MnDOT's 'Name a Snowplow' contest winners announced Wednesday

MnDOT's 2024-25 'Name a Snowplow' winners announced

Gov. Tim Walz announced the winners of the 2024-25 MnDOT 'Name a Snowplow' contest. The names are assigned to a snowplow from each of the eight MnDOT districts.

RICHFIELD, Minn. (FOX 9) - The votes are in for the 2024-25 Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) "Name a Snowplow" contest.

Name a Snowplow contest

The backstory:

Gov. Tim Walz and MnDOT commissioner Nancy Daubenberger presented the winning names during a press conference on Wednesday.

The 2024-25 winning names are:

We’re Off To See The Blizzard - District 8 (Southwest Minnesota)
Snowtorious B.I.G. - District 4 (West Central Minnesota)
Plowabunga! - District 6 (Southeast Minnesota)
Anthony Sledwards - Metro District (Twin Cities)
You’re Welcome - District 2 (Northwest Minnesota)
Don’tcha snow - District 3 (Central Minnesota)
Sköl Plow - District 1 (Northeast Minnesota)
I Came, I thaw, I Conquered - District 7 (South Central Minnesota)

Some of the names that were short of making the 2025 class include, Catch My Drift, Hot to Snow!, Just Scraping By, Chilly Eilish, 867-530 Brine, Salt Me Baby One More Time, Oh Snow You Didn't!, Little Plow on the Prairie, Rudy GoBrrrr, Brrrtha, Austin Plowers, and MinneSNOWta N'ice. You can find the full list of finalists rankings on MnDOT's website.

MnDOT's 2024-25 winning snowplow names. (FOX 9)

How the contest works:

MnDOT said it received more than 7,300 snowplow name submissions in December for the 2024-25 contest. From these, staff members selected 50 finalists for the public to vote on.

Voting opened on Jan. 28 and closed at noon on Friday, with 23,000 voters casting ballots in this year's contest. The eight winning snowplow names, one for each MnDOT district.

MnDOT said it evaluated the submission based on a variety of factors, including, "uniqueness, frequency of submissions, Minnesota-specific ideas, and names that would be easily identifiable and understandable to most audiences."

This is MnDOT's fifth year of the "Name a Snowplow" contest. Anne Meyere, an MnDOT spokesperson, said on Wednesday the idea to name state snowplows came from Scotland. The BCC reported the country has been naming plows, called gritters, since at least 2006.

Past MnDOT snowplow name winners

Dig deeper:

Throughout previous years, 32 named snowplows have been selected through contest voting, and MnDOT staff have also helped to name three snowplows: Giiwedin-The North Wind; Goonodaabaan-Snow Vehicle (both Ojibwe); and Icamna-Blizzard (Dakota) in acknowledgment of the highways the state plows adjacent to tribal lands.

Here are the previous winners.

2023–24 winners: