back to article OK, boomer? Gen-X-ers, elder millennials most likely to name their cars, says DVLA

Britain’s Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency has said one in six UK motorists name their car, with those aged 35 to 53 most likely to do so. The results have been disappointing, to say the least. It cited some of the more "unusual" names – which seem very, very tame to those on this news desk – as "Disco Dave", "Lady Patricia …

  1. Will Godfrey Silver badge
    Happy

    I've nver named a car

    Girlfriends on the other hand...

    ... and yes I now that is ambiguous.

  2. Paul Hovnanian Silver badge

    Audi

    Audi Murphy

  3. Wally Dug
    Devil

    Nope, Not Named

    I've not really named it, but I have said to it several times "Start, you f***ing piece of s***, don't do this to me you lump of ****** **** ****** ***** ******************".

    (Doesn't that icon look like a car in a certain light?)

    1. Alan Brown Silver badge

      Re: Nope, Not Named

      A bit like my friend's dog who believed his name was "NO, GET DOWN!"

      1. KBeee

        Re: Nope, Not Named

        I had two dogs that thought they were called Getoffthe and Fuckingsofa.

        1. WageSlave5678

          Re: Nope, Not Named

          A bit Tangential, but my dog thinks she is called STOPIT !

  4. gypsythief
    Paris Hilton

    Our old knackered camper conversion - a 16 year old Citroen Relay with over 200,000 miles on the clock - was "Myvan the Terrible".

    Our shiny new camper conversion (well, you've got to do something in lockdown) is based on a minibus, and so is called "Minnie the Moocher", 'cos, well, it's a minniebus, and we mooch about the country side in it!

    Icon, 'cos I bet she knows a thing or too about being a hoochie-coocher!

    1. CrazyOldCatMan Silver badge

      Our Morris Minor is named by my wife (I've never named an inanimate lump of metal moving parts and never will) - it's called Mickey.

      Largely because when we bought it (27 years ago) it had a large Mickey Mouse transfer on the boot. The transfer is long gone (having the boot restored and repainted will do that) but the name remains.

    2. Potty Professor
      Happy

      Naming

      Until recently, I had a Range Rover Classic LSE, which was always referred to by my family as "Elsie" for obvious reasons. I now have a two door SEAT Ibiza, which my Sister-in-law has dubbed "Dumbo" because it looks like the Disney character if both doors are open.

  5. Alligator
    Stop

    What?

    15 kmph? kmph? What?

    1. VicMortimer Silver badge
      Alien

      Re: What?

      10 kmph faster and it'll escape earth's gravity.

      1. Paul Herber Silver badge

        Re: What?

        15 kilo-mega-parsecs per hour? Weeeeeee!

        1. Will Godfrey Silver badge
          Facepalm

          Re: What?

          That's the trouble with international measurement conversions. It's actually 15k millimeters/hour

        2. Roger Kynaston
          Coat

          Re: What?

          No - kessel runs.

          1. Paul Herber Silver badge

            Re: What?

            That's what you get when you find the brakes have failed when you are doing multi kilo-mega parsecs per hour!

  6. Dazed and Confused

    Always named my cars

    My Dad didn't, so I don't get it from there.

    My elder brother did, no idea if he still does.

    My wife named her cars before I met her too, The younger kid named his car as soon as we bought it, when we recently got one for the older of the kids she wasn't interested, but their brother named it anyway and that's stuck.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Car names

    I once had a Lada, a bright fire-engine red, Lada. I called it Trotsky, the Italian Communist. Trotsky could barely trot. Trotsky had problems climbing hills. Trotsky had the worst steering, gearbox, and brakes that I’ve ever seen, and I was convinced that it had to be the Russians’ fault, if Fiat had tried to sell anything like that in Italy there would have been a howling mob burning down Fiat HQ in Turin. I said, loudly and often, that if this was an example of Soviet engineering prowess, the Soviet Union was doomed. As it happens, shortly after I got rid of Trotsky and replaced him with a Suzuki Samurai, an example of Japanese engineering which had numerous problems and which I called Ten-Go, the Soviet Union imploded. (Students of history may recognize the name ‘Ten-Go’… think Okinawa 1945) Ten-Go was replaced by a much better behaved Honda Accord, a.k.a. Kaiju. My current ride is a Toyota, Silver Shadow. (Honda parts were hideously expensive…)

  8. Roger Kynaston

    I've always wanted to get a number plate

    But the only one I would be prepared to pay for would be FU2

  9. Spratty

    That old Bluebird...

