So You Run a Company Named Isis ...

Isis, the helpful app, links a credit card to a smartphone so users can pay for in-store purchases with a swipe. Isis, the al-Qaeda offshoot, conquers territory in Iraq and Syria, stages massacres, and publishes videos of beheaded American journalists. Of all the pain wrought by infamous Isis, headaches for the makers of an app rate extremely low. But it’s a real problem for the startup, which on Wednesday announced a change of its name from Isis to Softcard.

“We have no interest in sharing a name with a group whose name has become synonymous with violence, and our hearts go out to those who are suffering,” Isis Chief Executive Officer Michael Abbott said back in July, when the company first decided to re-brand but hadn’t yet picked a new name. The payment service was already struggling to keep up with competitors such as Google Wallet, PayPal, and Venmo. A link to a terrorist organization wasn’t helping.