"American car manufacturers learned early the value of sophistication, or pseudo-sophistication, and the names that would imply it. Whether a name on a car or component really meant anything or just sounded good made little difference.

Since the car's heart is its engine, some interesting names were created for the early ones, too. Then came the 1950s, and everything was either technologically sophisticated, futuristic, or space-age. Such hyperbolte was by no means confined to engines, however. Transmissions were also fair game."

On the one hand, Bob Tomaine's story on the naming of cars, engines, transmissions, options and whatnot can be regarded as little more than a list of neat product names from the 1950s, little to get excited about. On the other hand, while cruising through it, you start to realize just how much these names have shaped brand identity, not just for buyers of the cars when they were new, but throughout the decades, even up to today.

How many of our impressions of those cars, engines, transmissions, options and whatnot come from little more than a nearly meaningless product name whipped up by some Mad Men adwriter?

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