The following companies are fictitious examples. Any resemblance to a trademarked name is unintentional.

1. New partner. Rather than keep a company named after you, John Smith Associates, you decide it's better to find an entirely new moniker that reflects what you do. Your new partner appreciates the concession.
2. Unclear image. Your computer chip design firm, Best Chips, keeps getting calls from potato chip distributors. So you consider a techy name such as eCHIPDesign.
3. Inadvertent message. Your support of nonprofits and social causes has led you to name your company IDonate, but customers joke that they want your products for free.
4. Market dynamics. You've built a great mail-order software company named software2mail. But times change. Now people download your software from your Web site. To alter your image, you change the name to Easyload.com.
5. Change of industries. You've built a great business exporting rubber rings to Chile. But on your last trip, you realize there's a much larger opportunity for Louisiana catfish. Rubber Ring Industries will unquestionably baffle fish distributors.
6. You merge. Your accounting company, Smith, Grimy, Melvin & Shore, merges with Parsnip, James, McKinley. In deference to the long deceased founders of the two firms, you name the new company after them, Smith & McKinley.
7. Buy a tarnished company. You acquire a well-known company whose fraudulent operations caused it to collapse. You change the name to distance yourself from its past.
8. Buy a bankrupt gem. You take over a bankrupt company with a glorious past whose name has not been used in years but is still recognizable. You resuscitate the brand and make the company a new success.