It's their way of telling potential customers that this car will put them one gear above the ordinary urban motorist - the ones with mundane, mass-selling motoring clones.
The name is also meant to disarm those who previously believed that anything the Lotus-owning Malaysian manufacturer brought to market would be more chavvy than Savvy.
But just as changing Kathy Burke's name to Elle McPherson wouldn't make her any more attractive, providing the new Proton with an attractive name doesn't necessarily make it the automotive equivalent of the Mona Lisa.
So is it really a Savvy buy?
In truth, Proton's new baby is pretty faithful to its given name - especially when the £5,999 starting price.
Snoopy
The Savvy is actually cute like Snoopy, head-turning even, although that might be a result of its novelty factor. And it doesn't look too dissimilar to some of the more readily recognisable Italian designs on the road.
The nose makes the car look as though it's going to leap up and lick you on the face, its muddy little paws leaving footprints down your freshly laundered shirt. There's a dynamic, split-level to the side windows and a neat enough rear end.
But while it looks like a cartoon beagle, it sprints more like an asthmatic Jack Russell.
Imagine the same Jack Russell trying to run through a muddy field at the end of a particularly busy day, and you'll be feeling just what I felt when putting the Savvy's 1.2litre petrol engine to the test.
But just like the old rat-catcher, the Savvy's engine stands up to a hell of a kicking and isn't so bad as you might imagine once you get up to 70mph.
Continuing the cartoon theme, the manual gear change requires a left arm like Popeye's - with an extra can of spinach - if you want to wrestle it into fifth.
But that - coupled with the wheezy power plant - was my major concern about a car I expected to wobble more than a watery jelly on Fleetwood prom during a gale.
The only really flimsy thing about is the key fob central locking which, given the close proximity required to sometimes make it work, wasn't always the boon it should be.
That said, the Savvy's plastic interior is a little bit flimsy, something like a Chinese restaurant takeaway carton.
Yet the cloth trim, at least, has an expensive feel about it. There are two trim levels - the Street and the Style, tested here, which will set you back a further £1,000.
Sporty
And the dials are surprisingly sporty: brightly coloured in a way which suggests they were plucked out of the parts bin of a car factory building something substantially more sporting.
It's quite narrow and the boot is probably only big enough for four or five Lidl shopping bags, but there's plenty of room for four passengers.
There's a decent level of kit for a car in this class - with an air conditioning, parking sensors, electric windows and nice 'n' easy to use stereo-cum-CD player.
There are also airbags in the front, but (pet hate time) no means of switching them off if you want to install a child seat.
All told, I think that Proton have come up with a fairly accurate name for their car - which really could be a cheap and cheerful addition to any family. You'll no doubt suffer steep depreciation, but with such a low starting price, that's still shouldn't put you off too much.
And Proton's first five-door city car will certainly be right at home on the roads on which it was designed to travel.
People will laugh, some might even point and stare... but the Savvy people out there might be pleasantly surprised if they're looking for a bargain drive with more character than most.
