Here Comes Treble: Naming Tigger
Isabel Bradley introduces us to a car called Tigger, explaining how it came to be named after the bouncy character in a delightful A A Milne children's story.
To read more of Isabel's zestful words click on Here Comes Treble in the menu on this page.
“After a week or two of driving my new car, I’m sure it, too, will reveal its personality to me. We’ll become friends and partners …Hopefully, she’ll tell me her name soon!”
This was part of the closing paragraph of the episode of ‘Here Comes Treble’ called ‘Naming Cars’ which I wrote at the end of April this year. At the beginning of May, we took delivery of a new Chev Aveo, who has indeed become a firm friend. Her name is Tigger.
“Why?” I hear you cry in astonishment. “Tigger is a stuffed toy belonging to Christopher Robin, a fictional character created by A.A. Milne as a companion to Pooh Bear! Tigger is ‘a bit like a tiger’, and he’s known to hate ‘hunny, haycorns and thistles’. How can a motor vehicle possibly be named after such a creature?”
It takes some explaining. Here is the convoluted story of the naming of Tigger. It begins long ago, before the Chev Aveo was even a twinkle in a motor vehicle designer’s eye:
Once upon a time when my children were young, we acquired a pet cockatiel. Cockatiels are medium-sized, parrot-like birds, most commonly with a grey body, some white markings on the wings and face, and a yellow crest. Less frequently, these birds have snowy white bodies, retaining the yellow crest. Our baby bird was most unusual – her colouring was referred to in breeding circles as “pearl”: though her crest was the expected yellow, her body and wings were grey with yellow speckles. The children were enjoying A.A. Milne’s stories of Christopher Robin, Winnie the Pooh and their toy companions. The pearl cockatiel was as far from resembling a tiger as she possibly could be and was, besides, sweet-natured and cuddly with no sign of a spring in her tail; this was enough reason, though admittedly completely illogical, for our new pet to be named Tigger.
Tigger the cockatiel became the most delightful pet, adopting my daughter as her constant companion. The sight of the blonde girl with Tigger on her shoulder, perched on top of her head, ‘preening’ her long hair or cuddling into her neck, became part of family life. Occasionally when the bird became tired of being petted and stroked, she would squeak – a most un-cockatiel-like sound; she would hiss, and threaten the offending finger with a wide open beak. Soon, however, she would return to loving and being loved.
It is many years since this delightful bird passed out of our lives.
“Yes,“ I hear you say, “That’s all very well – but how does a pet parrot relate to the naming of a motor vehicle?”
We return to May of this year:
After a week of driving my new car, I knew instinctively that she was an engineered reincarnation of our pet. There are many similarities. For instance, the seats are grey with yellow patterns. I admit it would be uncomfortable to have a car cuddle into my neck! – but she does snuggle easily into small parking spaces. When I occasionally lose patience with those around me in the traffic, she reacts fiercely, passing slower vehicles, or quickly tucking into a gap in the traffic. Thankfully, she doesn’t show an ounce of bounce when driving and makes no ferocious noises. In fact – she’s totally unlike Christopher Robin’s Tigger, who liked to bounce a lot “because that’s what Tiggers do best”. She is, however, just like the pearl-coloured cockatiel of that name that we knew and loved so long ago. As A.A. Milne wrote in ‘The House at Pooh Corner’, “Tigger. That’s T – I – Double Guh – Er! … The wonderful thing about Tiggers … is Tiggers are wonderful things!”
My new car is definitely a “wonderful thing”.
Until next week, “here comes Treble!”
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