They call me baby driver
Toyota Corolla, Honda Odyssey, Ford Taurus. Car names have to roll off the tongue if they're going to roll out of the showroom. So when manufacturers name a car, just as when parents name a child, they put a lot of thought and time into it.
In fact, some automakers rely on experts to help name their newest models. That is, they call in one of the dozens of "naming" firms whose sole purpose is to christen detergents, cereal, and diapers those clean, happy, comfortable names that make you want to grab them off the shelves. For cars, that's often an appellation that evokes the pioneer spirit (Chevy Trailblazer), the open road (Nissan Infiniti), or simply bling bling (Ford Grand Marquis). But it's not as simple as it sounds.
"Most important are linguistic viabilities," says Julius Roberge, Director of Naming and Verbal Identity at InterBrand, a worldwide naming and corporate identity firm. InterBrand comes up with about 1,200 names for each product they're trying to name. They weed out candidates according to legal rights, other products with that name, negative associations in multiple languages, and, yes, phonetics.
Expectant parents can glean plenty of tips from professional namers, because the corporate process of naming a car seems similar to the personal process of naming a baby. You can think of cars, like children, as having first and last names—Toyota is the surname, and Corolla is the first name, with siblings named Camry, Celica, Tercel, Prius, and the list goes on. If you apply our phonetic matching system to auto names, it's easy to see that Honda sounds good with Odyssey, thanks to those repeating short O (AW) sounds. Other good car names that match phonetically include Ford Taurus (OR), Toyota Corolla (OH), Jeep Cherokee (J/CH, EE), and Nissan Altima (AW).
"Whether you're naming cars or kids, you want longevity and lasting relevance," says Roberge. "Try to rhyme it and nickname it. Try to give it positive associations."
If the new car's name sounds like an old cereal that people used to eat in Germany when they were kids, that's bad. But if it's likely to get a fun nickname, that's good. Thunderbird is a powerful, fast-sounding name for a car, but Roberge says that when it got the nickname T-bird, it got so much cooler. And when BMWs became Beemers, that was great for sales.
"We have to manage subjectivity," Roberge continues. "Everyone likes a name for different reasons."
Since different makes of cars are marketed in different parts of the world, the language specialists at InterBrand comb through the associations of a name and what impact its sounds would have in Scotland, Russia, or sub-Saharan Africa. You may have even heard the story of the Chevy Nova being sold in Mexico, where in Spanish the name translated to "no va," or "doesn't go." That made the Nova something of an Edsel in Latin America, so naming firms have to come up with different monikers for foreign markets.
In general, though, you can't go wrong with a Latin-based name because the root words can be recognized in nearly every country in Europe and in North and South America. On the other hand, Roberge says, in Germany you can't use a name that begins with the letter X. "They just don't know how to say it." In a country like Japan, the use of Western names makes the product more desired. For example, InterBrand came up with the name Aerio for a car being marketed in Japan. It sounds a little like "open skies and aero-dynamism," Roberge says. It also has exotic connotations since it sounds a bit like the city Rio de Janiero.
In most cases, namers try to come up with brands that are easy to say, but some companies (like some parents) think that odd-sounding names generate consumer interest. For the new Touareg SUV, Volkswagen developed a whole campaign about how to pronounce the name and what it might mean. Even if buyers don't know that Touareg is a name for an African tribe in the Sahara known for ruggedness, Roberge says, they probably figure that it is too bizarre a word for it to mean nothing.
Finding a great product name is 50 percent creativity and 50 percent legal, Roberge adds. That's because companies—especially carmakers—can hoard names for years. Names that exist in nature—plants, animals, mountain ranges, etc.—seem to be the most popular. "Pretty much all the animal names are taken," Roberge confirms.
Even if there is nothing on the market with the name Mollusk, for example, some company somewhere is probably hanging on to the rights to use it someday. All they have to do is prove every few years that they still have some intent to name a product Mollusk, and then no one else can use it. Sort of like the way your best friend called dibs on the name Zackary, and years later, it's still off limits for your kids.
After all the work that naming firms go through to bequeath a dynamic and descriptive name to a new car, drivers then come along and give their autos people names Gertie the GTO, Bonnie the Bonneville, and Herbie the Love Bug. (We once had a never-say-die car named The Rooster and, thanks to the kids, now we drive The Magic Van!) And why not make it a name you adore? If you've got a tough commute, you might spend more time in your car than with your spouse, pet, or children.
