Men look to genitalia for inspiration when naming their cars, according to research from Carsales.
Names such as “Blue Dick” and “Dick Popsicles” were revealed in the survey. One woman even reported that her husband christened his ute “The Uterus”. Men are also twice as likely to adopt risqué names for their vehicles than women. Names such as “Mazdabator” and “Fanny the Fiesta” were dropped in the survey.
Australian women, on the other hand, are leading the charge on more subtle sexually-suggestive names. One example is “Blowie”, inspired by the driver’s numberplate, YBJ.
Surprisingly, men were much more likely to label their cars as ‘lemons’. This led to more derogatory names for cars owned by men. Sam Granleese, Director, Product & Insights at Carsales, commented on this odd finding:
“On one hand, you could see this trend meaning men have higher expectations of their cars than women. On the other hand, you could argue women are more cautious in choosing what they drive.”
Celebrity-based names were equally popular across both sexes. Tributes to Taylor (Suzuki) Swift and Sonya (Toyota) Kluger were among the most popular. Fictional characters like Puff the Magic Dragon, Frankenstein, Scooby Doo and Kermit were also popular, and fairly even for men and women.
Almost half of respondents (45.8%) gave their cars names which relate directly to their colour. “Silver Bullet” and “Scarlet” are two such examples. The most popular name was Betsy: 2.27% among men and 1.98% among women.
Women are twice as likely to name their car after its manufacturer than men. Manufacturers themselves have played a role in the car-naming trend. They’ve shortened Mazda to “Mazzy” (I still prefer “Mazdabator”), Nissan to “Nissy”, Mitsubishi to “Mitzy”, Ford to “Freddy” and Holden to “Harry”.
The hilarious results suggest that Australians seem to show little tact when naming their vehicles. They also are heavily invested in their vehicles and have a close-to-human relationship with them!
Nearly half of respondents (49.1%) think people who name their cars are friendly, and more than one third (36.2%) think these people are ‘cool’.
The survey was conducted on 800 people aged between 18 and 65 to celebrate 20 years of carsales.com.