The name of the group is amazingly important.  Your group will be judged, in many ways, by the title you choose. Your name is the first impression people will have of you, and it can influence both perception and attitude from fellow students, faculty and the university’s administration.  You want your name to be in line with your mission and vision, and perhaps to be descriptive of your worldview or function.  

The secular movement is not entirely mainstream yet.  Many of the words we use to accurately describe ourselves are not well known, and some have negative connotations.  However, by using any of those words, we are helping to put them into the modern lexicon and to remove their negative connotations.  This is important work.  It can get a bit frustrating to see your group’s name misunderstood.  No matter how frustrated you are, always keep a positive attitude about clearly and carefully explaining the meaning of your group’s name every time you are asked.  One of the central purposes of your group is education; keep that in mind when people have questions about the name of your organization.

There is always the possibility of naming your group after a famous freethinking personality, such as the U of Georgia’s Sagan Society.  You can view all the SSA's affiliate group names at secularstudents.org/affiliates to get even more ideas or see some common choices.  Some groups might not be okay with you borrowing their name though, so always ask for permission first.

Many groups end up with a long name in order to be inclusive as well as understood. Acronyms are a necessity with groups like the U. of Kansas Society of Open Minded Atheists and Agnostics, or SOMA.  Acronyms can be clever: one creative example is U. of California – Berkeley’s Students for A Nonreligious Ethos, or SANE.  Of course, you’ll need to be careful of unintended acronyms too; just ask the Associated Secular Students group at UCLA.  

While it is just about inevitable that the acronym for your group name will get used a lot, make sure that you use the full name frequently.  New people aren't going to know what the acronym stands for unless you tell them.  Make sure that the full name of the group gets said at the beginning of each meeting (i.e. “Welcome to the Society for Open Minded Atheists and Agnostics,” instead of “Welcome to SOMA”).  Also, make sure your group's whole name is somewhere, hopefully quite large and obvious, on any flyers you print and on any website or Facebook group you might have.