Names

It appears USC won't be leaving its home field any time soon. But the Trojans aren't likely to be playing football at the "Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum" for much longer either. That's because the landmark agreement reached Wednesday by USC and the Coliseum Commission hinges almost entirely on the sale of naming rights.

Don Spencer stepped into the recess of his bay window and stared at the rooftops terraced beneath him, all the way to the sea. He spoke of a childhood easy to imagine but difficult, by now, to re-create. Spencer's early days were spent tumbling in the local surf break, his evenings cavorting through the dunes, the sand strafing his ankles, the same song, it seemed, spilling some nights through the windows of the neighborhood bungalows: "Vaya con Dios, my darling; Vaya con Dios, my love."

California Speedway will become Auto Club Speedway today under a naming-rights agreement between the track and the Auto Club of Southern California, track President Gillian Zucker said. The auto-services club already is the title sponsor of Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup race at the Fontana track, the Auto Club 500, which is one of two Cup races the speedway hosts each season.

Almost 35 years have passed since a Ford Mustang named Eleanor tore up the streets of the South Bay in the cinematic crash-fest "Gone in 60 Seconds." The crudely crafted indie flick found a cult audience and inspired a 2000 big-budget sequel starring Nicolas Cage, Angelina Jolie and, of course, a vintage Mustang named Eleanor.

The Los Angeles Free Clinic will change its name next month to the Saban Free Clinic in honor of a $10-million donation, the largest in the clinic's 41-year history, from philanthropists Haim and Cheryl Saban. The gift, which the clinic plans to announce today, will be used to create an endowment, said clinic co-director Abbe Land.

Dear Karen: I'm setting up my corporation. How do my partner and I issue stock, register our corporate name and establish our charter? Answer: When you file articles of incorporation with the secretary of state's office, you'll be registering your name and establishing a charter. Information is available at www.sos.ca .gov/business/bpd_forms.htm. The same site allows you to check preliminary availability of your desired corporate name before filing, said Los Angeles attorney C. Dickinson Hill.

Here's a name joke to get us started on a new book about funny names: Two ladies were driving around a neighborhood looking for a friend, Gladys Boyle. They spotted a mail carrier, a middle-age man who was walking slowly, as if in pain. The lady on the passenger side rolled down her window and asked, "Excuse me, sir, do you have a Boyle on your route?" The mailman seemed confused, then said, "No ma'am, I always walk like that." Now, take it easy, all you Boyles. In fact, anyone saddled with a name that drew playground taunts should pick up "Bad Baby Names" (Ancestry Publishing)

OMG! Seeking to capitalize on its TV fame as America's quintessential suburb, Orange County moved to rename its government functions Tuesday with slicked-up, simplified names to remind everyone of exactly where they are: The OC! County supervisors voted to rename 11 departments and agencies and create two new ones, all with the "OC" brand made famous by the now-defunct television show of the same name, thus jettisoning the clunky bureaucratic nomenclature of the past.

Orange County names: An article in some editions of Wednesday's California section about changes to the names of Orange County government departments misstated the new name of the county's libraries. It will be O.C. Public Libraries, not O.C. Libraries.

Her first son was born 10 years ago on a Bujumbura street while fighting raged. She named him Nzikobanyanka, or "I know they hate us." Two successive sons were also christened with names reflecting weariness with Burundi's long war: Tugiramahoro ("Let's have peace") and Nduwimana ("I'm in God's hands"). But when the fighting stopped and Daphrose Miburu's youngest son was born a year ago, the 35-year-old mother chose something uplifting: Furaha -- "Happiness." The history of this battered nation can be told through names like these, given to reflect the world as parents see it at the time.