Remember the Alfa Romeo “Milano” that debuted last week? Scrap that name.

Here’s an expected and frankly weird piece of news for your Monday consumption: This tiny little crossover that debuted just last week has already changed its name. After months of hype and marketing, the Italian government told Stellantis it cannot name its new electric crossover the “Milano”, because the name can’t reside on a car built outside Italy. Now, the company is calling it the Junior, in an effort to assuage angry officials.

For those of you who just did a double-take at your calendar, I assure you we didn’t just spring backward two weeks in time. It’s not an April Fool’s joke — it is Italian law prohibiting “Italian-sounding” products from being produced outside the country, as Italy’s Minister of Economic Development Adolfo Urso is all too keen to point out.

“The [2003] law stipulates that you cannot give indications that mislead consumers,” he said in Turin on Friday. Essentially, Stellantis’ decision to name the Poland-built crossover “Milano” may convince people it’s a fully Italian product when it isn’t. In fact, what is now the Alfa Romeo Junior is the automaker’s first product to be entirely manufactured outside Italy’s borders.

Addressing the issue, Stellantis did actually publish a press release explaining the name change, while defending its original decision. “Despite Alfa Romeo believing that the name meets all legal requirements, and that there issues much more important than the name of a new car, Alfa Romeo has decided to change it from Milano to Junior in the spirit of promoting mutual understanding.”

There are a few different ways you can interpret that statement, but “mutual understanding” probably boils down to “we’d rather just rename the car than take this to court.” The ramifications if Alfa Romeo stuck by the name here could lead the Italian government under Prime Minister Georgia Meloni to force Stellantis to produce its small crossover in Italy. That would naturally throw a wrench in the automaker’s plans, as it aims to build the Alfa Romeo Junior alongside the new, European Jeep Avenger.

Why “Junior”?

In an effort to explain its decision — and save face a bit, let’s be honest — Stellantis included the rationale behind calling Alfa Romeo’s new crossover the “Junior” in its statement. Apart from the obvious implication (we are talking about the Stelvio’s smaller sibling here), the company launched the Junior name with the Giulia back in 1966. The idea was to create a less powerful, less expensive version of the GT 1600 by fitting a 1290-cc (1.3-liter) engine with 89 horsepower on tap. The GT 1300 Junior, as Alfa Romeo called it, aimed to attract younger buyers into the fold and actually ended up being the most popular model of the lineup, with more than 92,000 units sold.

Apart from leaning on its history, Stellantis also says it crowdsourced the Junior name as it also originally did with the Milano. After the Italian government told the automaker its initial name was a no-go, the next best public option is what the company landed on for the new name.

“The Alfa Romeo team would like to thank the public for the positive feedback, the Italian dealer network for their support, journalists for the enormous media attention given to the new car, and the government for the free publicity brought on by this debate.”

Well played, Stellantis — stick it to the man, and all that. I suppose they’re entitled to a small dig, considering the effort and money it will take to relaunch the marketing campaign. Not to mention all those Milano badges and brochures that are now worthless (at least until they become collector’s items). This doesn’t impact folks in the U.S., as it’s still unclear whether Alfa Romeo has any plans to bring this model to our market.

As for why this issue didn’t crop up earlier…your guess is as good as mine.