    If it could really hit 15kmph (that's 15,000mph) just by rolling down a slope you really should have kept it - hole in the floor or not.

    1. WolfFan Silver badge

      Re: That old Bluebird...

      It was, after all, a Bluebird. Land speed record, and all that.

      1. sokolnik
        Thumb Up

        Re: That old Bluebird...

        and, perhaps, you were inspired by Electric Light Orchestra

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Devil

      Re: That old Bluebird...

      It worked great, until you tried to brake, and you had to do it Flintstones style by ramming your feet through the floor.

      Confession - when I bought my first car in 1973, a 1965 Alfa Romeo SV, I named it Rebel and it was great until it rebelled and spun into a telephone pole. I blame it on the telco.

  10. sokolnik
    Happy

    In the stone age...

    ...before anyone heard of "Breaking Bad"...

    ...I named my '68 Plymouth Whatever model...

    ...because of the shade of its paint (and, yes, inspired by the late, great George Harrison, by way of his protégés, Badfinger)...

    ..."Baby Blue"...

    ...color me, Baby Boomer

    (a real classic-- '55 model)

  11. Anonymous Tribble

    I'm not really one for naming my cars, but I have named a few. One old Talbot (I forget the model) was called Baldrick, because it was dirty and unreliable. I had a blue Ford Fiesta that I called "Sonic" after a cow orker said he saw me me go past him at high speed.

    That's about it. My current car has no name.

    1. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge
      Happy

      So your current car is played by Clint Eastwood?

  12. Natalie Gritpants Jr

    My old horse-lorry had the letters KTH in the reg - called it Katie Horsebox.

    Current small car has FUM in the reg - called Fumbelina

    Previous Red Shogun - called Big Red Car as we had a small child who liked The Wiggles

    Current Black Shogun - called BBC (Big Black Car)

    1. Rob Daglish

      BBC? That could be an interesting google...

    2. Mark #255

      Like you, we used to give our cars names based on their registration.

      So, we had Woo-car (the plate began WOO - I was 2 years old when we got it!), but also Helga, Jove, Bob, and Xena.

      Unfortunately, neither of our current cars' registrations are conducive to being named :-(

      1. Jellied Eel Silver badge

        Same here. Dealer had a list of available plates, so looked for one I might remember. So I picked GYT.

      2. Javc

        Yes, we had a car named Fievel. It's plate started with 5ULL.

      3. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

        "Like you, we used to give our cars names based on their registration."

        In the older registration scheme Oxford plates were -UD so on that basis quaite a few car's names really were MUD. There were also DUDs.

  13. Chris G

    B**ch!

    I have been know to apply a number of names to my vehicles, most of which would make a drill sergeant blush, because the only time an inanimate object gets a name is when it is not complying with my intentions.

    I give (pleasant) names to children horses, cats and dogs, never name anything I am likely to eat (chickens, cows, goats etc) although I have considered having a halibut named Eric.

    1. Ken Shabby

      Re: B**ch!

      You must be a loony.

  14. yetanotheraoc Silver badge

    I've been through the desert in a car with no name

    My current nameless car is 24 years years old, I'm looking for a replacement. Now I will start telling people I don't give it a name because then it would be unbearable to part with it. I hope someone believes me!

  15. colinpuk

    Haha so True,

    My Cars

    Bumble

    Doug

    Edd

    Tigger

    Kimi

    Jenny

    VinnyD

  16. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

    DVLA were having problems keeping up with renewals of driving licences. Have they now caught up and have time on their hands for this nonsense? Or was this given to somebody to stop them getting in the way of those who were doing the work?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      #@vroom-vroom

      I wonder if we're being softened up for vanity license plates, doubtless would be a nice little earner for the DVLA to sell you your social media handles to stick on your auto...

