Stephen Bird, the former Citigroup executive who replaced Keith Skeoch as CEO of Standard Life Aberdeen in September 2020, has had to spend a lot of time defending his decision to ditch the firm’s historic moniker in favour of a fresh name — one that completely abandons vowels.

The abrdn badge, conjured up with the help of Wolff Olins, the brand agency behind the London 2012 Olympics, was put in place to portray the asset manager as “modern” and “dynamic”.