All cars have their own serial numbers, almost all without exception. But not everyone has official names. True, it often happens that these names do not take root and folk nicknames come into play. This applies not only to foreign cars, but also to domestic ones.
The appearance of a nickname for a particular car model is a common thing, most often this happens just because of the lack of a name as such. But the opposite is not uncommon.
And it would be a mistake to believe that nicknames are given only to Soviet models, although USSR auto companies often had problems with naming - cars were produced exclusively with a series and index number.
So, for example, in Germany, the BMW Isetta was called the “coffin-mobile”. In general, this baby had a lot of folk names. Her Soviet counterpart, the SMZ SZA motorized stroller, was forever remembered as "Morgunovka" (from Shurik's Adventures), and her follower, SMZ SZD, was "Invalid".
And judging by these cars, we can really conclude that the models get very characteristic or even funny nicknames. And in the USSR there were enough such machines:
AZLK and IZH
Cars of the Moskvich brand were produced at two plants - AZLK (formerly MZMA) and IZHMASH. Many nicknames are given to cars in consonance with the name of the brand or model, and “Moskvich” is a vivid example of this: the so-called “paznie” (i.e. “late”, last years of production) “Moskvich” called “masquerade”, “mekan” and even "mustang" - although here it is necessary to make a reservation that the modern term "pazny" itself is more usable in relation to "Izhs".
The former, very first Muscovites, -400 and -401, bore the popular name "Hottabych", and the Moskvich-412 sedan launched many years later was sometimes called "Barsik". But especially the fantasy of motorists played out just at the end of the Muscovites era - the AZLK-2141 hatchback and its various incarnations were just a storehouse for amateur naming.
The basic model, actually AZLK 2141 Svyatogor, was awarded the titles "Kosmich" (in consonance with "Muscovite") and "Azylk". The export version with the official name of Aleko is "Cripple" and "Banderlog". In addition to the VAZ-2106 engine, a 2-liter Renault engine was installed on Svyatogor, and such a modification was called Renogor. And the extended version of AZLK 2141 Prince Vladimir was called "Long" and "Vovka-carrot". Come on, it seems that the model has an official name, but nicknames still stick to it ... All because they are much more accurate.
The Izhevsk story of Moskvich is a bit simpler, but also worthy of attention. In Izhevsk, commercial versions of the 408s and 412s were assembled, and it was here that a “pool” of folk names in this direction was formed: IZH-2715 - they called the now commonly used nicknames “Heel” and “Pie”, but also less common “Cheburashka”, "Margarine" and, again, "Masquerade", as well as quite mysterious - "Box on the top five". The independent model IZH Orbit, not based on AZLK products, released in 1990, was nicknamed by the people in a new way - "Orbit". By the way, the name Orbit did not take root because the Italian ItalDesign registered the official name Orbit, and the hatchback from Udmurtia eventually became Oda.
GAS
Sometimes you can hear that the Volga and Gazelles are often called simply "Deers" - due to the fact that this animal adorns the emblem of GAZ - but nicknames for Gaz cars began to appear long before the appearance of this very deer. The first and most famous nickname is for the GAZ-AA truck, "Lorry", because its carrying capacity was one and a half tons. Then, much later, there was the GAZ-69 jeep, which, due to the extremely rigid army suspension, became the “Kozlik”, and the GAZ-66 all-terrain vehicle, nicknamed “Shishiga”, which essentially means the same as “kikimora”, however in this case there was a simple consonance with "sixty-six".
The history of GAZ cars was also full of nicknames. So, the seemingly extremely appropriate official name GAZ-20 Pobeda eventually supplemented the popular "Turtle". The first Volga, GAZ-21, was also called not only by name, but also by a nickname - "Tank in a tailcoat."
GAZ-24, the legendary second Volga, went down in history as the "Barge" and "Shaland", because on the move it was soft, as if floating along the highway, but heeled in corners. Well, its later incarnation, the VAZ-3110, received an even less flattering nickname "Pull-Push".
VAZ, LADA
The products of the Volga Automobile Plant from the people's creators got, perhaps, the most - here, of course, and TAZ (Togliatti Automobile), and the "Bucket" with the "Vedrover", and "Brick", and even "Horror" in relation to Zhiguli. These are all more or less common names for "vases", but if you look in detail ... It all started with the VAZ-2101, which in Moscow was immediately nicknamed "Tin Can" - for the thinner body metal compared to Muscovites and Volga. At home, in Tolyatti, where the VAZ-2101 was produced and modernized, it was called "Edinichka" or "Odnerka".
