Lefty cable channel MSNBC is being forced to take on a new name after its spinoff — as the NBC brand strips the network of its iconic peacock symbol. 

Mark Lazarus, who will lead Versant, the new company consisting of MSNBC and other cable assets, announced that the channel will be renamed to MS NOW — short for My Source News Opinion World.

Its logo will change from NBC’s trademark rainbow peacock to a blue background with a red-and-white striped flag. 

“As we all know, the peacock is synonymous with NBCUniversal, and it is a symbol they have decided to keep within the NBCU family,” he said in a memo Monday morning.

That’s a sharp turnaround from his assurances earlier this year that the cable news channel would be able to hold onto its name.

“I know there was some discussion with the MSNBC name, so you can take that off of your worry list on things,” Lazarus told staffers during a meeting in January.

Insiders ridiculed the new name, with a former media exec jabbing: “MS is the new BS.”

“I don’t know what’s worse, Versant or My Source News Opinion World. Whoever came up with these names deserves to be shown the door,” another insider said.

The CNBC business news channel, meanwhile, will keep its “Consumer News and Business Channel” name, though it will be forced to launch a new logo without the peacock.

Other cable assets like Golf Channel, GolfNow and SportsEngine will also be rebranded.

Comcast announced in November its plans for a $7 billion spinoff of its cable assets into a separate publicly traded company by the end of 2025.

“During this time of transition, it has become clear that our brands need separation, and NBCUniversal decided to retain ‘NBC’ and the peacock,” MSNBC president Rebecca Kutler told staffers in a memo Monday morning.

A company insider told The Post that it “doesn’t set a great precedent for management to change the name after promising staffers it wouldn’t.”

“It’s not a way to boost trust in the new company and its leadership.”

Kutler, who replaced Rashida Jones earlier this year, tried to assuage staffers, telling them that the rebrand “allows us to set our own course and assert our independence.”

“The future of our success is not tied to keeping ‘NBC’ as part of our identity.” 

As part of the rebrand, there will be a massive marketing campaign “unlike anything we have done in recent memory,” Kutler added.

MSNBC has been working to build out its own newsroom operations separate from NBCUniversal over the past eight months.

It has hired dozens of journalists from CNN, Bloomberg, Politico, the Washington Post and several other news organizations.

The network will be referred to as MSNBC over the next few months as it wraps up this process.

MSNBC, which launched in 1996, has remained in the No. 2 cable news network slot, stubbornly behind Fox News for many years.

Fox News parent Fox Corp. and The Post’s owner News Corp share common ownership.