**The Art of Naming Cars: A Journey Through Neologisms**

In the world of automobiles, names play a crucial role in captivating consumers' attention and evoking emotions. Estes, a renowned expert, once described Camaro as a "small vicious creature that eats Mustangs," but in reality, Chevy simply coined the name to sound cool. This phenomenon is known as neologisms - newly coined words or expressions.

The auto industry relies heavily on these creative names, with numerous examples like Corolla, Elantra, Altima, Camry, Sentra, and Pacifica. These names don't hold any specific meaning but are designed to appeal to our subconscious, making us more likely to consider purchasing a car. It's no coincidence that you'll rarely see a car named the Volkswagen Daya Reaper or Honda Clap - German brands like BMW and Mercedes still use alphanumeric codes.

When Lexus was choosing a name for their new four-door luxury sedan in the early 1990s, they narrowed down their list to five options. However, none of them exuded the desired "fancy feel" they were looking for. Instead, they opted for a simple five-digit code - LS400, with LS standing for Luxury Sedan and 400 referring to the four-liter V8 engine under the hood.

This choice was influenced by European tradition, where cars often carried alphanumeric names. By doing so, Lexus aimed to associate their vehicle with prestige and luxury, much like established brands like Mercedes had achieved. In fact, many Japanese car manufacturers, such as Acura, Infiniti, and Lexus, have adopted similar naming conventions, using letters like ILX (Acura), Q70L (Infiniti), and LC500 (Lexus) to convey a sense of high-end quality.

Sometimes, these names can be cryptic or have no specific meaning. In the case of Acura's and Infiniti's models, it's unlikely anyone knows what "ILX" or "Q70L" stand for - but that doesn't seem to matter! The basic principle is to create a name that consumers will associate with something positive or non-negative towards the brand.

However, when auto brands miss the mark entirely, they can end up with names like the Ford Probe, which was a front-wheel drive sports car. Launched in 1988, it was met with significant backlash from Mustang fans who felt that a front-wheel drive vehicle couldn't be true to the iconic Mustang name. Other notable flops include the Mitsubishi Lancer (which means "mysterious utility wizard" in Latin), Nissan's Homer, and Daihatsu's Scat.

A good name is crucial for any product, including cars. It sets the tone for our first impression, influencing how we perceive a brand or vehicle. Ultimately, it's all about creating a connection that resonates with consumers on an emotional level - something Donut has mastered with their engaging content and entertaining videos.