But the now known nickname "Kopeyka" appeared only at the very end of the 20th century, like its derivatives: "Spear" and "Kopendos". It is also known that truckers call this car "Chaplain" - here the consonance with "Kopeyka" is also guessed, but in general it is ... a priest in the army.
It is clear that VAZ cars are characterized by nicknames formed from numerals (according to the serial number of the model), but in addition to simple “two”, “three” (“three”) and others, there are more amusing variations on the same “numeral” theme. VAZ-2106, for example, in addition to the "Six" has the nicknames "Shah", "Miner", "Jackal", "Shamok" and "Shaitan". VAZ-2105 - Piglet and Petrik. And VAZ-2107 - "Semyon" and "Semaphore".
According to the same scheme, with a pedigree of numerals, the nicknames VAZ-2114 (“Four”) and VAZ-2115 (“Fifteen” and “Poltorashka”) are formed, but in general the main nickname of the Samara and Samara-2 families is still “Chisel ”: for the characteristic shape of the body, the VAZ-2108 and VAZ-2109 were so nicknamed immediately after they entered the market. The not-too-personal nickname "Rattle" stuck to all the first VAZ front-wheel drive vehicles, but the VAZ-21099 sedan got its own - "Suitcase" and "Duplet".
But the record holder for the number of nicknames among VAZ models is, of course, the VAZ-1111 Oka: “Cum”, “Perch”, “Mad Stool”, “Death Capsule” (remember the “coffin-mobile” Izetta?), “Shrimp” , “Box”, “Starling house”, “Miscarriage”, “Bag on wheels”, “KAMAZ cab”, “Keychain from BELAZ”, as well as the legendary “20 minutes of shame - and in the country”. Here it is, people's love!
The VAZ-2110 was almost equally loved by the people: in addition to the neutral Chirik, Chervonets and Matryoshka, the Pregnant Antelope and Remnant were in circulation. These nicknames, with some modifications, were inherited by the VAZ-2111 wagon - it was called "Pregnant Cow", "Bar of Soap" and "Slippery Brick". Against this background, the nickname VAZ-2112 - "Cucumber" - looks almost like the official name of the model.
In the case of the VAZ-2120 minivan, the VAZ just decided to stop the vicious practice of naming cars exclusively with numbers and gave the model a proper name - "Hope". In those years, AvtoVAZ painfully survived in primitive capitalism, so the name was in the subject. But it wasn’t there, among the people it was transformed into “Clothes”, “Hopelessness” and “Konstantinovna” - and here double headlights turned out to be in suit, as if reminiscent of N.K. Krupskaya.
In general, with the return of the practice of official naming of models of the Volga Automobile Plant, unofficial naming has not gone away. For example, Kalina is called “Gooseberry”, “Hamster”, “Horse Meat” and, sorry, “Fekalina”, and the name of the Lada Xray hatchback on the Web instantly transformed into a much more phonetically Russian “Hrey”. Against this background, Niva looks interesting - it remains exactly "Niva", and nothing more, even many years after it ceased to be officially called that.
As you already know, in addition to major and minor, there were other modes (see "Medieval modes"). Some of these modes have been used and are used to this day in the works of various peoples. We will consider the main modes of folk music used in this article.
Seven-step modes are quite common in folk music. The sequences of intervals between steps in these modes are different, which distinguishes them from natural major and minor, as well as from each other. Despite this, the basis of these modes is either a major mode or a minor one, so the modes of folk music can be considered as varieties of the major or minor mode.
The seven-step modes of folk music include two varieties of major and two varieties of minor modes. Due to the coincidence of the scales of these modes with the scales of the medieval modes, they were given the names of these medieval modes:
In addition to seven-step modes, five-step modes are also found in folk music. They are called the pentatonic scale, and you are already familiar with it. If you forgot, we recommend that you return to the article
If in the past all Opel models were named after military ranks, then the names of modern models end in "-a": Astra, Corsa, Meriva, Zafira.
In addition, any noun or adjective can serve as a name for a machine. Moreover, this really existing word should be "ideologically close" to the car, and not just beautiful. For example, the name of the Ford model Fiesta (Spanish for "fun, joy") alludes to the joy that a driver can experience when driving a car. The names of Smart brand models - Fortwo and Forfour - are practical. They indicate how many people the model is designed for - "For two" and "For four".
