Name

A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches. Proverbs

The name of an organization may be crucial to its success and may become a valuable asset, bringing with it an image, reputation and customers. The name may reflect the organization’s product or service (United Airlines), indicate its scale of operations (South West Trains), be that of the original owner (Ford), be a famous person, place or animal (St. Peter’s, Granada, Jaguar) or be just a name (Tesco). It may also be chosen to convey gravitas and respect - 'The Princess Alice Hospice' sounding rather more dignified than 'The Esher Hospice'. However, names can be used to deliberately mislead when they include Universal, International, Quality, or other prestigious sounding words.

Names can change:  Names are often changed because they are thought to be too explicit, thus 'Complaints Department' becomes 'Customer Relations' and 'Centre for the Mentally Handicapped' becomes 'Centre for Learning Difficulties'. Even departmental names are important and are often changed to reflect the times - 'Research and Development Department' becoming 'Future Products Division'. Names can get out-of-date: London’s Victoria and Albert museum has recently been considering changing its name to something more in tune with the 21st century.

Protection:  The uniqueness of a name is not so much in the words or acronym, as several organizations can share these, but in the way the name is portrayed, i.e. its logo, which should be registered. Only the world's largest computer company can portray the acronym IBM in the unique way that it does. In addition, only one organization is allowed to use a given name or acronym in a particular classification on the Internet (.com, .org, .co.uk).

Characteristics which a name should have: