What’s In a Name?

I’ve owned an M.G. since 2001, firstly an MGF (for 12 years) and then, when I retired and had no need for something to help keep me sane on my daily commute, a TC. Mind you, I’d wanted a TC since I was 19, when thinking of buying my first car. But a few practicalities, such as a long journey to university, marriage, houses and children, got in the way! However, it seems that I have always known that M.G. stood for Morris Garages. But does it?

Now that I have a little more time to explore the background to M.G. cars I find that I may have been wrong for all these years. I was looking at ‘The Original TD Midget’ web site (yes, I have a TC, but I was looking for guidance on refitting the bonnet, which is much the same between the two models) when I came across their ‘Myths’ page. The very first myth was ‘MG stands for Morris Garages’! The statement that MG does not stand for Morris Garages was naturally a surprise to me, but was supported by a link to another web page, mgnuts.com/mgname/. As you might imagine, the ‘MG Nuts dot com’ site is American. It seems that our friends in the US are very fond of researching the history of themselves and of their interests. That web page in turn cited a letter from the Postbag of the MG Enthusiast magazine in 1992, reproducing part of the letter, but neglecting to mention the name of the author. I’ve not tried to track down this letter, which gives a first-hand account of statements made by Mr Kimber, the founder of The M.G. Car Co., but the gist of the meaning of M.G. (and of the dots), as described in the letter, goes something like this:

Cecil Kimber worked for William Morris, the owner of Morris Garages, but in the 1920s started producing custom cars based on Morris chassis. When the demand for these custom cars reached a sufficient level, Mr Kimber registered a company and so needed a name. He chose the M from Morris and the G from Garages in tribute to his boss, but they were not an abbreviation of Morris Garages, since there was already a company with that name. So ‘The M.G. Car Company Limited’ was born and M.G. was just part of the name.

As for the dots, Cecil Kimber said that it was simply a matter of design. M.G. was more visually attractive with the dots, and nothing more. In other words, the dots were not intended to indicate an abbreviation.

So compilers of pub quizzes beware. You might just get challenged if you claim that M.G. stands for Morris Garages!

(Written 9th October 2015; published in Main Gear, November 2015.)