rapped in a troubled marriage, AOL Time Warner decided yesterday to return to its maiden name, dropping its first three letters.

The company will now be called Time Warner, an attempt to erase a big reminder of the excesses of the Internet era, America Online's acquisition of Time Warner for shares priced at the peak of the boom.

The name change, which was widely expected and which was approved by the board, is intended to end "any confusion between our corporate name and the America Online brand name," according to an internal memorandum from Richard D. Parsons, the company's chief executive. The company said it expected to begin the name change process over the next several weeks. In addition to the name change, its stock ticker symbol will change to TWX from AOL.

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The decision will carry a cost for changing signs, including those at the company's nearly completed headquarters at Columbus Circle in Manhattan. But it will also increase the potential risks to the Time Warner brand name. The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Justice Department are investigating the company's accounting from the time of the merger. If the inquiries tarnish the company's reputation, it will no longer have the ballast of the AOL name to throw overboard.

Executives close to Mr. Parsons said previously that he had thought that was one reason to hold onto the AOL name, at least for the time being.

But removing AOL from the name was a longstanding water cooler fantasy of shareholders and executives who came from Time Warner before the merger.

With their portfolios and retirement accounts shattered, many still wish for a buyer that would take the America Online division for anything close to the value assigned to it at the time of the merger. That, however, is highly unlikely now that the division's subscribers are defecting and its online advertising revenue continues to plummet.

AOL Time Warner executives have said they hope it will turn around next year. Mr. Parsons said in yesterday's memo that "America Online is delivering on our financial outlook, including the generation of $1 billion of free cash flow for the year, and is moving forward on the new strategic plan it announced last December."

The last potential obstacle to removing AOL from the name was concern for the morale of employees of the America Online division. That obstacle was removed a few months ago when Jonathan F. Miller, who was named chief executive of the division last year, requested the name change.

In a twist that surprised the many executives from the other divisions who blamed AOL for the company's problems, Mr. Miller asserted that the division was suffering by association with its parent company's travails, including the accounting investigations, the sales of assets to cut debt and the executive disputes. Mr. Parsons wrote in his memo detailing the company's progress that "we've also devoted a good deal of attention to revitalizing company morale."

Several senior executives said that Mr. Miller's formal request to remove AOL from the parent company's name also had the virtue of falling on receptive ears. These senior executives said that for Mr. Parsons and other directors, taking this step was just a matter of time.

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