One of the challenges in online personal branding, is that some people share their name with others. Sometimes for the good, others for the bad. A great story about Brooke Allen who is sharing name, city and profession with another Brooke Allen.
Many people share their name with someone else. If your real you has the best online reputation, do not change a thing, and keep building your name. If you do find someone else using your name to shame, you can try the following things:
1. Boost your reputation, say you have used your name as Joseph Rapsody, but another Joseph Rapsody came along and posting rubbish in forums, really work on your personal brand and get your name to fame on the internet.
2. Enhance your name, if your name is Joe Smith, you stand a good chance that there is not just one other Joe Smith to beat, there will be many. By using an initial in the middle, or always using your title in your name you will differ your name from the crowd of Joe Smiths. While there are 193.000 listings in Google for Joe Smith, none exists for Dr. Joe G. Smith.
3. Choose a new name that stands out, when I started my ways on the internet, I really did not like my name as it was, long and difficult for any non-Dutch speaker to repeat. A great moment was it that I married and could choose for my husband’s name, which I did, and I changed my last name from van der Graaf to Hensel. Other people choose for an entirely non-existing name that reflects what they do or make it easy to remember. Trade your own last name in for a last name that reflects your ambitions, i.e. Marieke Gates – Bill Gates or Marieke Branson – Richard Branson.
Change your first name into a name that is powerful or international can help to enhance your personal brand as well. What is it that you want your personal brand to be.
It is not easy to change your name. You will only see the full effect, if people use your name like that and you feel confident if you feel you are that name.
7 responses so far ↓
1 Beverly Mahone // Nov 30, 2008 at 8:43 pm
I never gave much thought to the branding of my name. I know there aren’t many—if any-Beverly Mahone’s out here. I did adopt “babyboomerbev” and “boomerbev” because it easliy identifies me as a baby boomer. Thanks for leading me to the post (from Twitter).
2 Andrea // Mar 12, 2009 at 8:43 pm
I am not sure I agree with changing your name. Your name is you, do you want to change who you are? I agree with making it more definable with initials etc. but if you have a good personal brand you name (real) matters. Even if there are more people out there with it, make your reputation known so they know who you are and what you are about. A good place to start are the social networking sites, the one I like is personavita.com If you have a good reputation people will recognize who you are by your work as well as your name.
3 Kingsley Tagbo // Sep 30, 2009 at 9:59 am
@Mariek: Marriage and name change is not an option for all of us
I’m concerned about people changing their names just because of how it sounds.
Isn’t it better to build reputation and a personal brand first, and as a last resort change your name?
I would suggest that when changing names, a strong, independent name that relates to one’s industry may help … I use the name “IT Career Coach” for example.
Again, a word of caution: it is not easy to change your name, especially if it has been yours your entire life (meaning, you’ve never had an alias or a pseudo-name).
Learning to answer to a new nickname or fully different name takes memory and effort … like an actress learning to walk in the shoes of a character
4 Natalia // Nov 19, 2009 at 6:00 am
I don’t think that by changing your name, it will help make it any more unique. It’s about who you are, the values you have and what you have achieved that makes your personal brand (your name) unique. If you achieve positive things you will be recognized no matter what your name is.
5 Shamsur // Nov 22, 2009 at 9:28 am
I do agree with this article to a certain extent because many people change their names so that they can be recognized, this is mainly done by people in the music industry because it can help them improve their personal brand.
6 Kristine // Dec 8, 2009 at 1:45 pm
I do understand the issues presented in your post very well. I have a very boring name, and my surname is also boring and hard to pronounce. I guess I will have a lot of issues with my name though my career since I have a very common name( especially in my country), still I could never change my name completly, because that would be like losing my identity,
7 Jemima // Dec 9, 2009 at 4:41 pm
I agree with the idea of changing your name, which is especially beneficial if your name is too common and aldready used by others. If your name is too complicated or hard to pronounce, it would be good to shorten it -like world famous singer J.Lo.
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