Do You Name Your Cars?

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That monstrosity — the car, not the girl — is what I drove during my senior year of high school. The girl, of course, is me, circa 1990. We called it, “The Boat,” for obvious reasons.

While I no longer am suffered to drive that particular set of wheels, my vehicles still have names. When I was a kid, they were The Red Car, the Gold Car, The Blue Van, etc. During marriage, we’ve had The Hatchback, The Camry, The Truck, The Van, and The Scourge.

Naming our cars creatively, ie The Scourge, is a new phenomena, but one that seems to be sticking. What do YOU do?

Do you name your cars?

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69 Comments

  1. Every car I have owned has been named for a song. Stormy, Alberta, Mary Lou, Layla, Runaround Sue, and currently Cracklin’ Rosie.

  2. The only car we had when I was growing up was my dad’s beloved 1967 Plymouth Fury III. We called her Esmeralda – she was like a member of the family.

  3. Our kids name our cars. The two old Volvo sedans were Edmund and Charlie. Edmund is still around town and we see him frequently (to shrieks of “Edmund!!!”, naturally….), Charlie is poorly, and on his way to car heaven.

    The current, a 1995 Suburban is named White Rock. I was hoping it was a throwback to our Great Trip of 20-10 to Canada last year (White Rock’s near Vancouver), but apparently it’s just “white”, and “tough”. *sigh* LOL

  4. Too funny – I was just going through my Saugus yearbooks over the weekend (I’m class of ’92) so I know this picture very well! 🙂 Yes, I have named some of my cars. My first was a red ’87 Toyota Tercel hatchback that I bought my senior year, and I named her Laquita. It just seemed to suit her perfectly. 😛

    1. Centurions just come out of the woodwork! Yeah! Go Saugus! That’s such a trip. Thanks for commenting!

  5. We have a Ford Explorer that we called ‘Dora’ when our kids were preschoolers. We went everywhere with Dora the Explorer!

  6. The first car I bought was a used ’95 Saturn Sedan. His name is Matchbox, and he’s still going strong, and is my husband’s commuter, although the poor thing’s air conditioner doesn’t work. Don’t ask how I decided it was a “he”, I’m a little strange, I guess.

  7. Was that a Buick Electra? We had a horrible mustard yellow one with a peeling vinyl roof and bad muffler at one time which we also called The Boat or The Queen Mary.
    I do like to name cars… my first was Bessie.

  8. My dad had several Ford Capri’s when I was young so they became “The Brown One”, “The Blue One”, “The Yellow One” and “The Red One”. I realized I’d turned into my dad (scary as I’m a girl!). I love Ford Escorts and I’ve just got my 4th and as yet it is unnamed…
    My 3rd somehow got named “Little Bip”.
    My mom named her cars too. She had a Chevette and the first 3 letters of the license plate were DAC, so the car got called “Daisy”. Her Sierra Sapphire was “Sapphy” and her Fiesta somehow got called “Silas”…

  9. I drive a red 1997 Honda CRV, which is known as the “Kitty Car” or “The rollerskate.” My husband gave it both names…the first name because he at times calls me Cat. The 2nd name because after driving his big truck, he feels like he in in a rollerskate. The cutest thing is my 4yr son saying ‘Kitty Car’, because he puts alot of ephasis on the T’s.

  10. So glad to see so many folks do this! 🙂

    When I was young my mom had a very dignified burgundy & wood paneled station wagon named William Charles. She has a Ford F-250 that is named Tiny….because it’s such a “petite” rig. 😉

    The family habit continued with my rides, of course. My very first car wasn’t really named, but my first paid-for-by-me car was…. he was a little red Dodge Colt that had only one side mirror so we took to calling him Vinnie – a la Vincent van Gogh. (Also worked out well because both the car and I had Napoleon complexes…. my step-dad’s Italian family thought “Vinnie” suited our attitudes quite well. LOL)

