Last summer, Ford introduced a new F-150, the 14th generation of the F-Series pickup truck. Curiously, through those 14 generations over nearly 75 years, it has never once occurred to Ford to use any sort of official distinction among the generations beyond first, second, third, fourth, and so on. But as the best-selling vehicle in the U.S. for 40 years now, the F-Series has naturally generated legions of admirers and enthusiasts who have bestowed their own more creative nicknames on most of those generations. For handy reference, we've rounded those up here.

1948-1952: The F-Series started with Ford's first all-new postwar trucks, which also represented Ford's first all-new postwar vehicles. Generally considered to be the first Ford pickups that didn't share any chassis architecture with the car line (though Ford did start to separate car and pickup architecture as early as 1942), the F-Series also introduced a reasonably easy-to-understand model name system, with F-1 for the half-tons, F-2 for the three-quarter-tons, F-3 for the heavy-duty three-quarter-tons, and so on, up to the F-8 three-ton trucks. In addition to the flathead V-8, Ford also powered these F-Series trucks with flathead straight-sixes.

Naming Convention: Despite Ford's insistence today that it has only ever referred to these trucks as the first-generation F-Series, the company consistently advertised them as the Bonus Built trucks and even called them such on the cover of the operator's manual. Enthusiasts have followed suit.

Discover more monikers for the F-Series...