Acronymization

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Acronymization is the changing of the official name of a corporation, advocacy group or any organization to an acronym or initialism. Formed like any other acronym, the initial letters of the previous name are used. Such names changes are often connected to the continuous process of brand invigorartion within government agencies and the corporate community. This is often done to expand the public's perception of the company's focus beyond what the original name indicates. For instance, BP (formerly British Petroleum) has been using the phrase "Beyond Petroleum" in its marketing. It may not be clear to those unaware of the previous name where the new name came from, if it is a person's proper name or relates to place or culture.

Examples:

• AARP (formerly American Association of Retired Persons) changed its name in 1998 to reflect the inclusion of older workers. [1]
• ADM (formerly Archer Daniels Midland).
• AT&T (formerly American Telephone and Telegraph)
• BP (formerly British Petroleum) changed its name to reflect a broader focus in the energy field.
• ESPN (formerly Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) changed its name in 1985 to reflect its focus just on sports. [2]
• KBR (formerly Kellogg Brown & Root)
• KFC (formerly Kentucky Fried Chicken) changed its name in 1991 as a result of a licensing dispute with the state of Kentucky. [3] It is also widely believed that they did so to disassociate themselves from unhealthy fried foods and focus on their other products. [4]
• NARAL (formerly the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws)
• NCR (formerly the National Cash Register Company)
• SAS originally stood for statistical analysis system, but has dropped the meaning. [5]
• Seattle's Best Coffee for a time became SBC when it began marketing throughout the United States, but then reverted back to the former name. [6]
• UBS was formed through a merger of the Union Bank of Switzerland and the Swiss Bank Corporation in June 1998. Although the merged company's new name was originally supposed to be the "United Bank of Switzerland," officials opted to call it simply "UBS" because of a name clash with United Bank Switzerland - a part of the United Bank Limited's Swiss subsidiary.

A variation on Acronymization, which might be called Backronymization (a neologism of acronymization and backronym), officially changes the meaning of an acronym or initialism. In these cases the name of the organization does not change to the acronym, but instead changes so that the acronym does not change.

Examples:

• GAO, the investigative arm of the United States Congress, changed its name from the General Accounting Office to the Government Accountability Office in 2004. [7]
• TCBY originally stood for This Can't Be Yogurt, but as a result of a lawsuit from rival I Can't Believe It's Yogurt changed its name to The Country's Best Yogurt [8]
• TNN originally stood for The Nashville Network. The station's then changed to The National Network before being renamed Spike.
• YM (magazine) originally stood for Young Miss, then Young & Modern and finally Your Magazine.

[edit] See also

• Acronym and initialism
• Backronym