BMW Concept
Until recently, the automobile industry has tended to chose names for their cars and trucks that are muscular and fast rather than sexy.
Think Ford Mustang, Mercury Marauder, Lamborghini Diablo, Chevy Corvette Stingray, Oldsmobile Cutlass and Toronado.
Dodge has come up with lots of muscular names: Magnum, Charger, Demon, Rampage, and Viper. All these names seem to have been chosen by and for men.
Alfa Romeo Disco Volante
The Alfa Romeo Disco Volante (flying saucer), however, has a name that might appeal to both men and women.
And this year Alfa Romeo came out with a car named for a woman. Take a look at this ad for their 2018 luxury sport sedan, Giulia (pronounced Julia).
Giulia is new and sexy and unpredictable. And she’s in charge. She also suits the times in which we now live, a time when women play a leading role in 80%-85% of all auto purchases. In the United States more women than men have driver’s licenses. It’s no wonder Alfa Romeo has given their car a woman’s name.
Names matter … in cars and also in novels.
Writers may not have a team to do product research, but we do try to choose good names for our characters.
For me, main characters are the hardest to name. After lots of thought about the protagonist in my current novel in progress, I chose to call her “Diana”. I hope it will turn out to be a good name. I could change it. I’ve already changed her husband’s name from Teddy to Jay. But as of now, I think I’ll stay with Diana.
In order to help readers keep track of my characters, I try to vary their names, making some of them long, others short. giving some of them common names, others names that are more unusual. First letters are important too. I wouldn’t want to confuse readers with a Sarah and a Sally or a Miguel and a Manuel.
A novel has more names than you would expect, but many of the minor characters have only walk-on parts. They show up and then they’re gone forever.
One example in my current novel is the cousin of Diana’s maid. We meet her and her children only once. But they’re real people. They need names. So the cousin became Delilah; her sons are Benjie and Banoy, and her daughter is Baby. Whoops! They’re all “b” words. Don’t worry. I did that on purpose. They make a nice group of children that way. And we only hear their names in one chapter, so we don’t need to tell them apart.
My story takes place abroad, so I have an international cast of characters, most of them expatriates. Here’s a list of some of the names I’ve chosen for the friends of Diana and Jay and their children:
Abby and Saudur Rahman and their twins, Jeremy and Simon, Madeline and Quan Dinh and their daughters, Marie and Camille, Suling and Alexi Chao, Eddie Wu, Marshall and Carole Ann Charbonneau, Sheila Chatterjee, Emily Brown, Gerda Klein, Clare and Angus Campbell. (I see that I may have to change Alexi’s name. He has some scenes with Abby.)
Here are the names of the maids who work for Diana and her friends: Clarita, Lourdes, Mirasol, and Luz.
Last week I invented another character. Inspired by the Alfa Romeo commercial, I named her Giulia and called her husband Paolo. Although, after seeing this next ad, a car that seems to be about cars in love, I wonder if I should name him Stelvio. (Is that even a man’s name?)
Beautiful cars and love and memorable names.
That’s a great post, Nicki. You’re so right about finding the right name for fictional characters. I can’t remember which author said that she can’t start a novel unless she has found the right name for her protagonist.
As for cars, it’s funny because my husband and I had picked a name for our first-born daughter but changed it when the French auto maker Renault picked the exact same name for their new model.
Also I noticed the books about names on your photo. I have The Best Baby Name Book!
Good luck with your novel. I love the names you chose.
Thanks Evelyne. I’m glad to hear you like the names I chose. Like the author you cited, I have a hard time developing a character if for some reason his name doesn’t work for me.
Absolutely. Names matter and good names stick forever in literary history. Hello Heathcliff! Lolita! Sherlock Holmes! Oh, my, I could go on 🙂
Lolita’s name is absolutely unforgettable, especially after Nabokov has Humbert Humbert spend the first two paragraphs rolling the name around on his tongue.
Giulia is a gorgeous name! I know at least two women here with that name — and it sounds great for that sexy new car too! 🙂
It’s interesting, to me Giulia is a prettier name than Julia, a little more unusual. The thing I like about the Giulia Superbowl ad is her sexy voice.
I’m not a writer, but sometimes when I translate games I rename the characters in Spanish. The Spanish Institute of Statistics makes a list every year with all the names existing in Spain (well, the ones that 20 people or more have) and I find it very useful to name my characters.
Sometimes those car names don’t work in Spanish and they have to be changed… for example, there was a Mitsubishi Pajero that had to be renamed in Spanish speaking countries because pajero means wanker, hahaha.
From the 1960s to the 1980s, Chevrolet had a car names Nova. I heard that it didn’t sell well in Spanish-speaking countries because of the name. You’d think that people researching a new car name would take into consideration the countries in which they expect to sell it.
Enjoyed your segue from novel car names to names in novels. I appreciate it when authors avoid similar sounding names for characters who make repeat appearances.
I never cease to be amazed at your ability to play with words.
As a reader who reads a little bit at a time (usually as I eat breakfast), I too appreciate books with characters whose names I can remember until tomorrow’s breakfast.
