Most men don’t change their last name when they get married, but women do all the time. I didn’t change my name when I got married on principle, but all three of my sisters did. Then again, I got married relatively late and had already started to establish myself with my name.
Look at Martha Kostrya. She changed her last name to Stewart when she got married and it was a smart move. Can you imagine her success if she kept her maiden name and called her magazine, Martha Kostrya Living?
“Baby names” is often one of the top ten generic Internet search terms ranking it up there with “weather” and “directions.” There are more than a hundred baby-naming websites that offer name databases, online polls and individual consultations. Like marketers, some enterprising parents are even hiring naming professionals to come up with a distinctive name. What’s in a name? A lot.
It used to be an unusual first name was a liability. Just ask my sister, Kevin. Yes, her real name is Kevin. And she grew up in the 60’s when girls had names like Sue, Ann and Karen.
Today, unusual names are all the rage to a point. Self-branding minded parents are spending time and money trying to choose unusual yet interesting names for their newborns. They’re looking for a name that is ownable on a Google search.
The other thing that can plague you is Generic Name Syndrome. It’s a handicap if you have a generic first and last name like hundreds or thousands of others. You’ll never show up on Google try as you may with marketing yourself.
Names are important for people, too. I know it doesn’t seem fair, because after all, we don’t choose our own name. But your name is something you must analyze, too.
Your name can help brand you positively or negatively, and “ugly” names can hurt you. In one study, two women were found to be equally attractive. Then the name “Elizabeth” was added to the bottom on one lady’s picture, and “Gertrude” to the other. So how do you think the voting went now? That’s why so many aspiring actors through the years changed their names. Would Norma Jean Mortensen be the icon she is even today if she didn’t change her name to Marilyn Monroe? Maybe, but she’d have a much more difficult road.
From a branding perspective, your first and most important decision after you nail down your brand idea is the name – the verbal identity you give a brand. A great name can help make a brand, and a bad name can condemn it to the rubbish heap.
As a branding rule of thumb, when everyone is zigging, it’s usually smart to zag, particularly if you are the lesser known brand. In the 2008 race for the Democratic nomination for president, Barack Obama faced a formidable, more experienced and better connected foe, Hillary Clinton. As a member of the Democratic establishment with a husband who had been president, Hillary not only had a strong, differentiating brand position built on experience, she was well known (high brand awareness) and, to boot, she had most of the deep-pocketed Democratic fundraisers sewed up (strong brand alliances).
What you want to do in creating your brand identity is meld your female aptitudes with the passions and interests that make you unique as an individual. In other words, you need to build a personal brand that best leverages your aptitudes and assets. What’s different about you? As Mom used to say, “You have five fingers and they’re all different for a reason.”
You can also look into assessment tests in person or online tests like CPP’s Strong Interest Inventory. Assessment and personality tests can be a great starting point on your personal brand journey. but don’t expect a test to tell you who you are and what you should do. There is no test that can do that. If you can stack up you passions on top of your natural talents, even big obstacles can be cut down to a manageable size.
Another thing you can do is link different strengths to create your Big Idea. Look at Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert. It’s hard to be truly brilliant at one thing, but almost everybody, Adam feels, can be in the top twenty-five percent of two or even three things. And that’s what he did in forming his own brand. What Adams strung together was drawing (Adams was a good but not great artist), business savvy (not great at office politics but a good observer), and humor. They were three things Adams was in the top twenty-five percent in, but when he put them together he created a powerful Unique Selling Proposition – and created Dilbert.
