The great debate: personal name vs business name

Why You Shouldn’t Use Your Name as Your Business Name

It's a question I get actually get asked often... "Should I use my personal name or come up with a business name?" Ahhh yes, the great debate. Personal vs Business Names. My answer? It depends... but generally speaking, I don't recommend using your personal name...

I’ll get into several reasons why but let’s start strong with these:

Using your personal name as your brand name blurs every boundary. It makes you the product. Which might sound fine now, but what happens when:
—you want a break? —you want to pivot? —you just want to LIVE A LITTLE & post online without it doubling as marketing? (This one is deeply personal to me, if you can’t tell.)
It’s like signing a lifelong performance contract with no costume change – imagine the smell for a second.
It invites parasocial dynamics, especially if you’re a woman or a personal brand. Ask Taylor how weird that gets. Swift. Taylor Swift. Wait, we can’t. Because we only think we could be BFFs IRL, and we’re not actually. And we're not on first-name basis. (Sad.) This level of “socially acceptable” voyeurism is CONCERNING.
It makes scaling weird. Think about someone writing as you forever. Long after you’re dead – if your company outlives you anyway. I know it happens everyday (& I did it myself as a copywriter for the past 8 years) but some of us (hi, me) aren’t comfortable with someone else putting words in their mouth for mass consumption and signing THEIR literal, actual, on-the-birth-cert name to them…
It creates internal pressure to “be” the brand 24/7. You become your brand’s mascot. Your PERSONAL NAME is the giant, unwashed, sweaty costume that you cannot take off. No innie or outie. Just you, raw doggin’ life and business all attached to one name until I hopefully change your mind. Let’s get into it.

YOUR NAME, YOUR BRAND, YOUR BURNOUT

When your business is named after you, it stops being just a brand. It becomes a mirror, a mask, a megaphone. And that’s fine... until it’s not. And for some, that’s fine forever. But if this blog title intrigued you, you’re probably not that someone.

Your name becomes the workaholic your body keeps telling you not to be.

It’s always on the clock, and never taking time to regulate the nervous system. Thinking about pivoting? Can’t. Not easily anyway. People already associate your actual name with your work. Wanna post something about your great grandma’s 100th birthday? Better find an angle to make it content!

For many founders—especially women and personal brands—the overlap between self and service (or product) becomes suffocating. I call this phenomenon the lifecyle of the entreprenfluencer.

You started a business, then everything had to become content to please the algorithm gods, then you started getting more views, DMs, affiliate and sponsorship opportunities by posting life stuff, and your OG business shifted. And again, for some people, this is where the cycle repeats. Enter: the influencer who starts a product or service-based business now because they have a following. Now they want a name. Very interesting stuff. What a time we’re living in.

A MISSED OPPORTUNITY TO SAY SOMETHING

A good name says something. About your values. Your vibe. It gives people a feeling before they read anything else. Your personal name is just a data point. “Oh cool, that’s so-and-so - got it.” There’s no spark – unless you have a super cool name, then be all means, use it. You know if you have a cool name. You don’t if you always had a last initial tacked onto it in school because there were so many of you in your grade. Speaking from experience as a Katie. Naming your business something else gives you the chance to plant a flag. Make a statement.

Create a world people want to step into—not just a person they want to hire.

NOT DOOMSCROLL PROOF

You know that catatonic state of doomscrolling where your thumb just repeats the motion but you couldn’t recall a damn thing that just happened?! How many names can you recall from your morning scroll? Studies in cognitive psychology show that people remember names that are distinctive, image-rich, and emotionally evocative.

YOUR SEO IS SUFFERING

Let’s say your name is Emily Clark. (Picked a very millennial name for emphasis). You start a business called “Emily Clark Consulting.” Great! Except there are umpteen other Emily Clarks with websites. And LinkedIn pages. And probably a few with criminal records. Maybe an obituary. (If you are an Emily Clark reading this, I mean no offense. I hope we can still work together to distinguish you from the rest.)

All this to say, your name is competing with itself. Which makes you harder to find, harder to rank for and of course, harder to stand out. Side note: I have an artist friend who uses her personal name (because artist, we’ll get to that) and she has the same name as a contestant (are they contestants?) from my TLC’s My 600lb Life so she paid people on Fiver to write blogs about her to bury the other chick. LOL genius. But also avoidable if you’re not using your personal name. Buuuut a unique brand name gives you a clean slate for Google, and a chance to own your search terms.

DO IT FOR FUTURE YOU

Right now, your business might be just you. Your offers, your face, your time. But what happens when you want to grow? Or hire? Or sell? When your name is the business, stepping away gets complicated. You can’t license your name without licensing yourself.You can’t sell your company without selling your identity along with it.A brand name creates distance in a good way.

The name becomes an asset. It lets you grow from “me” to “we” without confusing your audience, or LYING (some people say “we” when we all know good and well they’re working alone and just call their cat a co-worker), or diluting your message. Names give you a brand that can grow and evolve with & withOUT you – something you can step into and step away from.

THE EXCEPTIONS YOU WERE WAITING FOR

If you’re building a reputation-based business where you are the product—like a speaker, author, or artist—using your name might make sense. Especially if you’re already known in your space or plan to build a personal legacy brand.

Some people build empires with their name front and center. Oprah. Marie Forleo. Joanna Gaines. But they’re the exception, not the model. Aaaand even they branch out—ever heard of a lil’ thing called “Magnolia”?

Intentionality is key. If you’re using your name because it’s strategic? Go for it.If you’re using it because it’s easy and you don’t want to think about it? That’s dumb, tbh. I will think about it for you– for a fee lol – but I will never stop thinking about it for you. That's all I do. It’s how I make a living.

AAAND SCENE.

Want to stop thinking about this entirely and just make me do it? I gotchu.