Long ago and far away (but not in a kingdom by the sea) I dated a fellow who drove a white Corvette. His name was James, Jim for short. The problem was his name somehow didn’t fit the car. And turned out, I liked riding in the Corvette more than I liked Jim. On the other hand, when Jim bought a boat and christened himself “Cap’n Jim,” he became, to my young and foolish mind, much more alluring. A name is not supposed to make the man, but in my memory, that sexy fellow from my past will always be Cap’n Jim. I’m not sure what that says about me, but it does reinforce the importance of a name. Ah, the long and winding road of memory.
What a great story, Gretchen! I suppose all of us could look back to some time when we were influenced by a name. Hmm. I’m trying to think … I thought you were going to say you were attracted to the name of the car. Corvette is a good name. Whatever it means, it sounds good. But Cap’n Jim? Like you say, you were young. Probably influenced by stories of swashbuckling pirates. I loved stories like Treasure Island.
I have the same problem with character names — sometimes I realize they all start with the same letter. I spend a lot of time online trying to find names that mesh with geography, race, history, and what their parents would have named them.
Figuring out character names is a nice little challenge. We’re lucky there are so many resources online that make it easy to find a name that fits with place of origin and general year of birth. But names are also different based on socioeconomic status, and that’s harder to figure out.
Love the name Jiulia – we had a red Alpha in Rome but it was only a “33” – no class!!
I think Alfa Romeo is making a big push in the US this year. I don’t remember seeing any here until recently. Last time I went to Alderwood Mall, there was one displayed in the hallway.
I’m glad you don’t consult with movie stars who seem to use bizarre names for their kids! I spend time naming my cats as they will be with me for 15 to 20 years. I better like it. I didn’t know about women and cars but it makes sense. Guys buy toy cars. Women buy the family car. I drive a RAV4. Wonder how they named that. Maybe it’s a Japanese god.
I don’t think I could write the kind of book where some of those names given by movie stars would fit. Cat names are fun. You have more latitude naming animals. My daughter has a cat named PIBS (Puss in Boots) and another named Emu for her coloring. I used to have a cat named Polly who was polydactyl.
I read in one article that even in Saudi Arabia, where women don’t drive, they often make the car choice. (They may not drive, but they ride in the car.)
And soon they will drive too!
Hurray for Saudi women!
It is funny how cars tend to have muscular names. After all, they are probably marketed towards a certain demographic. Then again, I wonder how much does a name of a car influence us in purchasing one.
Naming characters in a novel is hard thing! The more unique, the better? I think so. Imagine having all characters’ names starting with the same letter. But the way you did it in your novel for a family is cute. After all some of us have an affinity with certain letters and certain names resonate with us more than others.
Stelvio? I think I like Stevo instead 🙂
I don’t think the name of a car is crucial. I drive a Toyota Camry, and I don’t like that name at all. But it’s one more quality, either for or against liking the car. Automobile companies were slow in realizing that women make the majority of the car-buying decisions. I think that’s why they gave the cars names that would appeal to men.
When I’m reading a novel, I prefer a mix of some ordinary names and some unique names. I read a novel recently with characters who lived in an ordinary small town in the US, and yet they all had strange names. It sort of annoyed me. On the other hand, too many ordinary names makes me think the book might be boring.
Certain names are more memorable than others. I’m still inclined to think car companies still put a lot of thought into naming cars and often a masculine name stands out to both men and women…a bit sad that society is conditioned to think this way.
If all the characters of a book had strange names, such as names I couldn’t pronounce, then I would feel very annoyed and might find it hard to follow the narrative.
I’m sure automobile companies put a lot of thought into naming their cars, but sometimes I wonder at the results. Why do they name them with numbers and letters? That just goes in one ear and out the other for me. I drive a Camry. I don’t know where they got that name. It doesn’t sound good to my ear.
Interesting, unique names are one thing. Strange, unpronouceable names are a detriment to pleasant reading.
Well, I had to look up the name Stelvio! It is the name of a town and the name of a cheese. 😀 Love the name Giulia! It’s about time a car was named after a woman!
Nicki, I hear you on how difficult it is to choose names. I go for baby name lists too. I like names that mean something, especially those that fit a theme. I have characters out of Greek mythology, so I chose Greek names for them. I also use a lot of flower names and the names of saints.
So… maybe that names the Stelvio after a town (not the cheese). I like Giulia better. One list I found had it as the most popular Italian girl’s name for a recent year.
When we names our own children, we paid attention not only to the sound of the name but also to the meaning and to the saints. Flower names are nice. My grandma’s name was Rose. I’m always surprised when I hear that so many people don’t look into the meaning of the name they choose for their child, especially when some names mean something like bitter.
That’s interesting that more women have their driver’s license. I always enjoy naming my characters. Often all refer to the Social Security Admins website to search names during a particular year.I’m picturing Stelvio as being quite handsome!
The decline in men having driver’s licenses shows up among young men, some of whom have no job or live with their parents. It also shows up in people over 70, probably because women live longer than men.
Names are fun. Sometimes I’ll look through a long list and find only a few that interest me. I don’t always know what it is that piques my interest.