Thanks for all your replies, naming is obviously still one of the hottest topics in CS... Here are my thoughts: "locally" is (as already mentioned) too general, and "withFoo" is traditionally used for functions with a signature of the form: withFoo :: Foo -> ... But the current matrix is implicit, so this would not be a good choice for the combination of glPushMatrix/glPopMatrix. We are basically left with: saveFoo might not give a hint that a Foo is restored rememberingFoo same comment as above applies preservingFoo sounds good to me, but might be a bit long The current story for the combined GL calls is: glBegin/glEnd renderPrimitive glNewList/glEndList defineList glPushName/glPopName pushName glPushMatrix/glPopMatrix matrixExcursion glPushAttrib/glPopAttrib saveServerState glPushClientAttrib/glPopClientAttrib saveClientState The first two sound right to me, the third is actually a "withFoo", and the last three should be named in a consistent way. Combining your proposals I suggest: glBegin/glEnd renderPrimitive glNewList/glEndList defineList glPushName/glPopName withName glPushMatrix/glPopMatrix preservingMatrix glPushAttrib/glPopAttrib preservingAttrib glPushClientAttrib/glPopClientAttrib preservingClientAttrib Does this sound OK, especially for the native speakers on this list? Cheers, S.