"Pet Names" for Cars

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23037, 14 May 1938, Page 12 (Supplement)

"Pet Names" for Cars

The habit,- common enough among real motoring enthusiasts, of naming their cars as they would their pets, iis the subject of reference' in an English journal. It mentions one instance of a Singer owner who calls his car "Caruso." It is perhaps a coincidence that three Auckland motorists, all neighbours and owners of Singer cars some years ago, called their machines "Caruso," "Melba," and "Toti Dal Monte." In tho hands of another owner, "Caruso" is still singing lustily in Auckland, but "Toti" came to an untimely end in the Manawatu Gorge, after a major disagreement with a heavily-laden truck.

Of course, it is not always as easy to find a suitable name for a car. but some owners, whose cars are made by firms with names less easily "fitted" than Singer, have nevertheless found suitable names. A Daimler owner calls his car "Sir Charles," a tribute to the dignity of the big machine, an Austin Seven - owner has named her car "Audrey," and there iB a Rolls-Royce most suitably known to the owner and his family as "Duchess."