Isis grabs headlines for terrorism, but the name has other owners

Those fellows over in Iraq and the Levant are proving to be killjoys in more ways than the obvious one. The decision by much of the west to dub them not as ISIL but ISIS has put paid to the millennia-old association of the latter name with the Egyptian goddess and a slew of other things. As there has already been a hasty change in nomenclature of a brand of Belgian chocolates and a fictional secret spy agency in the American TV serial Archer, another likely casualty may be the amiable golden Labrador by that name in the British tele-series Downton Abbey. Being a dog, Isis has even less leeway than humans to stay magically ageless as characters in generation-hopping Indian serials do with unwrinkled ease. Unfortunately, after being on the trot well before and after World War I, Isis being shown as ailing is quite believable although it may not be a coincidence.

The serial's writer could, of course, just quietly rename her Iris and deny ISIS another victim even as entities as varied as an equity fund, a construction firm, an outdoor clothing label and a heavy metal band face the same-name heat. Hopefully, Oxford will not succumb to any future pressure to change the name of the university's student magazines as well as the part of the river Thames that flows through the city from Isis, and decide to remain as is.