Naming Your Freelancing Business – To Personalize or Not? (…with a Poll)

I just use my surname DANGERFIELD as my business name. Works well and isnt quite so personal.

It helps that your last name is AWESOME!

it helps if your name is catchy and easily pronouncable. which isn’t my case. not in montreal anyway.

I named my company Brightwhite Design, but have since grown into a small firm, so I’m no longer technically in the freelance category. Allowing for potential growth like that was critical for me, since I knew I didn’t want to stay solo forever.

I called mine Hunox (not my last name).

I use a too strange name (pngised).
It’s clear only for me, but I like it.

I was started with with personalized name but during the time I started co-working with lot of poeple. Approximately there monts ago we rename our studio to munio

Hey. Two things. Firstly, there couldn’t have been a better time for me to find this blog, right now I am in the process of setting myself up as a freelancer full time, and the articles here have been incredibly useful, thanks!

Secondly, this particular article is very relevant right now, as I’m trying to decide on the name for my business. I was planning to use my full name “Jack Sleight”, but then the limitations that introduces (when considering expanding the business) is a problem. Also, I don’t really feel that just my surname “Sleight”—pronounced slight—lends itself that well to a business name. It’s all a bit tricky, and I’m really bad at thinking up names for things.

I really like the way Jeff has incorporated his name into the company name.

Personally, I’ve never been a fan of solely relying on a personalized name for business (i.e. Smith Consulting). I think it all comes down to a personal preference. And like Jeff said having the forethought to realize you may not always be a one person shop.

sweat… Dangerfield, interesting surname…
I doubt that my surname would have the same effect “Zadravec”… so I decided to use nonpersonalized name Toasted Web, but as I am registerd as “independent contractor” ( in my country “s.p.”) I also have my name and surname in my bussines name… so technicali, I have both personalized and nonpersonalized bussines name like: Računalniške storitve Toasted Web, Mihael Zadravec s.p.
I know, that’s realy long business name… but the law sais that it must be clear from the b.n. – what kinde of services and who offers them…

This is an interesting post, I kept my personal portfolio as my name, but when it came time to expand and invite other freelance friends of mine into a group I simply made a new name (mediawithstyle.com) which would showcase works we made together, but still kept my personal portfolio separate.

Another advantage to having a domain name with your full name is that it looks amazing on resumes if you have “contact@you.com”. It also looks nice on business cards. However, the disadvantage is that, well, it has your name in it and some people don’t like having their full name plastered around the internet and want to stay more anonymous. In this case, having a non-personalized name gives you the freedom to advertise it heavily without the worry of people looking you up

I used a combination of the 2. My initials are RLM so I became ReaLM Studio. It works for me its both professional and personal

I use my first name, Benek, as my business name. It’s short, and unique enough. Plus much easier than tryiing to come up with something else. For my current situation, I think the personal touch is a marketing point – I want people to know they are working with one real, dedicated individual and not a company. I always find it a little weird to see individuals market themselves under a different name that’s trying to sounds like it’s a big company, using the word “we,” and all that. No point in hiding who you are.

Of course, everything would be easier if you had a name like Dangerfield.

I was formerly using my full name just because I owned it as a domain name, and wanted to focus on the personal/individual aspect, but I decided to split the difference, and am in the process of switching over to “Coghill Cartooning” as opposed to just “George Coghill” as the former actually gives me a bit of advertising and explains exactly what it is that I do. With the nature of what I do, it is pretty much an individual business anyways.

I thought quite a bit about going with a non-personalized name, but in the end I don’t have a problem being straightforward about the fact that it’s just me. In fact, I prefer to emphasize the personalized service I give to clients.

I think a lot of the decision comes from the type of clients you have or want to attract, and what they expect. It’s definitely a part of marketing yourself and the options should be thought out.

What about an option for an inbetween option???

I think you need your name in the name some how. It can help for identification etc, whether it is name designs etc.

For example, me and my business partner both have our names start with J and my last name and his middle name start with P and so hence we get JP2 Designs. The @ resembles the two of us (in case you wondered).

One key issue in naming is whether you want to be a consultant or start a business. My definition of a business is whether it could go on without me, or whether my participation is an essential part of every project.

I went for a completely non-personalized name, mainly because I didn’t want my freelancing company and my other online activities linked too closely together.

I chose ‘29digital’ because it is easy to say and spell, and it puts me at or near the top of alphabetical lists of local designers.

So far, I’ve resisted registering a business name and working under any other name than my own. My clients are hiring Jesse Skinner and I don’t see a need in complicating that…yet. I find they appreciate working with an entire company encompassed in a single person.

Perhaps one day, I’ll want to hire some others, and then I’ll likely go completely the other way and use a business name that has nothing to do with my name.

