The upcoming Porsche Macan. Image: Porsche AG

The Porsche Cajun is dead; long live the Porsche Macan. Porsche has dropped the “Cajun” development name for its upcoming small SUV, instead adopting a derivative of the Indonesian word for “tiger.” Macan, Porsche believes, represents suppleness, power, fascination and dynamics.

We’re not sure about that, but we’re sure that the name fits in with Porsche’s other guidelines: any new vehicle moniker has has to sound good in many different languages, and evoke positive associations (or, at least, avoid negative ones). We’re pretty indifferent to the name, but much prefer “real” names to ones made up by the marketing department. Volkswagen’s Tiguan, for example, is derived from the words “tiger” and “iguana,” which makes us wonder exactly how much peyote the staff had to consume before that sounded like a good idea.

The Macan will be Porsche’s fifth model line, and if the Cayenne is any indication, will likely set sales records for the Stuttgart-based automaker. Porsche will build the Macan at its newly-expanded plant in Leipzig, Germany, with production scheduled to begin in 2013.