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At the risk of making a big deal out of a small deal, I have a few thoughts to add to Carolyn’s excellent post on yesterday’s updated usage guidelines from Pres. Nelson.

The good news is we have Jesus Christ in our name. The bad news is it’s the part of our name that doesn’t get acronymized. TCoJCoLDS doesn’t exactly role off the tongue. Nor does CoJC, and anyway that acronym is already claimed.

So what do you do when the whole world leaves Jesus Christ out of your name, gets your name wrong, or calls you a Mormon?

It’s been an issue for as long as the church has been called The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. “LDS” and “Mormon” are the most “user-friendly” terms to refer to our religion, if we assume that the easiest, most convenient moniker is the one most likely to be used in conversation. Which is usually true.

But if we’re ever going to be able to accept those names, we’re going to need to first accept a few truths about our brand.

Truth #1: The name isn’t the brand

The meaning of a brand supersedes its name after very few mentions. J. Crew means nothing, apparently. Steve Jobs thought the word “Apple” sounded fun. A soccer team in the Intermountain West is called Real Salt Lake because it sounds soccery. Domo means “Thanks for all the free money” in Japanese. (Or something like that.)

Brands are established by their relationship with customers, their reputation, and the values they espouse. A brand’s actual name only affects long-term brand equity if it’s a really bad one. Speaking of which…

Truth #2: There are only really two ironclad naming rules

People make a lot of money coming up with naming rules and conventions, but for just about every rule you can think of, there will be a very successful brand that breaks it. Hard to spell? Difficult to pronounce? Weird racist overtones? Strange punctuation or symbols or capitalization? No vowels? Clumsy acronym? There are iconic brands that have broken all of those rules.

The only real rules that matter: 1. Make it clear. 2. Make it memorable.

In other words: If people are misusing or getting your name wrong, it’s not their fault.

Truth #3: The key to a strong brand is love and trust

Which isn’t easy to build. You can build awareness whenever you want—pay enough money or do something crazy and everyone will know your name. Convincing people that you’re worth trusting is hard, it generally takes time, and there’s often risk involved.

Whatever people call us or think of us, our goal is for them to associate us with Jesus Christ, the head of our church. But there are lots of ways to drive that association beyond expecting people to say our very long name.