    After a slew of vehicles picked out and frequently traded in by my first husband (that didn’t really have time to settle into names as they were gone within a year haha) I got a divorce and a big black F-150 that was simply The Truck. My mom tried to call her Vinnie II but it didn’t fit. When I remarried and we needed more than a bench seat for a growing family, we traded her in on an Expedition; my husband kept his Ford Ranger. They were both just The Expedition and The Ranger, but still had a name/personality implied within their models…. hence the Caps. lol

    When we moved to Okinawa gas prices were skyrocketing and we had been *falsely* told that we could bring one Japanese-made car to Japan and that they didn’t allow American cars… so we traded our rigs in on a sweet Subaru Forrester (now known as The ‘Ru, or Roo….depending on how much my husband misses her, without admitting he’s now calling a car by a name hahaha).

    Here on Oki we had a horrible little blue station wagon that I disliked with a passion and when it died the first time, I took to refering to it as That Blue Beast. *sheepish grin* But not in its presence of course…still needed a ride. Until it died on my hubby at work and was put out to pasture. We invested in an adorable Honda HR-V that I love so much I’ve even suggested spending the cash to bring him back to the States when we get orders again. My mom keeps calling him Harvey (HR-V = Harvey) but he’s not a Harvey…. He’s Hondo (a la John Wayne) to me.

    My hubby researched the prices and it would be insane to try to import and maintain Hondo so unfortunately he’ll be sold when we do move. But there’s an F-250 in our future – I do wonder what his/her name will be!

  11. Cars have family friendly names for as long as I can remember…
    76 Lincoln Mark IV – Big Red
    80 Rabbit – Scooter
    87 Prelude – Little Red
    99 malibu – big blue
    2006 Aveo – Ruby
    2005 Aveo – Blackjack
    2006 Cobalt – Blanca (white in spanish)

    Love your blog! Keep up the great cooking for the book – praying for ya!

  12. We have a blue Suburban that we call the blue beast. I have actually thought about getting the tag personallized with her name. 🙂

  13. I have always named my vehicles, I think this started because I constantly am commuting and feel like I live in them most of the time. Some are extremely clever others well…the name suited them! My white honda civic with dark tinted windows was named Betty, my Ford Explorer was named Lewis (he was more of a Lewis then a Clark!) and my Durango was originally called Doc but as he gets older and tired his name has become the Durr!

  14. My Town and Country minivan is “Sydney, Australia.” We call her Sidney for short… get it?

  15. We name our cars. “BB..short for Black Beauty”.. and “Peggy” because the man on the phone sounded like the man in the “this is Peggy” commercials.
    We also named our computer, my laptop, and the GPS.
    It wasn’t my idea, but I do enjoy thinking up the names.

  16. We have named all our cars since we have been married. Right now, we have Lola the corolla and the big white whale (a yukon xl).

    I love giving our cars names. It makes the part of the family.

  17. We have 2 cars.
    Our Expedition is named Xavier. When we bought him he “told me” that was his name.
    Our Mercury Grand Marque is called The Limo. It used to belong to my kids great-grandfather before he passed away. That’s how we referred tonit when it was his and my dad would drive him places in it so, it stuck.
    My Hubby’s asks what our next car will be named. I keep telling him I won’t know until we get one and it “tells me” what it’s name is.

  18. Without plan, we have ended up with two white Jeep Grand Cherokee’s. We just refer to them as the ’93 or the ’96. My husband drives a Taurus that he likes to call the ‘Bull’. (rolling eyes)

  19. We call my parents’ van “The Purple People Eater”, and my old Mercury Sable was “Polly” because the plates had the letters POL or “The Salylable” as my husband called it. He called his truck “Thor”.

  20. The car I learned to drive in was a Cadillac Sedan de Ville. Yes, bat wings and all. It was “Baby” bc my parents babied that car. My first car was a honda. I didn’t drive it long bc it was a lemon. My next car was an Oldsmobile Caliet so her name was Caliet. She didn’t last long either due to my first accident(rear-ended someone that stopped at a traffic light that was green). My best car was a VW Jetta Hatchback, that is still my favorite to this day. She was dubbed a pregnant rollerskate by my best friend’s dad. Now we just have car and truck(a ford explorer, but hard for 1yo to say suv.)

