The importance of naming your car

Naming your car is definitely a fun thing to do when you get a new or used car. I'm sure I'm not the only person who has been known to talk to my car when she is misbehaving, so it is only logical that I had to give her a name. It's much better than "hey you!"

My first car was an old pale yellow station wagon, which had been in the family for nearly as long as I had been alive. My friends nicknamed it the Banana Boat, and the name stuck until I had my first accident. Then, it was the Bruised Banana.

My brother totalled that car while I was in college, and we eventually got a light blue Ford Escort. When we first got the car, it had some sort of squeak coming from the rear wheels, and sounded like a chipmunk. The car became "Simon," since he was the member of Alvin and the Chipmunks who wore blue.

Later on, my then-husband inherited a car from a great uncle of his. We didn't expect the car to become ours, and there was only one logical name for that sort of an inheritance. The car was "Uncle George," named after the generous relative.

Finally, when I bought my first car on my own, I put a lot of thought into the name. She was a green car, and I knew from the start that she was female. I toyed with several names, but none of them seemed to fit. Sitting down with a friend of mine, she and I sorted through several ideas. As soon as she said "Pyretta," I knew she had hit the nail on the head. The name is taken from a song by Type O Negative, and even though the song is basically about fire, the name fits my adorable little green car.