Coming up with the name for the Impreza, Subaru played on the consonance of the word Impreza with the English impressed ("impressed"). This word, as conceived by the developers, can be used to characterize the driver who first got behind the wheel of a Subaru car. And the Opel Agila (under this name the city small car was sold) is a slightly paraphrased English word "agile" - "nimble, agile."
"Leninets" vs. "Katyusha"
In the USSR, during the development of the first car of the Volga Automobile Plant VAZ 2101, the now existing "naming" technologies were hardly guessed. Then the decisive factor for the choice of names was purely ideological. Despite this, the "penny" managed to avoid a politicized name. Moreover, the people were instructed to come up with its name.
In August 1968, a competition was announced in the press for the "popular name" of the new Soviet car. As a result, about 30 thousand letters with proposals came to the address of the Volga Automobile Plant, of which about a hundred "successful" ones were selected. Among them were "Leninets", "Volzhanka", "Katyusha", "Aurora", "VIL" (short for Vladimir Ilyich Lenin). However, the word "Zhiguli" became the winner.
"Lada" in the Samara region are called the mountains on the right bank of the Volga, not far from which is located Tolyatti - the birthplace of the modern "AvtoVAZ". Most researchers believe that the toponym "Zhiguli" comes from the Turkic "dzhiugli" - "harnessed, horse-drawn". The mountains got their name because of the barge haulers who lived in the area. But it is unlikely that the leadership of the Soviet Union went into details of the origin of the word "Zhiguli" when it made its choice - apparently, it simply seemed to them quite harmonious.
True, residents of most European countries would hardly agree with this, where the word "Lada" was consonant with the somewhat offensive word "gigolo". Therefore, in order to export cars to Europe, VAZ urgently needed to come up with a more "decent" name. This is how Lada appeared.
Modern employees of AvtoVAZ do not remember the history of the appearance of this name. One of the possible options: the name "Lada" came from the consonant word "rook" - this image has been used on the nameplates of cars of the Volga Automobile Plant since 1970. In any case, the name Lada turned out to be so successful that in the future, not only export models, but also all other cars of the Volga Automobile Plant began to be called that way.
In addition to the official name "Zhiguli", the VAZ-2101 model also had a popular name - "Kopeyka".
The next after the "Zhiguli" (the last representative of this family was the "seven" VAZ-2107) was the line of models "Sputnik". The first car produced in 1984 under this name is the G8, VAZ-2108. The name of the machine was supposed to remind both the inhabitants of the Soviet Union and foreign countries that the USSR was the main space power. However, it turned out that the word "satellite" was not very well known abroad. In addition, it turned out to be difficult to pronounce for foreigners.
As a result, for export, the name was changed to another "euphonious" geographical name - "Samara". Someone says that this word was chosen in honor of the river of the same name that flows in the region, and someone recalls that until 1935 the city of Kuibyshev, the administrative center of the region in which AvtoVAZ is located, was called and is now called.
Another topographic name was given to the small car VAZ 1111 - "Oka". The name was not invented at the Volga Automobile Plant itself, but at its subsidiary, the Serpukhov Automobile Plant (SeAZ), where this car was produced. Thus, SeAZ tried to draw a parallel: AvtoVAZ is the Volga, and SeAZ is its tributary, the Oka. True, such an association has already been forgotten, but the "river" name remains on the lips even after the end of the production of a small car.
Developing a name for the first off-road vehicle, the plant management faced a problem: they wanted to call the car, which was intended primarily for agricultural workers living in difficult areas, "Niva". However, the combine, which was produced in Rostov-on-Don at Rosselmash, already had such a name. Nevertheless, the management of the Rostov plant did not object to the use of the Niva name by AvtoVAZ. By the way, both the car (although the Niva brand is now owned by the GM concern) and the harvester are still being produced.
By science
Currently, AvtoVAZ chooses names for new models in the same way as other modern manufacturers - "according to science." As we were told in the press service of AvtoVAZ, this is how the names Kalina and Priora were born. Both were selected from a list of 10-15 other names based on consumer testing. However, the final decision was made by the management of the plant.
The origin of the name Kalina has already acquired legends, one of them was invented by the factory workers themselves. According to her, the car got its name due to the red color in which the prototype model was presented. Although, in fact, it was purple.
Why were cars given nicknames at all? The simplest answer is cases where the model does not have its own "name", instead of it there are only index numbers. Agree, it’s not very convenient to pronounce VAZ-21013 or GAZ-31105 every time. However, not always the reason is only in the difficult-to-pronounce name of the car. Some "nicknames" were attached to cars for some characteristic features or features.
