I’m more interested in the name, of course. Talk about being environmentally friendly! What could be better than a leaf? Maybe a volt? Ouch! Or bio-power – that sounds “natural”! Or maybe a converj… Wait, what?

In case you haven’t been paying attention, those are the names of the recent (and future) hybrid and electric cars to hit the market. Here’s a rundown:

• Aptera (electric vehicle coming out at end of 2011)
• BMW Hydrogen 7 (hydrogen)
• BMW ActiveHybrid (hybrid)
• Cadillac Converj (plug-in hybrid–in 2010 GM decided to drop this concept)
• Cadillac Provoq (plug-in hybrid in development)
• Chevrolet Volt (plug-in hybrid)
• Ferrari Hy-Kers (hybrid in development)
• Fisker Carma (plug-in hybrid)
• GEM (Chrysler Group Global Electric Motorcars–low speed vehicle LSV)
• Honda FCX Clarity (hydrogen)
• Honda Insight (hybrid)
• Mercedes BlueHybrid (hybrid)
• Opel Ampera (European variant of the Chevrolet Volt)
• Saab BioPower (ethanol)
• Saturn Green Line (stop-start and hybrid – now dead)
• Smart ForTwo (electric–more commonly known as smart car)
• Tesla (electric)
• Toyota Prius (hybrid)
• Volkswagen XL1 (hybrid in development)
• Volvo DRIVe (clean diesel – Europe)
• Zap Xebra (electric–sounds like a video game set in a zoo)
• Zenn (electric low speed vehicle)

Wow, those are some fancy names!

Of course, many of these are concept cars, and they may never make it to market – as was the case with the Cadillac Converj. I think my favorite is Tesla. Nikola Tesla, as you might know, was the original handsome bad-ass crazy scientist who was basically responsible for the AC power system, among scores of inventions and discoveries. Tesla and Thomas Edison famously hated each other; one of the reasons that the Tesla name works so well for the car company is that it stands in opposition to the known, the old, the tried and true. It’s the anti-Edison. Tesla was European, brilliant, maverick, fashionable, and quite the showman – all attributes that Tesla Motors has embraced.

It’s awesome to see electric cars coming into their own, because it’s way past time for them to become the norm. I am hoping that my next car will be more like the one the Jetsons’, with a big bubble on top so I can get sunburned every time I drive it to the Space Mart. Of the electric vehicles listed here, only one approaches the Jetson level of design – Aptera (pictured here). It is a three-wheeled “car” that looks like an iMac on wheels. (They’re not in production yet, but they are taking pre-orders.) It’s so futuristic that the Aptera 2 made a brief appearance in the last Star Trek movie, in which the bridge of the Enterprise itself appeared to be located inside an iMac. Does Apple have dibs on the way the future will look?

Perhaps we should look to the Jetsons for inspiration on names of the future. George Jetson, as you’ll recall, worked at Spacely’s Space Sprockets; their main competitor was Cogswell’s Cosmic Cogs. Jane Jetson’s favorite store was Mooning Dales. The Jetsons live in the Skypad Apartments in Orbit City. Am I detecting a pattern here? Or maybe we’ll just have to wait until technology catches up with Hanna-Barbera. Speaking of which, where is that flying car they promised me?

“My name is on every car,” Akio Toyoda, the president of Toyota Motor, assured Congress on Wednesday.

The company started by Toyoda’s grandfather did indeed have his name — Tokyo Toyoda Motor Sales — until 1936, when a stroke of the brush changed it to Toyota.

Writing “Toyoda” in Japanese requires 10 brush strokes, explains John R. Malott, president of the Japan-America Society of Washington DC, but writing “Toyota” requires eight.

While “8″ is considered an auspicious number, “10″ is not, said Malott, who visited with the company during his years as a State Department official. “Ten” consists of two strokes crossed against each other and resembles the “plus” symbol, or even a crossroads or an uncertain path. Not a good omen for a company.

“It’s a very Japanese way of thinking,” Malott said.

Chie Tamaki, a Japanese language expert at Arlington County-based Rosetta Stone, said in an e-mail that the name Toyoda consists of two characters, one meaning fertile and the other, rice paddy.

