The nickname “Hog”

Have you ever heard the nickname “Hog” when applied to Harley Davidsons?

This is how it came about:

Beginning in 1920, a team of farm boys  became known as the “hog boys”. They consistently won races and the group had a live hog as their mascot. Following a win, they would put the hog on their Harley and take a victory lap.

In 1983, the Harley Davidson Motor Company formed a club for owners of its motorcycles, taking advantage of the long-standing nickname by turning “hog” into the acronym HOG. This stands for Harley Owners Group. Harley-Davidson attempted to trademark “hog”, but in 1999 lost a case against an independent Harley-Davidson specialist, The Hog Farm, New York. A court ruled that “hog” had become a generic term for large motorcycles and therefore couldn’t be protected as a trademark.