Vehicular Theme Naming

Vehicular Theme Naming is the practise of naming characters after vehicles. Cars and water craft seem to be represented more than planes or trains. Strangely common in Japan, for some reason.

Anime and Manga

 * The natives of Cephiro in Magic Knight Rayearth are named after models of cars (like Cephiro itself).
 * Likewise, many of the magical beings in Lyrical Nanoha are named after cars: the Opel Signum, Opel Vita, Opel Zafira and Maserati Shamal are the most prominent and were brought to attention by the fansubbers. Subaru Nakajima's name appears to be normal Japanese, but the fact that it's in Western format draws attention to the fact that both her names come from cars. Same with Fate Testarossa (Ferrari Testarossa) and her mother Precia (Nissan Presea, also seen in Rayearth), and Yuuno Scrya has been suspected of actually being spelled Euno for Mazda Eunos. Given that, like Rayearth, Nanoha is primarily about Magical Girls who use techno-magical artifacts, this may be a direct homage to the earlier series. Teana Lanster is also named after the Nissan Teana.
 * Interestingly, the Maserati Shamal itself is an example of Theme Naming. In addition to Shamal, some of Maserati's other model names have been Mistral, Ghibli, Bora, Khamsin, and Karif. All of these are named after local winds, except for Ghibli, which is a word meaning "hot desert wind". (On a related note, Shamal's device is named Klarer Wind, and Hayate's name means "breeze".)
 * Neon Genesis Evangelion is filled with people named after Japanese warships from WWII. In addition, the Horaki sister are named after three train services of Japan's first bullet train line, the Tokaido Shinkansen: The Hikari service was the original, followed by the slower Kodama, and then by the much faster Nozomi. This appears to point to a convention to the theme naming: older=slower, younger=faster.
 * In the remake, Asuka's surname is changed from Soryu to Shikinami for no apparent reason, but the theme is retained: both are the names of WWII Japanese warships.
 * Perhaps to keep up with the other EVA girls? All their surnames end with nami too.
 * Similarly to Evangelion, many military characters in 07-Ghost have names from WW 2 Japanese warships: Ayanami, Hyuuga and Katsuragi in the manga, and Yukikaze in one drama CD.
 * Most of the military characters from Fullmetal Alchemist are named after WWII aircraft: Mustang, Hughes, Bradley, Hawkeye, Hayate, etc.
 * The original Mobile Suit Gundam has several members of the White Base crew derive their names from WWII-era fighter planes; Amuro Ray comes from the Mitsubishi A6M Zero (A6M in Japanese is "A-Roku-Mu", and "zero" is "Rei"); Kai Shiden from the Kawanishi N1K2-J Shiden Kai, and so forth.
 * The Saberdolls from Saber Marionette J are named after German tanks from World War II (Tiger, Luchs, and Panther.) This also qualifies them for Animal Theme Naming.
 * Rurouni Kenshin - Toy Ship members Yahiko and Tsubame are theme named based on a train line.

Literature

 * Ford Prefect in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Becomes a theme with the introduction of Hillman Hunter in And Another Thing.
 * Stephen Fry wrote a novel and realized only halfway through planning it that his idea was basically The Count of Monte Cristo. He made it an intentional Whole-Plot Reference with Meaningful Names of one sort or another for the characters; Mercedes's counterpart is called Portia.

Video Games

 * The Horny Devils from the Hentai game and anime Viper GTS are named after cars: Carrera, Mercedes, and Rati (as in Maserati).
 * Irvine's guns in Final Fantasy VIII are named after famous warships: Valiant, Ulysses, Bismarck, and Exeter.
 * Snow Villiers is named after a French motorcycle manufacturer, hence the appearance of his summon.
 * In Halo, on both sides of the war, though the UNSC names for Covenant vehicles are just code words.
 * The UNSC goes primarily for animal names: Warthog, Mongoose, Pelican, Hornet, Scorpion, Elephant
 * Many of the Covenant vehicles are named after types of spirit: Ghost, Banshee, Phantom, Wraith

Western Animation

 * In the seventh season penultimate episode of South Park named "Raisins", the waitresses serving at the Hooters parody store have dulcet names like Mercedes, Porsche, Ferrari and Lexus.
 * Part and parcel of Challenge of the Go Bots, especially the toys. Feel free to guess what kind of vehicles Cy-Kill, Scooter, Cop-Tor, Dumper, Super Couper, Throttle, Tail-Pipe, Zero, Buggy Man, and Loco turn into...

Real Life

 * The multitudes of porn actresses who name themselves "Porshe," "Mercedes," "Lexus," etc. The connotation is one of wealth and luxury, and rare pleasures.
 * As a sidenote, Mercedes is (or better, was - thank you, Mr. Daimler) a perfectly fine given name for a girl. The car was named after Mercedes Jellinek, daughter of an Austrian merchant.
 * Former Michigan Congressmen William Ford, Bob Carr, and Dick Chrysler.