Top 10 Coolest Motorcycle Model Names Of All Time

When did it become commonplace to name the fastest, most powerful motorcycle with an arbitrary-sounding letter and number designation? To the unacquainted, a GSX-R1000 could easily be the name of a calculator or an Oster appliance you take to potlucks to keep Swedish meatballs warm.

Trying to look dashing by appropriating some of the motorcycle’s mystique is harder when your bike has a serial number for a name.

Even as a clueless teenager, I knew approaching some poor girl to say, "Hey, wanna ride on my CBR600F4i?" was nowhere near as alluring as asking (in a debonair British accent), "Fancy a go on me Venom?"

If we can’t be as suave as Errol Flynn, our motorcycles should at least have cool names. Otherwise, what are we even doing?

What’s that, you say? No one ever fell for a guy (or gal) just because they rode a motorcycle? Let me live in my illusion.

All joking aside, the heart of riding a motorcycle goes far beyond a desire to impress people. And many of us find the anonymity of donning a helmet and leathers part of the appeal.

By all rights, motorcycles should be named after racetracks and fighter jets. That way you can hear your name in the same sentence as “Spitfire” or “Mustang,” and bask in the reflected glow of heroism while shuffling off to your office meeting about sales projections and data management strategies. Full disclosure: I had to ask my wife if those were real examples of business jargon. There’s a reason I write about motorcycles for a living.

Thankfully, manufacturers haven’t totally abandoned giving motorcycles cool names. Here are some of my favorites. Feel free to chime in with your own picks (fans of Hodaka Super Rats and Combat Wombats, now’s your chance to pipe up).

One of the all-time coolest names for a motorcycle. Evoking a golden age of British single-cylinder motorcycles roaring through the bucolic countryside with fishtail exhausts, the Velocette Venom represents the most romantic vision of British motorcycling. Even though its 500cc single-cylinder engine seemed anachronistic by the '60s, the Venom lived on well past its expiration date. Its name alone probably lent it a few extra years.

The name Panigale may not sound as cool as something like Venom, but as a tribute to Ducati's hometown, it endows the cycles with meaning. When I visited the Ducati factory and museum last year, it was clear that Ducati is a reflection of a culture and a people. To name a motorcycle for a place, means the motorcycle must be worthy of its title. It's a lofty ideal in a lot of respects. For that reason, the Panigale makes the list. Even if it sounds like a type of grilled sandwich to most Americans.

A great British marque naming a motorcycle after the great British World War II fighter plane: That’s how it’s done. BSA gave us other well-named bikes, such as the Hornet, Golden Flash, and Rocket 3.

It’s pronounced “Excelsior!” It’s a name worthy of an ocean liner or a space shuttle, if you ask me.

The Black Shadow, one of the most celebrated motorcycles of all time, has one of the most apropos names of all time. If you're a bike manufacturer, you don't call a small-displacement commuter bike "Black Shadow." You reserve a name like that for a bike that's destined for renown.

Naming a vehicle after a style of dance would seem effete, but not for the Laverda Jota. Although Jota, a jaunty folk dance originating in Northern Spain, is an odd name for an Italian superbike, it’s fitting for the three-cylinder superbike—the dance is to music with a 3/4 time signature. Clever, right? The Jota is one of the Italian marque’s most beloved machines from the ’70s, thanks to its rowdy 1,000cc triple and classic looks (in orange, of course). As it happens, Lamborghini made a one-off Miura racer, dubbed the Miura Jota. So there’s that too. See also: Laverda Montjuic.

While Velocette produced a Thruxton (a race-spec version of the Venom) in the 1960s, Triumph keeps the name alive with the Thruxton R, today's classically styled Bonneville variant. Both bikes are named for the famed British racing circuit, which started life as an RAF airfield during World War II. Kudos for managing to associate a motorcycle with both a racetrack and with wartime aviation.

When was the last time two Velocettes made a top-10 list? Long before Dodge appropriated the name (and who can blame the carmaker?), Velocette applied the menacing title to its 350 single. There was also a Clubman version. Velocette Viper Clubman. As British as bad weather and warm beer.

RELATED: Motorcyclist Archives 1967: Homebuilt Velocette Racer, a Swedish Scrambler, and Vintage Motorcycle Ads

Moto Guzzi ran a bored-out V7 in the 1971 Bol d'Or 24 hours, and led the race for 10 hours before crashing out. The performance was enough of a "victory" to merit naming a production machine after the circuit. That Moto Guzzi doesn't build a modern interpretation of the classic GT superbike is a shame.

With names like Katana, Ninja, and Bandit, the Japanese manufacturers have given us a lot of non-letter-and-number bikes over the years, the Interceptor chief among them. Honda went for the gold with this one, calling the VF750F the Interceptor. It quickly became one of motorcycling's most vaunted names. Honda most recently used the Interceptor moniker for its CB4 concept, though purists will balk at the gall of using an inline-four engine, instead of what by all rights should be a V-4. Perhaps Honda is trying to spread the Interceptor alchemy by gilding a CB.