# Have you ever named your car? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 20, 2021, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-named-your-car/933324 "2021-02-20T01:50:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2021, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-named-your-car/933324/61 "2021-02-23T18:48:42Z")
My mom names all her cars, usually after animals. (The big van we used to go on all our trips was called The Blue Goose.) She got annoyed when I told her I wasn’t going to name my car, and came up with a name for it herself. I forget what it was. ---
**Author:** ![carnut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnut/32/3531_2.png) [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2021, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-named-your-car/933324/62 "2021-02-23T23:54:02Z")
Every car I’ve had has been given a name, except for my Gremlin, which didn’t need (or deserve) one. My current ride is Totally Ambiguous Pat, it doesn’t have a gender (a first for my cars), nor does it have a personality, except for being reliable. But Betty, Fred, Baby Blue Bunny, Lance, Miss Hollywood, and Heinz-Harald all had personalities and some were even reliable. ---
**Author:** ![Fluffy\_PickleSniffer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/77aa72/32.png) [@Fluffy\_PickleSniffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fluffy_PickleSniffer)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2021, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-named-your-car/933324/63 "2021-02-24T00:17:35Z")
I always name my cars, as does my whole family. My current car is named Gracie . My grandmother once had a dull brown Buick that was named The Turd. ---
**Author:** ![Jumpbass](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jumpbass/32/147_2.png) [@Jumpbass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jumpbass)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2021, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-named-your-car/933324/64 "2021-02-24T14:59:16Z")
> [@Typo\_Negative](#): > > It had an old green CA license plate. Hang on. I"ve lived in CA my whole life and I can’t remember a green plate. Specialty plate? Algae? Aside from those, I only remember black/ gold, blue/ gold and white/ blue. ---
**Author:** ![VOW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vow/32/3043_2.png) [@VOW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VOW)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2021, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-named-your-car/933324/65 "2021-02-25T21:02:36Z")
/\ /\ What Jumpbass said. ~VOW ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2021, 8:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-named-your-car/933324/66 "2021-02-26T08:32:02Z")
Here’s a cute one from fiction: In the silly novel Coyote Blue by Christopher Moore, parts of which take place on a Crow Reservation, there is a beat-up smokey old car that the locals named Black Cloud Follows. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2021, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-named-your-car/933324/67 "2021-02-26T15:56:19Z")
I’m not sure this is a name. It’s more of a description. But, I’m buying a 2021 (or, 2022, depending on how bad my luck is) Bronco, in “[Cyber Orange](https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bronco6g.com%2Fcyber-orange-bronco-badlands-seen-at-ford-rd-center%2F&psig=AOvVaw0BKnINzmfY3GaFJ3Oqm2IB&ust=1614441186183000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAIQjRxqFwoTCNCZkqL0h-8CFQAAAAAdAAAAABBA)” I bought the license plate “BRONKA” for it, and may ned up calling it that. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2021, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-named-your-car/933324/68 "2021-02-26T17:27:14Z")
We used to have a '95 Ford F150 4x4 with a pop-up camper shell. The combo worked fine but looked sort of “industrial” - we called it “The Nostromo” after the spacechip/refinery in _Alien._ ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2021, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-named-your-car/933324/69 "2021-02-26T17:32:02Z")
Here’s something I thought of this morning - for those of you who name your cars, do you name OTHER inanimate objects? ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2021, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-named-your-car/933324/70 "2021-02-26T17:43:05Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#): > > for those of you who name your cars, do you name OTHER inanimate objects? My computers and laptops over the past 25 years have all been named some variation on “Artoo.” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2021, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-named-your-car/933324/71 "2021-02-26T18:15:39Z")
From [a similar thread back in July 2014](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-name-your-automobiles/693242): > [@](#): > > I had never named any car before, not even after taking them on lengthy road trips, but this April I decided my 2012 Honda Civic Hybrid has a name, after driving through Monument Valley (_spectacular_ scenery; _spectacularly_ bad roads). Her name is Constance. I still have her (I tend to hang on to cars). We’ve taken some fine road trips since that one (though obviously none lately). ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2021, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-named-your-car/933324/72 "2021-02-26T18:57:40Z")
