What's in a name, "It's a mere matter of words," you say. It's more than that.

“A Rose by any other name,” may smell as sweet (but wait, have you smelled the roses from your local florist lately, they don’t smell at all—allergies and lawsuits you understand). I am occasionally bewildered by the names we give to some of the products we purchase.

There was a time when most automobiles for example, were named after things that go fast—Meteor—Galaxy—Rocket 88--Terraplane, or animals that do the same—Cougar, Mustang, Honey Bee, Roadrunner, Impala, or Stingray. Some had fast names but weren't fast--the Pacer, Pinto (In all fairness, the Pinto may have been named after the gassy legume and not the horse), Gremlin--were just a few. Today they have combinations of numbers and letters that have absolutely no meaning—XR5, Z71, E350, MKZ.

What the heck is a Sephia, Camry, TaTa, or Vectra? Then there's the Inspire? As a Country Coach brand motorhome it's quite successful. Apparently it didn't inspire as the Aspire, a Ford Sub-Compact car, however, as it wasn't around long. Then there was the popular Fiesta. We're lead to believe it's coming back in a new iteration.

Nissan markets a monster called the Armada. Though there have been a number of armadas, the biggest of note was Spanish and was sunk by the Brits hundreds of years ago. Hardly a goal to be emulated.


Some of the strangest and funniest are found in the names of trucks and Recreational Vehicles. Ford previewed a concept truck called the Super Chief—for those of you who are too young to remember, the Super Chief was a Santa Fe Railroad passenger train running for the right to the left coast of the country.
That’s right, a TRAIN. I suppose trains are powerful but the Super Chief was known more for luxury. I don’t get the connection between a luxo train and a Super Duty pickup truck.

Some of the really strangest (and painfully inappropriate) is the current spate of vehicles named after NATURAL DISASTERS. Chevrolet markets a pickup truck called an Avalanche—an unpleasant thought considering the number of outdoorsmen who have been killed in the real thing this winter at our ski resorts.

Why in the world would you name a vehicle after a natural disaster?

Well, it gets worse and I hope you'll agree with me in asking, "What were they thinking? There is a recreational vehicle—a motorhome—called a TSUNAMI. After seeing the news coverage of the devastating tsunami that struck the Indian Ocean a few years ago that resulted in the deaths of more than 200,000 people would you be inspired to put your hard-earned bucks down on something celebrating a horrendous natural disaster?

Don't stop now, how about heading out for your vacation in a HURRICANE—not Katrina, or Camille, or Andrew, but your new motorhome. Now you understand why I wonder what goes through the minds of those who decide what to call things.. I haven’t seen a Tornado—even General Motors shuffled some letters when it named the Torenado—and I never knew what that meant either. I have seen lots of RV’s named Storm however. Again, another natural event I’d rather avoid than seek out.

Even just as strange but with less emotional impact are the RV’s names Rustler, Intruder, Renegade, Prowler, or BOUNDER. I always wonder if the latter refers to how that particular coach rides as it goes down the road. I conjure up visions of people bouncing off the ceiling as it BOUNDS down the highway. Rustlers, Intruders, Renegades, and Prowlers are not nice things. What about a Challenger? None of these has ever been considered forces for good in any community, but people continue to buy and use them.

I lay in my bed slowly waking one morning. It was obvious that sun had already risen because the window shade on the window next to my bed was bright with light. I reached up and opened the shade giving me a good view outside. Across the street from our motorhome a 5th wheel trailer was parked and, emblazoned in huge letters across the front of it was the word EVEREST. Now if that doesn’t conjure up a picture of a coffin factory in your mind, your sense of humor is certainly different from mine. “Goodbye cruel world, I’m getting into my Ever Rest now. What were they thinking? Now it’s clear they had the big mountain in Tibet in mind but even that causes me to wonder about its relevance. What does a big mountain have to do with a recreational vehicle?

Then there’s the Condor. Have you ever seen a living Condor? You want to talk about magnificent ugliness you need to talk about a Condor. They are the highly endangered scavengers—like vultures—that live primarily in the hills of California’s Central Coast and other mountainous areas of the world.

Now that's just a partial tour down silly (and outright outrageous) name lane but it highlights some of the stranger and funnier ones that are out there. If you know of others, snap a picture and send it to me in an email and I'll add it to this posting. In the meantime, I hope you got a chuckle out of what's here, at least.