Ford took nine months to name its forthcoming midsize electric pickup, and the result — Fathom — marks a deliberate turn away from alphanumeric EV naming toward the evocative nameplates of Detroit's past.

The automaker revealed its naming process in announcing the truck, explaining that the name plays on "fathom" as both a unit of water depth and the act of coming to understand something. Kay Hart, general manager of Ford's EV business, wrote in a blog post that the name was inspired by "a deep understanding of the person who would drive it," built on years of consumer research.

"The team asked themselves: What communicates depth below the surface? How do we communicate an emotional feeling of a vehicle that's more than it appears to be? Two Ford copywriters separately conceived 'Fathom,'" Hart wrote. "As the list dwindled, Fathom survived every single cut until it was on a short list, easily separating itself as the top choice among focus groups."

Ford's naming team also mined the company archives, reviewing historic names like the Galaxie, Taurus, and Ranchero before settling on Fathom. The name preserves the alliteration Ford has used for the Focus, Fusion, and Fiesta while avoiding the alphanumeric system of vehicles like the F-150.

From green symbolism to alphabet soup

The EV naming story began with environmental symbolism. Two of the earliest mass-market electrified vehicles in the US were the all-electric Nissan Leaf and the plug-in hybrid Chevy Volt, whose names evoked electricity and sustainability. The Nissan Leaf, the first mass-produced EV globally, reportedly took its name from the fact that leaves purify the air, just as battery-powered cars promote cleaner air by eliminating tailpipe emissions. "Leaf" also serves as a loose acronym for "leading environmentally friendly family car." The Toyota Prius, one of the world's first mass-produced hybrids after its 1997 launch, comes from the Latin for "prior" or "previous" — a reference to there being no vehicles like it before.

"Since mass-produced EVs came out around 2010 or so, they were and still remain…something new to consumers," Ed Kim, president and chief analyst at automotive marketing research firm AutoPacific, told Morning Brew. "And because of that, a lot of EVs' naming is trying to reflect what the product is about, whether that's something green or whether that's something high tech or new and mysterious."

A second wave brought alphanumeric systems: the Volkswagen ID.4, the Tesla Model Y, the Kia EV6, and the Mercedes-Benz G 580 (with EQ technology). Tesla's lineup famously spells out "sexy" — the Model S, Model 3 (Ford held the trademark on Model E), Model X, and Model Y.

"It's long been a truism among the product planning community that…a really good name is generally considered better than an alphanumeric [one]," said Kim, a former product planner. Alphanumerics can convey practical information such as vehicle size, but they carry narrative limits.

"The advantage of alphanumeric naming is that you can create a system, you can scale it," Johan Hesslefors, strategy director at brand agency Kurppa Hosk, said. "But it's harder to open a conversation with those kinds of names."

"Naming is not for the faint-hearted," Hesslefors added. "A name is the beginning of a conversation you have with a product, or an experience, or a company. So it has a lot to carry."

Normalizing the electric car

Today's strategy depends on the vehicle and the brand's goal, according to Kim. Some automakers choose quirkier names to signal something new and exciting. Chevrolet has taken the opposite route, attaching "EV" to existing nameplates like the Equinox, Blazer, and Silverado.

"Chevrolet's mission with EVs is to truly bring them to the mainstream," Kim said. "Just make them normal cars for normal people and take away some of what might be intimidating to some mainstream consumers about going electric."

Soheil Samadianpour, senior business development manager at consultancy GlobalData, expects more of this approach. "By adopting names that resonate more with traditional vehicles, manufacturers can signal that these cars are not niche products but part of the mainstream automotive market," he wrote in a LinkedIn post.

The industry is splitting several ways. Volkswagen plans to rebrand its electric ID.4 as the ID. Tiguan, sharing a name with its well-known combustion model. Toyota shortened the bZ4X to bZ, for "beyond zero." Hyundai's EVs share the Ioniq name, with numbers distinguishing models. Polestar numbers its EVs by release order; Rivian uses alphanumerics to mark vehicle generations and body styles; Volvo designates EVs with an "EX." Cadillac has broken with the alphanumeric titles of its legacy nameplates in favor of stylized names like the Optiq, Lyriq, and Celestiq. Chinese automaker BYD, expanding globally, uses English names including Seagull, Shark, and Seal.

Hesslefors sees Ford's Fathom as a callback to the golden age of American nameplates like the Superbird, Charger, and Barracuda. "I think," he said, "we're going to see some more playful naming."

Source: Marketing Brew (https://www.marketingbrew.com/stories/electric-vehicle-naming-trends?utm_source=&utm_medium=syndication&utm_campaign=feed) / Source: revenuebrew.com (https://www.revenuebrew.com/stories/rivian-founder-ceo-rj-scaringe-r2)