Opinion. Six Flags is reportedly testing new names for its biggest parks. Cedar Point passholders got a survey this month floating “Six Flags of North Ohio,” “Cedar Point, a Six Flags Experience” and “Cedar Point by Six Flags,” and Kings Island fans saw options like “Kings Island by Six Flags.” The company says these are research concepts, not proposed names. Fair enough. Here’s my research answer: go the other direction. Take “Six Flags” off the park names, not onto more of them.
Six Flags Magic Mountain should just be Magic Mountain. Six Flags Great Adventure should be Great Adventure. Six Flags Fiesta Texas should be Fiesta Texas. The only parks that have earned the name are the originals.
The Name Doesn’t Say “Quality” Anymore
A park name is a promise. When I hear “Cedar Point,” I think of a skyline on Lake Erie, a ride crew that moves trains, and a park that’s been there since 1870. When I hear “Kings Island,” I think of The Beast and the Eiffel Tower at the end of International Street. Those names mean something specific.
“Six Flags,” to me, doesn’t. For a lot of coaster fans, fairly or not, it has come to mean a chain: a season pass, a parking fee and a line skip upsell, the same rides in the same order at a lot of different parks. Some Six Flags parks are genuinely great. But the name on the gate isn’t what makes them great. The rides and the people running them are.
So adding “Six Flags” to Cedar Point doesn’t borrow quality from the chain. It lends Cedar Point’s quality to the chain, and Cedar Point is the one paying for it.
Most of These Parks Had Their Own Names First
This isn’t a wild idea. Most of the parks wearing “Six Flags” today opened under their own names and got the brand added later, when the chain bought them.
| Park today | Opened as | Opened | “Six Flags” added | My pick |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Six Flags Over Texas | Six Flags Over Texas | 1961 | Original | Keep it |
| Six Flags Over Georgia | Six Flags Over Georgia | 1967 | Original | Keep it |
| Six Flags Magic Mountain | Magic Mountain | 1971 | 1979 | Magic Mountain |
| Six Flags Great Adventure | Great Adventure | 1974 | 1977 | Great Adventure |
| Six Flags Great America | Marriott’s Great America | 1976 | 1984 | Great America |
| Six Flags Fiesta Texas | Fiesta Texas | 1992 | 1996 | Fiesta Texas |
Over Texas and Over Georgia are different. “Six Flags” is literally their name: the six flags that have flown over Texas started the whole company. Those two should keep it, and honestly they should lean into it as the heritage parks of the chain.
One Park Already Tried It
The third original, Six Flags Over Mid-America outside St. Louis, became Six Flags St. Louis, and then this year it stopped being a Six Flags park at all. After Six Flags sold it to EPR Properties, the new operator, Enchanted Parks, renamed it Mid America Adventure on August 27, 2026, a nod to the old “Over Mid-America” name. Same rides, same hill in Eureka, no Six Flags. I’ll be watching how that park does without the brand, because it’s the closest thing we have to a real test.
The Company Can Keep Its Brand Without Stamping It on Every Gate
Cedar Fair ran Cedar Point, Kings Island, Knott’s Berry Farm and Carowinds for decades without ever putting “Cedar Fair” on a park. Merlin owns Legoland, Alton Towers and Thorpe Park, and none of them say “Merlin” out front. The parent brand lives on the season pass, the app and the corporate filings. The park name belongs to the park.
Six Flags can do exactly that. Keep “Six Flags” as the company and the pass (“Magic Mountain, part of the Six Flags family” on the ticket is plenty). Let each park build its own identity around its own rides, its own history and its own region. Fiesta Texas, with its quarry walls, is one of the most distinctive parks in the country. It doesn’t need a chain name in front of it to tell you that.
What I’d Actually Do
- Keep: Six Flags Over Texas and Six Flags Over Georgia, the original parks.
- Drop the prefix: Magic Mountain, Great Adventure, Fiesta Texas and Great America go back to the names they opened with.
- Never add it: Cedar Point, Kings Island, Knott’s, Carowinds, Dorney Park and the rest of the former Cedar Fair parks stay exactly as they are.
- Put the money where the name was: rebrands cost real money. Spend it on ride uptime, shade and staffing instead. That’s what actually changes how people feel about a park.
Names don’t build reputations. Parks do. Give the good ones their names back and let them earn it.
That’s my take. Would you rather ride at “Cedar Point by Six Flags” or just Cedar Point? For more on the parks themselves, see our Cedar Point roller coaster history and Magic Mountain roller coaster history.