Orphan initialism
Encyclopedia
Orphan initialism 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 name changes are often connected to the continuous process of brand invigoration
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.
A variation on this process officially changes the meaning of an acronym or initialism. In these cases the name of the organization does not become an acronym or initialism, but instead is changed in a way that keeps the original acronym.
Examples:
Corporation
A corporation is created under the laws of a state as a separate legal entity that has privileges and liabilities that are distinct from those of its members. There are many different forms of corporations, most of which are used to conduct business. Early corporations were established by charter...
, advocacy group
Advocacy group
Advocacy groups use various forms of advocacy to influence public opinion and/or policy; they have played and continue to play an important part in the development of political and social systems...
or any organization
Organization
An organization is a social group which distributes tasks for a collective goal. The word itself is derived from the Greek word organon, itself derived from the better-known word ergon - as we know `organ` - and it means a compartment for a particular job.There are a variety of legal types of...
to an acronym or initialism
Acronym and initialism
Acronyms and initialisms are abbreviations formed from the initial components in a phrase or a word. These components may be individual letters or parts of words . There is no universal agreement on the precise definition of the various terms , nor on written usage...
. Formed like any other acronym, the initial letters of the previous name are used. Such name changes are often connected to the continuous process of brand invigoration
Rebranding
Rebranding is the creation of a new name, term, symbol, design, or a combination of them for an established brand with the intention of developing a differentiated position in the mind of stakeholders and competitors....
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
BP
BP p.l.c. is a global oil and gas company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the third-largest energy company and fourth-largest company in the world measured by revenues and one of the six oil and gas "supermajors"...
(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
- AARPAARPAARP, formerly the American Association of Retired Persons, is the United States-based non-governmental organization and interest group, founded in 1958 by Ethel Percy Andrus, PhD, a retired educator from California, and based in Washington, D.C. According to its mission statement, it is "a...
(formerly American Association of Retired Persons) changed its name in 1998 to reflect the inclusion of older workers. - AOLAOLAOL Inc. is an American global Internet services and media company. AOL is headquartered at 770 Broadway in New York. Founded in 1983 as Control Video Corporation, it has franchised its services to companies in several nations around the world or set up international versions of its services...
(formerly America Online) - AT&TAT&TAT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications corporation headquartered in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas, United States. It is the largest provider of mobile telephony and fixed telephony in the United States, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services...
(formerly American Telephone and Telegraph) - BPBPBP p.l.c. is a global oil and gas company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the third-largest energy company and fourth-largest company in the world measured by revenues and one of the six oil and gas "supermajors"...
(formerly British Petroleum) changed its name in 1999 following the merger with Amoco (itself formerly American Oil Company) to reflect a broader focus in the energy field. - ECHLECHLThe ECHL is a mid-level professional ice hockey league based in Princeton, New Jersey with teams scattered across the United States...
(formerly East Coast Hockey League) changed its name in 2003 following the absorption of several West Coast Hockey LeagueWest Coast Hockey LeagueThe West Coast Hockey League was a professional minor ice hockey league active in the western United States from 1995 to 2003. The number of teams ranged from six to nine. The teams were located in Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada and Washington...
teams, reflecting the fact that the league was no longer confined to the East Coast. - ESPNESPNEntertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
(formerly Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) changed its name in 1985 to reflect its focus just on sports. - KFCKFCKFC, founded and also known as Kentucky Fried Chicken, is a chain of fast food restaurants based in Louisville, Kentucky, in the United States. KFC has been a brand and operating segment, termed a concept of Yum! Brands since 1997 when that company was spun off from PepsiCo as Tricon Global...
(formerly Kentucky Fried Chicken) changed its name in 1991. It is widely believed that they did so to dissociate themselves from unhealthy fried foods and focus on their other products. - NARAL Pro-Choice America (formerly the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws)
- NCRNCR CorporationNCR Corporation is an American technology company specializing in kiosk products for the retail, financial, travel, healthcare, food service, entertainment, gaming and public sector industries. Its main products are self-service kiosks, point-of-sale terminals, automated teller machines, check...
(formerly the National Cash Register Company) changed its name in 1974. - PFRPFRPFR was a Christian music group in the mid 1990s. Although the group disbanded in 1997, they reunited in 2000 and have since recorded two albums, and they continue to play together.-History:...
