The German company Volkswagen has registered eight new trademarks and names in the past few weeks, most of which have been registered with the German Patent and Trademark Office (DPMA).
A few more have been filed with Mexican and Chilean authorities, potentially indicating that the new names are intended for vehicles outside of the European market, CarBuzz has learned.
Trademarks are registered for the following names (in alphabetical order):
Airon Angra Hera Tempus
Tera Therion Throne Toucan
Name meanings
Airon does not seem to have a clear meaning, but the word “Ayron” is a name meaning “mountain of strength”. Angra is far more interesting because it has more meanings. In Portuguese, the word means cove or gulf. In Old Norse it means to grieve or upset. It is also a genus of burrowing insects, but also a type of fish, and also the name of a Brazilian metal band. Let's also add that Angra Mainyu is the name of a destructive spirit or evil in the Zoroastrian era, he reports N1.
However, it is assumed that Volkswagen was aiming for something else when choosing the name. In the mid-1980s, a factory called Angra Industria e Comercio de Carrocerias produced a vehicle described as a cross between a sports car and a buggy, which used VW air-cooled mechanicals and a fiberglass body, so perhaps VW intends to "revive" this vehicle in Brazil , where it originally originated.
Other names don't really have a back story. Hera is a name from Greek mythology, more precisely the name of the patron goddess of marriage, women and marital harmony. Hera is also described as the protector of women during childbirth, suggesting that it is a good name for a family vehicle.
Tempus is the Latin word for time, but it is also the Finnish, Swedish and German word for grammatical tense. There is also Tera, which stands for trillion. It's nothing special, but “teratos” is a related word that means monster, which is interesting because another recently trademarked name, Therion, is Greek for wild animal or beast. The name is also used to describe the beast from the biblical book of Revelation and was used as the name of a symphonic metal band from Sweden. Therion is also a genus of wasps and the ancient Greek name for the constellation Lupus.
All of these names have multiple meanings except for Thron (German for throne) and Toukan (alternative spelling for the tropical avian fauna known as the Toucan), but what is noticeable again is the association with Greek mythology, binomial nomenclature and rock bands.
As a reminder, the history of current VW names is filled with Greek words and names, but German words for landmarks have also served as inspiration over the years. VW also likes to use names inspired by the winds: the Golf was named after the Atlantic Gulf Stream, and the Passat was named after the wind, as was the Bora after the storm.
It's hard to predict how the new names will be used, but given that most VW crossovers and SUVs have names that start with the letter T, it's safe to assume that this will be the case in the future.
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