      1. H in The Hague

        Re: #@vroom-vroom

        "I wonder if we're being softened up for vanity license plates ..."

        Already exist, sort of, you can get your initials. Officially known as 'personalised registration', aka 'cherished number plate'.

        https://dvlaregistrations.dvla.gov.uk/

        Yours for GBP 250+

        1. Potty Professor
          Holmes

          Re: #@vroom-vroom

          I bought a knackered old Van den Plas Pricess for £20 when I was at Uni. I wanted something better than my Mum's old Ford 100E Van to use when courting, the van just didn't cut the mustard as a passion wagon. Later, when we were engaged, the VdP failed its MOT and had to be scrapped (the chassis had gone), so we looked around and found a 5 year old Vauxhall. My Fiancee said "I like our Registration Number, do you think we could get it transferred onto the Vauxhall?" The salesman said that he would gladly do it, it only cost £5 in 1975, so I dropped the paperwork off on my way to work on Monday, and we went back to collect the Vauxhall on Saturday. The salesman had a rather sour look on his face and said "I shot myself in the foot there, didn't I?" When I asked why, he said "That number is worth more than the car". I have since transferred the number, 345ARC, from car to car, and it is now on its ninth iteration, my 1994 LSE Soft Dash (mentioned elsewhere in this forum) and it has been valued at £6000. The transfer cost has risen inexorably from £5 in 1975 to £88 the last time I transferred it (2016).

        2. Richard Crossley

          Re: #@vroom-vroom

          In Hong Kong you can have almost anything provided it fits in 8 letters or numbers.

  17. Eclectic Man Silver badge

    'Mad' Max

    My sister had a sports car (Triumph TR something, I think), which she did call Max. It was very second (more likely third or fourth) hand and did break a half-shaft one evening on the way to the theatre (seeing 'Big in Brazil', by Bamber Gascoigne, with Prunella Scales and Timothy West - very good).

  18. fishman

    Named just a few..

    Had a Mercury Sable station wagon (estate). My sister told me that teenagers like her son wouldn't get caught dead driving one (irony is that they had a minivan). So I named it the "chick magnet".

    Bought a red Miata. Wife named it the "Little Red Car".

    Bought a red Golf Alltrack. So I named it "Big Red".

  19. ravenviz Silver badge
    Gimp

    I wonder how many X’ers and Millennials were conceived in The Passion Wagon?!

    1. Boris the Cockroach Silver badge

      In a street paved with rubber?

  20. Paul Crawford Silver badge

    My parents had an old 1300cc Ford Cortina and we called it by its colour "Saluki Bronze"

    Was a dreadful thing, would hardly start and seriously struggled with even 10% hills.

    1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge
      Coat

      That sound s a little like the Rolls Canardly I used to own. Rolls down hills, Canardly get up them,

      I once tried building my own car. Out of wood. It Wooden go!

      Ok, ok, I've got my coat, I'm going!!!

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Millennials lol...

    Their hopelessness is why I get to stay in my highly paid contractor job year after year...

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Bad joke from the 80's

    John's XR3i is white and he called it White Lightning. David's XR3i is black and he called it Black Magic. My XR3i is red and I called it Clitoris because every c***'s got one.

    1. Skiron
      Coat

      Re: Bad joke from the 80's

      Call that a joke?

      Ford have brought out a new model called 'the Ford Pubic'... it's made from old Cosairs.

  23. Boo Radley

    I'm 60 this year

    And named my red Ford F150 Tonka, because he looks like a Tonka Truck.

    I don't know yet what I'll name my next car, a Honda Civic SI.

  24. 45RPM Silver badge

    Yes. I’ve named most of my cars - the ones I liked anyway.

    My first I didn’t name - although if I had it would probably have been called chitbox (or something similar)

    My second, which was destroyed when a Disco drove into it, would have been called scrap even before it actually was.

    My third was ugly as hell, but supremely comfortable and dependable. She was a Volvo 360 and I eventually called her Bea. She died in a collision with an artic, and although repairable the insurance company decided she wasn’t worth it.

    My fourth was a ‘67 Beetle, actually my wife’s, and we called her Buttercup - after the heroine in the Princess Bride.

