There are a number of famous streets with names beginning with "B": Bourbon Street and Basin Street in New Orleans; Beale Street in Memphis (famous for bluegrass music, I believe); Broadway in New York City. And probably a few I can't think of at the moment.
When it comes to cars, Chevrolet has favored names beginning with "C": Corvette, Camaro, Corvair, Chevette, Cavalier, Cobalt, Caprice, Chevy II (several of those are forgotten models and probably justly so).
Ford Motor Company favors "E" for its SUVs: Explorer, Expedition, Escape, Edge. There was another one; was it Endeavor?
And many of Ford's sedan model names have begun with "F": Focus, Fiesta, Fusion. And long ago there were the Falcon and the Fairlane. Maybe Ford likes F-names because of the alliteration with "Ford." (Ford's Mercury division has built the Mercury Marquis, Mercury Mariner, Mystique, and Marauder--again, all alliterative names.)
And Ford's pickup trucks are F-150 and F-250, but maybe the "F" is just supposed to suggest "Ford." Since the initial is pronounced "eff" and therefore, when spoken, begins with a vowel, I can't say that that's alliteration.
On the other hand, there's a phenomenon recognized by scientists called "phonetic symbolism." This means that some words convey or connote something just by their sound. I can't say what words starting with "C" or "F" might connote, but it's easy to believe that the manufacturer wants names with certain sounds to be associated with the brand identity that they try so hard to build.
Copyright © 2011 by Richard Stein
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