Why do people name their car?

[762]

I am curious if anyone on here has named their car's and if you did why? It is personally never been something I have even considered doing, but yet I know a few people who have and I just do not get it.

Anyone else have any thoughts on this? I have a feeling based on the number of people who actually track their cars here that there will not be many named cars as racers would just see a car as a tool to get around the track. This may be the opposite of people who are more into car shows and the like.

I certainly feel that people can have an emotional connection of some kind to a car but a name just seems silly to me.

[black roadster]

I've almost always named my cars. The car's usually name themselves. Dunno why. I guess it's because of the "bond" some car enthusiasts make with their cars.

Car's I've named.

"Gelbi" - 1974 yellow Capri (Gelb is yellow in German)
No Name - 1974 white Capri
No Name - 1993 Protege
"Dad's Truck" - 1987 B2000
"Annie" 1999 10AE
"General" - 2001 orange Mustang
"Widow" - 1995 black Miata
"Minnie" - 2005 MPV
"Eve" - 1996 black R-Package Miata

[HudsonHawk]

"Delilah" - 2001 Dodge Durango, wife accused me of taking a mistress because of the time I spent on it and with Durango Club members. The name seemed to fit.
"Sampson" - 2003 Dodge Ram 3500 Cummins Turbo Diesel. Wife named this one. It replaced Delilah.
"billy goat" - '72 Jeep CJ5, that I built for rock crawling. It was old, smelly, didn't care what it ate and there was very little it could not climb over.
My 2006 TJ has not earned a name yet, although I am leaning toward "Escape Pod". It is my escape from the real world and takes me places computers and cell phones don't work.
I don't think my wife has named her new car yet either.

[jeff_man]

i have 2 blue nbs, they are the blue car, the 99 car 02 car, new car old car. it's a tool and a utility and i could care less. never name your cars or your chickens, it's make it harder to kill the fuckers to eat them unless your like me

[juxt3r]

My '90 came with a name. I have no issue with that.
The '94 doesn't have a name, though the VIN ends with -666...so some sort of devilish variant would seem appropriate.
The boosted Cavalier wagon was the marshmallow of death.

[trickyrix]

I've never named any of my own cars, but we call my dad's old '88 Chevy truck "Patches" - since it's about 5 different shades of white, primer, and rust. The replacement truck, an '00 Ford, is called "Patches Junior" - although it's not nearly as colorful.

In college, one my buddies used to call my Mustang "Der Stang" (say it with a German accent).

Many moons ago, we had an AMC Eagle wagon called "The Kelvinator" (there's a historical AMC-Nash-Kelvinator link in there somewhere).

[CarCar]

I have never named my cars until I bought my first Miata.

CarCar - '01 red NB. When my son was a toddler he had a little red foot/pedal car he scooted all over the house in while wearing a bucket on his head. He called it his race carcar. The Miata was not much bigger than his carcar and he said we should race each other. We have a picture somewhere of him sitting in his red carcar with a bucket on his head, safety goggles over his eyes, a pair of my work gloves on and his yellow blanky tied around his neck like a cape. We recreated that picture with me and him sitting in the Miata later. Sadly I hit 3 raccoons in 1 week, 2 the same night resulting in a rollover and totaling the car. We now refer to it as the Raccoon Magnet.

Tinkerbell - '99 green NB. I brought it home and my daughters asked to name it since my son had named the last one. Since I was constantly tinkering with it to keep it running and it was green like the Disney character they and my wife decided to name it Tinkerbell. One day this past July somebody, somewhere stopped believing in fairies because on the way home she puked out her oil and burned a rod bearing and died.

Deiter - '04 BMW Z4. Had to name it because the others had names. It is German, and when I drive it I think of the SNL skit with Mike Myers - Sprockets. When I am at the gas pump and people are checking out the car,"Do you want to touch my Monkey?". When some kid in a Honda pulls up and revs,"HaHa, you bore me" , The way the car turns and takes curves with fantastic grip but sharp abrupt moves like Deiters dance moves,"now is the time we dance". Even tho it is a roadster it is not very femine looking. The pointy nose and big rear hips around the wheels make me think it looks like a giant penis so like the Mike Myers character it is sexually abiguous.

Mommy mobile - '09 HHR. It is my wifes car and has apsolutely no personality. Does not like to turn on the curves, does not like to go straight on the straights, refuses to accelerate, seats are so flat and hard it is like sitting on a 5 gal. bucket, cup holedrs are located UNDER the parking brake lever, arm rests are at you lap so you have to slouch to rest your elbow on them, typical GM crap. I call it the Big Turd.

The truck - '00 Chevy 2500 4x4 PU. Nothing electrical works always, whistles while it idles, sucks gas, always starts and hauls most anything.

[Nails]

My grandmother had a seventy something blue Camaro she called "Little Duck".

[sammm]

I've only named 1 vehicle I owned...it was a '69 F150 - 'Ethyl'.

[brandonmpace]

My 01 is named Superstar because for some reason I see it striking this pose (below) and acting like a rock star with a big ego. I have no idea how it came to me. I swear I'm sane! I just really love my car

[MadMonkey]

Because... why not?

[BigDmiata]

Only the Miatas have had names for some reason.

'97 Brilliant Black: Originally called Blackie, but received the name the black b!tch after it got keyed while my wife had it for the day.
'02 Midnight Blue Mica: Wife's miata that she called Veruka after the character from Willy Wonka
'05 Black Mica: My 6 year old daughter named it LoLa after the song.

[GregW]

Here are the names of my cars...
06 Colorado is named Colorado
my 04 Silverado was named the Silverado
my Typhoon was named the Typhoon
my Odyssey is named the Odyssey
my Miata is named the Miata.

You get the point. heh

[shortshift]

My Mom used to name all of the family cars "old Betsey". I'm currently 62 years old and, hard to believe, not that many generations away from when cars were newfangled. Perhaps it's a carryover from the old horse and buggy days.

[onething]

Some cars deserve names

64 tan Opel Kadet - The Tan Turd - I drove the stink out of it, but it never slowed down except when the rotor cap filled with condensation (most mornings)
55 Chevy wagon - The Wagon
69 Dodge Dart - the Dart
many insignificant rides
79 3/4 ton Ford 15 passenger van - my friends called it the Molester Van - don't know why
01 Miata - Ralph in honor of an old friend and mentor
97 Caddy - the Caddy

Various Suburbans - the Company Truck

[sxk122]

64 tan Opel Kadet - The Tan Turd -

My 1985 'Champagne' VW Jetta was dubbed the flying turd by my family.....

[sxk122]

hehe... still had a pic...

[jrj512]

I call the big one Bitey.