Name Your Car Day

Why do we feel the need to name our cars? With headlights that leer and a grill that seems ready to snap or laugh, it’s hard not to see faces and personalities in cars and automobiles. In fact, the personality expressed in a vehicle’s “face” is often a huge reason why we choose to purchase one car over another.

It’s a surprisingly common phenomenon and has been around since the very first automobiles. A 2019 survey in honor of National Name Your Car Day found that 40% of people named their vehicles. That same survey revealed that women are more likely to name their cars than men (56% to 44%). The most popular inspiration for car names is from a TV or movie character, or from a friend or family member.

There are accounts of cars being informally named by their owners as early as 1918, when MIT professor Walter James wrote about his Model T Ford called “Lizzie,” and a 1912 Cadillac he addressed as “Caddie Maria.”