Yes, I see what you mean, but I'm not really talking about re-naming the poorly understood and woefully misdiagnosed non-disease that we are perceived by the press, the public and most doctors as having. I'm talking about (well more like wishing aloud about) re naming the real disease that "we" understand and recognize in each other but somehow seems to escape the grasp of "them". That disease is the one I want to rename. Idiopathic Fatigue is already aptly named. Chronic Fatigue is already aptly named. The disease commonly referred to as "Chronic Fatigue Syndrome" or "ME" which is (just for the sake of this discussion, possibly) marked by XMRV infection and neuro-immune pathology in a distinct but variable constellation, closely resembling that which is laid out in the Canadian Consensus Document on ME/CFS, is the disease that needs renaming. But you certainly have a valid point, no doubt, the repercussions of which are being played out before us as I write. *heavy sigh here* I must say though, some very good ideas for a name change have been brought out in this thread. I love the humor injected into the insanity of the ridiculous name problem too, and just when I needed it most. I still say I wouldn't mind a TEMPORARY name change for a while if it were a decent one, just as long as I never EVER again have to tell someone I have "Chronic Fatigue Syndrome". I was a nurse when I first became ill, and had worked in the medical industry starting at the age of 15. The first doctor that told me, "Ya know, you might have chronic fatigue syndrome; it would certainly explain what you're experiencing" received a sharply worded and furious response from me that I would not care to repeat here! That doctor made me so mad I could have spat! The nerve of that jerk telling me I wasn't sick. I was sick as hell, couldn't think or hold my head up or even sit in a chair without holding on to it because of the dizziness and he's trying to say I'm a hysterical malingerer!? That SOB! Little did I know after some 20 years of taking care of sick people in hospitals, nursing homes, medical laboratories and doctor's offices that CFS was a legitimate disease. I truly had absolutely NO IDEA it was real. I used to be one of "them" mentioned above. I didn't get it. But, if this disease had been known by a real name, even if it wasn't the quintessentially perfect name, and hadn't been so negatively stigmatized in the press and by the medical community as a result, I'm positive I would have been saved a world of grief both then and now, 15 years later. Perhaps the time has not quite arrived for a name change, at least not officially, but "we" ourselves, who know better should (in my own personal opinion) consider doing ourselves a great favor by immediately refusing to call it Chronic Fatigue Syndrome anymore. As pointed out earlier in this thread, we might be doing a lot of this to ourselves just by acknowledging the stupid name. "Little people" have changed they way they are referred to, and they did it by not allowing themselves to be referred to in other terms and referring to themselves as they prefer to be called. When was the last time you heard anyone described as retarded? It's possible for us, as a community, to change our own name to a large degree at least, even if the medical community calls it something else. People with hypertension say they have high blood pressure. People with hyperlipidemia say they have high cholesterol. We don't HAVE TO wait on "them". Why should we? Most of "them" wouldn't know a case of 'our disease' if it struck them personally (God forbid!). I sure didn't.