Naming and branding: accountants and accountancy bodies in the British Empire and Commonwealth, 1853-2003

The number of professional accountancy bodies and accountants within the countries of the British Empire and Commonwealth has greatly expanded within the last 150 years. Each body has had to choose a name for itself. This paper attempts to explain these names and the designations of the members. The names and designations are argued to be exclusionary and inclusionary devices that in many cases have been appropriated from other countries, notably the UK and the US. Certain designations, notably “chartered accountant” and “CPA”, have evolved as brand names. It is argued that access to and use of these brands has spread not with colonisation but with the decolonisation of, first, the settler colonies and then the non-settler colonies. The paper discusses the choice between “chartered” and “CPA” and why neither has become the brand of international accountancy firms operating within a global economy.