Comments on: 6 Personal Branding Hacks: A Cheat Sheet for People with Common Names

By: Kimberly Bordonaro

Kimberly Bordonaro — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 17:49:53 +0000

Thanks, Alex!

By: Kimberly Bordonaro

Kimberly Bordonaro — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 17:48:37 +0000

Thanks for checking out my post and leaving a great tip, Jeff!

Personally, I don’t see anything wrong with changing your name, if you don’t like it. My father had the reverse problem with a last name that was hard to pronounce (Ochrach). He was in sales and his customers would call him “Mr. Oakes”. Guess what? My maiden name is Oakes. That added to his brand story and it was a name he liked. Funny thing is, he was hesitant to tell his father that he changed his last name for fear of offending him. Little did he know that my grandfather changed the family’s last name to Ochrach when he immigrated to the United States! Name changing is more common that people may initially expect. 🙂

By: Alex Rascanu

Alex Rascanu — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 04:02:41 +0000

Good article, Kimberly. This past week-end I actually had a discussion with a friend about this exact topic. He has a rather common name and is going through a lot of trouble to build an online brand for himself. He even offered $1,000 to buy from someone a social media profile with his exact name, but that person registered it for his little son and won’t sell “even for a million dollars.” The world is waking up to the relevance of online branding. I’ll share your article with my friend.

By: Jeff Rosenberg

Jeff Rosenberg — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 13:08:23 +0000

This is something that happens far too often especially when looking for a domain name, and its frustrating when all versions/combinations of your name seem to be taken. What I usually do (or tell people to do) is use combination of their first name and a nick name, or add a combine their first name with their business. I certainly wouldnt recommend anyone to change their name though!