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"What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other word would smell as sweet."

Although Shakespeare discounts the importance of a "name" in his classic tale of Romeo and Juliet, I think names are incredibly important, especially when creating a new brand or launching a corporate marketing campaign.

I imagine that you have encountered problematic city and state names. The name Albuquerque can be hard to pronounce for non-Spanish speakers and even more difficult to spell for anyone.

And as a state, we are not "New" and we are not "Mexico." So maybe it's time to look to the future and brainstorm some new names for our city and state and rebrand ourselves for a sound-bite, in-a-hurry future.

But before we look ahead, let's look back and figure out how we got here.

Although local native peoples gave the Albuquerque area several names, its now more familiar name was christened in 1706. Interim Governor Cuervo y Valdez named our city Villa de Alburquerque (with the extra "r") in honor of his boss, the Viceroy of New Spain, the Duke of Alburquerque.

This led to our nickname, the "Duke City." Later, when the trains arrived in 1880, New Albuquerque was born, and as the city grew and Old and New Albuquerque merged, Old Albuquerque became what we now know as "Old Town."

Even the Rio Grande has changed names several times. The Pueblo Indians originally called it Posoge (Big River). In 1540, Hernando de Alvarado's expedition called it Rio de Nuestra Se¤ora. And in 1582, the Espejo expedition called it Rio del Norte (River of the North). That name was changed to Rio Grande just a few years later by conquistador Juan de O¤ate.

I would imagine it had more water flowing from bank to bank back then, hence the references to a big and grand river.

Adding some confusion to our identity is that our region is divided into four counties, Bernalillo, Sandoval, Santa Fe and Valencia. Geologists have attempted to add some consistency by calling our larger neighborhood the Middle Rio Grande Basin (bounded by Cochiti and San Acacia). And of course we can't forget that we live in the Rio Grande Rift, which runs from central Colorado to the Mexican state of Chihuahua.

More recently, I've seen a renewed focus on a regional identity since there are many benefits to accrue from working together. Synergy is a good thing.

For example, names like "Central New Mexico" and "North Central New Mexico" are bantered about regularly. I even heard someone call the region the "Heart of New Mexico" (visit heartnm.com for a more succinct description of that moniker).

And this brings us to the question about what we should call ourselves as we approach a population of 1 million residents.

Similar to other large metropolitan areas, we could follow so many other cities of that size and call ourselves the Greater Albuquerque Area or the Albuquerque Metro Area or just Metro Albuquerque.

On the other hand, if Rio Rancho continues to grow at its current rate, we may well be considered the Greater Rio Rancho Area at some time in the future. Probably the simplest answer is the best, so I vote for "ABQ." The airlines already add that name to my luggage and the post office will accept that abbreviation for any snail mail I send. What could be easier than just three little letters, A, B, and Q? Maybe we could also add an accent on the "Q" to remind us of the city's "Q Campaign" and our need to be more ecologically friendly. The point is to make it easy to for everyone to use and to remember! And then there's our state name, which may need some revamping because many Americans don't think New Mexico is even a part of the United States. Remember when New Mexican Olympians were turned away when they arrived at the hotel designated for American athletes? They were told to report to the housing for international competitors. After considerable deliberation, I've decided the name should reflect what's so apparent here - beautiful views and natural wonders. So names like "Vista" or "Enchantment" would makes sense.

On the other hand, as local film-maker Tony Della Flora reported in his film "Sleeping Monsters, Sacred Fires: Volcanoes of New Mexico": "Our state is mostly made up of volcanoes." So maybe we should consider renaming New Mexico "Vulcan"? I'm sure my friends at Roswell's International UFO Museum and Research Center would vote for that one!

Whatever we call this place, as I'm sure so many of you would agree, it will always be known to me as "home."