Name Game Picks Up Momentum

What’s in a name? Plenty, if you’re a big company these days.

A record 100 publicly traded companies changed names in the first half of 1997, up from 82 in the same period last year, according to a survey released Monday by brand consultant Interbrand Schechter Inc.

This year’s most notable change was US Airways Group, which dropped the name USAir Group so it would sound less like a regional carrier. Most of the other changes, however, were prompted by corporate marriages.

Among the 100 changes made so far this year, 57 involved companies on the New York Stock Exchange, generally home of bigger companies than the American Stock Exchange or Nasdaq Stock Market.

Only 60 changes were made by NYSE-listed companies in all of 1996.