We now officially have a new Pope. After watching the Catholic Church “conclave”–or the gathering of the Cardinals–I was waiting in traffic behind a Buick. I thought, “Wait, what does the Enclave SUV’s name actually mean?”

“Enclave” is a truly bizarre name for a car. It’s most often used to refer to one country that is fully surrounded by another country. There are very few of these on the planet. But to return to the Pope, Vatican City is technically an enclave inside of Italy.

In less formal use, an enclave can be a group of people who are culturally or ethnically different than the surrounding people. You could call a city’s Little Italy an “enclave” of Italian culture. The third-row Buick Enclave SUV could seat 7/8th of the cast of Jersey Shore. But I highly doubt General Motors named it because it could be a literal enclave.

Finally, enclave is increasingly being used to refer to a computing environment that is secure because it is an isolated space within a larger computing environment.

How do you say Buick Enclave?

According to the Merriam Webster dictionary, the word Enclave can be pronounced starting with an “e” sound or an “a” sound. (‘en-“klAv, ‘än-“klAv). Most American owners on the Enclave Forum website agree they say “Onclave” to refer to their cars.

As far as I can tell, General Motors has never officially commented on the Buick Enclave’s name. It may be intended to make the family-sized SUV feel safe, secure, and like a refuge. But all we know for sure is it obviously fits into the lineup: The Buick Encore, Envision, Envista, and Enclave. Perhaps Buick began the “En” theme before realizing how few words begin with those letters.