By any other name, would the Washington Public Power Supply System have a rosier image?

Perhaps not, if Tri-City Herald readers were the judges.

Their suggested replacements, one might say, suggest Shakespeare may be needed to paint the WPPSS lily.

Of 24 suggestions from Herald readers, the most popular offering - from seven readers, several of them WPPSS workers - was Columbia River Atomic Plant.

In the acronym-happy Tri-Cities, that makes the long-lived WPPSS - too close to "Whoops!" for comfort since the agency's problems of decades past - seem not so bad after all.

But on Friday, when the boards that run the utility plan to discuss whether to change its name, perhaps they can find something less bawdy and more bardy among Herald reader suggestions.

WPPSS management now prefers to call itself the "supply system." It's short and snappy but says very little about what the organization does, nor where it is.

Yet, to pack such concepts as energy, the Pacific Northwest and the essence of public power into a single, short name isn't simple.

Reader Keith Berry of West Richland admitted his nomination - Power Operations Washington State Energy Resources - was even longer than the current name.

Still, "It's nothing like Hanford. They have acronyms out there that would do you in," Berry said.

Frank Beaudry of Kennewick was able to cut the word count. He suggested Rattlesnake Nuclear Power Plant.

"I was driving past the plant and looked to the left and saw Rattlesnake Mountain. I thought people in the area could relate to that," Beaudry said.

Ben Brown of Kennewick also was able to keep to four words: Washington Electric Generating System.

"It's owned by an association of Washington PUDs, and it's an electrical generating plant. It's that simple," Brown said.

David Haag of Richland was able to capture it in three words: Pacific Northwest Nuclear. Yet, "nuclear" isn't entirely appropriate for a utility with one non-nuclear plant that wants more.

Gale Kennedy of Pasco incorporated WPPSS roots with a sense of geographical identity in but two words: Washington Energy.

Or, "WE," ... the people who formed public utility districts in the first place.