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 that 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 Inc., 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.