    My fifth was a tuned up P1800S, called Pandora. Beautiful and difficult, one of the greatest cars ever made.

    My sixth was a Volvo V70, called Victor - although Bea 2 might have been an appropriate name. An estate car beyond reproach.

    My seventh was a Volvo XC40. As yet unnamed - still too new - will it live up to the high standards set by its illustrious forebears, some of which I still have?

    I don’t like getting new cars, so I tend to hang on to them. Vic has been in the family for thirteen years now, and shows no signs of that changing any time soon.

    (In the interests of survey completeness, I’m an early model Gen X.)

    1. ICL1900-G3

      Hey! Soulmates! We had Victoria Volvo, an 850R which I so desperately regret selling.

  25. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Thank fuck I am old

    and never learned to drive a car. Motorbikes were my thing. But yes, I admit that I did name them They were all called "Bindley". Just please don't ask

  26. FBee

    My Yugo was named Slavia

    ...with a state-issued vanity plate to match. Speaking of match, I met my wife (at the time also a Yugo owner) via ol' Slavia as she thought that was the cleverest vanity plate ever.

    While her car was soon traded in for a VW Golf, Slavia was eventually driven into the ground years later with the only major repair being a carburetor replacement while still under warranty, although he did suffer a major incident when a neighborhood thug ripped out the duct tape-attached cassette deck taking the entire heating system box with it.

    Luckily the adjustment cables remained so I could still regulate heat/defrost although there was a learning curve to understand which cable did what...

  27. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Car Name?

    Sure I use them. "The Car", "The <name of make>" or "The <name of model>". Anything else would be superfluous.

  28. bikerwales

    Call all my SatNavs Mavis - does that count?

    1. ThatOne Silver badge
      Happy

      I call mine (female voice) "Bitching Betty".

  29. boobie

    Bought a Mini

    Named her Wynona because she's small and steals things.

  30. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    My first Chevette was named Cheryl.

    My most recent car has a license plate with LZM in it, so she is Liza-Marie.

  31. Franco

    I used to have a Ford Escort that was named Haiku.

    It was the early 2000s and the start of coffee culture in the UK, and i was prone to a bit of a rant about coffee flavoured coffee (like Denis Leary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-f_dxLiuXuw ) so from that sketch I somehow morphed from not dying in front of some haiku writing motherfucker to being a haiku driving motherfucker. My flatmates chose to let the name die with the car when it was replaced due to extreme old age.

  32. Rob Clubley

    My 80's Audi's called Rusty, rather unoriginally. It's no longer rusty after much time and expense but the name will stay forever.

    My old V6 Audi was named Growly Bear by my then-6-year-old daughter.

  33. Zimmer
    Happy

    In the past..

    We called our G reg Moggie Minor 'Nurse Gladys'..

    Our neighbours had one painted Trafalgar Blue - they called theirs 'Nelson'

  34. Sgt_Oddball

    My current car..

    Was named by my kids. They simply called it "the thing"...

    This name might have had something to do with the colour of bronzed copper and whilst being a current gen X trail (pre-face-lift), it came with huge wheels, door runners and extra trim giving it a presence not normally seen on the engorged Qashqai.

    My previous car was an estate corolla usually referred to as "surprising" because the VVTi was knackered on the low revs (it managed 126k before being scrapped due to the handbrake hubs rusting through allowing the car to roll into a wall) but when it kicked into the higher cam at 2,750rpm on the nose it went like a bottle rocket. Might have been down to having the same 1.6 ltr petrol as the top of the range corolla SR...

    The wife's car we've not bothered with naming... It's a bit hard when it's a micra and thus 10 a penny round these parts.

  35. Stuart Dole

    Some names...

    My current ride, a 12-year old Prius, is "Beatrice". I asked, and that's what she said.

    Before that - a while back actually - an old Volvo was the "Blue Lemon" - so many things wrong. (Mostly design errors.)

    My wife named her current car, a 2002 Camry, "Jade" - because of the color.

    We like to pretend that the license plate letters are acronyms for something - we play that game whenever we drive. In the mean time, at home, there's "Happy Orange Violin" and "Wild Jungle Tiger".

