Model X Plaid | Source: Tesla
In the world of technology you will find quite a few approaches to the names of different products and services, starting with the names that look like they were given by accountants (such as Sony) through the boring and standard ones (Pro, Ultra) and the more or less creative ones. But Elon Musk, love him or hate him – is considered to be the one behind some of the most unique, geeky and crazy names in the world of technology.
A sexy car and an intergalactic reference
Let’s start with Tesla. The company, which made electric vehicles cool, actually hides another adjective in the names of its models. Everyone knows the Tesla models, the ones already on the road and the ones that might one day hit the road and be seen from outer space – such as the Cybertruck and the Roadster (Elon Musk’s privateer is currently cruising in deep space) – but not everyone knows the meaning behind them. Some of the letters that Musk attached to the models also have a meaning – such as S which symbolizes its body type (sedan) and the fact that the X refers to the fact that the doors open and form the two sides of the letter X. On the other hand, the Y has no additional meaning and the 3rd model was supposed to be an E in general – but Musk had to give up this desire due to copyright issues with Ford. But what happens when you connect all the names of these four models in order – S3XY – and you got a very nineties way of writing the word sexy.
It is also important to note that alongside the names of these models, Musk made sure to also plant two references to Spaceballs, an excellent parody of the Star Wars films from 1987. The first is Ludicrous Mode, which enables enhanced performance for the car, which was made possible in part by pressing a button on the screens of users’ Model S and X until 2020. The second is Plaid, the name of Tesla’s new performance model for the Model S. Both refer to the types of speeds at which they were driven The ships in the movie, which of course are Hyper Speed from Star Wars.
References in space and water
But not only in Tesla, also – and perhaps especially SpaceX, the space company founded by Musk is full of original references. Let’s start with one of the groundbreaking rockets in the space industry – Falcon. Remember, this is the rocket that turned the theoretical concept of recycled rocket launchers into a daily reality with dozens of launches since then, including many astronauts (and one Israeli). The Falcon missile owes its name to one of the most iconic spaceships – Han Solo’s Millennium Falcon (and Chewbacca, of course). The Falcon rockets obviously wouldn’t get very far from Earth without an engine. Name of the engine? Merlin, named after the wizard from the legends of King Arthur. Besides Merlin, SpaceX has two other engines: Kestrel (which is no longer in use) and Raptor – two non-geek names in terms of reference to some geeky source, but yes types of birds of prey, and specifically types of falcons.
Was originally called Puff the Magic Dragon, as people said I was high if though it could work, so I named it after their insult.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 17, 2018
SpaceX’s cabin has earned a nickname that is both geeky and stalwart – a classic Musky combination. As of today, these capsules are called Dragon – because who doesn’t want to fly inside a dragon? But according to Musk’s tweet from 2018, the original name of the capsules was longer and called Puff, The Magic Dragon. For those who are not strong in the content worlds of American stellens, this is a reference to marijuana that actually came from a song by a trio of flower children called “Peter, Paul and Marie”. Musk says that he gave this name to the capsule after “people said I was stoned if I thought the capsule would work”. The engine of the passenger cabin was also named, although not as far from the original. Draco is the name of the engine, and it is simply the Latin translation of the word dragon.
And it doesn’t stop there. SpaceX also has autonomous landing rigs on which the rockets land in the ocean after re-entering the atmosphere. It started with Just Read the Instructions, a first generation autonomous lander, which has already had time to retire and received a second generation, and Of Course I Still Love You and A Shortfall of Gravitas. All three of these names are direct references or paraphrases of spaceship names in the “Civilization” series of books by Scottish writer Ian Banks.
So far all the names we mentioned are of existing developments of Musk’s companies. But there is one that is very theoretical and the one that should complete Musk’s dream of interplanetary life – the ship that will take us to Mars. Musk called it the Heart of Gold, and it’s supposed to be built from an upgraded Dragon 2 cabin, a Falcon Heavy rocket, and developments that SpaceX may not yet have developed at all. The reference in the name this time does not go to Star Wars or references to Star Wars but to Douglas Adams and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The “Heart of Gold” is the name of the ship stolen by Zapod Biblebrooks, the two-headed galactic president and inventor of the Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster cocktail.