I’ve had a series of vehicles with names. The current group includes The Beast, a '55 Chevy pick up with a 400 HP racing engine that was named after a former truck, a 1960 one ton International; also in residence are Beauty, a '94 Nissan pick up with a great lumber rack and cap, and Goldilocks, a gold '97 Ford Escort wagon that is the successor to a silver '93 Ford Escort wagon that I left in California when I moved. there are more, but you don’t want to know.
Maggie
When my parents got married my mom had a '39 Chevy coupe named Phoebe, and my dad, who was not as good as mom at saving money, had an unnamed bicycle. I think mom named Phoebe because she was precious to mom as her first car, and because of the mythical association of Phoebus with the sun chariot.
We kept Phoebe until after WWII and dad got out of the Navy. After Phoebe neither by parents nor I ever named a car, but knowing that the British term for a truck is “lorry” I think that if I every own a truck its name will be Bonnie Annie.
I love it! And I wholeheartedly agree that cars deserve names - they protect us from the elements, get us to the places we want to go - sometimes in style!
My 1st car was my father’s 1964 Black Mercury Monteray…she was named Black Beauty II (my bicyle was Black Beauty I). She died after loosing a gastank and then her transmission gave out.
My 2nd car was my grandfather’s 1962 Ford Fairlane - pea green, automatic but equipped with a choke! I bought a funny little stuffed animal to hang from the rearview mirror. Not sure whether the car was male or female, I named the car “Pusties”…greek for non-gendered (I think!)
We do have a 66 Mustang - but haven’t named it…perhaps we should.
Yes I always have. I have a 2004 scion XB dark pearl blue and it thinks its “the cutest little car” especially after the sun roof was installed. It wants me to install the furby voice communication mechanisms through a horn system so it can talk to other Scion’s at stop lights.
My first car was a 73 chevy caprice classic, dark green, 4 door, 8 cylinder battlecruiser that only had hi heat or hi cooling and one day while driving in a snowstorm with all the windows down, because it was so hot, it was dubbed “the green dragon”.
No one but the owner/driver can name a car. The name has to fit the personality of the car, which is more than its looks. Usually the names are “taken in vain.” We have had cars whose names have changed as they aged or exhibited specific character traits (such as the minivan that couldn’t hold onto its transmission - eventually named "@#$%!) “Big Blue” became “Old Blue” along about 200,000 miles. I had an old HUGE Dodge that wouldn’t die…we called it “Tank”.
Of course you should name your car!! However, the naming of a car should be carefully undertaken only after you have become acquainted with it and its personality has emerged. Among the cars we have owned: The Green Hornet (1964 Fiat), Sapphire (MX6 Mazda), Constanza (Nissan Stanza) The Grey Ghost (1987 240 Volvo wagon), and currently Two Purrs (Volvo V70).
I come from a family of car namers. Although not every car in my family of origin or my family now has been named, the memorable ones have been, especially the ones that seemed to be obstinant or ornery, and, of course, those that have been greatly loved.
My first memory of a named car was Olga the Oldsmobile. She was a beet colored 1978 Oldsmobile Cutlass Salon and was not a hit with smokers in the back seat (or with children, for that matter) because the back windows did not roll down at all. Not one little inch. This was considered a safety feature in 1978, although for children there was, in fact, greater risk of coughing, choking, and vomiting due to a certain bearded parent smoking Old Gold cigarettes in the front seat. Years later, and many, many cigarettes later, I totaled poor Olga coming home from a Living Color concert my senior year in high school.
The second car I remember that had a name was my sister?s old white Buick sedan in high school. My dad bought it used from a little old lady who had pampered it and cared for it well. Let?s just say that the Buick was not prepared for the abuse that was about to be heaped upon it. The smoking, the drinking, the puking, the speeding, the ignoring of the ?check engine? light all the way to Lincoln, NE, which, of course, toasted the engine. No, the Buick did not take it in stride. In fact, it started to hate people. Strangely, the Buick?s front seat ashtray began to rattle and chatter nervously whenever the car was in motion, prompting my sister to name the car ?Giggles?. Another sign of the stress that Giggles was under was the way that it accelerated when my sister hit the brakes, on two separate occasions. My ex-boyfriend eventually bought her, and I have no clue where either is at this time.
The last example I will give you of a named vehicle in my family is a little sadder, because my husband and I just traded her away for a (newer) used Saturn wagon. This was the 1993 red Ford Ranger that I received as a college graduation gift from my parents in 1998. I named her Flo because she drove so well and so smoothly, and she was such a pleasure to drive (perhaps in comparison to the one-speed bicycle I had been riding for 7 years). She rarely had problems and I took good care of her.
I think maybe people name cars because the cars and their individualistic traits become familiar to us, and therefore, whether they be positive or negative qualities, the car becomes a personality to us, endearing us to them. I?m not sure that that means we take better care of the car, (see Giggles, above), but I do think that it helps us to remember the car when it is gone.
–Sarah in Omaha
Of course! I’ve had a green 66 Dodge Dart Norman (the green bomb - the was a one-hit-wonder song by Norman Greenbaum in the 70s, get it?), a copper-colored Tercel The Bad Penny, a Honda Civic hatchback The Red Rice Rocket and I currently drive Casper (the friendly ghost) a white '95 Tercel that still runs beautifully. These cars have been my friends and we have shared many adventures.
