The continuing rapid progress towards a complete database of structural information on the human genome creates a challenge of ensuring that current schemes for classifying and naming receptors and ion channels effectively integrate this information with functional data to provide unambiguous principles for classification. In this article, Paul Hartig and colleagues review the recent deliberations of the Serotonin Club Nomenclature Committee and outline a number of its recommendations aimed at encouraging consistency in current and future receptor nomenclature. Based on these principles, the present classification of 5-HT1B and 5-HT1D receptors is reconsidered, and a revised nomenclature for 5-HT1B, 5-HT1D alpha and 5-HT1D beta receptor subtypes is suggested.