The agency rolling out the national disability insurance scheme criticised its rebranding as DisabilityCare Australia, confidential government documents reveal.
It described the name as "passive" and "confused".
Documents released to AAP under Freedom of Information, show the government spent close to $200,000 focus-group testing names to rebrand the scheme.
In March, the federal government quietly announced the name change, burying it in a press statement about playgroups.
The decision angered many people with disabilities who felt the new name was condescending.
An in-confidence briefing document from department officials to Disability Reform Minister Jenny Macklin show the NDIS agency raised concerns about the DisabilityCare name change option.
"The agency is concerned the proposed brand is passive and does not encapsulate the empowering nature of the outcomes sought by the scheme," it said.
"The agency is also concerned that the use of a name similar to Medicare may confuse understanding of the core intent of the NDIS to offer a holistic and coordinated approach including choice, flexibility and control to eligible people with a disability rather than a universal whole-of-population program offering fixed contributions to individual costs."
Only 24 people with disabilities were surveyed in focus groups compared to 32 carers, the documents said.
Focus group testing was carried out in Sydney, Geelong, Canberra, Melbourne, Adelaide, Hobart and Newcastle.
There were six focus groups with people from the general public compared to four groups each of carers and people with disabilities.
The documents reveal the department had difficulty recruiting focus group participants from the disability sector so instead used two extra general public groups.
There were five in-depth interviews with representatives from the disability sector.
Six names were tested but the most popular were DisabilityCare and Enable Australia.
Enable Australia was the one people with disabilities preferred more.
Market research company Colmar Brunton said in an email to the department there was "very little to separate the two names".
"People with a disability think the word disability should be in the name ... carers tend to not want disability in the name," the email said.
A research report said people with disabilities were upset by the term "care" being used in the name because they wanted support, not care.
In June, the opposition warned the government to rethink the name DisabilityCare before it spent $22 million on a advertising campaign.
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