According to the survey held by Swinton, the British leading high street retailer of car insurance, 80% of drivers give some kind of pet name to their vehicle. The majority of cars with “names” belong to women: 88% ladies tend to make up a name for their autos.

Mainly the choice is based on the color of the vehicle, but some prefer to call it after a favorite celebrity (13%) or after the driver’s lover (4%). It is also interesting, since English language does not give genders to nouns, people can make them up by themselves, so 81% men refer to a car as a female while 91% women think of their auto as a male.

The reasons why owners want to name their vehicles is because they become emotionally attached to them: having to give care to the car like oil change, tire rotation, etc. and asking it to be stronger, hold on and go in tough weather situations or when the fuel is extremely low, automatically grows closer relationship between the driver and the vehicle.

The most unusual car names discovered by Swinton were: Black Beauty, Bettie Banana, Tin Tin and Road Runner.