Best Answer: The corvette's name came from naval corvettes, a corvette is diefined as a small, fast, and maneuverable, lightly armed warship, which was used during the second world war to protect merchant vessels from German U-Boats, The Chevrolet Corvette is a small, fast, and maneuverable car.ccording to Corvette history, this happened in September 1952: The Opel project sports car prototype is named Corvette, after a light fast type of World War II warship.