Kit
I am shocked that you two are uninformed about naming cars. It’s quite easy to tell if a car is a boy or girl, and as for names… They’re like dogs, you know it’s the right name when they answer to it. I currently have a car named Bonnie, and I used to drive the Finimobile. Fini lasted longer than any car that ill-used has a right to because I was nice to her. My dad taught me that if you take care of your car, it will take care of you.Don’t drive like my brothers.
In the South, cars and dogs are a part of the family:) They deserve names. My husband has a 1966 GTO that he has had in the “restoration process” for about 10 years. I have named her Anita–for example, Anita get a new radio for the car, Anita pay the mechanic, Anita get her up and running… Now do you understand?
In closing–Anita light a fire under my husband.
Hey, I was with you guys, but after I heard that show I started asking around, and a lot of people I know (including two of my own kids!) name their cars.
Now the boy or girl think is a little creepy, althought I thought the idea of using “Markie” for Mark was a good one…one could pick a name that’s not a person’s name; for example, my daughter Elizabeth’s car is Baby Blue (actually that is its nickname, I don’t remember the whole thing).
i hit a black crow with my black wrangler back in high school–since then my car has been named the crow. when it plows through mud and muck, it is known affectionately as the little tonka truck. 
4 years ago, my husband bought his first brand new truck, a 2003 Dodge Ram 1500 (and that thing’s got a hemi!)
My husband was (and to some degree, still is) quite obsessive when it came to his truck: Where to park it; who could drive it (not me!); where we could take it; how often he washed it. I finally gave it a name. Since this was about the time Lord of the Rings was in theatres, I named it “Precious”, except you have to say it just like Gollum, the little creepy dude in Lord of the Rings “My Precous”.
I have no cars, but I have named most of my personal technology (i.e., cell phone, camera, mp3 player, PC), usually with female names. People keep telling me I need a girlfriend, but I’m not sure why…
When I do get a car, I intend to name it the TARDIS, after the time machine from Doctor Who. I’m hoping it will be blue, so I can also refer to it as the “Blue Box”.
All my family’s cars have had names. I presently have a Honda Civic named Jenny because she’s a Hybrid. Cars generally already come with a name, although some are better than others. Planets and places seem most popular, but 350Z’s and models like that need a more personal touch. Sometimes a name is descriptive, like the Jeep Wagoneer we dubbed the Green Lemon[it was both even after the 18" of extra linkage was removed in Toledo]. Cars aren’t pets, but people will name their roboservants when they are developed, too. Besides, all you do in a Mercedes S class with the radar cruise control is steer. Call it Otto[pilot]. It humanizes traveling, which is hell on the roads I go on and I reverse commute!
Yes, I think you should name your vehicle. It adds character to the vehicle of choice as well as gives the owner a chance to show their creativity.
I’ve named all the vehicles I’ve owned. First there was Emmy… a 1978 Mercury Monarch. There were lots of miles and memories put on that car. Next was Chelsea…A 1993 Chevy Corsica. Next was a Mercury Tracer Trio known as the Pimpercrombie. It had a disengaged alarm system… you know a wanna be pimp drove that vehicle. That was finally traded in for my current jem… a 1999 Cherokee Sport Classic… named loving Giji (what you get if you say ‘Green Jeep’ really fast. I love this vehicle!!! I never want to go back to anything else.
No need to name my car because I consider it to be an extension of my personality.
People who name their cars are no better than people that insist on naming their kids. What’s wrong with “HEY - YOU!” or #&$??&$@!!!
In either case - they know who they are…
The clean and cut answer is NO. However, as insurance companies, and dealing with various retail stores, experience has taught me that there is always the “exception” to the rule, there’s always someone special enough to not have to be included in the general rules, kinda like Dick Cheney.
Anyways, I am the proud owner of a 1964 Ford 352 4x4 truck. I bought this from a farmer for $600 and it runs great! It gets 15mpg and is a beast. There are no mufflers it, and anyone could hear it from 5 blocks away when I’m in town. It has an enormous rollbar and a huge “cowcatcher” (brush-guard) in the front with a sharpened point that spells instant death to any unwary and unsuspecting pedestrian or furry animal. It strikes fear into anyone who sees it and hears it’s awesome 352 V8 engine roar down the road. Because it has no mufflers it also tends to backfire, very loudly in fact, especially when I’m shifting down, therefore I do not drive it around any retirement homes out of respect for the elderly and their hearts. Also, the speedometer, odometer, and gas gauges do not work, therefore I never quite know how fast I’m going unless I have a gps in the truck with me. All this, and the chicks totally dig this truck!
The point is, this vehicle has character. I’m in a small town of about 20,000 people and many have come to associate it with me, it turns heads and makes an impression. Since I’m from Texas, all of these factors have led to populace to affectionately refer to my truck as the “Colonel”. I believe that since this was a consensus naming of a very unique vehicle, it in fact deserves to have a name, you know, kind of like the “General Lee”. So this my friends, is an instance when naming a car is allowed and the rules do not apply.
In my opinion, only special cars should be named. How you figure that out, I don’t know.
I named my 2002 Mitsubishi Lancer “Peace Car” because of all of my peacenick bumper stickers and because I’m a crazy San Francisco hippie. Peace Car is a girl, where my fiance’s truck, “Love Truck” is a boy.
Although vehicles are not the same as animals, I had a hamster in 6th grade who I named Emily (his name should have been Emileo though) and I’m pretty sure that he committed suicide because of this gender identity crisis. So perhaps a car would not commit suicide, but it could perhaps cause damage to the alternator or other vital parts if you changed the gender of said vehicle.
All in all, I’d suggest that you pick a name that everyone can live with, even when you sell it.