Will brand names that begin with “Q” be the hot trend of 2011? That’s what I propose in my new column for Visual Thesaurus, “Queuing Up.” The full text—which includes many examples to support my case—is available to subscribers only (just $19.95 a year!). Here’s a taste:
Brand names that start with Q aren’t new, of course: think of Quaker (oil or oats), Q-tips (originally called Baby Gays; now there was a smart change!), and Quonset. (Quonset huts have been around since World War II; the US trademark for “Quonset” was granted in 1972.) The contemporary craze for Q-names, however, may have gotten its start in 1989 with the naming of the Infiniti Q45 car model. There had been many alphanumeric car-model names before then, but none using Q; reportedly, Infiniti’s parent company, Nissan, paid a naming consultant $75,000* to suggest “Q” and “J”—which the consultant called “utterly unused letters”—for model names. That’s $37,500 per letter, a record sum that may never be surpassed. And the idea wasn’t even original: The “Q” probably came from “Q-car,” a British term for a “sleeper,” a vehicle that disguises a high-performance engine behind an unassuming exterior.
I’ve been following the Q-trend for a while now: Read my posts about Qliance, Qiagen, Qriocity, Qsine, and Qdoba.
See also my posts about Z words and K names.
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* Not me!
I suspect the British usage of "Q-car" was informed by the term "Q-ship," a merchant ship carrying far more armament than one might expect; the Royal Navy deployed a number of them in WWI to bait German submarines.
Infiniti, in addition to the J and the Q, has sold a G, an I (I own one of these) and an M. BMW actually sued them over the M.
Posted by: CGHill | February 07, 2011 at 07:55 PM
@CGHill: I go into the "Q-ship" derivation in the Visual Thesaurus column. (Subscribe! Read!)
Posted by: Nancy Friedman | February 07, 2011 at 07:56 PM
@CGHill
The OED agrees with your etymology 100 percent. Q-ship was written 5 days before Q-boat on 10 August 1918 in the Army & Navy Gazette. "Q-ship" was apparently an American misnomer of the British term. Q-car appeared in 1933 with the generic meaning, "disguised police car."
Strangely, certain movie props from the James Bond series often come to be known as "Q. cars," "Q. boats," "Q. *" after the fictional designer. Such entries may have strengthened the folk etymology of "a car with more than meets the eye."
Posted by: Language And | February 08, 2011 at 05:50 AM
Hi Nancy- just checking in to say I love your Blog...and your new photo is beautiful. Have a wonderful day.
Posted by: Mary Loftus | February 08, 2011 at 06:57 AM
@LanguageAnd: My Visual Thesaurus column covers Bond (James Bond) as well:
"In the James Bond novels and movies, Q is the head of Q Branch, the fictional research-and-development arm of the British Secret Service."
And much more Q-trivia. It pays to subscribe!
Posted by: Nancy Friedman | February 08, 2011 at 07:44 AM