I can only assume everyone has heard of Rolls-Royce, right? What is now the Rolls-Royce Group PLC was originally founded as Rolls-Royce Limited back in 1906. Until now I haven’t mentioned the company’s name origin in any of the previous articles because the naming is quite simple. The company name originates from the family names of the two founders – Henry Royce and Charles Rolls. However, back then their main job was to produce aircraft engines and around half of the aircraft engines used by the Entente Powers were produced by Rolls-Royce.

But let’s get back on the main topic. The Geneva Motor Show is happening this week and as you can expect – a lot of shiny cars will be presented. Rolls-Royce revealed their new car model, basically a GT coupe version of the Ghost sedan. The new 2013 model is called Wraith – and if you think you’ve heard of this name before you won’t be mistaken. The fact is that there was a 1938/1939 Rolls-Royce model that was named Wraith. However, according to wiki only 492 chassis were made. Below you can see all three car models mentioned and spot the differences (not that difficult between the Wraiths):

the original Wraith model by Rolls-Royce from 1938

the 2009 Ghost coupe model by Rolls-Royce

one of the few teasers of the new Wraith
before it was revealed today at the Geneva Motor Show

You can see the time span between the first Wraith model that was released back in the 30’s and the one just revealed in Geneva in this Rolls-Royce Motor Cars car models timeline taken from wiki – the Wraith models are marked in yellow:

The Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Director of Design Giles Taylor explains in an interview on YouTube the car model naming decision of the Wraith that is shown today at the Geneva Motor Show. According to him the reason the name Wraith suits the new car model so well is “this sense of fleeting – the fleeting spirit, slightly ethereal, slightly enigmatic”. I should include the official meaning of the word wraith (according to the Oxford Dictionary):

a ghost or ghostlike image of someone,
especially one seen shortly before or after their death.

Also, the word is considered a synonym for phantom and ghost. Nice word-play, Rolls-Royce!:)

Here are some shots of the car taken from the official Wraith video ad:

Below you can see the interview with the Director of Design mentioned above, as well the video ad that was released yesterday:

If you are interested in car brands and model you might want to check out some of the other car-related naming articles we have to offer like Nissan’s Infiniti naming strategy, the luxury Lykan brand name origin, the Latin origin of Audi and Volvo company names, or more naming-related news like the BlackBerry recent name change.