Hm, I struggled and chose a rather long name – Sea Creature New Media

My name (Dylan) means from the sea, I surf every day. It feels appropriate. I am happy, but it is long…

I have gone through a number of names trying to be clever like webeloper.com (thats web developer), dotcomikaze.com, iuxd.com (interactive user experience design) and m2webdesign.com, none of which ever really worked, were hard to remember or spell, or both.

I am now using mikewarddesign.com and it works for me, is easier to remember etc… Having my name on it holds me responsible for what I do if that makes sense.

My 2 cents

I plan on freelancing and had trouble thinking up a business name as well. The most difficult part by far was finding a domain name that was available. I ended up going with the name “ionomi” – I haven’t done anything with it yet, but will be using it here before too long. Ionomi sounds cool, is easy to spell, easy to brand, etc. The only major drawback is the “i” being the first letter, as under most fonts the name looks best in either all lowercase or all CAPS. (e.g. ionomi or IONOMI looks better then Ionomi, in my opinion.)

I thought of using my name or my initials (TEK) but when IONOMI came to mind and I got that warm fuzzy feeling when I found out that the domain name wasn’t taken, I thought “what the heck, go for it.” Now I just need to do something with it.

I use “nufase”. Pronounced “new face”.

I’m getting into illustration and I’m thinking of a new name for my illustrative projects. “Zarbo” is what I’m leaning towards. My last name is “Vella-Zarb” so it’s a personalized name. (which I think sounds pretty neat)

Heh…Jack, why not Sleight of Hand [Productions/Consulting/Designs/etc]? With a little Sleight of Hand, your problems disappear like magic!

I’m dealing with that same issue myself, only my last name doesn’t exactly inspire, well, inspiration.

Might do something with my first name, though. It’s kinda cool. Or something altogether different. My website is currently under my full-name url, but that could easily change. OTOH, it makes for easy Googling – since it’s more or less unique, any name-specific results are pretty much all me, all the time. No annoying search-page sharing with online doppelgangers.

I use “CRUENT” as a name … but i don’t know how it sounds to english speaking users as i am from bulgaria. Is it a good choice ? It’s so hard to find a free .com domain right now … however i like mine

btw … GREAT SITE !

I have a mix of both, personally – I am registered for business purposes under both my own name, and a non-personal business name “Lucanos Solutions”.

I registered my biz under my personal name (Anissa Thompson WebDesign), but being a true Californian I also wanted something I could more easily market, so I have webdyzn on my license plate (and that’s a tax write-off – advertising!), webdyzn.com, and I was also able to snag it as a few toll free numbers.

When I started full-time freelance I had a little window where I was scrambling to come up with something catchy and meaningful to call my business. Some of my thoughts were along the lines of “oberon”, “archipelago” or something symbolic, but they all kind of ended up seeming pretentious and never stuck around. Then time came for me to register my domain and I ended up just defaulting to my name, http://www.denniswest.com. and I made my business name Dennis West Design. It’s been useful to do it this way because I’ve never intended to expand with more people and I never wanted to give the impression that I was a firm with a big staff. I thought it was simpler this way.

…but as I am registerd as “independent contractor” ( in my country “s.p.”) I also have my name and surname in my bussines name…

Like Mihael, in Italy it’s the same….
So my business name is “Pngised – of Federico Pizzutto”…

Like some of the others, I went for something that surfs off my real name: emm-ess consultants. When read, it sounds like my initials: MS.

If you’re from Newcastle, Australia, it is a legal requirement to have any or all of the following words in your business name:

‘All’, ‘Total’, ‘Complete’ and ‘Solutions’.

It’s also a requirement that your advertising contains lots of shouting.

So the new business name I’ve tossing up is:

‘COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY TOTAL WEB SOLUTIONS FOR ALL!!!’

Thoughts?

Just for a laugh I entered those oh-so-important Newcastle business words into a local yellow pages search.

The results did not surprise me…

http://tinyurl.com/2wavhg

Remove the search typo and broaden your search to the entire Newcastle region, and the sheer extent of the lack of business naming originality is revealed.

*shudder*

http://tinyurl.com/2evduz

To Jack Sleight, I like what you’ve done with your logo you posted on logopond. Looks great!

http://logopond.com/gallery/detail/9503

Mine is called:

+grooveARMY

Just thought I’d better chime on in finally!

http://www.groovearmy.com

I call myself Squawk. Sometimes I put the word design behind it, even though it only says squawk on the logo.
Very nice article…

I agonized and then finally settled on Trenholm Writing and Consulting for two, well maybe three, reasons: 1) I am a solopreneur and my business name reflects this 2) my last name, Trenholm, is uncommon enough to stand out, 3) I didn’t have to do the fictitious biz name thing since my name is in my biz name and I am not referencing other beings (such as Trenholm and Associates)

Now, I know it’s not exciting, but it’s broad enough to allow me to do various types of writing without being locked in to something too specific

Personal, but not to personal.
Creative, but nog to creative.

