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It’s probably still safe to use the word “financial” if you’re thinking up a name for a new company. For example, Financial Shenanigans Inc. might generate some buzz, and you’re welcome to use it in exchange for an envelope stuffed with unmarked Chinese yuan.

You’re still allowed to call yourself a “group,” as long as you can look around your home office and see at least one other person. If it isn’t just the guy shutting off your electricity again.

But when you put “principal” on your letterhead, that’s when you need to provide a visitors parking space for attorneys.

Recently, Principal Financial Group Inc. clamped a legal half-nelson on a California start-up bank and forced it to change its name from American Principle Bank to American Perspective Bank.

Alert readers might notice that “principle” isn’t exactly the same as “principal.” In the field of linguistics – recently rocked by a scandal involving taxpayer-funded trips to a Scrabble tournament in Bora Bora – it’s believed that words spelled differently are “different words.” Still, the company’s concern is understandable.

Say some guy tries to deposit money in Principal’s online bank, spells badly and accidentally sends it to those jokers at American Principle. He’s out of luck the next time he tries to right a Czech.

Every business person knows it’s important to watch out for competitors trying to cash in on your good name, and the courts agree.

There’s no way that you could get away with manufacturing grain drills and calling your company Jon Dear. For one thing, you don’t even know how grain drills work. More to the point, it’s just too obvious that you’re hoping to take advantage of all of that green and yellow paint.

It takes more than a similar name to prosper, anyway. The people of Swaziland barely scrape by. The residents of Switzerland spend the morning making red pocketknives and then knock off for the day.

But sometimes it just happens. The problem is, we’re running low on words that haven’t already been used as company names. On the Web site of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, a search for “principal” turns up 286 trademarks, although most are pretty easy to tell apart.

Still, you never know when Victoria Principal will give up on peddling skin-care secrets and start managing 401(k) accounts.

Or consider Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. A search for “nationwide” brings 664 hits, from Nation-Wide Horse Transportation to Nationwide Lifts – and now you know where to call for all of your dumbwaiter maintenance and repair needs.

Or Pioneer International Hi-Bred Inc. Type in “pioneer” and uncover a staggering 987 trademarks, from Pioneers in Professional Timekeeping to Borax Pioneer.

Speaking of yellow and green (it was six paragraphs ago, back when life was simpler), organizations get quite possessive about colors, too. Madison County Winery, for example, has been battling Iowa State University and the University of Iowa over wine labels. According to a lawsuit, Iowa State claims “all rights, title and interest to the color combination of yellow and red-colored font when placed together with the word ‘Red,'” and Iowa feels the same way about yellow, black and the word “gold.”

I just hope the Nebraska Cornhuskers don’t find out that our barn is painted red with white trim, and there’s an “N” on the weathervane.

You also have to watch out for people taking your name in vain. In the news business, we regularly hear from the makers of Kleenex and Styrofoam. Partly, I think, because their media people need a break from writing feature stories about the many interesting uses of Kleenex and Styrofoam, but also because they hate to see their trademarked names used generically.

And if you’ve ever been used generically, you can appreciate their discomfort.