diff --git a/public/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/utils/variantcontext/VariantContextUtils.java b/public/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/utils/variantcontext/VariantContextUtils.java
index 07c0f7c32..21a371e2f 100755
--- a/public/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/utils/variantcontext/VariantContextUtils.java
+++ b/public/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/utils/variantcontext/VariantContextUtils.java
@@ -1065,4 +1065,11 @@ public class VariantContextUtils {
     public static final GenomeLoc getLocation(GenomeLocParser genomeLocParser,VariantContext vc) {
         return genomeLocParser.createGenomeLoc(vc.getChr(), vc.getStart(), vc.getEnd(), true);
     }
+
+    public static final Set<String> genotypeNames(final Collection<Genotype> genotypes) {
+        final Set<String> names = new HashSet<String>(genotypes.size());
+        for ( final Genotype g : genotypes )
+            names.add(g.getSampleName());
+        return names;
+    }
 }