Choosing a name for a car model is like choosing a name for a baby. It should reflect the personality and characteristics of the vehicle, just as a baby’s name reflects the identity and meaning to its parents. But it must also fit with the brand’s values ??and be easy to pronounce in most languages.
“The hallmark of the brand and the character of the model are the first thing to take into account,” explained Lucas Casasnovas, director of Product Marketing at Seat, before the Spanish manufacturer revealed the name it was going to give to the car. SUV that launched on the market at the end of 2017. Tarraco was the name chosen by popular vote among the more than 10,000 proposals received.
Tarraco, current Tarragona and one of the main cities of Hispania during the Roman Empire, emerged as the definitive choice over other names that represented toponyms of Spanish geography. Alborán, Aranda and Ávila were the other three finalist place names. And Seat had made it a condition that its brand new SUV be named after a place in the national geography.
Seat’s tendency to name its new models after a Spanish town dates back to 1982. It was the year in which the Seat Ronda was launched, a C-segment passenger car that represented a redesigned version of the Seat Ritmo. With the name of this town in Malaga, the Spanish manufacturer paved the way for other names that have become a rage among users: Ibiza, Córdoba, Toledo, Marbella… which have become a classic in the automotive industry today.
The choice of the name Ronda for one of its models marked the beginning of a new strategy for Seat, which chose to name its vehicles after cities and emblematic places in Spain. It definitively broke with the firm’s initial tendency to name its creations with numbers. The Seat 1400 was the first model to leave the facilities of the Barcelona Free Trade Zone and would be followed by other bestsellers of the time: the 1500, 600, 850, 124, 1430, 127, 133…
Between these two stages, that is, between the time when Seat models were known by up to four figures (1953-1976) and until the first name with the name of a Spanish town (1982), the brand launched three models. that did not respond to either of these two characteristics. The Seat Panda, the Seat Ritmo and the Seat Fura are seen in perspective as turning points in the brand’s naming strategy, introducing a new way of identifying and positioning its vehicles in the market.
To choose the name to give to a new model, many factors are taken into account. It should be unique and easy to remember and pronounce. For the first thing, it is essential to check if the desired name is registered by other brands in any of the countries where the product will be sold. In the case of Seat, its cars are exported to more than 80 countries.
“For a name to be easy to remember, it cannot be too long,” admits Casasnovas, and this is one of the reasons why the names that Seat chooses for its models usually have two syllables or three at most. Likewise, it is also important to check that it works at a phonetic level.
The name with which Seat has named its models since the appearance of the Seat Ronda in 1982 takes us on a return to Spain that passes through 8 autonomous communities, including the Canary Islands (Arona) and the Balearic Islands (Ibiza and Inca).
Andalusia is by far the region most represented in the toponymy chosen by Seat to name its passenger cars. Since Ronda was chosen in 1982 to name the new version of the Ritmo, the Catalan firm has named four other models after Andalusian cities and monuments. Three of these cars correspond to as many towns in this autonomy -Málaga (1985), Marbella (1986), Córdoba (1993)- and another -Alhambra (1996)- to the most representative monument of the city of Granada.
With the choice of Tarraco, in 1997, Seat for the moment closes its cycle of names related to Spanish toponymy, waiting for a new model to come onto the market. The Spanish firm will have no shortage of names to choose from.
A simple query in the trademark registry of the Ministry of Industry and Tourism serves to verify that the leaders of Seat have registered a string of names from the Spanish geography: Gredos, Cierzo, Cádiz, Arán, Canarias, Valencia… Even towns from other countries , like Oxford, or names as suggestive as Seat Guapa, Seat Towny or Seat Fancy.
