Name is the Game.(Industry Trend or Event)

A rose by any other name may be just what the company needs in this manic era of corporate image adjustments.

What's in a name? If it's a company name, the answer could be lots of zeroes.

Megamerger mania continues in the telecommunications industry, and with these somewhat odd marriages comes the difficult task of naming the offspring.

It doesn't help that Wall Street has given the cold shoulder to many in the telecommunications sector recently. Behemoths AT&T, WorldCom, and Sprint have all watched their market projections and their net worth melt. These giants are trying to reinvent themselves by spinning off units like long-distance and wireless services in order to focus on the big-buck business services. In the meantime, newly formed companies in the telecom space try to come up with a sing-song name that will grab the attention of the customer and convince the market they're a force to be reckoned with in the new and changing economy.

According to Enterprise IG, a brand and identity consulting firm, the act of renaming is on the upswing.

The number of U.S. corporations changing their names in 1999 exceeded the practice of name changing in 1998 by 42%. There were some 2,700 recorded name changes for corporations in the U.S. during 1999. And the title change rage is apparently a worldwide phenomenon. In the first quarter of 2000, there have already been 1,854 corporate name changes globally, Enterprise reports.

Mergers and acquisitions are a big reason to undergo a name change, but some companies--almost 40% of 2000's total to date--took the new identity plunge "without the stimulus of a merger, acquisition, or other corporate combination," Enterprise states.