Ah, car names. For inanimate objects...with "personalities"? Seriously? Apparently yes!
It's rampant at our place.
Our new MINI is already named: Nigel Blue. Why so? It started with my alter ego, a source of a lot of humor at our place, a typically-American British stereotype named "Nigel Fairthorpe". This character was sort of "assigned" to me in some sense: growing up in America during the "muscle car" era, I bucked the trend and drove small cars, Fiats & VWs. I spent quality time in, and could extol the virtues and foibles of, most of the British cars of the era as well: MGBs, MGB GTs, Midgets, Triumph Spitfires, TR3s,TR4s, TR6s, GT6s, Morris Minors, Austin Americas, MG 1100s, Austin Healey 100-4s & 3000s. And whose dad owned a Hillman? So I became known as the resident "foreign car" expert, Nigel Fairthorpe, likely to be prone to dashing about in a tweed jacket, wool flat cap, and leather driving gloves, smoking a full-bent briar of Dunhill Standard and clicking off expert heel/toe downshifts as I made good time through the countryside. Yeah, I was that guy.
Fast forward [many] years.
So when purchasing a made-in-Oxford MINI, it had to be "Nigel". During the decision-making phase, I built 10-15 different MINIs, so at any one time I'd have "Nigel Black" (black with chrome/silver), "Nigel Fast" (a JCW), "Sinister Nigel" (all black), etc. Once I spotted an Ice Blue MINI at the dealer, I was hooked, and that led to "Nigel Blue", that was just built this past week and is waiting at Southampton to come "home". Due here a month or so from now.
More than you wanted to know, I'm sure.
Others in our garage, or nearby, and they're always masculine, not feminine:
Damon: our Z06, my wife's car. Hers are always shiny black, and always "Damon", this being Damon IV in the series.
Kysoku: our Mazda 5 GSD pet hauler and all-around handy vehicle. From Japanese "kaisoku": fast, nimble, rapid, quick. We used his name for his personalized plate, and only had six characters to work with.
Shoeskate: Our tired Miata, nicknamed after those old-time roller skates that could attach to shoes with clamps and straps. As though Godzilla might grab a couple to skate around Tokyo.
Dario: Kawasaki Ninja motorcycle. Sounded dashing to my wife.
The Mighty K: our BMW touring motorcycle, K series, seems mighty indeed when loaded with us and our gear for a week-long vacation! "Put your shoulder into it, heave!".
