The spies are always out in the supercar world, yet this time some clever investigation has brought us not the usual photographs of a curious test hack, but an interest snippet of information about a trademark that has been claimed by Aston Martin.

What does it all mean? A few months ago it would appear that Aston Martin registered the trademark ‘Valen’ with the Lebanese trademark office (why the Lebanese is anyone’s guess) and has subsequently registered the name in the UK. The implication is clear: a future Aston Martin may well be called the Valen.

Valen, it should be said, is a Latin word for ‘strong’, which sort of makes sense if it is applied to a supercar. The question is, which model will we be looking at?

Mid-Engine Supercar

Rumours have been circulating for some time regards the possible names for Aston Martin’s expected mid-engined supercar range. The Valkyrie is already named, but at the recent Geneva Motor Show, Aston Martin displayed two mid-engine models.

One of these – the ‘mid-range’ model we expect – will certainly be named Vanquish. The other car that was shown in Geneva was the AM-RB 003.

We wrote about this spectacular hypercar at the time of the show. With F1-inspired technology – and design input from legendary race car designer Adrian Newey of Red Bull – and the amazing new ‘FlexFoil’ technology on the rear wing, the AM-RB 003 is, we believe, a car looking for a name.

But What of ‘Valhalla’?

But, things might not be as clear cut as they appear. As long ago as 2017, Aston Martin stated that the car eventually unveiled as AM-RB 003 would be named ‘Valhalla’, and they have duly registered a trademark pertaining to that name. Even more confusingly, they also have the rights to ‘Varekai’.

The latter was rumoured to be destined for the upcoming Aston Martin SUV, but we are told this will be named ‘DBX’.

So, where does that leave us? Put simply, the AM-RB 003 could conceivably be called Varekai, or perhaps Valhalla, or even Valen, which is where we came in! Place your bets now.