[2006alum]

For the benefit of those that couldn't click through to the bloomberg article, the names are cars with a Native American connotation. Sorry, Tom Cruise.

They're all vehicles, they're all Native American-kind of connotations, and they all mean something. Maverick has an obvious connotation. Dakota is a Native American word for "friend." Colt is "little horse." Obviously, Scout is running around checking everything out. So it's kind of fun. They've all got boring middle names: Scott, Barry, William, Paul.

McNealy seems like a good-natured guy, but most of these aren't actually "Native American-kind of" names at all - they're Old West/Southwestern connoting names, and largely from European origins. Maverick derives from the last name of Samuel Maverick, a Texas rancher who left his calves unbranded, Scout derives from an Old Norse word and had been in the English language since the 16th century, and Colt derives from an old Swedish word that meant "half-grown pig," and it had been in English usage even longer. Only Dakota derives from a Native tongue. It's a cute play on words, but an odd misattribution, and a weird conflation of Native culture with anything associated with the history of the American West.  It's weird, too, because I don't know if much is lost by just saying they're names associated with the American West...

[2006alum]

For the benefit of those that couldn't click through to the bloomberg article, the names are cars with a Native American connotation. Sorry, Tom Cruise.

They're all vehicles, they're all Native American-kind of connotations, and they all mean something. Maverick has an obvious connotation. Dakota is a Native American word for "friend." Colt is "little horse." Obviously, Scout is running around checking everything out. So it's kind of fun. They've all got boring middle names: Scott, Barry, William, Paul.

McNealy seems like a good-natured guy, but most of these aren't actually "Native American-kind of" names at all - they're Old West/Southwestern connoting names, and largely from European origins. Maverick derives from the last name of Samuel Maverick, a Texas rancher who left his calves unbranded, Scout derives from an Old Norse word and had been in the English language since the 16th century, and Colt derives from an old Swedish word that meant "half-grown pig," and it had been in English usage even longer. Only Dakota derives from a Native tongue. It's a cute play on words, but an odd misattribution, and a weird conflation of Native culture with anything associated with the history of the American West.  It's weird, too, because I don't know if much is lost by just saying they're names associated with the American West...