    We name a lot of things. For a while she was dealing with broken hips and Parkinson's: the wheelchair was "Charlie". As the hips healed, the outdoor walker (zipper?) was "Walter", and the two indoor walkers are "Willie" and "Wanda". We still have those - the Parkinson's didn't go away though the hips healed.

  36. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I dare say "The Beast" was probably sanitized for public consumption given some of the less-than-affectionate names I've heard vehicles being saddled with over the years... :)

  37. NITS

    Eric

    Decades ago when I played in traffic (was a corner worker at SCCA race weekends in Summit Point, WV) there was another worker who drove a car with vanity plate "Beyond". The car was a Plymouth Horizon, color blue.

    Back in the day I drove a red Hillman Imp (badged as a Sunbeam in West Pondia). My SO and I called it Nosmirc, after the name given to his little red wagon by the narrator and chief protagonist in the novel "The Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread" by Don Robertson, which I highly recommend. Said narrator liked to spell things backward, and the wagon bore the name "Crimson Streak". Hence "Nosmirc". Would have made a great vanity plate, but I was too cheap^wfrugal to pay for one.

    Most of mine have been referred to generically -- the Buick, the van, etc. In the case of duplicate or similar models, the '96, the '97, etc.

    Almost forgot the MGB roadster parts car, which had such bad rot in the (structural) rocker panels that you had to lift up on it in order to close the doors; we called it The Wreck of the Hesperus.

    Then there was the MGB roadster parts car that had been crashed in the front. The back half was perfectly fine, so we sawed it in half for a friend to make into a trailer to tow behind his MGBGT. Obviously we called the trailer Eric, because it was only 'alf a B.

  38. Adam Wynne 1

    The Library - a 1991 Jaguar XJ6 4 litre inline 6, a Fine Gentleman's Conveyance.

    Sparky - my current electrician's van (Transit Custom)

    Starship Sponge - from 'back in the day' 2nd summer of love 1988, a blue Ford Cortina

    Delilah - the camper van (Sprinter chassis), because, why why why???

  39. Chairman of the Bored

    Geronimo

    First car, a heavily used Toyota Corolla that simply ran and ran, no matter what the conditions happened to be. Survived against all odds. Best $500 Ive spent... though the girls were not terribly impressed.

  40. Big_Boomer Silver badge

    The Last of the Boomers

    Motorcycles - Charlie, Betsy (the B*tch when she broke down), Sanji, Otto, Ethel, and Vivian/Vyvyan.

    Cars - Carlie, Neelix, Christine (W220 with a mind of it's own), Scabby (lacquer was peeling on the bonnet), and Wafty.

  41. Potty Professor
    Coat

    Long ago.....

    My parents had a 1934 Austin Seven Ruby, which the whole family used to cram into (Mum, Dad, Grandpa, my elder brother, my sister, me, and the dog) for the two day trip from Southend (Essex) to the Lleyn Peninsula in North Wales every summer. Three weeks later, another two day expedition to get back home. The car was called Honk, after a reading book I loved, called "Honk Runs Away", and because it had a Klaxon horn under the bonnet, so it said "Aah OOH Gah!" when you pressed the horn button. Some years later, Dad gave Honk to my bro when he got his licence, and bought a Rover. The horn on this car was a pair of Windtone units, which gave the car the name Barp. My mother was very disappointed when Dad said he had bought a Rover, she expected it to be a P5 model, but it was pre war 1936 Rover 10 P2 model, still the old Edwardian style. I don't remember any other of our cars being named, until now, when my 1994 Range Rover Classic LSE Soft Dash is referred to as "The Old Bus", and my little SEAT Ibiza was christened "Dumbo" on account of it being a two door, and it looks like it has enormous ears if you open the doors fully. (My Sister in Law named it, not me!). As far as being a Millenial, Generation X, etc, I was born just after the War, so I am a member of "The Bulge" generation.

  42. disgruntled yank

    Really?

    Among American Boomers, it was mostly women who named their cars, and I can remember only two who did. An acquaintance in college called her Fiat "Tazio" after the driver Tazio Nuvolari. A friend of about 25 years ago named a VW of some sort, but I can't remember the name--a woman's name, not a man's.

