Meet The Other Tiago

Guess what... Tata Motors' hatchback Tiago, formerly Zica, shares its name with Portuguese footballer Tiago Mendes.

Tata Tiago or Tiago Mendes?

Recently, Tata Motors renamed its hatchback - formerly Zica, the car was re-christened Tiago. The name Tiago was finalised after the brand team crowd-sourced options from consumers. The digitally-driven exercise was titled #FantasticoNameHunt.

The contest boiled down to three options. Besides Tiago, which was finally selected, the other two names in the running were Civet (acoustically similar to tyre brand Ceat?) and Adore (semantically too close to a specific gender over the other, perhaps?).

To promote this campaign, the brand team released a short video on digital media. The video features Delna Avari, (outgoing) marketing head - passenger vehicles, Tata Motors, herself.

Two other videos featuring Pratap Bose (no, not the adman who runs The Social Street!), head, design, Tata Motors, and Anirudh Lamba, marketing communication manager, Tata Motors, were also released.

Tata's new hatchback, one that has seen more than its share of controversy (it already shares its name with a deadly virus called Zika) now has a second namesake.

Tiago is also the name of a Portuguese football player... Tiago Mendes, better known as just "Tiago", his first name, (and not Mendes, his last name). The mid-fielder plays for Spanish football club Atletico Madrid. In a recent UEFA Champions League match, the team drew with PSV Eindhoven.

Should Tata brace itself for a Twitter trend wave all through this tournament? We can't help but wonder whether this hashtag '#Tiago' will make waves on social media in the days ahead for more than one reason.

That's not all we're thinking about. Here's the most pertinent question: What goes into naming, or re-naming, a brand?

How are cars named anyway?