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enmy parents named me after Nolan Ryan a Hall of Fame pitcher with 5714 career strikeouts the only person that has gotten more strikeouts than Nolan Ryan is me Nolan Sykes except mine were with women and not on a baseball diamond pizzazz yeah I'm not sure why my parents named me after a baseball player anyway helping car companies come up with names for their cars there are three kinds of car names real ones alphanumeric and the ones that you give your cars yourself giving a new car the right name is incredibly important to automakers it's a relatively small aspect but if the car has a bad name it might never be successful even if it's a good talk generally speaking European brands use alphanumeric slide-out ES for AMG Mercedes s63 and BMW x4 m40 I American brands use real names like Corvette Explorer and Wrangler Japanese car makers use a mix of both with some of their most successful cars using made-up words like Camry but how did this come to be why are German cars named after algebra equations and American cars aren't when cars first started coming out naming them was pretty easy Karl Benz called his patented motor car the Benz patent motor car but as more and more automakers started cropping up they couldn't just keep calling their motor car the motor car because everyone else's motor car was also called a motor car so they had to get specific car makers started giving their cars names that describe the cars specifications take for example the 1924 Mercedes 24 100 140 PS it's a long name but it says a lot about the car the 24 was for how many taxable horsepower the car made 100 was how many horsepower the car really made and 140 was power with the supercharger turned on that's all really useful information other euro manufacturers followed suit and thus began a lasting European trend that continues to this day given cars names that were just a bunch of numbers and letters but competition wasn't the biggest driver behind this movement language was as you probably know the European continent is chock-full of countries big and small with a ton of different languages there are about 25 official languages on the European continent compared to like five in the Americas using alphanumerics let's a company use one name for a car instead of having different translated names in a ton of regions this strengthens brand identity across continents on the other side of the Atlantic things seemed like they were gonna go the same way Henry Ford debuted his first model a in 1903 he continued his alphanumeric streak with the Model T in 1907 the second Model A in 1927 and the model B in 1932 but by the late 30s America's car scene was just as if not more competitive than it was in Europe and automakers were running into the same problem everyone was calling their cars the same thing there was a Ford Roadster a Pontiac roadster a Buick roadster a Lincoln roadster it's just too many there's no way to tell them apart by name unless you already know what the car is it was time for a little pizzazz instead of informing consumers what the car is through numbers and boring old letters like over in Europe American automakers wanted their cars to evoke feeling or association with something positive for the brand for example the 1941 Chrysler Saratoga an 8 cylinder coupe or sedan named for the decisive American victory against the British during the Revolutionary War that's a great name to me it sounds fancy but to someone with a little more historical knowledge they'll associate Chrysler's name with victory how about the Lincoln Continental a car so lavish and extravagant then it would be renowned across the continent it's like how pitbull calls himself mr. worldwide naming cars and this method continues to this day but what if there's not a word suitable for your new car what if you've built something so groundbreaking so earth-shaking ly badass that the English language hasn't come up with a word worthy for your ride well that's when you make one up this is what Chevy did back in 1966 before the debut of their anticipated Mustang competitor their new car was teased in 65 under the name Panther which the public loved but it wasn't until June the next year that Chevy general manager Estes would reveal the cars real name Camaro apparently the name loosely translates to friend or comrade in French while other sediments small and shrimp like in Spanish Estes himself said that Camaro was a small vicious creature that eats Mustangs but really Chevy just made the name up doesn't really mean anything but it does sound cool and it's lasted 53 years now made up words like this are called neologisms meaning newly coined word or expression the auto industry might be the biggest industry that relies on these corolla Elantra Altima Camry Sentra Pacifica they don't really mean anything but they sound really nice and that's what the car makers want it's about selling the car to your subconscious that's why you'll never see a car called the Volkswagen daya Reaper or Honda clap actually its Honda might call a car that so if German brands like BMW and Mercedes still use alpha numerics why do other non euro brands do it - when Lexus was choosing a name for their new four-door luxury sedan in the early 90s they whittled down their list to five but none of them really exude that fancy feel they wanted as much as a simple five digit code LS 400 LS standing for luxury sedan and 400 referring to the four liter v8 under the hood there's a reason they chose an alphanumeric name remember back in Europe how they were giving