[SKC-auto]

No Indian names for God sake, our politicians will get perfect opportunity to start a South vs north , east vs west wars for their votes.That car name will end up with a different names for each state. We are happy to accept any foriegn language unless it's not one of our own.

[guru_max]

Naming cars after geographical places might work, but even that name has to be chosen wisely. Himalayan or Thar works fine, likewise names like Kanchenjunga, Cherrapunji may work.

[ganadrive16]

There is a reason why global makers stick to one global name. This is to maintain product recall horizontally across regions. Ironically, Indian car makers themselves prefer fancy names. Mahindras had the miltary names viz. Marshall, Commander etc until they shifted to the O fever. For Tata, except Safari (which is pseudo English) it has never been Indian names. Sigh!

[jigar1791@gmail]

Originally Posted by guru_max

Naming cars after geographical places might work, but even that name has to be chosen wisely.

Won’t work with cars, but work(already works) well with trains. We have trains named after regional geographic locations, eg - Aravalli Express (Mumbai to Jaipur), Chalukya Express (Mumbai to Puducherry?) and so on, as they are meant to connect places in those part of the country, plus, majority of the travelers in those trains do have an attachment with that place after which the train is named.

Himalayan or Thar works fine, likewise names like Kanchenjunga, Cherrapunji may work.

Difficult to put it to practice (Thar is an exception, since it’s already a brand in itself), as regional places are influenced by the pronunciation the natives do, plus the huge pride the locals associate with their own region/geography (look at any Mumbaikar boasting/taking pride in calling out the Bandstands/Marine Drives of the world, as if we own it , and it happens with everyone).
Eg - imagine a South Indian guy owning/calling out a car named after Rani ka Kuva (Rani ni vav in Gujarati). Or a North Indian dude calling another car, named after a place down south? The accent, the vocabulary, the sentiments won’t work in this case.

The marketing folks are smart chaps, they can read the wind direction very well, and with current euphoria of WESTERNISATION growing in Indian Youth, it is hard to name a car in India that may be based on regional geographic location.

[shancz]

Slightly off topic but since we are discussing names :
Air India aircrafts have had cool names(including a few ill fated ones) like :
Kanchenjunga, Emperor Ashoka, Emperor Kanishka, Konark etc.

Like mentioned earlier, I also found some state-roadways have cool names for their buses like :
Airavatha(KA), Shivneri(MH), Kadamba(GA), Garuda(AP/TS).

In cars we have Ford Everest, VW Touareg (named after the Saharan tribe) to name a few.

Have to say, Skoda has impressed in taking a Sanskrit name and it sounds cool.
And would love to see more follow suit.

[jkrkrish]

Sanskrit has meaningful, exotic names.

Exambles are the names of our missiles, radars, etc.

If an established brand like Mahindra or Tata or even Hyundai (india has made them rich), start giving Indian names, and if the product is good, the trend may continue. Someone has to start.

[Raghu M]

I think the challenge comes when global players want to introduce facelifts. They will have a huge list of names to just mention before telling they will get a facelift. On the other hand, our armed forces have all Indian names. More so names that refer directly to mythologies and fables. As the products are unique to India, it works easily.

[ramki.grandhi]

Skoda's Kushaq is an indian name and i was happy to see the adoption of sanskrit words by big car companies. It may be a publicity stunt, still i love it.

[Gannu_1]

I love the fact that the government and armed forces use desi names for their stuff.

Ships - all the IN and ICG ships and submarines. Some of them have been named after places in India.

Missiles - Prithvi, Prahaar, Agni, Akash, Shaurya, Dhanush, Nag etc.

Radars - Rohini, Swathi, Samyukta, Indra etc.

Sonars - Abhay, Ushus, Payal, Panchendriya etc.

Satellites - Kalpana-1, Rohini, Rukmini etc.

Armoured combat vehicles - Arjun, Bhishma, Kartik, Sarvatra, Vajra etc.

There are many more. Newer variants or the successors have the marks suffixed. Like Agni-II, Prithvi-III etc.

[Superleggera]

A strange coincidence for a global brand that I can think is Opel Astra - Astra means arrow in Sanskrit.

[tushky]

Originally Posted by Superleggera

A strange coincidence for a global brand that I can think is Opel Astra - Astra means arrow in Sanskrit.

Opel or Vauxhall’s Astra takes its name from Astralis, meaning ‘of the stars’.

[Sanjunair5]

Why not cars named after places/cities! . US has so many;

Hyundai - Santa Fe, Tucson
Kia - Rio, Sedona, Telluride
Dodge - Dakota, Durango
Jeep - Laredo
GM - GMC Denali, Chevy Tahoe, Chevy Malibu
Toyota - Tacoma

There are many many many more (not forgetting Ferrari California too!!).

So if cars were to be names after Indian cities, what are your picks? I wouldn't mind a Bombay nameplate on anything at all! An Thar like 4X4 named Deccan? Why not! A 3 row crossover called Ooty? Bring it on!

[sodapop]

Some examples that come to my mind are, Tata Yodha(Rebranded Xenon), Mahindra Thar, Skoda Kushaq, Premier Padmini, Force Gurkha

[jkrkrish]

In India, the himalayan peaks, and other hill ranges have beautiful/ meaningful names.

A cinema hall in Madras Regimental Centre, Wellington was named Kilimanjaro.

[Ferruccio]

I am reminded of a very insightful speech by Marketing Guru Jadeep Kapoor of Parle, responsible for Bisleri and Frooti.

Quite simply put he would say - English Marie, Desi Khari.

That means, products that are seen by the Indian lay-person to be of a certain origin, benefit from brand names that sound from that country. Therefore, though both Marie and Khari are biscuits, Marie would benefit from an 'English' sounding name like Kensington or Byford whereas a Khari brand should name itself Balaji, Ganesh or Sultan since it is historically a biscuit of Desi origins. A new brand of noodles should sound Chinese or Japanese. Future Group / Big Bazar named their in-house appliances Koryo (to sound Japanese) and Eicher named itself to sound German.

Therefore, it is understandable that automotive brands, Desi or Videsi decide to go with non-Desi names. As for the name Kushaq, I am not such a fan though the product is a proper peach in all respects. In fact, the entire VW family naming is a bit off IMHO (Disclosure: I was VW India Product Head for quite some time).

Finally, I believe that the Indian customer has matured to the point where "Roopmati ho ya Paaro, kee farq painda yaaron?". A robust product, from a proven brand, packed with the right features at a value price will do well no matter it is name K400 or Kuppusami!