Aeran Brent is tired of visitors asking about her store’s name or snapping pictures of the sign outside.

Unfortunately, that’s life for a small-business owner whose shop — Isis Bridal and Formal — shares a name with ISIS, the acronym of a notorious Islamic militant group the United States is fighting in Iraq and Syria.

“I’m just like, ‘Come on!”’ she says. “I get what’s going on, but can you see it’s a store?”

Brent denies any connection with the other ISIS, which stands for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, and says she wants to rename her store.

“Isis” is part of more than 270 product, service or business names among active federal trademarks, according to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. But businesses are not required to register their names, so it is difficult to say how many companies use “Isis,” which is also the name of an Egyptian and pagan goddess.

For those companies, the “Isis” name can be damaging. Branding experts say an unfortunate association with a name can scar a company’s reputation even if the connection is coincidental.

Take Isis Collections, a New Jersey company that makes weaves, wigs and hair pieces. CEO Phillip Shin says stores have told him that customers will put his company’s products back on the shelf after noticing the Isis label. In the United Kingdom, he’s heard that competitors have joked at trade shows about his business being tied to terrorists.

“It’s so stressful,” Shin says, noting he has spent 20 years building the company’s reputation. “I’ve lost all the benefit of the brand image.”

Shin, who named his company after the Egyptian goddess, started removing the Isis label from some packages. But he’s reluctant to give up on such an established brand. He says he wishes the U.S. and European media would stop referring to the militant group as ISIS.

Isis Collections has had no sales problems in South Korea, where the media only refers to the group as the Islamic State.

Another company, technology startup Isis Wallet, announced in September that it would change its name to Softcard. The joint venture involving AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless launched late last year with an app that allows people to use their smartphones while checking out at a store to get discounts and use credit or loyalty cards.