CHICAGO — In a sentimental gesture from a no-nonsense kind of guy, Jory Spears lifted his camera phone on Friday in a somber salute to this city’s beloved Sears Tower.

“The Sears Tower has some really big shoulders, it works hard and it can stand the Chicago winter — kind of like me,” said Mr. Spears, 52, a native Chicagoan who is among the many unhappy with the imminent renaming of the 110-story skyscraper, the tallest in the Western Hemisphere, to Willis Tower.

Many here say the purchase of the naming rights to the building by Willis Group Holdings, a London-based insurance brokerage, announced Thursday, is just the latest snub in a sad collection of architectural indignities.

As a loyal White Sox fan, Mr. Spears said he still had not recovered from the renaming of the venerable Comiskey Park when it was rebuilt as U.S. Cellular Field. Nor has he forgiven Macy’s for replacing the green bags of his favorite Chicago retailer, Marshall Field & Co., with its own red stars.

Tim Samuelson, the city’s cultural historian, said the practice of a new owner’s renaming a landmark building in Chicago could be traced to 1922, when the legendary glass-topped Masonic Temple took on a new name, the Capitol Building.

“Of course, everyone continued to call the building the Masonic Temple,” Mr. Samuelson said.

“With the Sears Tower name having international cachet,” he said, “you could argue that imposing a new name might be kind of cheeky on their part.”

A spokesman for Willis Group Holdings said this week that officials understood the sentimental value of the Sears Tower to Chicago, but that the building itself was iconic, not the name. And Sears has not had a presence in the building since 2004.

Still, for many Chicagoans it will always be the Sears Tower.

“It doesn’t matter if anyone from Chrysler stills works there — it will always be the Chrysler Building,” said Eric Davis, 48, a Chicago architect.

“Then again,” Mr. Davis said, “I’m still calling the Macy’s store on State Street Marshall Field.”