Historically, viruses have often been associated with the locations from which they are thought to have emerged, such as Ebola, which is named after the eponymous Congolese river.
But this can be damaging for the places and often inaccurate such as with the so-called Spanish flu pandemic of 1918, the origins of which are unknown. Some researchers think it first emerged in Haskell County, Kansas, or possibly in France.
No country should be stigmatised for detecting and reporting variants, said WHO epidemiologist Maria Van Kerkhove.
Before the new WHO scheme, some scientists had adopted their own simplified nomenclature for variants, such as a February paper using bird names.