Growing up my family’s cars were always just “the blue one”, “the Ford” or some other basic descriptor. I tried naming my own car when I got one, but it didn’t stick, I can’t even remember what my ideas were. My wife is a car-namer though, and I use the name she gave our current car. ---
**Author:** ![erysichthon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d07c76/32.png) [@erysichthon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erysichthon)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2021, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-named-your-car/933324/73 "2021-02-26T19:08:25Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > My computers and laptops over the past 25 years have all been named some variation on “Artoo.” 😃 My desktop computer is R2-D2, and my laptop is C-3P0. I’ve used that naming configuration for decades. However, I recently replaced my Windows laptop with a Chromebook, and apparently those can’t be renamed. 🙁 ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2021, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-named-your-car/933324/74 "2021-02-26T19:09:26Z")
Which is ironic, since a **Chrome** book would clearly be C-3PO. ---
**Author:** ![erysichthon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d07c76/32.png) [@erysichthon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erysichthon)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2021, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-named-your-car/933324/75 "2021-02-26T19:13:50Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > Which is ironic, since a **Chrome** book would clearly be C-3PO. Indeed! 😀 ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2021, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-named-your-car/933324/76 "2021-02-26T19:43:28Z")
My spouse insisted I should name my car. I think it’s just an appliance. I sit in its seat and use it to move the planet around under my butt. Any car would pretty much go the places I go. We’re not in love here. But since she insisted, I said, “Its name isAppliance. See? It’s even white.” ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2021, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-named-your-car/933324/77 "2021-02-26T19:47:21Z")
> [@Napier](#): > > But since she insisted, I said, “Its name isAppliance. See? It’s even white.” In the 1980s, Renault and AMC sold a model called the Alliance here in the U.S. I had a work-study job for the University of Wisconsin, and the department where I worked had several state fleet cars – as AMC was based in (and manufactured in) Wisconsin, a lot of our fleet cars were AMCs. We had several Alliances, which we called “Appliances.” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![48Willys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/4/db5fbb/32.png) [@48Willys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/48Willys)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2021, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-named-your-car/933324/78 "2021-02-26T23:49:05Z")
I do not name my rigs. However, if it comes with a name, that one sticks. For example, my brother & I bought a 1962 Plymouth Valiant named Ethyl. We called her that until we sold her to a female friend who needed her for transportation to and from the campus. When our friend graduated she gave Ethyl to her brother he painted her name on her rear fenders. When he graduated he sold Ethyl back to me. I gave her to my little sister for her college car. Then I got her back when my sister bought a VW Beetle after graduating & getting a “good” job. I think that I traded her away, Ethyl that is, not my sister. Anyway Ethyl is gone, but not forgotten. My '59 Ford pickup was named “The Old Ford” when I bought her 37 years ago. My wife & I still call her The Old Ford. My Willys are called the 2a, the Willys Wagon, & the Willys Pickup. My bikes are called by their model like CB-750A. I have two '96 Honda Shadows, they are called the purple or aqua Shadow. Or hers and my Shadows. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2021, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-named-your-car/933324/79 "2021-02-27T00:01:24Z")
My own cars? Never. However I did once name a friend’s car. We were driving to the beach after HS graduation and we passed a McDonald’s on the highway. I then dubbed her car, a brown 4th generation 1980-something Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme, “Big Mack.” ---
**Author:** ![EastUmpqua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eastumpqua/32/6025_2.png) [@EastUmpqua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EastUmpqua)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2021, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-named-your-car/933324/80 "2021-02-27T00:05:15Z")
My senior year in High School I drove a 1963 International Harvester Travelall. My dad called it the cornbinder. By the time I got to drive it, my buddies called it Lurch, with a grin towards the Addams Family. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-named-your-car/933324.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-named-your-car/933324.md?page=5)