Have you noticed the latest trend in naming cars? Less is more that is. Brevity is the current trend.

"You are seeing the names of existing cars condensed and new ones shortened," observes Michael Barr, president of NameLab, a San Francisco name-consulting firm responsible for Acura and Olive Garden. "We live in an over-communicated world, and in a crowded marketplace where product differentiation becomes more difficult. So, they are making car names shorter because that makes them more memorable."

When Chevy resurrected the Impala and the Malibu, it not only gave vehicles a dose of instant recognition from the old car names, it reinforced a sense of a long Chevy tradition.

Let the name game begin…

Philly has this to say:

The Acura Integra is now a TSX, and the names of those fresh Saturn models (Vue, Ion and Sky) contain a lot fewer characters than that weird western bar in Star Wars. But wait, it gets worse: A European offering called the Ford Ka has only two letters, and the new Infiniti M is down to one.

Part and parcel to this quest for the succinct is the rise of alphanumeric designations - often at the expense of traditional, proprietary names. The alphanumeric approach caught on first in Europe, and became well-known here largely through its use by two classy German marques, Mercedes-Benz and BMW. Because of its economy and European cachet, it eventually migrated to Japan (Lexus LS460) and, in a popular, three-letter variation, to the United States (Cadillac CTS, Lincoln MKZ, Chevy HHR)

Besides being short and pregnant with EuroStatus, the alphanumeric names employed by Mercedes and Bimmer are at once informative and hierarchal. (Consider the BMW 325i. The 3 tells us this is BMW’s entry-level 3-Series car. The 25 signifies a 2.5-liter engine, and the I indicates that engine is fuel-injected.)

"That name is also a philosophical statement," said NameLab founder Ira Bachrach. "It says the car is functional and efficient, rather than decorative. And it adds to the car’s mystique: It sets the owner apart as someone belonging to that set that has enough special knowledge of cars to know the difference between the models."

While the new short kids in town are muscling their way onto America’s marketing playground, traditional model names are not exactly facing extinction. Even if they are more than one syllable, nobody’s about to deep-six the recognition factor of names like Camry and Accord, let alone iconic titles like Corvette and Mustang.

"For Americans, the word mustang now means car and, secondarily, horse," Bachrach said. "People see a lot more Mustang cars than mustang horses." Indeed, the recognition factor in old names like Mustang is what causes automakers to keep them - and revive them.

Certainly, naming a car is a big deal. But still, this leads us to a truism: A good car is not hurt by a bad name. And a bad car can’t be boosted by a good name.