Tamaki was skeptical of a theory that the name was changed to make it sound less rural. Toyoda is a common name in Japan, not unlike Smith in English, she said, and most people don’t think of blacksmiths when they hear Smith, she observed.

According to an official corporate history, the company changed its name to Toyota because it “sounded better” — but whether it sounds better or not depends on the speaker, perhaps.

“I’m from Chicago,” Malott said, “so it’s all Toyoda, anyway.”

But on the other hand, the name has two huge flaws. First, it is already “taken” by a major athletic equipment brand. While there isn’t likely to be a trademark dispute over this name (the trademark office is smart enough to know that there isn’t much chance of consumers confusing a shoe with a motor vehicle), there is a big mindshare issue. Puma (the athletic company) has recently made a significant resurgence, and is once again among the leading brands in the category. Segway could have done itself a favor by choosing a product name with more room to maneuver.

Furthermore, the company seems dedicated to teaching us that P.U.M.A. is an acronym (it stands for Personal Urban Mobility & Accessibility — but of course you knew that). Why? What does that really long, cumbersome, and generally forced extended version of the name add? Nothing, really, that we didn’t already know by a) the fact that Segway is selling it and 2) one look at the darn thing. Every time they push the acronym extension, they take away all the great sleek and agile cat associations that made the brand name so cool in the first place. The extended version is just trying too hard to do too much. Let the brand name carry the cool part and create a tagline or product descriptor to communicate the rest.

What hit me almost immediately was that both car names are real English words. I wonder if concocted words or a Latinate name style was ruled out because Toyota seems to owns that style with Prius. (For those of you who don’t know, Prius is a Latin comparative adjective or adverb, with meanings “ahead, in front, leading; previous, earlier, preceding, prior; former; basic;” fitting for such a car in the green vanguard.)

I like what each of the new car names conveys about its car model. “Clarity” focuses on the environmental benefit, and perhaps even suggests how simple a decision it should be to purchase one. The name also fits nicely with Honda’s other real-word names: Accord, Element, Civic, Pilot, Fit, Odyssey, etc. All of these words (maybe with the exception of “Fit”), are real words with elegant connotations. Either that, or Honda has done a great job of imbuing each of the brands with elegance and reliability. Either way, I think Clarity is as equally elegant and evocative as each of the names in the Honda brand roster.

“Volt” appeals to Chevy’s tough and exciting brand image. The name is electrically charged, powerful, and punchy. Instead of conveying the benefit, Volt implies the radical new technology. (Similar to the way Zap car does.) Much like the Chevy Cobalt, the Volt has a strong, exciting, and charged tonality. The Volt electric car marks a huge energetic shift for General Motors. The Volt (hopefully) effectively launches Chevy into the green car revolution. If Chevy hasn’t already gone under or severely missed the green boat by waiting until 2010, then the Volt may signal a new era for the American auto maker. The name aims to capitalize on this monumental change in the automotive tides.

Of course, let’s not forget about the Smart Car that’s already selling its super efficient models in the U.S. In fact, by next year they plan on having a fully electric model available for sale. At $12,000 for the current gasoline-burning model, it’s no wonder that I’m seeing them pop up all over San Francisco. In parking-starved SF, it also doesn’t hurt that you can park two of these adorable little guys in the one SUV’s street parking space.

More green cars! And please, more exciting green car naming!

ZAP also stands for “Zero Air Polution.” So let me summarize: ZAP has a name that is suggestive of their unique point of differentiation AND that functions as a relevant acronym? Brilliant indeed.

Perhaps the most fun aspect of ZAP’s brand is its brand extensions, aka the vehicle names. Zapino is the name for ZAP’s line of mopeds and Zappy is their scaled down scooter. The car names range from the playful Obvio and Xebra, to the more intriguing and mysterious Alias. (The Alias even looks like it was plucked right out of a James Bond movie!)

I love everything about ZAP’s names. It’s refreshing to see a clever naming system that isn’t forced or trite. If only the bigger car companies could emulate ZAP’s ingenuity both in naming and product innovation.