So, in our family the cars have names. I know we’re not alone this (please, tell me we’re not alone in this). It seems that our autos become personified members of the family. Wendy’s 2001 Honda Accord is Sally. Our old 1991 Dodge pick-up was lovingly dubbed Tabitha by Taylor, who drove her to school for several years (Tabitha drove Taylor and Clayton away from their wedding). Madison’s first car was a Geo Metro that received the appropriate moniker, Squirt.

After many years of faithful service, Wendy decided it was time for Sally to be replaced. Admittedly, it’s a somewhat more greivous experience when you personify your cars, as if you’re hurting their feelings. So, she got her new car this past week (a Nissan Murano), but we didn’t know what to name it. Is it male? Is it female? We opted to wait on it and let the name come to us. All week we’ve referred to the car as “her” and “she,” so we were sensing it was female. Still, we didn’t have a name.

My business car is an RX350 named, shockingly, Rex. So it was yesterday, we were at Wendy’s folks and somehow the conversation came around to the naming of cars. In the course of the conversation I mentioned the fact that Rex is latin for “King” while Regina is latin for “Queen.” Wendy looked at me and it suddenly hit us at the same time. So, this morning we’re announcing to the world that Wendy’s new car is Regina (though we’ve determined her majesty prefers Reggie).