The current Volvo XC90 is the second generation of the car, which has been with us since the 2015 model year and, as such, getting a bit long in the tooth, even after a facelift last year. However, the next XC90 might not be an XC90 at all, but instead an all-electric and/or hybrid big SUV with an actual name. There is some evidence that that name is ... Embla.

Embla!

Autocar :

Following Volvo’s earlier confirmation that the new arrival will take a name, rather than an alphanumeric designation into production, a new trademark filing suggests it will be called the Embla.

The manufacturer filed a trademark application for the name with the European Union Intellectual Property Office late last year. A Volvo spokesperson refused to confirm the brand’s intentions for the nameplate, but with the model’s reveal date approaching and given that outgoing Volvo boss Håkan Samuelsson has already confirmed its name will start with a vowel, it seems a likely outcome.

Embla was the name of the first woman in Norse mythology, which could signal a naming strategy for future models centred around Volvo’s Scandinavian heritage.

I am a fan of cars actually having names, as opposed to a sequence of letters and numbers, unless that sequence of letters and numbers is meaningful in some real way, like when the last two numbers in BMW car names used to refer to its engine displacement. But engine displacement is quickly becoming a thing of the past and BMW doesn’t even do that anymore.

XC90, on the other hand, is neither here nor there, with the XC indicating that the car is some kind of SUV, but the 90 part only telling you that it is probably bigger than the XC60 and XC40. Embla I guess it is then, hopefully the start of a new name-filled Volvo era. The car will probably look something like that Concept Recharge , and, if that’s the case, I like it already.