Abrdn executives seemed to spend half their time explaining the pronunciation, or complaining of ‘childish’ jokes

C’mon Abrdn, abndn the silly name, urged this column and many others when Standard Life Aberdeen decided to shorten its name to that of the granite city, just without three-quarters of the vowels. Now – four years and one chief executive later – the nonsense has been stopped. Aberdeen it is, albeit the group still can’t manage an upper case “A”.

“One of the easiest decisions I have ever had to make,” said its new boss, Jason Windsor, undoing the handiwork of his predecessor, Stphn Brd. One doesn’t doubt it. The original guff about having a “modern, agile and digitally enabled brand” was always likely to collide with the reality that a name that causes the reader to pause for breath doesn’t work unless you’re sending a text message. Abrdn executives seem to have spent half their time explaining the pronunciation, or inviting fresh ridicule by grumbling about the wicked media’s “childish jokes”.