As brand, Blackwater picks one that's bland.

• Position: Eastern - Company overview

In February when Moyock-based Blackwater Worldwide became Xe Services LLC, the question wasn't what's in a name. Branding experts say it was a matter of what wasn't--a bad image. "They had what I'd call a brand crisis, and when a brand becomes so blemished, the only decision a company can make to keep in a growth mode is to rebrand," says Clayton Tolley, president of Charlotte-based Addison Whitney LLC, which created such names as Escalade for Cadillac's sport-utility vehicle.

Another Charlotte brand strategist agrees. "I'd say they wanted to come to market with a blank slate and build a new reputation around it," says Jim Gregory Cusson, a partner in Birdsong Gregory LLC, whose clients include Food Lion. "The name might be more palatable in foreign markets where I'm fairly sure nobody has a preconceived notion about it."

Blackwater--northeastern North Carolina's largest employer (cover story, June 2007), with more than 450 workers--has suffered a public-relations battering, particularly for its actions in Iraq. In September 2007, Blackwater security contractors guarding U.S. diplomatic personnel killed 17 civilians. Six face manslaughter trials, and its contracts--it had more than $1 billion in government awards since 2004--were not renewed.

Xe spokeswoman Anne Tyrrell says the name was chosen because Blackwater is shifting emphasis from high-risk security details to logistics and training law-enforcement officers. The site of most of that training--Blackwater Lodge & Training Center in Currituck County--has become U.S. Training Center Inc. As part of the shake-up, CEO...