Just an observation that I found interesting many years ago when I came across it:
CS Lewis once wrote that male and female are biological life's participation in that greater polarity of the universe--Masculine and Feminine---and that is was not by accident that the Romans referred to their ships as 'she.'"
Also interesting that our youngest son named his first truck using a female name.
This post was edited by tom jackson at May 20, 2017 5:08 PM MDT
Vehicles, yes. Appliances, no. The gender of a vehicle depends on the vehicle, itself. My truck was male- it's name was "Trucky." My van doesn't appear to have a gender.
My father-in-law gives all of his cars female names and he always picks a name that starts with the same letter as the model of the car. My father-in-law is originally from Wisconsin and my hubby said naming cars is something people from Wisconsin do.
My hubby and I have a few cars and trucks so with us it's just the Camaro, the old International, the Grand Am, the Charger or the horse trailer.
I'm from Wisconsin, but never name the cars. I know people who have or do. I did call my Altima Alty, but that's what everyone called them. I just call my Ford Slow.
I did when I was in high school and had to take German and Spanish. I put little sticky notes on everything with the German and Spanish word for it with the correct article.
Also they're not cars or appliances but I refer to parts of my figure as My Girls. TMI lol.
Hmm interesting...I like to call my RAV4 a she;)) 
Veena.K 