Previously, it appeared that slow-selling niche automakers that had run into trouble and were on their last legs, with Aston Martin attempting to get by using the aging sex appeal of a handful of grand tourers and Maserati just barely making it with a family of sedans that liked to break down and one admittedly gorgeous coupe. Now, things have turned around for both automakers, just as it has for Jaguar Land Rover, an automaker that was on the brink of irrelevance when India's Tata Motors picked it up.

Thanks to recent home run-hitters like the Land Rover Velar and Jaguar I-Pace, we're confident the British automaker is here to stay, and patents uncovered by AutoGuide only seem to confirm that notion. JLR likes to file patents for its model names to keep its competitors from getting any sneaky ideas but also because JLR likes using odd number and letter combinations that could be easily taken by other automakers. It rolled out a batch of these this past February with names such as Westminster, XJS, Freestyle, Landy, Range Rover Classic, P-Type, T-Type, C-XE, iXE, diXE, XEdi, XEi, CXF, CXJ, Sawtooth, Stormer, and Landmark giving us reason to get our imaginations running.

There's a solid chance Jaguar won't use most of these names (if it uses any at all), because it's not uncommon for the automaker to patent titles that it thinks it could possibly use in the future only to later drop them. Speculation says that the XJS moniker could be a revised version of the grand tourer Jaguar produced from 1976-1996, although what JLR has in mind for this name we do not know. As for the iXE, this could be a hint that we'll soon see an electric version of the XE currently on sale, a luxury sedan that could see eye to eye with the Tesla Model 3 in the upcoming entry-level luxury EV segment. Meanwhile P-Type and T-Type could be a nod to more Jaguar sports cars being prepped for battle.

On the Land Rover Side, the name Freestyle could be a variant of the Freelander for Land Rover, a name not used since Land Rover's Ford days, while "Landy" seems to be nothing more than the name of a brand mascot. Aside from that, we'll have to wait for leaks, reveals, or chatty execs to yap in order to learn more about what JLR is planning for its future.