Naming the Car

Car #3 turned out to be a friendly, classy lady (see yesterday’s blog if you need more information).  She's my kind of gal: playful but powerful, sporty and yet gracious.

Notice I said she.  Not he, or it.  Why do we allude to cars with a feminine pronoun?  This, dear friends, is a deep question for shallow minds.

The fact is, cars aren’t alone in this matter.  Boats, countries, machines, institutions, and even abstract ideas are also referred to as she.  Some believe this practice originated in male-dominant geographical areas where men 1.) depend on the object for their lives or 2.) find the object hard to understand or control.  If males superstitiously label such an object as feminine, flattery could increase their chances of being seen in a favorable light.  Ah, yes.  Sweet talk.

Others claim she is used to refer to things that can contain or hold people, either tangible (as a car, boat, or spaceship) or geographically (as a country).  This seems feasible since women possess wombs that nurture human life.

Boats are often namesakes for an owner’s mother or other significant woman.  We don't know why, although early Greek ships were dedicated to mythological goddesses; the habit of a female pronoun may have continued as a matter of habit.  Male captains and sailors worldwide have chosen female names and figureheads for their vessels throughout history, although actual women have traditionally been considered bad luck at sea. 

On a more practical note, English nouns have lost their original ties to Indo-European gender differences.  A car in French is une voiture, with une denoting femininity as opposed to the masculine un.  Interestingly, the boat in French is le bateau, with le being masculine as opposed to the feminine la.   It is possible that English folk traditions have tried to hang on to male-female differentiations that continue to exist in other languages, although imperfectly.

But back to Car #3.  We’re not buying this exact car, but rather her currently unidentified sister with 4-wheel drive.  The dealer is putting out a search, so we’ll see what he turns up.  Meanwhile, I’m thinking about a name, obviously female. Genevieve, Madeline, Juliet, Beatrice, and Victoria are in the running. I also like Isabella, or Bella for short.  But my favorite at this point is Dorothy.  After all, a car takes you everywhere you want or need to go, but in the end “There’s no place like home.”