diff --git a/gtk2_ardour/route_group_dialog.cc b/gtk2_ardour/route_group_dialog.cc
index fbbcf54fe7..84dc13ccd0 100644
--- a/gtk2_ardour/route_group_dialog.cc
+++ b/gtk2_ardour/route_group_dialog.cc
@@ -115,9 +115,9 @@ RouteGroupDialog::RouteGroupDialog (RouteGroup* g, bool creating_new)
 	_share_monitoring.set_active (_group->is_monitoring());
 
 	if (_group->name ().empty()) {
-		_initial_name = "1";
+		_initial_name = bump_name_abc ("");
 		while (!unique_name (_initial_name)) {
-			_initial_name = bump_name_number (_initial_name);
+			_initial_name = bump_name_abc (_initial_name);
 		}
 		_name.set_text (_initial_name);
 		update();
diff --git a/libs/ardour/ardour/utils.h b/libs/ardour/ardour/utils.h
index 22a99c758f..32c27fc26a 100644
--- a/libs/ardour/ardour/utils.h
+++ b/libs/ardour/ardour/utils.h
@@ -70,6 +70,7 @@ static inline float f_max(float x, float a) {
 
 LIBARDOUR_API std::string bump_name_once(const std::string& s, char delimiter);
 LIBARDOUR_API std::string bump_name_number(const std::string& s);
+LIBARDOUR_API std::string bump_name_abc(const std::string& s);
 
 LIBARDOUR_API int cmp_nocase (const std::string& s, const std::string& s2);
 LIBARDOUR_API int cmp_nocase_utf8 (const std::string& s1, const std::string& s2);
diff --git a/libs/ardour/utils.cc b/libs/ardour/utils.cc
index 25b31f4984..4ecdd22c8c 100644
--- a/libs/ardour/utils.cc
+++ b/libs/ardour/utils.cc
@@ -232,6 +232,44 @@ ARDOUR::bump_name_number (const std::string& name)
 	return newname;
 }
 
+string
+ARDOUR::bump_name_abc (const std::string& name)
+{
+	/* A, B, C, .. Z,  A1, B1, .. Z1, A2 .. Z2, A3 .. */
+	static char const* abc = _("ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ");
+	if (name.empty ()) {
+		return {abc[0]};
+	}
+
+	/* check first char */
+	char first = toupper (name[0]);
+
+	char const* end = abc + strlen (abc);
+	char const* pos = std::find (abc, end, first);
+
+	/* first char is not in the given set. Start over */
+	if (pos == end) {
+		return {abc[0]};
+	}
+
+	++pos;
+	if (pos != end) {
+		string rv = name;
+		rv[0] = *pos;
+		return rv;
+	}
+
+	/* find number */
+	size_t num = 0;
+	if (name.length () > 1) {
+		num = strtol (name.c_str() + 1, (char **)NULL, 10);
+	}
+	++num;
+
+	return string_compose ("%1%2", abc[0], num);
+}
+
+
 XMLNode *
 ARDOUR::find_named_node (const XMLNode& node, string name)
 {