in may 2016, discus said it dropped its discus acronym and would use "distilled spirits council" for the short form of its name in order to "modernize the association's public presence". in 2018, it said it would further shorten the short form of its name to just "the council". in 2019, under the guidance of the new ceo chris swonger, distilled spirits council went back to using the full name, distilled spirits council of the united states.