, the Christian rock band, was originally called Pray for Rain, but was renamed when they found out there was already a band by that name. - PNC Financial ServicesPNC Financial ServicesPNC Financial Services Group, Inc. is a U.S.-based financial services corporation, with assets of approximately $264.3 billion...
was formed in 1982 with the merger of Pittsburgh National Corporation and Provident National Corporation. The new bank took as its name the common initials of the two originating banks. - SASSAS SystemSAS is an integrated system of software products provided by SAS Institute Inc. that enables programmers to perform:* retrieval, management, and mining* report writing and graphics* statistical analysis...
originally stood for statistical analysis system, but has dropped the meaning. - The SATSATThe SAT Reasoning Test is a standardized test for college admissions in the United States. The SAT is owned, published, and developed by the College Board, a nonprofit organization in the United States. It was formerly developed, published, and scored by the Educational Testing Service which still...
reasoning test was the Scholastic Aptitude Test until 1993, when the name was changed from "Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT)" to "SAT I: Reasoning Tests". - Seattle's Best CoffeeSeattle's Best CoffeeSeattle's Best Coffee, a wholly owned subsidiary of Starbucks, is a specialty coffee retailer and wholesaler based in Seattle, Washington.Seattle's Best Coffee has retail stores and grocery sub-stores in 20 states and provinces and the District of Columbia. Sub-stores can also be found within many...
for a time became SBC when it began marketing throughout the United States, but then reverted back to the former name. - SRI InternationalSRI InternationalSRI International , founded as Stanford Research Institute, is one of the world's largest contract research institutes. Based in Menlo Park, California, the trustees of Stanford University established it in 1946 as a center of innovation to support economic development in the region. It was later...
originally stood for Stanford Research Institute, but dropped the meaning when it became independent of Stanford UniversityStanford UniversityThe Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
. - In Texas A&M UniversityTexas A&M UniversityTexas A&M University is a coeducational public research university located in College Station, Texas . It is the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System. The sixth-largest university in the United States, A&M's enrollment for Fall 2011 was over 50,000 for the first time in school...
's name, the A&M originally stood for "Agricultural & Mechanical", but in 1963, the Texas Legislature approved a bill changing the name of the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas to "Texas A&M University", making the "A&M" symbolic but not standing for 'agricultural and mechanical'. - WWE (formerly World Wrestling Entertainment, and World Wrestling Federation before that) in 2011 steered its primary focus from its core business model of professional wrestlingProfessional wrestlingProfessional wrestling is a mode of spectacle, combining athletics and theatrical performance.Roland Barthes, "The World of Wrestling", Mythologies, 1957 It takes the form of events, held by touring companies, which mimic a title match combat sport...
to other forms of entertainment. To enforce its new focus as a media organization, the name was simplified so that "Wrestling" wouldn't be the main reflection of the company. - UBS was formed through a merger of the Union Bank of SwitzerlandUnion Bank of SwitzerlandUnion Bank of Switzerland was a large integrated financial services company located in Switzerland. The bank, which at the time was the second largest bank in Switzerland, merged with Swiss Bank Corporation in 1998, to become UBS to form what was then the largest bank in Europe and the second...
and the Swiss Bank CorporationSwiss Bank CorporationSwiss Bank Corporation was a large integrated financial services company located in Switzerland...
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 this process officially changes the meaning of an acronym or initialism. In these cases the name of the organization does not become an acronym or initialism, but instead is changed in a way that keeps the original acronym.
Examples:
- GAOGovernment Accountability OfficeThe Government Accountability Office is the audit, evaluation, and investigative arm of the United States Congress. It is located in the legislative branch of the United States government.-History:...
, the investigative arm of the United States CongressUnited States CongressThe United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
, changed its name from the General Accounting Office to the Government Accountability Office in 2004. - NCCJNational Conference for Community and JusticeThe National Conference for Community and Justice is a national, human relations, non-profit organization in the United States. Its mission is to fight bias, bigotry, and racism and promote understanding and respect through advocacy, conflict resolution, and education.The NCCJ was founded in 1927...
originally stood for National Conference of Christians and Jews, but now stands for National Conference for Community and Justice. - PHPPHPPHP is a general-purpose server-side scripting language originally designed for web development to produce dynamic web pages. For this purpose, PHP code is embedded into the HTML source document and interpreted by a web server with a PHP processor module, which generates the web page document...
originally stood for Personal Home Page. In version 3, it changed to PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor making it a recursive acronymRecursive acronymA recursive acronym is an acronym or initialism that refers to itself in the expression for which it stands...
. - TCBYTCBYTCBY is an international franchise chain of frozen yogurt stores based in the United States. It is the largest U.S. retailer of soft-serve frozen yogurt with live active cultures....
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. - TNNThe Nashville NetworkThe Nashville Network, usually referred to as TNN, was an American country music-oriented cable television network. Programming included music videos, taped concerts, movies, syndicated programs, and numerous talk shows...
originally stood for The Nashville Network until the television station was renamed The National Network. (The channel was later renamed Spike.) - In 1973, Waterloo Lutheran University became Wilfrid Laurier UniversityWilfrid Laurier UniversityWilfrid Laurier University is a university located in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. It also has campuses in Brantford, Ontario, Kitchener, Ontario and Toronto, Ontario and a future proposed campus in Milton, Ontario. It is named in honour of Sir Wilfrid Laurier, the seventh Prime Minister of Canada....
, retaining the initialism WLU. - YM (magazine)YM (magazine)YM was an American teen magazine that began in 1932. It was published for 72 years and was the second-oldest girls' magazine in the United States...
originally stood for Young Miss, then Young & Modern and finally Your Magazine.