everything a jumble of numbers and letters they might have had alphanumeric names but they were great cars so when the ATS rolled around and the Japanese started designing larger e cars they had to attach their cars to the prestige and lifestyle that more established brands like Mercedes had already carved out it's kind of like how in the mid-2000s it seemed like every company was putting an e or an eye in front of their product to show that it was high-tech oh and a Kleenex thank you and I make her I'm sure that doesn't violate any copyrights this subconscious link between luxury and alphanumerics is why brands like Acura Infiniti and Lexus call their cars ILX hue 70 l and LC 500 sometimes these names can mean nothing but fair shake - Lexus the C and L C stands for coupe 500 for the cars 5 liter engine and the H is for Hybrid by contrast I don't think anyone knows what acura or infinities names me and if you say you do you're lying so the basic rule is to give your car name that consumers will associate with something positive or at least non-negative towards the brand whether that be a cool word or lifestyle you really can't go wrong but what happens when it does go wrong what happens when auto brands totally missed the mark in the early 80s foreign had a sizable stake in Mazda they had an eye on Mazdas g-series platform a front-wheel drive layout with room for either turbocharged four bangers or v6s they plan to use Mazdas front-wheel drive platform for their star pony car unfortunately for them plans for the new Mustang got leaked and Mustang fans flipped out frankly a front-wheel drive mustang would be sacrilege so don't blame them but Ford was too deep in the paint to bail out so they kept working on the car and it entered production in 1988 say hello to the capable and surprisingly good-looking Ford Probe yep called a car the probe and instrument little gray men stick up your butt when they abduct you from your farmhouse really great name guys love it Ford Pro the probe ended production in 1992 some will say it's because Ford didn't see the point of having too two-door performance coupes in the showroom but I say because that stupid name here are some other dumb names Mitsubishi lettuce AMC Gremlin isuzu mysterious utility wizard Nissan homy super-long Daihatsu scats every citation Renault Lee car and my personal favorite the Mazda scrum wagon who doesn't want to own one of those a good name is important it's the first impression and that doesn't just go for cars it's for everything what my name is Wolfgang I'd never strike out then Wolfgang Sykes please like this video if you did it really helps us out and please subscribe to donut if you'd like it that'd be really awesome scientists don't want you to watch this episode of science garage don't watch this episode of up to speed with your girlmy parents named me after Nolan Ryan a Hall of Fame pitcher with 5714 career strikeouts the only person that has gotten more strikeouts than Nolan Ryan is me Nolan Sykes except mine were with women and not on a baseball diamond pizzazz yeah I'm not sure why my parents named me after a baseball player anyway helping car companies come up with names for their cars there are three kinds of car names real ones alphanumeric and the ones that you give your cars yourself giving a new car the right name is incredibly important to automakers it's a relatively small aspect but if the car has a bad name it might never be successful even if it's a good talk generally speaking European brands use alphanumeric slide-out ES for AMG Mercedes s63 and BMW x4 m40 I American brands use real names like Corvette Explorer and Wrangler Japanese car makers use a mix of both with some of their most successful cars using made-up words like Camry but how did this come to be why are German cars named after algebra equations and American cars aren't when cars first started coming out naming them was pretty easy Karl Benz called his patented motor car the Benz patent motor car but as more and more automakers started cropping up they couldn't just keep calling their motor car the motor car because everyone else's motor car was also called a motor car so they had to get specific car makers started giving their cars names that describe the cars specifications take for example the 1924 Mercedes 24 100 140 PS it's a long name but it says a lot about the car the 24 was for how many taxable horsepower the car made 100 was how many horsepower the car really made and 140 was power with the supercharger turned on that's all really useful information other euro manufacturers followed suit and thus began a lasting European trend that continues to this day given cars names that were just a bunch of numbers and letters but competition wasn't the biggest driver behind this movement language was as you probably know the European continent is chock-full of countries big and small with a ton of different languages there are about 25 official languages on the European continent compared to like five in the Americas using alphanumerics let's a company use one name for a car instead of having different translated names in a ton of regions this strengthens brand identity across continents on the other side of the Atlantic things seemed like they were gonna go the same way Henry Ford debuted his first model a in 1903 he continued his alphanumeric streak with the Model T in 1907 the second Model A in 1927 and the model B in 1932 but by the late 30s America's car scene was just as if not more competitive than it was in Europe and automakers were running into the same problem everyone was calling