Returning a const reference to an object instead of a copy

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The only way this can cause a problem is if the caller stores the reference, rather than copy the string, and tries to use it after the object is destroyed. Like this:

foo *pFoo = new foo;
const std::string &myName = pFoo->getName();
delete pFoo;
cout << myName;  // error! dangling reference

However, since your existing function returns a copy, then you would
not break any of the existing code.

Edit: Modern C++ (i. e. C++11 and up) supports Return Value Optimization, so returning things by value is no longer frowned upon. One should still be mindful of returning extremely large objects by value, but in most cases it should be ok.

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