Town officials said Tuesday that Biggs -- a community of some 1,793 people 60 miles north of Sacramento -- would hold a public hearing on Nov. 18 to consider an offer by the California Milk Processors Board to change its name officially to "Got Milk?" to mark the 10th anniversary of the well-known milk advertising campaign.

"This is not meant as a prank. We would love to have Got Milk?, California, on the map," board executive director Jeff Manning told Reuters Tuesday.

But a better name change for the town might be Got Rice? as it is now a rice farming community.

Biggs was the only one of some 20 small California towns to respond to an offer from the milk processors board to consider changing its name to "Got Milk?" -- the slogan of a national milk campaign that has spawned wildly popular TV ad spots and famous "milk mustache" print advertisements.

Biggs Mayor Sharleta Callaway declined to take calls from reporters Tuesday. But she told the San Francisco Chronicle Monday that she felt the town should take a look at the Got Milk? proposal.

"It's interesting, if nothing else," Callaway said.

Manning said the milk processors board was not attempting to "buy" Biggs' name and that there was no explicit promise of funding or aid in the proposed deal.

"First and foremost the benefit would be in the publicity and notoriety in changing the name to Got Milk? We are not cutting a check," Manning said, although he added that the milk processing board would be open to helping Biggs establish a "Got Milk?" Museum or to do something for the town's children.

"I think they should serve the world's greatest milkshakes in Got Milk?" he said.

UDDER NONSENSE?

Public opinion in Biggs -- which was named for a local family almost 100 years ago -- was hard to gauge, although some residents raised doubts about what the name change would mean for institutions like local school sports teams.

"They're the Wolverines now. Does this mean they'd become the Milk Cows and that the cheerleaders will wear udders on their heads?" Mike Bottorff, a Biggs salesman, told the Chronicle.

"Will graduation gowns at Got Milk? High be white with black spots?" he asked. "Will the blue-and-white cop cars be white with black spots? I think we're doing pretty good with what we got."

If Biggs does go for the bait and change its name, it won't be the first small American town to rename itself as part of an advertising campaign. The town of Halfway, Ore. (population 345), changed its name in 2000 to "Half.com" in return for $73,000 from a Philadelphia Internet e-commerce company of the same name.