  21. I have a little red escort & my son baptized it lightning mcqueen & that’s what we call it.

  22. Funny post:) I had a 85 Dodge Aries that I paid $400 for in HS, and had it for 7 years without hardly any machanical problems besides a bent bumper. We called that “The Dodge” Then I sold it for $450! I then got red 91 Geo Storm, and we dubbed that ” the Storm, and the Chili Pepper” Now we have 2 Toyotas so they are both called the Yodas.

  23. Of course I name all of my “servants.” The washer, the dryer, (Wetsie and Betsie) why I have even named my netbook (Sophie). When my folks got their first motor home it was blue…so it immediately became the Blueberry Bus, followed by the Green Bean Machine, and the last was Rosie…my first new car was immediately dubbed “The Buggy” by my dad because it was black.
    So many machines, so little time to list all of the names, but I think the latest addition to our fleet will be “Goldie”.

  24. So funny! I was a big haired girl of the 90’s driving “The Boat”, too, only mine was an Impala 🙂

  25. Yes!! I name my cars and our cars, too! Currently I am driving “Betsy” in honor of Betsy Ross. This came to me when I saw that the name of her paint color was “patriot blue.” Before that I drove “Limmie” – hubby called her, a Grand Prix, “Lean Mean Driving Machine” which we shortened to “L.M.” and then I took to calling her “Limmie.” “Punkin” was my very first car …

    Thanks for the smiles and the trip down memory lane 🙂

  26. When I was first driving, my folks had an Escort wagon with panel sides (eeeeek) that we dubbed the “Cool Mobile”. Took us where we wanted to go, my friends couldn’t get their parents cars, so they were just as happy to have me driving 😉

  27. My first car (in 1995) was a 1989 Ford Tempo. Seems like something was always going wrong with it, so I named it S.P.O.C. Stupid Piece of Crap when it acted up/Special Piece of Car when it was doing good!
    My next car was a 1999 Ford Escort that was a beautiful blue color and kind of small, so we called it the Blue Berry.
    My current car is a 2007 Mazda CX-7, which I just realized I never named. Guess I will have to work on that!

  28. Yes, I do name my cars.
    Blue mini van – Bertha
    Taruas-Turtle
    Blazer- Das Boot
    my newest Eclipse – speedy

    I am happy to see I am not the only one. lol 🙂

  29. Yep. 1991 Chevrolet Corsica – “Spot” (b/c the paint came off in spots)
    Then I had a Buick named “Ginger” and an Oldsmobile Cutlass named “Marianne.” My current Subaru Outback is “Lorelei” and my hubby’s Saturn SC2 is “Dixie.”

    Cars (all vessels of transportation) are girls, I think.

  30. I am currently driving “The Beast”. It is a 15 passenger van.

    Pre 15 kids I had a mini van named “Chip” and my husband’s car at that time was “Flaky”. Both were lacking in the paint department, thus the names.

  31. My ’87 Pontiac Sunfire in high school was named “Trusty Rusty”. Now we just have “the truck” and “the van”.

  32. I’m not very creative in the car naming arena. I had the “Dodge Aries K Car”. That was it’s name.

    “Would you like me to drive?! We could take my Dodge Aries K Car.” or “I parked the Dodge Aries K Car over there”. Royal Blue and not in the best shape the Dodge Aries K Car was a good memory, none the less.

  33. Absolutely! My husband’s Honda Pilot is named Amelia, I drive The Whale (15-passenger blue van).

    We had a pink Ford Festiva named rosebud and an 1980 diesel rabbit dubbed The Bunny. Our boonie car we drove when we first got to Guam was The Flinstone Mobile (you could use your feet to start it or stop it- just keep them up while you were driving it)

  34. My first car was a truck named “the rust bucket” Ugliest truck in my high school as you can imagine!

  35. Oh my gosh, I drove a 1978 Ford Thunderbird too. Mine was two toned brown. Ooooooh. Impressive huh? It didn’t have a hood ornament because this lead foot, country girl took it through a barb wire fence.
    My parents gave it to me in college. I guess they didn’t think I should be riding my motorcycle anymore.
    I wasn’t sure if it was a blessing or a curse. That thing was huge. And yes, it was also called a Boat.

