From the diminutive (Austin) Ant to the robust (Daihatsu) Zebra, the automotive world has long looked to the animal kingdom for inspiration.
It is a logical leap, really: naming a machine after a beast infuses cold steel with breath, character and intent.
But for every thoroughbred stallion or venomous snake that has graced a bootlid, there is a creature that defies conventional marketing logic. For every Cobra, there is a Kitten. For every Ram, there is a… Bongo.
In this zoological survey, we have scoured the archives to curate a complete A-Z menagerie of the motoring world. It is a collection that ranges from the legendary to the obscure, and the fierce to the frankly bizarre. Welcome to the Autocar ark.
A: Austin Ant
In the late 1960s, Mini creator Sir Alec Issigonis turned to developing a small 4×4 that was intended for military use but which would also spawn a civilian version. Small, tough and designed for military use? You can see why Ant was the perfect name. Sadly, in 1968 British Leyland management canned the project, which was deemed to be too close to the Land Rover.
B: Mazda Bongo
The Japanese one-box van that was launched in 1966 is named after not a drum but a striped African antelope. Fun fact: the bongo is the world’s third-largest antelope and the only species of tragelaphus in which both sexes grow horns. The Mazda Bongo was never offered with horns. Only a horn, operated via the steering wheel, or a dashboard button on older models.
C: Shelby Cobra
Originally a reworked AC Ace with a mighty V8 engine plonked in it, the Cobra has been surprisingly influential in the names of other cars. The inspiration for the name apparently came to Carroll Shelby in a dream, like all the best ideas do.
D: Haval Big Dog
The tale of Boaty McBoatface clearly never reached China: in 2020 Haval decided that a social media vote would be the perfect way to find a name for its new SUV. Big Dog won, beating Hiker, Battle Axe, Wolf and, er, Billow Journey. Haval brilliantly named the trim levels after dog breeds: Husky is the entry level, rising to top-tier Belgian Shepherd.
E: AMC Eagle
The 1980s all-wheel-drive US machine was a hybrid of Jeep running gear and the body of a Concord saloon, and it was designed to take on important four-wheel-drive models from the likes of Subaru. The reasons for the Eagle name aren’t known, although Chrysler later turned it into a stand-alone performance brand that ran from 1988 until 1998.
F: Ford Falcon
The Falcon name was first attached to a luxury Ford concept in the 1930s, and it eventually spawned the creation of Mercury. In the mid-1950s, Chrysler unveiled a saloon car concept named Falcon. By 1958, reports suggest both Ford and Chrysler wanted to use the name for new small cars: all US model names at the time needed to be registered with the Automobile Manufacturers Association, and Ford, er, swooped in just 20 minutes ahead of Chrysler to get its talons on the Falcon tag.
G: Volkswagen Golf
Wait, what? No, the Golf is not, as common tradition holds, named after a type of wind. It is a rough translation of the German word for the gulf stream, but the suggestion actually came from Volkswagen’s then head of purchasing, Hans-Joachim Zimmermann. He was a keen rider, and his favourite horse was named… Golf. Which has just usurped Snickers in a ranking of the most surprising things that you probably didn’t know were named after a horse.
H: Lancia Hyena Zagato
Fierce little things, hyenas. A fitting name, then, for a neat coupé based on a rallying legend. That’s clearly what Paul Koot thought when he dreamed up this sleek machine based on the Delta Integrale. Zagato developed the Hyena, but Fiat wouldn’t officially back it, forcing Koot to buy HF Integrales to convert. A planned production run of 600 ended with just 24 made.
I: Chevrolet Impala
Who knew that so many car firms like naming models after breeds of antelope? This long-running US-market saloon was produced in various forms from 1957 until 2020. The name was first used for a 1956 show car, which featured an impala-based logo. The choice was because impala are graceful, apparently.
J: Proton Jumbuck
Jumbuck? It’s an Australian slang term for sheep, which you’d know if you’d studied the lyrics to Waltzing Matilda in depth. Anyway, since Australians love a ‘ute’, it’s a fitting choice for the name of a front-drive coupé-style van. It was even offered in the UK, where it attracted some loyal fans. In its native Malaysia, Proton chose to name it Arena, which is far duller.
K: Reliant Kitten
The three-wheeled Robin is clearly the most famous Reliant named after a living thing, but the Kitten is a neat oddity; a small, cheap car of which just over 4000 were sold between 1975 and 1982. It was based on the Robin but had four wheels and an 850cc engine, and the name came from a contest held for Reliant employees. It was built in Bangalore in CKD kit form, rebranded as the Sipani Dolphin. Early inspiration for BYD, perhaps?
L: Nissan Leopard
The Leopard was a performance-tinged luxury car sold in Japan between 1980 and 1999. Amazingly, a furry spotted steering wheel cover was never offered as a factory option. A missed opportunity.
M: De Tomaso Mangusta
It’s Italian for mongoose, before you ask. Why name a car mongoose? Out of spite, obvs. Alejandro de Tomaso was angered when an agreement with Carroll Shelby to build a new Can-Am racer fell apart. Shelby went on to team up with Ford for the GT40, and the steel chassis developed for the project was used for the 1967 Mangusta. And the name? Well, mongooses (mongeese?) might look cute, but they’re vicious carnivores – and they eat cobras.