Also think about length, i surely didnt >

I could personalize mine a bit more from “M1k3.net” to “Dick Designs”, but it isn’t a name that most professionals would look towards, ha.

Another thing to consider is the legal issue – you can operate under your own name and you can just run your business from your SSN. Operating under my own name I don’t have to register my business, get a seperate checking account, etc. As a freelancer starting out it’s just one less thing to worry about.

So what exactly is involved if you do decide to get a corporate name? What agencies/paperwork are required? Is that the same as incorporating as an LLC? For a small freelance firm, is it really necessary? What are your thoughts?

In my Name there is the german umlaut chracter >>ü

If you plan to get freelance work from agencies I tend to think you shouldn’t sound like their competition. How does that play into things?

Question to all you business and legal experts:

When you use a non-personalized name and brand yourself as such, do you have to register your business name? If not, does this mean that somebody else can use the same name and register it and then sue you for infringement?

its comforting, in a way, to know that i´m not the only one obsessed over what to call my business.

i´ve gone through several versions of a name/logo over the years, but i still haven´t come up with one that i feel i´ll like down the road, but that´s probably because i´m too indecisive.

I’m starting out… but I use superuser2 as mine. Easy enough to remember. And it makes sense – the superuser in *NIX is the top, the god admin, the highest in the foodchain. Root. I would use root2 but someone is squatting on it, and I don’t fell like paying them $3 million.

with your personal name you can save on taxes and need not to register it as all the checks come in your name which you can drop by into your bank …

Thanks for the article and good discussion.

I’ve been obsessing over this lately, too. I know “Tzaddi” (my first name) is unique enough but it doesn’t feel right somehow. Not inspiring me for the branding, either. Plus people are never sure how to say it.

But, I’ve also felt it’s strange when independents’ communications seem like they are a big shop.

Oh! The dichotomy!

Naming your business is always a tough gig! Jack hit some great points here and there are so many pros and cons between using your own name versus a fictitious name that it can paralyze you from making a decision. Here is a few things I have learned from 20 years of being a freelancer and small business.

1. Determine who you want to do work for. “Of the wall” names work for bands, beer joints, and non-conservative businesses but if you want to do work for some corporate businesses, an off the wall name can keep you from getting work – though there ARE exceptions.

2. Are you happy with staying a small, one person operation or do you want to grow a business that can carry on when you want out or die? This can help you determine the direction for your name. I think generic names are more suitable if you want to sell your business or walk away from it down the road. And if you sell your actual name do you want to take the risk on another person ruining your reputation?

3. Make it easy to remember and pronounce. When I started 20 years ago, I started with Dogman Designs (based off a nickname) but I found out that many people had a hard time remembering it or they thought I made products for dogs. I used my last name for a while and it was also hard for people to spell. I finally chose Branding Shed because I could sell the business down the road, it was descriptive, and it was memorable. Plus it ties in with the Old West and branding so it worked all around.

4. Be happy with your choice. You gotta be sold on your business name whatever it is and being passionate it about it makes a difference to you and your clients.

I use Daglees, which is my last name.

Mine not personal but easy to remember so i guess it swings in round abouts

I used my name first name VISHAL as vishalwebdesign.

I called my self David Henderson Design, although I often refer to myself as DHD.

stmjr
i used my initials S.T.M+junior, since i am a Jr.

Interesting ideas. What it made me think of was ‘Martha Stewart’ – lol. Not exactly a freelancer, but an example, (along with many other individuals well-known in their respective fields), of using one’s personal name to succeed.

Personally I like to be associated with my name. However, I’m also considering an ‘umbrella’ term to encompass my various interests/pursuits in work – writing, fashion, music, art, and webdesign, to name a few.

I think it may depend on whether you want your work to be associated with YOU or with a brand/label that you’re a part of – along with the choice between working alone vs. developing to be part of a team… and so forth.

Obviously I’m Aetoric Design. Jacob Campbell just doesn’t sound very memorable in my head. I’m curious though if people pronounce “aetoric” correctly.

For the record, it’s AE-TOR-ICK

I’m having a hard time for my website name. It’s between my friend and I and it’s so hard to find something in between. So we sort of choose to have one “business name” instead of a personalize one. Still is difficult to find something that is catchy and sound serious at the same time.. is there any… like.. places you can go and get inspired? or at least a list of names that YOU SHOULDN’T choose? or “forbidden” words.. you know?

My last name has all the vowels in the alphabet + the kitchen sink! I couldn’t do like my comrades and do a firstlast.com. I stuck with my username, thank god I’ve been branding that since 98 and it’s pretty unique.