Nissan Motor Company waded into the supersized SUV wars this month with their newest suburban road cruiser, the Nissan Armada. Weighing in at a beefy 6800 pounds, the Armada is duking it out with the Hummer and Ford Valdez for those extra-wide parking spots.

While the Armada has taken its rightful place among the biggest SUVs on the block, the road to get there was rough. In the brave new world of global business, naming a new vehicle can be difficult. Nissan is now a partnership between Japanese owned Nissan Motor Company and French manufacturer Renault. As a result, new vehicles for the U.S. market must navigate the translation between three languages.

The company had an embarrassing naming debacle last year at the launch of the Murano. Nissan originally had named the vehicle Muran, which was favored by the French marketing team. However, at the initial U.S. press conference to launch the vehicle, the press laughed out loud when Nissan representatives announced that they had just named a 30,000 SUV ‘Moron.’ The company scrambled to make last minute changes, adding an additional ‘o’ to the name.

According to Ian Robertson, chief of product marketing at Nissan, “After the Murano/Muran debacle we were careful to thoroughly review all the names for our new supersized SUV. Initially, the Japanese marketing team suggested the ‘Waterloo,’ but that name was shot down by the French marketing team. They floated back the ‘Nanking’ but the Japanese team soundly rejected that.”

Following this impasse, the marketing teams turned to Robertson to develop a name suited to the North American market. After a few weeks of offering names that were rejected, Robertson stumbled on the Armada, seemingly by chance.

“I was watching TV and a special came on about the Spanish Armada. In its time, the Armada was the biggest, most feared fleet of ships in the world. Suddenly, it came to me - we should name the vehicle the Armada! I never got to finish watching the show since I ran out of chip dip, but when I left the Armada was on its way to just crush England’s little ships. I bet the Armada just obliterated those ships ­ just like Independence Day. ”