Mother knows best on names

Gary Thurtle’s article on naff corporate names, “Papering over the cracks” (MW March 7), blamed a creeping Latinisation for the rash of ‘a’ endings – Consignia, Arriva, Aviva, Aveda, Centrica.

Could it be that another native influence is at work in the fevered brains of the branding consultants? I suspect a longing for the secure emotional values enshrined in the naming conventions of middle-class English motherhood – Arabella, Belinda, Camilla, Edwina, Francesca, Georgina, Helena, Isabella, Jemima.

Hugh Birley

Lexis PR

London W1