Why did Hyundai name their new luxury car the Azera

Some car makers really gravitate toward made-up names. Mitsubishi used to love those (Cordia, Tredia, Starion, Galant...) and Hyundai seems to have some weakness for them as well (Atos, Azera, Elantra) though they also use "real" words that mean something in a main language of the target market.

Of course, that can be fraught with peril. Sometimes car companies do their homework, sometimes not, especially when the name might get gored in the international arena. When International Harvester changed their over-the-road-truck brand to Navistar, they supposedly did a lot of research and satisfied themselves that the proposed name didn't cast aspersions on somebody's sister in any language and had positive connotations in several. Others... hmm. The "Nova" story has been debunked, of course,* but some names, though inoffensive and not hilariously off the mark, are just weird. The Oldsmobile Alero comes to mind: "alero" is Spanish for "soffit" (the horizontal board under your eaves) or perhaps for "eaves" generally. Wow, that really makes me think of sports sedans; how about you?

Maybe these companies get a good buy on surplus names from the pharmaceutical and biotech industries: "Ask your doctor if Azera is right for you." That sector loves evocative nonsense and spends a lot of money on consultants who can custom-build just the right almost-a-word.

--Joe

* The urban legend was that it didn't sell in Latin American markets, as it means "won't go" in Spanish, which it does, if you break it apart and pronounce it differently than Spanish speakers would. I asked some people at a Mexican American (mostly from Jalisco) owned engine shop about this story during one of its resurfacings. The consensus: it was a moderately funny joke that they'd never heard and this supposed consideration had never stopped anyone of their acquaintance from buying said car. The story didn't sure stop Chevy from selling, by my reckoning, three generations of Novas over as many decades.