similar makes and years.
However, if you are a creative, artistic person with multiple cars, you should NOT names your cars as you have many more problems to deal with than simply remembering which cars has what names.
I’ve always named my cars - a Chevy Impala named Cynthia - large and regal - an old Mitsubishi Montero named Morty - kinda sporty - and a Nisaan Xterra named Big Red - it felt big after the two-door Montero. A mix of male and female names, so no preference there. I’m a female, but my dad always named his cars too. I don’t take exceptional care of my cars, and since I had kids I don’t use the name nearly so much - maybe it’s a compensatory thing?
I absolutely agree with Tom and Ray that cars are just hunks of machinery, big complex systems, and just as I wouldn’t name a personal computer or a spot-welding robot, I wouldn’t name a car. I can understand how people would want to name them, because they do become companions and I am certainly not saying that I do not become emotionally attached to my cars; I do. But why would you give them regular person names? I would think of a car more like a horse, or perhaps a loyal dog. I have a large 1972 Ford F-100 4wd pickup. It’s got no power steering, and is just an unwieldy, clumsy beast. Sometimes when I am trying to manhandle it through a crowded parking lot, or realize I’m about to take a corner way too fast, I will refer to it as Beulah. “Whooooa, Beulah!”
Not necessarily. I tried to name my BMW 3.0CSL, but it sort of had a split personality - German car, but right-hand drive - and I couldn’t come up with anything that stuck.
I have often wondered, though, if any Subarus are named “Ruby Sue.” And how many Yugo owners named their car “Hugo.” Or - even better - “Victor.”
I never named cars until I met my husband. Each car definitey has it’s own personality if not a “soul”, so he nicknames them based on that. When we met in 1997, he had a hulking mid-80’s chevy w/a work box on the back that he called “Bertha Blue”, and a 1972 Cutlass convertible called “The Canary” (guess what color it was). I had a mid-80’s Sunbird, which he called “The Sunchicken”. When the Sunchicken’s engine blew up in 1999 and he & his dad replaced it, it was rechristened “Lazarus”, since it had been raised from the dead. In 2002, when Lazarus was getting a little shaky, we got a 1987 GrandAm, which was christened “The Batmobile”, since it apparently came with a cloak of invisibilty…people were always pulling out in front of me like I wasn’t even there…don’t know how they could miss that big black tank…! When the Batmobile threw a rod in 2006, I had started back to college, and was travelling distances late at night, so we broke our “less than $1000 car” rule, and bought a 2002 KIA Spectra. Since this was the newest car either of us had ever owned, (it even had an owner’s manual in the glove box!), it was named “The Kia-llac”.
I’ve named almost all of my cars. Most have a personality, and almost beg to be named…ususally very descriptive of their look or personality, from “Vanilla”, which is still a pretty plain Passat, with no good or bad traits, to “Christine”, who on many occasions tried to kill me, to the almost carcinogenic Mercedes, named “Benzene”.
Here’s a fairly comprehensive list of my cars and their names, please note some are less than Family Friendly, but then neither were those cars!
1961 Plymouth Valiant The Silver Bull(sh)it
1962 Studebaker Hawk GT Stutz Studlebaker
1971 Pinto Pin-toe
1968 Olds Cutlass The Gutless Wonder and Leakin? Lena
1976 Honda Civic Baby Blue
1975 Civic Mr. Bill
1976 Mercury Bobcat Slobcat
1979(?) Datsun 510 wagon ?
1981 Volvo 242 GLT Turbo The Swedish Whore
1984 Jeep Cherokee not named
1975 Volvo 242 Pee Green
1974 Volvo 164E ???
1984 Mitsubishi Galant Christine & Piece-o-shitsi
1979(?) Chevy C-10 Brown Bread
1988 VW Jetta Franz
1984 Jetta Hans
1991 Jetta Wolfie
1995 Passat Vanilla
1991 Passat Taxi
1994 Volvo 850 Teally
1963 Studebaker Champ Champie or Champ 6
1962 Lark 4 door Blue Lark
1963 Wagonaire no name
1960 Lark HT Buttercup
1973 Volvo 1800ES Hyacinth
1970 Volvo 142 MusTurd
1968 122 wagon Bubble and Squeak, or Bubbles
1984 Sirocco not named
1976 Mercedes 450 SEL Benzene
1962 Lark Daytona Convertible Boomerang
198(?) Subaru Wagon Roo
1946 Studebaker M15 Emmie
I am a bit used to naming cars as my mother named a few when I was young. Today naming ours cars is a bit of a necessity. I own four Mercedes diesels. Three of them are W123 chassis and the four is a W210 chassis. All three of the W123 chassis are 300D models. The oldest is a 1981 and the other two are 1985. The W210 is a 1999 E300. Having three identical car models (with two of the same year) and a four with a similar model number can be very confusing. Here is a listing of the names of my girls:
1981 300D ‘Madeline’ 211,000 miles - not the prettiest, but very, very dependable (has hail damage)
1985 300D ‘Margaret’ 253,000 miles - Repainted, now working on details to make her real nice
1985 300D ‘Maybellene’ 257,000 miles - first gear start and fun to throttle (has hail damage)
1981 300D ‘Madeline’ 208,000 miles - needs work, but getting there and very dependable
1999 E300D ‘Emily’ 82,600 miles - a typical example of the ‘moderm’ Mercedes after they decided to stop engineering their cars.
1984 300D No name - Parts Car with great engine and trans
When my dad, Jack Ennis, ret’d from the front lines after WWII he bought a Model A Ford which we drove all over California. He named it “Lickety Split” which was a perfect name because that little car went up old mountain roads passing by many newer cars which were pulled over because their radiators were boiling over and they could not make it up the grades. Lickety Split was like a member of the family and was only sold because I was growing up and getting so big at about age 6 or 7 I would no longer fit in the little back space (it did not actually have a back seat - it had a “rumble seat”). Lickety Split deserved its name and will never be forgotten.
