Tata Renames ‘Zica’ to ‘Tiago’ Following Unfortunate Similarity to Zika Virus

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Posted by George Kennedy    

 

                            

                                   

Tata Motors is one of the largest auto manufacturers in the world (17th to be exact), building and selling cars on several continents. When an automaker is this big, it’s always hard to find a name that works in all local regions–an attractive name in one country could be some kind of slur in another. But the big whigs at Tata could have never anticipated this when they named their tiny four door car Zica.

 

Sure, the name is spelled differently, but it is nearly impossible to read that name and not thing of the virus that has spread to more than 20 countries around the world. In response, Tata asked the world for help. According to Mashable, the automaker launched an international crowdsourcing campaign, and after much deliberation, the name Tiago was selected, beating out other finalists Civet and Adore.

Tiago, which beat out the other two names in voting, is a Portuguese boy’s name, short for Santiago. The name Adore is pretty self-explanatory, while Civet is a slender nocturnal carnivorous mammal, native to Africa and Asia. Given that the newly named Tiago is affixed to a diminutive little runabout with a 1.2-liter engine making 84 hp, we’re glad they didn’t go with the carnivore name.

 

Meanwhile, Tata executives are happy to call it any name other than one that sounds like a virus.