I was talking to one of the mechanics at my work yesterday about Jeeps and he told me an interesting story about how the name came about. He said that the GI's got it from a character in Popeye. It's a little jungle animal that went everywhere. So I did a bit of a research here and on the net and found this thread and this in wiki:

h t t p://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_the_Jeep#Notes

h t t p://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeep#Origin_of_the_name

Just thought I'd throw it out there

 

Thank you so much for the info very interesting

 

An intereseting tid-bit. So Mark Smith, who is pretty much the grandfather of the Jeep culture (started the Jeep Jamboree, etc)..he put out a book called Driven By A Dream...which is a biography of his life as well as the journal from his journey across the Darien Gap with a stock CJ....

Anyway....in reading about his childhood..he grew up with a dog named Jeep (after the Popeye cartoon).....so this guy had a dog named Jeep in the late 30's...and after some time would turn into the biggest name in the Jeep culture.

If you're lucky enough to find a copy of the book...It's a great read and a great coffee table book for the Jeep guy...my mother found a slightly used, signed by Mark himself copy and gave it to me for Xmas this past year.... I love her.....