People that know me, know I’m a car FREAK. They always ask me what I call my cars. Oddly I call them be there model name, Mustang, Rabbit pick-up, Quantum, Volvo wagon and the girlfriends Rodeo. I can never think of a name to call them other then when working on them, and then its profanities that I call them. The closest I have come to naming one of my cars is my current 1990 240DL (245) Volvo wagon. I call it ‘The Brick’ sometimes. My GF makes fun of me when I call it that. hehe even though its got 261,000 miles on it, its been my favorite car so far.
I feel that naming your car is setting yourelf up for heart break, when your beloved ‘cars name’ lets you down, or someone hurts it.
I am so bummed it has taken me some time to collect my thoughts and share my extreme disappointment is hearing that you don’t name your cars. More disturbing is that you condescend to car lovers whose personification of their favored possessions should be celebrated and not berated. Shame–shame!
I am convinced that cars are no different than humans in how God tests them during their earthly existence. But like favorite relatives and friends, the ones that earned loving nicknames are most cherished and remembered. I mean how could I forget “The Downhill Racer”, “The Albino Lemon” or “Rusty Ragtop”. Or my college housemates Fairlane in the early 70’s whose name keep changing as the chrome letters fell off the hood–1st known by all as “ORD” and then forever memorialized as “RD”. Come on guys—this is shocking to those of us who have held you in high esteem—aka your groupie car guys and gals :))
Yes, I think you should name your car!
Mine have been:
? 1st new car: '82 blue Honda Civic sedan; license: 1DAN489
name: “Dan” (Like life, it’s just one dan thing after another.)
? 2nd new car: '86 blue Mazda 626 sedan
name: “Super Dan” (A step up from “Dan”)
? 3rd new car: '93 Honda Civic sedan
name: “Tillie” (short for Attila?Atilla the Hun-da)
? 4th new car: '03 Mini Cooper
name: “Li’l Gary” (li’l as in mini, Gary as in Cooper, spoken with Bri’ish accent as he is Bri’ish-made
I’m a guitar guy, and I do name my guitars. Sometimes the names are profound, like Cassiopeia, and sometimes they are mundane, like Herb.
I take care of the guitars I name, as the name usually comes as a result of some kind of inspiration associated with the guitar. As far as cars go, my 2002 Dodge Neon might conjure names like “Zeppo,” or “Gummo.” (4th and 5th Marx Brothers) Probably even better, as it is a small car, would be remembrances of the seven dwarfs–especially Dopey,Sneezy, or Grumpy. I rotate the tires, change the oil and run it through the car wash, but the most fanciful thought I have about it is, "Will it pass the beer truck going uphill? If it does I say “Good Car!” and pick up the McDonald’s bags off the floor as a reward. Jim Weiser, Canal Fulton, OHIO
Okay, I appear to be in the minority here, but I don’t name my cars. I always thought it was kind of weird, especially when most people get rid of their cars after about 5 years. And it’s not like your kids — you still invite them home for Thanksgiving after you boot them out of the house!
Oh yes! I moved to Australia and bought a Renault Clio Sport (too bad Renault is no longer in the US, as this has been a great car!). Well, being frustrated for reasons that have nothing to do with my car, and not knowing the area I was going to, not four hours after I picked up my car, as yet unnamed, from the dealer, I rear-ended someone. Fortunately insured.
But, I had to name him. And, what better name than Livingston? Named after a great friend who, as a freshman at college, was arrested for stealing road signs before classes had even begun. He turned out to be a good guy, and a successful person by any measure.
Five years and 42000 miles later, car, I mean Livingston, still does 0 to 60 in under 7 seconds and gets 30 mpg. And, there’ve only been two problems – hazard light switch that wouldn’t turn off, and a difficult-to-diagnose cracked sheath covering a wire, that caused the ABS warning light to go on intermittently.
So, Livingston my friend and Livingston the car, both doing well despite inauspicious beginnings.
Generally I agree with you, but in some special circumstances thier should be exceptions. Case in point: my parents had a 1981 Red Saburban. It was one of the biggest vehicles on the road then as it is today. My mother put a decal of a MOOSE on the back window and from then on “Moose” was the name of the suburban. I am not sure if this is a male or female name, but it was definately a fitting name!!
Jim Cohn
This is amazing to me. My cars have always had names. It takes care of me when I’m on the road so I want to make sure we’re on a first name basis.
Now I can’t really explain it but each time I’ve bought a new car, I just “knew” whether it was male or female and then the name came to me. There’s been a Samantha, a Harry, Cissy and now Big John. Each one with its own “personality”.
I must say that with the latest, Big John, it did get a little confusing. At first I thought it was a female vehicle and then every time I referred to it as female, something would go wrong, literally. Finally, I got the message and after renaming him to Big John we’ve been great ever since.
I have a unique perspective on this issue. I’m a professional namer! I own a company that names new products. For each naming project we’ll have ten namers dreaming up ideas. On a given assignment we’ll come up with 600 or 700 names.
Our clients are medium- to large-size companies with a new business, product or service to name. So far, we haven’t been asked to name a car but you never know!
As far as whether or not you should name your car, I’ll leave that up to the car’s owner to decide.
Only if your car is truly unique. I drive a 1987 Civic that’s been dinged all to heck. I bought it for $750 over 2 years ago, and it runs great. It didn’t have any Honda "H"s on it, so I got Dodge Viper emblems instead. Hence, the Viper was born! Nobody ever refers to the Viper as Dave’s car…and it just sounds cool
