Thursday, August 16, 2007

on naming cars

After my last post I got to wondering: what names have you given to your cars, if any?

I call my car now "The Mom Mobile," but this is not a proper name. I was never really into naming my cars (my friends did, hence the references to cars with names in previous post), but I did once, when I was about 23 or 24, name a car "Suckling Pig." I was in a play at the time, and driving another one of the actresses to and from rehearsals. There was a suckling pig (as in one you eat) referred to in the play, and we had this hysterical prop for the pig (that was way too large to be a suckling, we felt) and it made us laugh, so we started referring to the car as "Suckling Pig." About a year later my husband was driving the car (our ONLY car, I will add) when it caught on fire, and literally burned to a crisp on the side of the road(he got out safely). My friend had since moved to NYC, and I sent her an e-mail telling her we had had a pig roast!

19 comments:

Creative-Type Dad said...

My grandmother use to name all her cars southern names like "Betsy Loo" or "Sally May"

Anonymous said...

my first car was named "bonnie", or "bonnie blue".

my mom has a giant of a pickup truck she calls "rachael". what has always amused me about this, aside from the monster truck having a girl name, is that my best friend's name is rachael. :)

Anonymous said...

Well, you know mine from the previous comment (Champagne Dream and Golden Truck, which replaced Blue Beasty). It was the kids who came up with this. I never would dream of it.

I worked with a woman who named her car Henry Honda. She had another one that was a celebrity name play, but I can't think of it. Think. Think.

Girlplustwo said...

suckling pig is a terrific name.

NotSoSage said...

Too funny.

I had a car named "Daria" for a while, in reference to a song with the lyrics, "Daria, I won't be soothed."

Run ANC said...

I missed your post yesterday, because the darn thing wouldn't load. It was lovely! Sadly, right now our car is simply called "daddy's car", although technically it belongs to the whole family. We're going for test drives this weekend - we need to accomodate a growing family.

Furrow said...

Aww, I forgot about naming cars. I used to do that. I had a "Goldie" and a ... oh, I can't believe I can't remember my first car's name!

This one I have now started out as Blanca (because it's white), but sadly, it's gone the way of the dog and cat's names, and it's just "my car." (Dog="poochie" and cat = "kitty", though they do have real names that are used on formal occasions.)

Chaotic Joy said...

Oh no, I never name my cars. There is no way I could abuse them like I do if I named them.

Christine said...

ok--just caught up here. . .

1. your trip sounds awesome!
2. i remember my little girl going to kindergarten last year, and i so know what you are going through. is she liking it so far now?
3. I've never named a car, but i do miss sticking my feet out the window!

S said...

I've never named a car.

Huh.

How boring am I?

Candygirlflies said...

When I was little, my very (eccentric!) English father named all of our cars "James", so that we could say, "Home, James!" whenever we were on a return journey.

When I first met my husband, he had a Chevy Nova that we called the "Heavy Chevy". It was in such bad repair, we had to drive with the windows rolled down so we wouldn't asphyxiate ourselves, as the exhaust fumes leaked into the passenger compartment...

My daughter, who was hooked on Cinderella, called my little champagne-coloured Volkswagan "The Golden Coach".

Now, I drive a Loser Cruiser minivan... We call it the "Avey-Cavey Car", so that I'll remember that my license plate begins AVKV...

Oh, and my first boyfriend's car was named "Suzette". After a female character in our French textbook, I think!

painted maypole said...

I am loving hearing about your car names! Fantastic. Along the lines of Candygirlflies I could name my car the nerd, since the letters on my license plate are NRD (and then the numbers are the month and year my husband first noticed me - that's how I remember it!)

Unknown said...

I had a Jetta I called Trixie (from Speed Racer) once... super cute and fast...

thailandchani said...

I've never named a car. Heck, I had trouble naming my pets! :)


Peace,

~Chani
http://thailandgal.blogspot.com

ewe are here said...

Love 'suckling pig'!

I've never named a car, but I really want to name our future house... if we ever get one.

thirtysomething said...

Now I feel like I missed out on something since I have never named a car.
What better name than 'suckling pig'? That is too funny...
I do agree with Joy though, if I named my cars, I would actually have to maintain them a bit better to keep from feeling like I was abusing something real!

Magpie said...

I love that you had a pig roast! Well, it was probably pretty awful at the time, but, pig roast.

We used to refer to our old Fiesta as the little ford, with great affection.

ironic1 said...

My current car, a Subaru Outback, is called "Betsy" as in "Heavens to." My previous car, a Geo Metro, was named after D. T. Suzuki and was called "Zuzu the Zen-mobile."

Anonymous said...

Oh, ironic1, don't forget about Elijah, the Golden Chariot/Van of Death.

Painted Maypole, I *love* your blog name!