Honestly, The Name Fathom For Ford’s New Truck Is Pretty Good

Our Autopian co-founder Beau once told me that the naming of cars is “the sport of kings.” And while I’m unsure as to the actual number of monarchs in the industry, I don’t think that’s hyperbole. Naming cars is difficult, and is much more of an art than science. There’s a surprising number of factors to be accounted for, balanced, enhanced, ignored, and the only guarantee of the end result is that you won’t make everyone happy.

That said, I think Ford calling their new $28,350 electric pickup truck the Ford Fathom is actually quite good, in some perhaps non-obvious ways.

Most of us here at the Autopian – and a lot of people in general – were suspecting that Ford would be calling this new vehicle the Ranchero, after Ford’s original small, car-based truck which was first introduced way back in 1957.

The Ranchero name seemed like a good choice: it was the right kind of vehicle, it had a good amount of recognition and positive associations, and it tied into a lot of Ford heritage. But I think these are the very reasons it would have been a mistake.

The name Ranchero really has too many associations and baggage associated with it. There’s a very particular tone and feeling that is associated with Rancheros, a dusty sort of out West feeling, a feeling where everything has a yellow tint, like when filmmakers want you to know you’re somewhere in Mexico.

I don’t think that’s what Ford is going for at all with the Fathom. Ford is telling us what they’re going for in this little animation they made to announce the name. Take a moment to watch it, and I think you’ll get a pretty good idea of who they think this truck will appeal to:

There’s sort of a narrative going on in that video. I’m not sure exactly if we’re following one family/group of people or several, but there’s some clear narratives in play. There’s a woman who seems to be starting a dog washing business, using the truck bed and later moving up to opening an actual physical location, there’s people doing sporty, outdoorsy things, there’s kids in kid seats and people getting married and buying houses – this is a vehicle for younger people and families who do stuff.

That’s a pretty broad spectrum of people, and I feel like the Fathom is being cast as a sort of whatever-you-need kind of tool, which is great. There’s some hints at capabilities, like the scene where people appear to be watching a movie in the woods, a cable snaking back to the truck, suggesting some manner of power takeoff [Ed note: Ford said it’ll have some form of bi-directional power -MH], for example. I do think they should have shown the frunk’s enclosed storage as well as the open bed, though. That’s a big deal!

Okay, so how does all this fit with the name? Let’s start by looking at what Ford’s PR minions have to say about it. First, they helpfully define “fathom”:

fath·om | \ ˈfa-thəm

noun 1 : a unit of length equal to six feet, used chiefly in measuring the depth of water 2 :

archaic the span of a person’s outstretched arms

verb 1 : to measure the depth of; to sound 2 : to penetrate and come to understand

That’s useful. I didn’t know about the human-wingspan definition. The press release goes into more detail, and addresses the heritage name question:

So how did we land on Fathom? Sometimes, figuring out what works starts with a long list of what doesn’t.

First, the team scoured the Ford archives, looking at how this company has named vehicles for more than a century, from the Galaxie and Taurus to Ford’s first vehicle that bridged the gap between car and truck, the Ranchero (a pre-curser to the El Camino).

Each option came with a specific implication, one that might not fit our new electric truck. So the team asked themselves: What communicates depth below the surface? How do we communicate an emotional feeling of a vehicle that’s more than it appears to be?

Two Ford copywriters separately conceived “Fathom.” It wasn’t an immediate decision, though. The name lived in a file with hundreds of other options.

Ford also notes that the naming process took nine months, and the team asked engineers working on the project to pick their favorites from a list. One engineer had a knack for picking the winner repeatedly, and the PR mentions he was the first informed of the final decision.

That’s all interesting, sure, but I think there’s a few other important elements here. One basic one is the fact that the name begins with “F.” For a long while, Ford seemed to have an unofficial policy to give all of their cars names that started with F: Falcon, Fairlane, Fiesta, Festiva, F-150, Focus, Fairmont, Five Hundred, Flex, Fusion, and, of course, Fustang.

Now that I think about it, Ford did the same thing with “E” for a while, too: Escape, Escort, Expedition, Ecosport, Explorer, Econoline. Huh.

But back to “F”; I think the F-starting names are well enough associated with Ford that there’s a little possibly subconscious association with the concept of Forditude, and I think that helps.

Plus, I think the alliteration of “Ford Fathom” just sounds good,

Also, fathom is a word that is blessed with a bifurcated meaning, and those two meanings are pretty wildly different. You can even think of the word as having a more physical meaning – fathom as a unit of depth in water, with all the implications of exploring and adventure and venturing off into the unknown.

Then, there’s the more mental meaning, the process of understanding meaning of fathom. There’s still an implication of the idea of depth here, common to both meanings of the word, and as a result there’s an implication that to fathom something is a deep understanding.

How does all that translate to an electric truck? I guess a combination of something adventure-y (nautical or otherwise) and also thoughtful is a pretty decent set of associations to have for any vehicle.

The name does open Ford up to a certain class of snarky comments online, of course, with people saying things like how they cannot fathom how Ford did whatever or similar things like that, but I think that’s a reasonable trade-off.

The name also doesn’t sound like most other car names out in the world now, and that’s a positive. Fathom doesn’t come up all that often in general for products in the world, really. The only other association I can think of is a video game from 1983:

Fathom. I drive a Fathom. Feel free to take the Fathom to Fight Club this Friday. Where the hell did I put the keys to the Fathom?

Yeah, I think it works.