  36. I actually don’t, but I should! I love it when other people name their cars! Now, should my Jeep Cherokee be a girl or boy?…

  37. We name just about every car we have ever owned! My parents started the tradition with Florence the 1970 VW convertible, and Homer the station wagon. Now, I drive “poor ‘ole Bessie”, a minivan. Every car seems (at least to us) to have its own personality….and gets a name that’s fitting.

  38. We had the “banana boat” – a 79 oldsmobile. It was yellow, and my brother put chiquita banana stickers in it because they had Spanish words on them. Go figure.

  39. My first car was a 1995 sea-foam green Toyota Tercel. Please find a picture if you are not familiar with this 🙂 My boyfriend, now husband, called it the tinker toy because he thought it looked like a wind-up car with a big key on top. However, the name that stuck was The Turtle because of its shape and color. My friends in high school started calling it that and I had to embrace it. My fondest memory of the turtle was when my husband and I were bringing an old two-seater papasan to the goodwill. We stuffed the pad in the trunk but had to tie the “shell” to the roof. Do you see where I am going? We drove a good ten miles in The Turtle with his turtle shell on top. I was rather funny 🙂 Sadly, The Turtle bit the dust in a Minnesota ice storm a few winters back. I was not meant to be a winter car 🙁

  40. In high school, I drove a Honda CRX, which my friends and I dubbed “the moon patrol”. But that’s been it.

    Love the photo! That hair was rockin! I wish someone would bring big hair back. =)

  41. We had a green Malibu when I was a kid and my sister and I called it “The Green Mean Puke Machine.” But we don’t name the cars now. That name, though, has stuck with me and will forever.

  42. Of course! My brothers and sisters and I have always named our cars and vans, but the easiest to name are the trucks! I think my favorite name is my brothers red muddin truck, we call him Hank 🙂

  43. My hubby currently has a 98 Hyundai Accent affectionately known as Atilla the Hun-dai or just plain old “tilly” for short.

  44. I don’t know why but I always called my cars Betsy. My dad had a car when I was growing up that was the same as the one in that movie Christine. So, we always called that car Christine.

  45. Absolutely! Every used car had a name having to do with the condition and look of the car. For example, a 2 toned brown hand me down pick up truck=brown, brown!

    my new van different story. Her plates spell EVA so naturally being the sharp lady that I am (ha-ha) i call her Eva!

  46. We’ve had “Madame Blueberry” – our 1992 Honda Accord stationwagon (sniff, sniff – so sorry we ever sold her!), and “The Green Bean” – our 1991 two-door Honda Accord. After we moved back to the States we purchased “The Sluth” – our 2004 Honda Pilot (a la The Hardy Boys boat name). When we decided it was time to become a two car household again (after 6 years of being a one-car household), we purchased “The Tick” – a 1984 Honda Civic hatchback which we owned for all of a month, but the name stuck in no time. When The Tick didn’t work out so well, we ended up with “The Bean” – a 1994 two-door Honda Accord to the family (because it looks like a giant red kidney bean). Can you tell that we’re a bit brand loyal? 😉

  47. My family names cars. My car in highschool was a 90ish Jeep Wagoneer with wood paneling. You could take out the keys while you were driving and it would still run, the front seat was missing a bolt and leaned with you while you turned. My friends and I called it the baby hummer. Then, I drove a metalic mint green Toyota Trecel it was much nicer and more safe than the baby hummer. One night I was listening to Crosby Stills and Nash with a friend and the song Guinnevere came on. One line, “Lady Guinnevere haaaasss greeeen eyes” made us think my car. We decided the Trecel had to be named Gwen. Now I drive a blue Mazda3 hatchback and her name is Lola and sadly I can’t remember why that’s her name.

