.. if every plugin manufacturer labeled their plugs with their brand name FIRST, THEN the plug's name?

It would be A LOT easier to search and manage the stuff, IMO.... Surely there must be some agreed-upon conventions about this stuff, or there should be, at least.

Steven Slate, I'm talking to you, amongst others.. Izotope and many others do it - probably costs about 2 mins extra per plugin.
 
Just a thought :O)

+1 I agree on this. Hopefully not hard to do.
All the best.

or, the host app could offer user-definable metadata for this :-)

The problem with putting vendor names first is that the plugin name can be longer than the width of the fx bin. For example, FabFilter does that and the first 19 characters of every product name is the same, e.g. "FabFilter Pro-". On some DAWs, you might see an effects chain where multiple plugins cannot be distinguished from one another. SONAR lets you rename plugins via the Plugin Manager, but not all DAWs do.
 
One way to organize plugins by vendor is to install them in a separate folder. For example, I keep all 26 of my iZotope plugins in c:\program files\cakewalk\vstplugins\izotope. I am running 8.5, so iZotope appears as a submenu in the VST selection context menu. Does the current version of SONAR not still do that, even though plugins are now selected via a dialog?

You can use the plugin manager to rename the plugs, and it doesn't interfere in their operation.

bitflipper
The problem with putting vendor names first is that the plugin name can be longer than the width of the fx bin. For example, FabFilter does that and the first 19 characters of every product name is the same, e.g. "FabFilter Pro-". On some DAWs, you might see an effects chain where multiple plugins cannot be distinguished from one another. SONAR lets you rename plugins via the Plugin Manager, but not all DAWs do.
 
One way to organize plugins by vendor is to install them in a separate folder. For example, I keep all 26 of my iZotope plugins in c:\program files\cakewalk\vstplugins\izotope. I am running 8.5, so iZotope appears as a submenu in the VST selection context menu. Does the current version of SONAR not still do that, even though plugins are now selected via a dialog?

Yeah, this. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to get SONAR to rename any of my FabFilter plugins, so when I'm looking at my console view I just see a bunch of "FabFilt.." effects and I have to remember the order I've placed them. I personally would prefer to just see "Pro-Q2, Pro-MB" etc. since I instantly know what those are.

Resonant Serpent
You can use the plugin manager to rename the plugs, and it doesn't interfere in their operation.

Do you have any FabFilter plugins? Have you been able to successfully rename them so they show up as "your" name in the FX Bin? I'm able to rename them in the plugin manager itself, but that name never carries over to the instance in the FX Bin.  It always defaults back to "FabFilter Pro..." etc.

I have them, but they're not installed. I'll check it out this evening. 
 

This goes for all VST3 plugins I think. At least I can't rename Waves VST3s either. The renaming holds in the plugin properties window but not in the Plugin manager list and not in the plugin list when you want to insert one.
 
EDIT: By the way the VST2 versions rename just fine, should you be inclined to use those.

Resonant Serpent
I have them, but they're not installed. I'll check it out this evening. 

 
http://forum.cakewalk.com/Have-option-to-show-plugins-friendly-name-in-FXbin-FX-Chain-etc-m3336733.aspx
 
http://forum.cakewalk.com/FX-Bin-Names-Pull-Name-From-Custom-Plugin-Layout-Instead-Of-The-Registered-VST-Name-m3208151.aspx