Morgan Stanley may drop the name Smith Barney from its 18,000-strong advisor force, according to the Wall Street Journal, which cited unnamed people familiar with the situation.

Clients of Morgan Stanley Smith Barney are being asked to choose between six possible names and none include Citigroup’s former brokerage, the Journal reported.

New names include Morgan Stanley Advisors, Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Advisors, Morgan Stanley Global Wealth Advisors, Morgan Stanley Wealth Advisors, Morgan Stanley Wealth Management and Morgan Stanley Global Wealth Management, its name before the deal to form a joint venture with Smith Barney closed in June 2009, the Journal said.

A Morgan Stanley spokesman declined to comment on a potential name change, but told the Journal "we regularly survey clients about a lot of things relevant to our brand, and I wouldn't read a whole lot into this."

A Citigroup spokeswoman declined to comment.

Neither could be reached by FWR before this story went to press.