  48. The first car I named was my Envoy… and I called him Leroy. Everyone made fun of me and refused to play along… except my father-in-law who remarked casually one day, “I was just checking out Leroy’s back tire.” I loved that man. I miss him.

  49. Oh yes!
    Silver ’84 VW Rabbit – Thumper
    Green ’95 Ford Escort – Kermit
    Black ’00 VW Jetta – Angus

    My current Jetta is dark blue, and she hasn’t told me her name yet. :>)

  50. Growing up I was forced to drive the Land Yacht–my parents’ car, similar to your pic. A few years ago, we had a 12 pass. van that we called the Church Bus or Kindercare Van (my sis worked there, lol!)We currently have The Car, Dad’s Truck and The Truck (which is easier to say than The Suburban). Fun post!

  51. When my husband and I started going out we had “the fearless ford escort”, on the the last day it was parked in the parking lot at our apartment building (out side the window) it’s name changed. We both looked out the window because a bunch of noise and fire engine coming into the development. Her name changed to “the flaming ford escort”. The car wanted to end it’s life as it was parked in that spot for a day, by setting herself on fire.

    My Son named our current car Kia Spectra a “50 ship” I do not know why.

  52. My Dad came home with a brand new Ford Ranger in 1986. Our very first fun trip was down to the river to get sand for my sandbox. It semed fitting to name her Sandy. My dad still has the truck and she’s my baby. I won’t let him get rid of her in hopes that one day I’ll be able to restore her. There were so many good memories in that little blue 4×4. Now that I’m all growed up my husband and I carry on the tradition of naming our cars. We had a 1987 Dodge RAM Van for a while and it was my husbands first year as a pastor. It seemed fitting that we named her “The Holly Roller”.

  53. Love the pic. I graduated in 92, and had a very similar outfit/hairdo. Hubby has a yellow Honda that has been named “the banana”. My minivan has no name, poor thing.

  54. I haven’t ever named my cars, but somehow my husband’s old truck has been named “Big Red” by our children. Our van is really nice and relatively new, but yet the kids all want to ride in “Big Red.” 🙂
    And I just have to say I love the photo! I graduated in 1990 as well, and my hair and clothes looked JUST LIKE YOURS!!

  55. Oh yes! My Saturn wagon came with her name. She is Jenna. My husband drives a 1970 MG Midget, her name is Fiona. I have my eye on a new to us Saturn Outlook, his name will be Hugh. 🙂

  56. The 1982 station wagon we had growing up was dubbed The Refrigerator, but when I started driving it 12 years later, we changed it’s name to The Uglymobile. My parents bought a 1983 wagon when my little sister started driving and that was called Hooptie. My 1985 Crown Vic was The Brain. My Ford Focus wagon is Itty Bitty (because it’s the smallest car I’ve ever driven).

  57. I usually name my cars although I haven’t named my van that we got last March. I’ve had a car named Carlee and a van named Vanna.

  58. Yes, I do. My big old Black Suburban was named Bessie for many years….until my little brother met and married a woman named Betsy. I have yet to rename my reliable old girl.

  59. Yes!

    When I was a teenager my first car was “Birtha”. I named my boyfriend’s (now my husband) car “Herman”. I’ve had a lot of cars (husband likes to trade them off!), but some of the names: Libby (Jeep Liberty), Cherry (Jeep Cherokee), Baby (another Jeep Cherokee), I call my husband’s gearhead car “the Princess” b/c she is better cared for than me, haha.. and my current car is Minerva (it’s a Chevy Trailblazer).

  60. I never could come up with a name for my sunfire (which sadly got smashed up by a semi) and my uplander (which I currently drive) but when I was growing up we called my mom’s car “the big ugly” (it was also known as the green monster) and then she got a newer (old) car, we called it “the little ugly” lol. she still drives the little ugly.