With the fierce competition going on in our global village, parents are now trying to give the best of everything to their children, expecting the little ones of today to make a big difference tomorrow. Traditionally, tender loving care and early childhood education were considered necessary, but has a linguistic check for baby names now also been added to the to-do list for parents?

One year ago, no one would have expected that the world’s tallest tower known as Burj Dubai would rename itself into Burj Khalifa, in honor of Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the ruler of Abu Dhabi. On Jan 4, 2010, Dubai announced the renaming decision for the 200-story, 828 meter tall skyscraper during its opening ceremony. Sources said that this action is to thank Abu Dhabi for the $10 billion lifeline which recently saved Dubai from financial crisis. The renaming decision is also intended to reflect the unity of the federation, according to Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed al-Maktoum, chairman of Dubai’s Supreme Fiscal Committee

RadioShack, the 88-year-old consumer electronic chain, is undergoing some major changes to refresh its brand. The main re-branding effort is the change of name from RadioShack to “The Shack”.

“Unis Group of Tsinghua University”, “Peking University Founder Group”, “Shanghai Jiaoda Onlly”...Firms who are branded under the names of top universities in China are going to be soon busy. In fact, according to a newly released decree by the Ministry of Education, all the companies named after domestic universities have to change their brand names by the end of 2009. Exceptions to this rule have been made only for selected few high-tech development parks and publishing houses.

Baidu Brand for Sale? Definitely not China Baidu! Has it ever occurred to you that there is another Baidu out there?

A couple of examples of good and bad naming supporting what we have always said: the brand name is the brand’s business card. If you choose it well you have already moved the first step on the road to success; but if you get it wrong you surely will be heading to failure.

We heard it was called Olympian which then became Olympia...and now it looks like the latest shoes of the Jordan brand collection will have to find a new name again!

Volvo Trademark Holding AB, a subsidiary of the Swedish Volvo cars, has recently declared that they plan to take action in a lawsuit against Foton Lovol Heavy Industries Co., LTD. because of name similarity. The case will be focused on the trademark issue.

Powerful brand names for pharmaceutical products are important tools to offset competitive pressure from generics and to build customer loyalty. Brand naming for a pharmaceutical product is unique, as it is not only affected by marketing decisions, but also heavily regulated by state legislations...