And we will start with AvtoVAZ, whose products got almost the most. The enterprise itself is popularly called TAZ, because according to the strict logic of Soviet designations, it was supposed to become the Togliatti Automobile Plant. But the dissonance of this abbreviation was immediately understood, and the plant became Volzhsky. But you can’t deceive the people, and in accordance with the level of quality, cars originally from Togliatti still became “basins”.
Zhiguli were also called "Bricks" for their characteristic shape, "Buckets" (all for the same workmanship) and even "Horror". Not everyone knows that they were also "Tin Can" (or simply "Canned"). That's what they called the just-released VAZ-2101 for thin metal compared to the Volga and Moskvich. And the well-known name "Kopeyka" did not appear immediately, only at the end of the 20th century.
Nicknames for cars of the Volga Automobile were most often formed from the numbers of the index. Some were lucky, and their folk names were not offensive. Drivers affectionately called the fifth model "Pyatachok" and "Petrik", the seventh - "Semyon" and "Semaphore". But the VAZ-2106 was covered by the folk creative in full: "Shah", "Shaitan", "Jackal", "Miner" ... There is little pleasant in such epithets.
Immediately after entering the market, the 2108 and 2109 hatchbacks received the nickname "Chisel" for their characteristic front end. It also went to Samara with an already redesigned appearance, including Samara-2. Well, in general, the front-wheel drives of the VAZ were nicknamed "Rattles": the plastic turned out to be painfully noisy against the backdrop of the "Lada"! But the VAZ-21099 sedan was sometimes awarded the “solid” nickname “Suitcase”.
Our fellow citizens did not ignore 2110 either. Formed from the digital designation “Chirik” and “Chervonets”, they used much less often well-aimed epithets on the theme of sedan design: “Remnant”, “Matryoshka” and “Pregnant antelope” ... They were partially inherited by the station wagon 2111, which Nicknamed "Bar of Soap" and "Pregnant Cow".
But most of all, the inhabitants of our country loved the city crumb "Oka", VAZ-1111. She got the most: Perch, Cigarette Butt, Crazy Stool, Birdhouse, Bag on Wheels, Shrimp, Death Capsule, Miscarriage of KAMAZ, Keychain from BELAZ. And, by the way, the popular expression “20 minutes of shame, and I’m in the country” originally referred to this Soviet hatchback.
When in the late 1990s a minivan on the Niva chassis was named Nadezhda, it was quickly dubbed Hopeless. It was for that: the car looked creepy, the workmanship was to match the appearance. His other folk names are "Clothes" and "Konstantinovna" (a hint of Nadezhda Konstantinovna Krupskaya).
Against this background, only the Niva stands out. Russian motorists have been imbued with sincere respect for her, because even after decades and a change in the official name, she was and remains only the Niva.
If the cars that came off the assembly line of the Ulyanovsk Automobile Plant, and got less folk creativity, it was only because of the smaller number of models. The history of the enterprise began with the assembly of the GAZ-69, so it is not surprising that the nickname "Goat", or affectionate "Goat", migrated to the first independent model of the enterprise - UAZ-469. This is not a desire to offend, but just a statement of fact: both cars did not differ in smoothness and desperately “goats”. The same name is given to their direct descendant, which is now officially called in a foreign language - UAZ Hunter. And how did the police version of the car get! "Bobik", "Box", "Garbage truck". Some also called the car in the Ukrainian manner: "Cement truck".
No less legendary model of the plant - UAZ-452. For its rounded shape, the car was immediately nicknamed "Loaf" and "Bulka", and the version for "Ambulance" was called "Pill" or "Nurse". The flatbed truck was aptly dubbed the Tadpole. And now these “nicknames” are used almost in the official press, which is much more convenient than long and confusing digital indices. And most importantly, it is immediately clear what is at stake.
The Patriot flagship SUV was nicknamed "Patricay" and "Patrick".
The early AZLK models, 400 and 401, were nicknamed "Hottabych", the 412th was called "Barsik", all "Muscovites" in general - "Masquerades", but over the hatchback AZLK-2141, which appeared in the 1980s, the wits mocked at glory. Most often, he was "Kosmich" or "Azlyk", which is consonant with the official name. The export version of "Aleko" quickly transformed into "Cripple", the modification with the Renault engine became "Renogor" (similar to the official "Svyatogor"), and the elongated version of "Prince Vladimir" was instantly nicknamed "Long" and "Vovka-carrot".