N: Jeep Gladiator Nighthawk
When completing an A-Z like this, you expect Q and X to be hard. But N? There aren’t many animals starting with N, but car firms have so far missed the opportunity to name models the Natterjack, Newt or Naked Mole Rat. Instead, we’ll have to settle for a special-edition trim package for Jeep’s US-market pick-up.
O: GVT Ox
Oxen are valued working animals that can lug sizeable loads at a steady pace. A fitting name, then, chosen by charity Global Vehicle Trust for its Ox delivery vehicle. Designed by Gordon Murray, it featured Ford Transit mechanicals with bodywork that can be assembled flatpack-style, and it was intended for use in Africa. The project morphed into the firm Ox Delivers, which operates a fleet of trucks – now with an electric powertrain – for a haulage-as-a-service business in Rwanda.
P: Fiat Panda
Technically, the Panda shouldn’t be on this list because – shock horror – Fiat’s city car isn’t actually named after the bamboo-loving bear. It was provisionally named the Rustica, before Fiat switched it to a more evocative title inspired by Empanda, the Roman goddess of travellers. The title rankled the World Wildlife Fund (now the World Wide Fund For Nature), whose logo features a panda, although a chunky charitable donation by Fiat smoothed things over.
Q: Chevrolet Corvette ZRX1 Quail Silver Limited Edition
This is as tenuous as Elon Musk’s grip on reality, but until a firm decides to call a car the Quokka (there must be a crossover crying out for the badge) it’s all we’ve got. This was a special-edition Corvette named after The Quail car show, part of Monterey Car Week and a nod to The Quail Lodge resort, itself named after the migratory bird.
R: Plymouth Road Runner
The roadrunner is a real bird, but you’re already thinking of the long-time foil of Wile E Coyote – and yes, Plymouth’s appropriately cartoonish 1968 muscle car is named after the cartoon character. At the time Plymouth paid Warner Bros $50,000 to use the character’s name and likeness for a logo – and bunged in $10,000 for a licensed Road Runner’s ‘meep meep’ exclamation for the car’s horn. Surely the best $10,000 any car firm has ever spent.
S: Triumph Stag
For a period, Triumph Motors assigned each of its projects a four-letter codename, such as Zest (TR4) and Bomb (Spitfire). Several of them used animal names: Zebu (a South Asian humped cow) was the codename for the 2000, while Zobo (a cross-breed Tibetan pack animal) begat the Herald. Perhaps wisely, Stag was the only Triumph project name that actually found its way onto the production version.
T: Sunbeam Tiger
Another V8 sports car that Carroll Shelby helped develop, the Tiger was codenamed Thunderbolt during its development, but before its launch in 1964 it was renamed in honour of the Sunbeam that set a land speed record in 1925. That V12-powered record-chaser, built by Henry Segrave, was originally known as the Ladybird before it was renamed as something a bit more aggressive-sounding.
U: Lamborghini Urraco
Lamborghini names most of its cars after fighting bulls, which is very helpful because we could choose Urus or Urraco here. We’ll go with Urraco because (a) the name, translating as ‘little bull’, is more fun and (b) you’d rather see a picture of an Urraco than an Urus, right?
V: Dodge Viper
The wild American sports car was conceived as a modern equivalent of the Shelby Cobra, so the development team wanted a snake-adjacent name (and mongoose was no longer available). Viper was chosen after designer Tom Gale met design legend Giorgetto Giugiaro and asked him for a cool Italian snake name. “He said ‘Vipera’, and I said ‘shit, thanks’,” Gale told Motortrend.
W: Land Rover Wolf
The Wolf is the light military variant of the Defender that was launched in 1998 and has seen extensive service in Iraq and Afghanistan. The possibly apocryphal reason for the name points to an LR engineering meeting where someone warned the project “could bite us in the arse”, to which someone replied “we’d better call it wolf then”. What bantz.
X: Lada X-Ray
The X-Ray Tetra is a small South American freshwater fish that is unusual for being largely translucent. Did that somewhat obscure fish serve as inspiration for the 2015 Russian compact SUV? Almost certainly not. But seriously, you try finding a car starting with X that’s named after an animal. This stuff isn’t as easy as it seems.
Y: Skoda Yeti
Some will claim Skoda’s rugged crossover doesn’t belong on this list, on the grounds that the yeti is a mythical creature that actually doesn’t exist. But the Yeti SUV very definitely existed, and we’re sad it no longer does. And anyway, can you prove the abominable snowman doesn’t exist? Eh?
Z: Daihatsu Zebra
Essentially an enlarged Hijet kei car, the Zebra was produced by Daihatsu’s Indonesian subsidiary from 1986 until 2007. The name came from the Automeccanica Daihatsu Zebra, a short-lived Greek-made version of the Charade. Daihatsu never explained why it chose the Zebra name, and disappointingly it never offered the model in a striped black and white paint scheme.