Abrdn

 

Abrdn

😕

When the global investment company Standard Life Aberdeen plc changed its name to Abrdn plc, it sounded energetic and forward-looking, bright and contemporary. Whether the change affected its uptake of business I have no idea, but it made me consider whether other names could be similarly changed and remain just as recognisable. It’s a simple procedure - just remove the vowels, including Y, leaving the consonants to do the heavy lifting. Do we really need vowels?

So, adopting this method, I started looking at names – businesses, places, people – to see how they looked.

Lloyds Bank plc became Llds Bnk plc , which is reasonably easy to understand, but the United States of America, the USA,  was reduced to Ntd Stts f Mrc or th NSM.

Russia became Rss and the popular singer of the moment, Taylor Swift, was now Tlr Swft. As for Tom Cruise, would you recognise him as Tm Crs?

Among the cities of the world, Lima was now Lm and Rome, Rm. Ely in Cambridgeshire became L and the Kingdom of Fife was th Kngdm f Ff.

However, removing vowels from sentences apparently doesn’t make a significant difference. (I say 'apparently' advisedly!)  Little ‘tests’ crop up on social media now and again with a promise that anyone able to read them is definitely in the near-genius category. This applies to English in this instance. I’ve written out a few that come to mind. Wld th vwls hlp?

‘Bm m p, Sctt.’

‘M th frc b wth ‘

‘T b r nt t b, tht s th qstn.’

‘Ll th wrld’s stg, nd ll th mn nd wmn mrl plrs.’

‘Ths bv ll, t thn wn slf b tr,

Nd t mst fllw, s th nght th d,

Th cnst nt thn b fls t n mn.’