  43. GruntyMcPugh Silver badge

    Bubba

    My 4x4 is called 'Bubba',... reg ends 'BZB' so 'Beelzebub' or 'Bubba' for short. No, it's not a pick up.

  44. Jedit Silver badge
    Angel

    She didn't do it, but...

    My mother did formerly name her cars, and once said that if she ever got another Fiat she'd call it Lux.

    (Halo for appropriateness - if you don't know already, "fiat lux" is Latin for "Let there be light".)

  45. Cuddles

    Ruby

    Odd name for a car. Seems more appropriate for a train, what with the rails and all.

    1. Potty Professor
      Boffin

      Re: Ruby

      Ruby wasn't its name, it was the model name. There were other Austin Sevens as well, such as the Chummy and the Ulster (which was a two seater sports car)

  46. Santa from Exeter

    Just a couple

    The first car I named was a Citroen BX, one of the early models with no stalks around the steering wheel, a revovlving drum speedo and an LED Tacho - The Big Red Rocket Ship, it also had the Weber carb so as a 1600 it could nail the speedo to the 120 mph max.

    The second was a Black Montego. When the wings had to be replaced and the Scrappies only had white ones it became Ska.

    The third was a Race edition 2.1L diesel Espace I named the Flying Wardrobe on Wheels. Used to enjoy leaving the local boy racers standing at the lights with that one.

    The last one I named (just scrapped it) was a green Chevvy Matiz, called the Pea, because it was small, green and felt about the size of a peapod.

    1. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge

      Re: Just a couple

      In the 90s, when Williams were winning everything in F1 with Renault engines, they had at an Espace and made it into a real rocket ship. They wanged in a slightly detuned F1 engine, so it would last more than 5 minutes, and messed around with it for PR purposes. I believe it did 160mph.

      In the end it got turned into a track ambulance. I'm hoping they never did top speed with a patient in the back though.

    2. GlenP Silver badge

      Re: Just a couple

      I had an early A Plate BX16, somewhat quicker than my brother's hotted up Capri! I still miss the controls on those.

      The BX was named Anneka due to the reg A...NKX.

  47. heyrick Silver badge

    I'm nearly 48.

    My previous car was called Felicity.

    My current is called Caoimhe (kwee-va).

    The vacuum cleaner is Sara, and the computer is Amy.

    I believe that an object without a name is an object that isn't cared about.

    1. Sam Therapy

      I'm a Boomer - born 1959 - and have never named my cars. I'm also not an old blues guy, so I've never named my guitars, either.

      I don't name inanimate objects but it doesn't mean they aren't looked after. I need a reliable vehicle and, for a number of years, guitars were my stock in trade, so it makes sense to care for 'em. Besides which, only an idiot neglects useful gear.

      1. disgruntled yank

        Name that guitar!

        B.B. King said that early in his career, a fight started in a bar where he was playing, two men fighting over a woman named Lucille. In the course of the fight a fire started. King left, but when back in to rescue his guitar. He said that he named his guitar Lucille to remind himself never to do something that stupid again.

    2. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

      "and the computer is Amy."

      Are you, perchance, of a certain age and owned an Amiga computer in your youth?

      Amy The Squirrel"

  48. You aint sin me, roit
    Holmes

    Nice bit of social engineering...

    I wonder how many passwords now need to be changed...

  49. TeaLeaf

    Sparky

    I bought a new 2020 white Chevrolet Spark. I thought of naming it Casper, as in Casper the Ghost, because it was white, but it really wasn't right. My daughter came up with Sparky. I liked it and so Sparky it is. I'm in my late 60's.

  50. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    My car is named

    Hirundo Rustica.

    That is the Latin name for a Swallow. As it is painted in a lovely blue colour I thought that it was appropriate.

    It also makes its WiFi access point easy to find.

  51. WageSlave5678

    To old ot be a Boomer, to young to be Milennial

    We've always had weird names for our cars:

    Captain Peacock (blue) / Bingo Snozzberry (red) / Chuffer Sandwich (it's too long a story) / Derek Zoolander (the face - it *was* Blue Steel, with the pout)

    I could go on, but it'd be like asking a Mad Cat Lady about her 100 cats names...

