Names for Cars

Naming automobile models is something that gets a lot of attention from manufacturers.
Almost all car names are some kind of symbolic suggestion. 

AMC Pacer

The ’70s Pacer was AMC’s attempt at a futuristic, wide-bodied compact car. The name “Pacer” was meant to suggest speed and forward motion—something pacing ahead of its time. Cool or quirky? 

Chevy Corvette

Named after a nimble, lightly armed warship, the Corvette was designed to be fast, agile, and striking. 

Ford Bronco

Built to take on the rugged terrain and challenge the Jeep, the Bronco was Ford’s wild stallion. The name called up images of untamed land and rough rides—just what off-roaders were after in the ’60s and ’70s.

Lamborghini Diablo

Spanish for “devil,” the Diablo was actually named after a legendary 19th-century fighting bull. It was designed to embody fierce power and exotic danger, just like the animal.

Chevy Blazer

The Blazer was made to blaze trails—plain and simple. Chevy wanted a name that captured rugged adventure and go-anywhere capability. The name became synonymous with early SUVs long before they ruled the roads.

Ford Mustang

Ford attempted to create its muscle car with a name that comes from both the WWII P-51 fighter plane and the free-roaming wild horses of the West which appear on the car's grille logo Fast, agile, and unapologetically American—it set the tone for generations of pony cars.

Chevy Camaro

Chevy never gave a straight answer on what “Camaro” meant—one exec famously joked it was “a small, vicious animal that eats Mustangs.” The name actually comes from a French word meaning “comrade” or “friend,” which makes little sense. It sounds sporty and fit with the "C" naming convention used by Chevrolet at the time. 

Volkswagen Golf

Believe it or not, the Golf isn’t named after the sport—it’s supposed to be short for Gulf Stream, part of VW’s theme of naming cars after winds and currents (as in their Scirocco, Passat, Jetta). A breezy name for a zippy hatchback.

Rolls-Royce Ghost

“Ghost” pays homage to the original Silver Ghost from 1906, known for being incredibly smooth and silent for its time. Today’s Ghost follows that lineage: ultra-luxurious, eerily quiet, and almost supernatural in how effortlessly it glides.

Dodge Charger

The Charger name suggests a horse trained for battle,and a battle cry, but today we probably first think of a device for charging a battery or battery-powered equipment - power. Whether you’re looking at the ’60s classics or today’s Hellcat beasts, the name fits.

Plymouth Barracuda

Before the Mustang even hit the streets, the Barracuda made waves. Named after the sleek, dangerous predator of the sea, it perfectly described the car’s sharp styling and serious bite on the drag strip.

Audi Quattro

“Quattro” simply means “four” in Italian, but for Audi, it was a statement. It marked the debut of their revolutionary all-4-wheels-drive system in a sleek coupe. The name became so iconic that “quattro” is now practically synonymous with AWD across the industry.

AMC Javelin

Designed to take on the likes of the Mustang and Camaro, the Javelin carried a name that evoked precision and power. Like its namesake spear, it was built to be thrown into the muscle car wars with deadly intent.

idioms about memory

 

I have another site where I wrote about three kinds of memory neurons, and referenced some idioms around memory. We have a lot of them in English

• Clear your memory
• Jog your memory
• Have something etched in your mind
• Stroll down memory lane
• Lose your train of thought
• Have a mental picture
• Have something slip your mind. 
• Memory like a sieve
• Memory like an elephant
• A mind like a steel trap.

Grape Nuts Cereal

Th78blue, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Grape Nuts cereal is named for its resemblance to grape seeds. But is is made from wheat and barley, and contains no grapes or nuts.  

The cereal was created by Charles William "C.W." Post in 1897. Mr. Post used a coffee grinder to break the baked cereal into small pieces that resembled grape seeds. Post believed that glucose, or "grape sugar," formed during baking. That sugar and the resulting cereal's nutty flavor inspired the name. 


Grape-Nuts was marketed as a health food. It was often eaten with milk, but could also be used in savory recipes like meatloaf and puddings. 

Grape-Nuts was featured in soldiers' rations during World War II as it is a nutrient-dense cereal that's high in fiber and protein. It has a whole-grain base that provides a steady energy source. 

Moby Grape

Columbia Records promotional photo, 1967.
L-R: Skip Spence, Jerry Miller, Bob Mosley, Peter Lewis, Don Stevenson

Moby Grape is an American rock band founded in 1966 as part of San Francisco's psychedelic music scene. The band actually had elements of rock, folk music, pop, blues, and country music.

Their name came from a joke that played off Herman Melville's Moby Dick: What's big and purple and lives in the sea? Moby Grape. member Don Stevenson says that it was a time of rather silly, nonsensical band names like Strawberry Alarm Clock, Electric Prunes, and 13th Floor Elevator.

They were one of the few groups in which all members were lead vocalists and songwriters. Before they had recorded, they had played many club gigs with all original songs. 

A trivia bit about the 1967 debut album is that the band photo has Don Stevenson making a middle finger gesture over a washboard. It is airbrushed off later cover and poster photos making the original album quite collectible.

The later years and albums became overshadowed by the story of Skip Spence. Alexander "Skip" Spence had been a guitarist but but became the drummer for the Jefferson Airplane on their first album but was kicked out after that. He went back to guitar when the Moby Grape was formed.

Spence had been using a lot LSD along with many in the San Francisco psychedelic scene. He developed severe mental illnesses, including a belief that he was the Antichrist. He'd attacked two of his bandmates with an axe, and had also gone to the CBS building and attacked people there. Luckily nobody was injured, but he was committed to a psychiatric hospital. Lewis, who had left the band for a time, returned to take his place.

There are several collections of their "best of" songs and reissues of their original albums.

In 2018 a detailed biography - What's Big And Purple And Lives In The Ocean?: The Moby Grape Story by Cam Cobb was published.

Trivia: Peter Lewis is the son of the film star Loretta Young,

For Contrast: They went to Columbia Studios in March 1967 to cut their first album, which took five days. The Beach Boys were also in Columbia studios over the same five days, in another studio in the complex, and spent all 5 days just doing vocal overdubs for the “Heroes and Villains” single.

Supertramp

Supertramp is an English rock band formed in London in 1969. The band's songwriting founders, Roger Hodgson and Rick Davies, originally called their band "Daddy" but to avoid confusion with the similarly named Daddy Longlegs, the band changed its name to "Supertramp." 

That name was inspired by The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp by William Henry Davies, who was a Welsh poet and writer who spent much of his life as a tramp or hobo, in the United Kingdom and the United States. He also became one of the most popular poets of his time. His writing focused on nature, observations about life's hardships, his tramping adventures, and the various characters he met. In 1948, the BBC Home Service recorded a version of the book in 15 episodes narrated by Welsh poet Dylan Thomas.

Rick Davies, founder and only constant member, shared the same surname as the Welsh writer, but it was original guitarist and lyricist Richard Palmer-James who suggested the name. Palmer left the band after only 16 months, and they carried on for four decades. In 1986, the group released a collectible compilation titled The Autobiography of Supertramp, a direct reference to the book.

They started as a progressive band but moved to a more pop-oriented approach which led to their most popular album, Breakfast in America. Released in March 1979, it reached number 3 in the UK and number 1 in the US and Canada. The album spawned four successful singles (more than their first five albums combined): three of Hodgson's songs, "The Logical Song", "Take the Long Way Home" and "Breakfast in America," and Davies's "Goodbye Stranger." 

The Very Best of Supertramp is their hits package and Slow Motion is their eleventh and final studio album, released in April 2002.

Official Site www.supertramp.com