The iconic, Akron-based Firestone name will disappear in January in many places, but the tire brand will live on as part of a major corporate restructuring for Bridgestone Group's North and South American subsidiaries.

The tire maker on Tuesday said it is removing the Firestone name from many of its subsidiaries effective Jan. 1 to better reflect them as members of Bridgestone Group and to simplify things for the public.

The Firestone name will be retained ''with its own identity as a historic product and service brand'' within the new corporate structure, according to Mark Emkes, chairman and chief executive of the Japanese tire maker's Nashville-based Bridgestone Americas Holdings Inc.

In one case that is the reverse, the Bridgestone name will be dropped from a significant subsidiary in favor of the Firestone name.

The company will continue to keep and promote the Firestone name on tires and other products, spokeswoman Christine Karbowiak said.

''The Firestone tire brand ain't going anywhere,'' she said. ''We are going to continue to support it and build on it. . . . We're not going to
mess with success.''

The company said it has been studying a new corporate name structure over the years because it has found many people ask whether they are Firestone Bridgestone or Bridgestone Firestone, Karbowiak said.

''We continue to confuse the heck out of people,'' she said.

The new names and restructuring are intended in part to help differentiate the Bridgestone and Firestone brands, she said.

Separately, as part of the restructuring, it was announced Karbowiak will become the first woman to serve as a member of a Bridgestone Group board of directors.

The company announced the following name changes effective Jan. 1:

• Bridgestone Americas Holding Inc. will be renamed Bridgestone Americas Inc.

• Bridgestone Firestone North American Tire LLC will become Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations LLC, part of a new, larger operating unit called Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations.

• BFS Retail & Commercial Operations LLC will be renamed Bridgestone Retail Operations. The unit operates the Firestone Complete Auto Care and Tires Plus outlets. The stores will keep the Firestone name, Karbowiak said.

• Bridgestone Firestone Latin American Tire Operations will become the Latin American Tire division.

• Bridgestone Firestone de Mexico will be renamed Bridgestone de-Mexico, and Bridgestone Firestone Canada Inc. will be renamed Bridgestone Canada Inc.

• BFS Diversified Products LLC, which does business as Bridgestone Firestone Diversified Products, will be renamed Firestone Diversified Products LLC and drop the Bridgestone name. The subsidiary makes Firestone-brand roofing materials, air springs, textiles and natural rubber.

''We will be renaming our companies in a way that will clearly define Bridgestone Americas and its subsidiaries as members of the global Bridgestone Group,'' Emkes said in a prepared statement. ''Through this effort we will provide Firestone with its own identity as a historic product and service brand, and we will take a long step forward toward eliminating confusion as to our overall corporate identity.''

The restructuring and new alignment of the Americas tire business ''will align us more closely with the regional business model that Bridgestone Corp. is promoting for all of its global tire operations,'' Emkes said.

Bridgestone Americas this past summer celebrated the 20th anniversary of Bridgestone's buying Akron-based Firestone in 1988. The merger ended up creating what is now the world's largest tire company.

The campus at the company's research center off South Main Street, pending future corporate and public approvals, will be the location of a new, state-of-the-art technical center to replace the current center in a nearby hulking, and aging, former tire factory that at one time was also Firestone's corporate headquarters.