their cars the same thing there was a Ford Roadster a Pontiac roadster a Buick roadster a Lincoln roadster it's just too many there's no way to tell them apart by name unless you already know what the car is it was time for a little pizzazz instead of informing consumers what the car is through numbers and boring old letters like over in Europe American automakers wanted their cars to evoke feeling or association with something positive for the brand for example the 1941 Chrysler Saratoga an 8 cylinder coupe or sedan named for the decisive American victory against the British during the Revolutionary War that's a great name to me it sounds fancy but to someone with a little more historical knowledge they'll associate Chrysler's name with victory how about the Lincoln Continental a car so lavish and extravagant then it would be renowned across the continent it's like how pitbull calls himself mr. worldwide naming cars and this method continues to this day but what if there's not a word suitable for your new car what if you've built something so groundbreaking so earth-shaking ly badass that the English language hasn't come up with a word worthy for your ride well that's when you make one up this is what Chevy did back in 1966 before the debut of their anticipated Mustang competitor their new car was teased in 65 under the name Panther which the public loved but it wasn't until June the next year that Chevy general manager Estes would reveal the cars real name Camaro apparently the name loosely translates to friend or comrade in French while other sediments small and shrimp like in Spanish Estes himself said that Camaro was a small vicious creature that eats Mustangs but really Chevy just made the name up doesn't really mean anything but it does sound cool and it's lasted 53 years now made up words like this are called neologisms meaning newly coined word or expression the auto industry might be the biggest industry that relies on these corolla Elantra Altima Camry Sentra Pacifica they don't really mean anything but they sound really nice and that's what the car makers want it's about selling the car to your subconscious that's why you'll never see a car called the Volkswagen daya Reaper or Honda clap actually its Honda might call a car that so if German brands like BMW and Mercedes still use alpha numerics why do other non euro brands do it - when Lexus was choosing a name for their new four-door luxury sedan in the early 90s they whittled down their list to five but none of them really exude that fancy feel they wanted as much as a simple five digit code LS 400 LS standing for luxury sedan and 400 referring to the four liter v8 under the hood there's a reason they chose an alphanumeric name remember back in Europe how they were giving everything a jumble of numbers and letters they might have had alphanumeric names but they were great cars so when the ATS rolled around and the Japanese started designing larger e cars they had to attach their cars to the prestige and lifestyle that more established brands like Mercedes had already carved out it's kind of like how in the mid-2000s it seemed like every company was putting an e or an eye in front of their product to show that it was high-tech oh and a Kleenex thank you and I make her I'm sure that doesn't violate any copyrights this subconscious link between luxury and alphanumerics is why brands like Acura Infiniti and Lexus call their cars ILX hue 70 l and LC 500 sometimes these names can mean nothing but fair shake - Lexus the C and L C stands for coupe 500 for the cars 5 liter engine and the H is for Hybrid by contrast I don't think anyone knows what acura or infinities names me and if you say you do you're lying so the basic rule is to give your car name that consumers will associate with something positive or at least non-negative towards the brand whether that be a cool word or lifestyle you really can't go wrong but what happens when it does go wrong what happens when auto brands totally missed the mark in the early 80s foreign had a sizable stake in Mazda they had an eye on Mazdas g-series platform a front-wheel drive layout with room for either turbocharged four bangers or v6s they plan to use Mazdas front-wheel drive platform for their star pony car unfortunately for them plans for the new Mustang got leaked and Mustang fans flipped out frankly a front-wheel drive mustang would be sacrilege so don't blame them but Ford was too deep in the paint to bail out so they kept working on the car and it entered production in 1988 say hello to the capable and surprisingly good-looking Ford Probe yep called a car the probe and instrument little gray men stick up your butt when they abduct you from your farmhouse really great name guys love it Ford Pro the probe ended production in 1992 some will say it's because Ford didn't see the point of having too two-door performance coupes in the showroom but I say because that stupid name here are some other dumb names Mitsubishi lettuce AMC Gremlin isuzu mysterious utility wizard Nissan homy super-long Daihatsu scats every citation Renault Lee car and my personal favorite the Mazda scrum wagon who doesn't want to own one of those a good name is important it's the first impression and that doesn't just go for cars it's for everything what my name is Wolfgang I'd never strike out then Wolfgang Sykes please like this video if you did it really helps us out and please subscribe to donut if you'd like it that'd be really awesome scientists don't want you to watch this episode of science garage don't watch this episode of up to speed with your girl