I have been unable to find any conclusive answer to your question of whether or not Sting Ray/Stingray is part of the official model name. There is a great deal of contradictory information on the internet pertaining to this subject, and there is no real consistency in its use. None of the books I have at home explain this definitively either. In the period literature I have been able to find from Chevrolet/GM for the years 1963-1976, sometimes the secondary name is used and sometimes it is not.

I suspect it may be more technically correct for the years 1963-67 to list the model name as “Chevrolet Corvette Sting Ray” and for the years 1969-1976 to list it as “Chevrolet Corvette Stingray”. However, I think there would be less risk of confusion if Sting Ray/Stingray (which is often times not even added to the vehicle descriptions at all) was added to the Extra Info field instead of as part of the Model Name. For all intents and purposes, if you say “Chevrolet Corvette” people will know what you are referring to. Also, it is not like some Corvettes were Sting Rays and others were not for any given year during which the secondary name was used (i.e., a buyer could not order one and specify they wanted a Corvette but not one that was a Stingray or vice versa).

It doesn’t really make too much difference to me which way it is decided they should be named; I just thought it would be better if they were all named consistently.