In fact, some automakers rely on experts to help name their newest models. That is, they call in one of the dozens of "naming" firms whose sole purpose is to christen detergents, cereal, and diapers those clean, happy, comfortable names that make you want to grab them off the shelves. For cars, that's often an appellation that evokes the pioneer spirit (Chevy Trailblazer), the open road (Nissan Infiniti), or simply bling bling (Ford Grand Marquis). But it's not as simple as it sounds.
"Most important are linguistic viabilities," says Julius Roberge, Director of Naming and Verbal Identity at InterBrand, a worldwide naming and corporate identity firm. InterBrand comes up with about 1,200 names for each product they're trying to name. They weed out candidates according to legal rights, other products with that name, negative associations in multiple languages, and, yes, phonetics.
Expectant parents can glean plenty of tips from professional namers, because the corporate process of naming a car seems similar to the personal process of naming a baby. You can think of cars, like children, as having first and last names—Toyota is the surname, and Corolla is the first name, with siblings named Camry, Celica, Tercel, Prius, and the list goes on. If you apply our phonetic matching system to auto names, it's easy to see that Honda sounds good with Odyssey, thanks to those repeating short O (AW) sounds. Other good car names that match phonetically include Ford Taurus (OR), Toyota Corolla (OH), Jeep Cherokee (J/CH, EE), and Nissan Altima (AW).
"Whether you're naming cars or kids, you want longevity and lasting relevance," says Roberge. "Try to rhyme it and nickname it. Try to give it positive associations."
If the new car's name sounds like an old cereal that people used to eat in Germany when they were kids, that's bad. But if it's likely to get a fun nickname, that's good. Thunderbird is a powerful, fast-sounding name for a car, but Roberge says that when it got the nickname T-bird, it got so much cooler. And when BMWs became Beemers, that was great for sales.
"We have to manage subjectivity," Roberge continues. "Everyone likes a name for different reasons."
Since different makes of cars are marketed in different parts of the world, the language specialists at InterBrand comb through the associations of a name and what impact its sounds would have in Scotland, Russia, or sub-Saharan Africa. You may have even heard the story of the Chevy Nova being sold in Mexico, where in Spanish the name translated to "no va," or "doesn't go." That made the Nova something of an Edsel in Latin America, so naming firms have to come up with different monikers for foreign markets.
In general, though, you can't go wrong with a Latin-based name because the root words can be recognized in nearly every country in Europe and in North and South America. On the other hand, Roberge says, in Germany you can't use a name that begins with the letter X. "They just don't know how to say it." In a country like Japan, the use of Western names makes the product more desired. For example, InterBrand came up with the name Aerio for a car being marketed in Japan. It sounds a little like "open skies and aero-dynamism," Roberge says. It also has exotic connotations since it sounds a bit like the city Rio de Janiero.
In most cases, namers try to come up with brands that are easy to say, but some companies (like some parents) think that odd-sounding names generate consumer interest. For the new Touareg SUV, Volkswagen developed a whole campaign about how to pronounce the name and what it might mean. Even if buyers don't know that Touareg is a name for an African tribe in the Sahara known for ruggedness, Roberge says, they probably figure that it is too bizarre a word for it to mean nothing.
Finding a great product name is 50 percent creativity and 50 percent legal, Roberge adds. That's because companies—especially carmakers—can hoard names for years. Names that exist in nature—plants, animals, mountain ranges, etc.—seem to be the most popular. "Pretty much all the animal names are taken," Roberge confirms.
Even if there is nothing on the market with the name Mollusk, for example, some company somewhere is probably hanging on to the rights to use it someday. All they have to do is prove every few years that they still have some intent to name a product Mollusk, and then no one else can use it. Sort of like the way your best friend called dibs on the name Zackary, and years later, it's still off limits for your kids.
After all the work that naming firms go through to bequeath a dynamic and descriptive name to a new car, drivers then come along and give their autos people names Gertie the GTO, Bonnie the Bonneville, and Herbie the Love Bug. (We once had a never-say-die car named The Rooster and, thanks to the kids, now we drive The Magic Van!) And why not make it a name you adore? If you've got a tough commute, you might spend more time in your car than with your spouse, pet, or children.
< previous article | section index | next article >
