A name change doesn’t have to cause confusion – if you market it right. Here are six steps that just might help.

By: Linda Formichelli

It seems that businesses these days are changing their names more often than gas prices change at the pump. “I think that we’re seeing an uptick, and there’s certainly cause,” says Tate Linden, president and managing principal of the boutique naming firm Stokefire. “Many of those wild and crazy firms from the dot-com era are now looking for respectability. And many of the stuffy traditional firms are thinking that they want in on the new Web 2.0 trends.”

Companies change their names for many reasons: They merge or are acquired by a new company. They shift their business focus. They seek to distance …