  52. gordon123

    Ozzy

    I had a car called "Ozzy"

    It was a Black Saab.

  53. skeptical i

    Gen-X'er here ...

    Dark blue cargo van was Babe the Big Blue Ox, two-door sedan was Minnie (sorry, no idea why since she wasn't THAT small), early 1970's V8 four-door beastie was Hildegarde which the dictionary said derived from the old Teutonic for Battle Maiden. A former co-worker had a small two-door named Buck on account of the bad clutch.

  54. To Mars in Man Bras!
    Unhappy

    Today We Have Naming of Prats

    I'm more concerned that some people *don't* name their cars. What's wrong with you, you cold-hearted individuals?

  55. rickyjames

    Being A Boomer Comes With Memories of A Better Time

    We geezers name cars here in the US, too. My current 2007 Mercedes SLK 350, a car I will drive to my grave, is named Veronica in honor of convertible-loving spunky TV detective Veronica Mars. She replaced my 2003 jet-black inside-and-out Mitsu Eclipse Spyder named Elizabeth in honor of Elizabeth Jennings, super spy from The Americans. Before that was Patricia, a silver 1998 Eclipse Spyder. Before THOSE girls were three GM convertibles not classy enough for their own names, tho I did occasionally refer to my first convertible as Whistler because her turbo was a little off. My very first car in the mid 70s was Stable - she was full of stalls. I've owned six convertibles in the last 30 years, a boyhood dream after watching the incomparable Diana Rigg drive around in her Lotus covertible as the ultimate Avenger, Emma Peel.

  56. adds

    Ex taxi CNG powered VPG MV-1

    I call my VPG MV-1 Nemo. He,s still got his taxi light on the roof, though it is now "not for hire".

  57. PRR Bronze badge
    Trollface

    At this house:

    The 1941 Plymouth (just visiting) is Gus (an obscure US reference)

    The 1979 Chevy Nova (eventually deceased) was named Christine (not the same car as the movie, just haunted)

    The 1996 minivan is Tsimbl (you can look that up)

    The 1991 Mazda MX5 Miata is tagged FNORD (feeling uneasy and confused?) but his field-name is Smurph (he's just that shade of blue)

    The 2002 Accord is nameless, but I'm the friendly stranger in the black sedan.

  58. brian485315487952

    We had a Toyota Corolla Wagon that we bought when my oldest was a year old. When she got her license, she called it "The Blueberry", because of its blue color. I don't know if she still names cars. We generally refer to our cars by their color, anyway. The red car; the green car. So far, we've never had two cars of the same color at the same time.

  59. Phones Sheridan Silver badge

    I had a RAV4 I got rid of at its 19th birthday I called “Tank”. Over the years bits kept falling off, but it just kept going. At its retirement the Windows were propped up inside the door frame with wooden blocks, it had no 5th gear and I had a pile of rusty bits no-one could identify that were found underneath it one day. I ended up getting rid of it because it had failed it’s MOT for the first time, but any repair was more than it was worth, and it wasn’t my main vehicle anyway. I stuck it on eBay for spares and got £600 from a guy in France, who drove over, stuck it on the back of his trailer, and drove back to France with it. Turns out that in France the RAV4s are highly sought after over there for off road and farm use, and he has a business restoring them and keeping them going.

    As for its replacement. In 2015 I bought an orange Jeep Renegade I call “Tango’d”

  60. Richard Crossley

    Named by my colleagues

    Only one car I've owned ever had a name, a 1991, Midnight Blue, Ford Scorpio Estate. It was named "The Hearse" by my work colleagues.

    Sample Picture

  61. rototype

    Mostly from models or reg plates

    Mosty of mine were named from their reg plates or models, with a couple of exceptions...

    Helen (reg on a 405), The Pig (Cavalier SRI - plenty of grunt but no refinement), Vicky (Vectra), Saffy (Zafira), Callie (reg on 2nd Zafira), Aggi (Agila), Steph (reg on mum's Meriva), Debby (Doblo) and my current one Giji based on the reg on my new Doblo, not to mention Dee (Deloris the Delectably Delightfull Deluxe) - Lambretta J50 Deluxe.

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