Does your name make a difference in your professional life?

[Marc.Knight]

My real names (first and last) are derived from the French language.  My last name is basically unpronounceable in English, and people screw up my first name about 50% of the time.  I was born in a small enclave of French speaking people in the USA, so my name had cultural relevance in that limited paradigm.  However, it has been a serious impediment to me as I have worked and lived in other parts of the country. 

I have still been moderately successful, but I can imagine that an unpronounceable name can have some impact when seen on a resume, or be easily forgotten.  I have thought about changing my names to something more palatable to the English tongue, but I wanted your opinions first.  What do you think?  Have you had a similar experience?  Have you considered, or actually changed your name for professional advancement or other reasons?  Or, from the other perspective, how do you deal with people who have very difficult names to pronounce or remember? 

[Eddie Coyle]

My real names (first and last) are derived from the French language.  My last name is basically unpronounceable in English, and people screw up my first name about 50% of the time.  I was born in a small enclave of French speaking people in the USA, so my name had cultural relevance in that limited paradigm.  However, it has been a serious impediment to me as I have worked and lived in other parts of the country. 

I have still been moderately successful, but I can imagine that an unpronounceable name can have some impact when seen on a resume, or be easily forgotten.  I have thought about changing my names to something more palatable to the English tongue, but I wanted your opinions first.  What do you think?  Have you had a similar experience?  Have you considered, or actually changed your name for professional advancement or other reasons?  Or, from the other perspective, how do you deal with people who have very difficult names to pronounce or remember?

My real name is even more "Gaelic" than my screen name and is ideal for professions like cop(corrupt), bartender, low level city council member(corrupt) and show band performer.

[McPhallus]

I have a name that a three year old could pronounce easily.

I wonder what would happen if I changed my legal name to McPhallus.  Hmmm.

[stevesh]

 
I have still been moderately successful, but I can imagine that an unpronounceable name can have some impact when seen on a resume, or be easily forgotten.  I have thought about changing my names to something more palatable to the English tongue, but I wanted your opinions first.  What do you think?  Have you had a similar experience?  Have you considered, or actually changed your name for professional advancement or other reasons?  Or, from the other perspective, how do you deal with people who have very difficult names to pronounce or remember?

I have a difficult to pronounce last name (three consnant sounds in a row), but I've never thought it held me back in any way. I prefer that everyone, including young kids, address me as Steve, which might help. Just make a habit of introducing yourself as 'Frenchie'.

[BobGrau]

It's not been a problem professionaly, but I grew up with the name 'Robin'. They might as well have just called me 'faggot'.

...or 'Sue' 

[Marc.Knight]

          My real name is even more "Gaelic" than my screen name and is ideal for professions like cop(corrupt), bartender, low level city council member(corrupt) and show band performer.

cool.

[PortlandDangler]

It's not been a problem professionaly, but I grew up with the name 'Robin'. They might as well have just called me 'faggot'.

...or 'Sue' 

Robin thats gotta be rough for a kid in highschool.

[Lovely Bones]

My father's parents were eastern European immigrants and barely spoke broken English.  My dad didn't speak English until he went to school.  I was named after his mother and of course carried his very foreign sounding last name, both of which embarrassed the heck out of me when I was a kid--especially since my name was long and never fit in those little boxes on standardized things we had to fill out at school.  It wasn't an era of unusual names.  All my friends were named Sue, Mary, Karen, things like that.  I had enough of an outsider complex as it was.  Oh, and my middle name came from my mom's great-great grandmother, a very old-fashioned and dorky (to me) sounding name. 

As an adult I feel completely different.  I completely admire what my immigrant grandparents went through to come to this country and start their own little business in an eastern European ghetto in their city.  I admire my dad for putting himself through college and medical school when his parents didn't even speak English much less have an education.  And after doing some genealogy for my mom, I think it's totally cool that my middle name comes from a Jewish branch of our family and goes back to at least the late 1600's. 

Our names are who we are and where we come from.

Except for the poor kid who was born to a teenager back when I was teaching high school.  She named her baby Bambi.  I kept thinking about that poor baby growing up and trying to gain any kind of respect in any kind of job except maybe stripper.  Maybe she met up with Eddie and his name along the way. 

[BobGrau]

kind of creeping off topic here, but I used to know a Moroccan guy called 'Lovemore'.

[Marc.Knight]

These responses are interesting, and not what I expected.  As opposed to Eastern European consonant-heavy names, French names tend to have too many consecutive vowels and strings of silent (useless) letters when compared to predominantly Germanic-influenced English. 

As reflected here it seems to be a personal experience and choice.  Like with any product name, marketing is facilitated by name simplicity, recognition and pronounceability.  Imagine if Mercedes were called Jozefczyk or Andriamampianina. 

[BobGrau]

It's hard to give specific advice without knowing what the name is - obviously I'm not suggesting you reveal your full name online, tho. In general it comes down to how much you care. I'd suggest maybe amending the written version so it stands out less on paper. Speaking in person you have a lot more room to manouvere - you can say 'Hi, my name's suchandsuch'-grin disarmingly-'yeah, it's a bit of a mouthful, huh? Call me such for short'. This also helps you form opinions about the person you're talking to.

...wait, though - you're American, right? In that case, DON'T grin disarmingly, just tell em to go fuck themselves if they don't like it. 

[Eddie Coyle]

          Spoiler alert.
               My first name is Danny. In my third grade class(fall 1983), out of 30 boys, there were 9 Dannys. The Irish Catholics of South Boston in 1974-75 were apparently under the impression that Daniel was unique name that no other kid had. So 30% of the males in my class shared a first name. Maybe I enhanced my asshole routine back then to gain some individuality.

         Stupidity and attrition(and a greedy Diocese) helped quell the situation, three of my fellow Dannys were kept back that year, and gradually by 6th grade it was down to four of us.

[Harmness]

RODNEY DANGERFIELD, "whats in a name"

[Ruteger]

For the record, I will not hire anyone for my company with names that include "Trayvon", "LaAntwon", "Chaniqua" and - well you get the drift. Their resumes go directly into the round-file.

[b_dubb]

My name would suit a Indiana Jones type action character. But I'm just a schmo so it seems wasted

[Eddie Coyle]

For the record, I will not hire anyone for my company with names that include "Trayvon", "LaAntwon", "Chaniqua" and - well you get the drift. Their resumes go directly into the round-file.

Probably wouldn't want the job  anyway.

[punkinpie]

Except for the poor kid who was born to a teenager back when I was teaching high school.  She named her baby Bambi.  I kept thinking about that poor baby growing up and trying to gain any kind of respect in any kind of job except maybe stripper.  Maybe she met up with Eddie and his name along the way.

My mother was 36 when I was born, however, I have a name that sounds like I should be a chrome pole technician.  It was ok when I was young and hot.  Now I'm middle aged and it isn't cute.

[b_dubb]

For the record, I will not hire anyone for my company with names that include "Trayvon", "LaAntwon", "Chaniqua" and - well you get the drift. Their resumes go directly into the round-file.

loaded question of the day: why?

[stevesh]

For the record, I will not hire anyone for my company with names that include "Trayvon", "LaAntwon", "Chaniqua" and - well you get the drift. Their resumes go directly into the round-file.

I've seen some stupid things posted here, but this might mean we'll have to retire the trophy.

[Marc.Knight]

For the record, I will not hire anyone for my company with names that include "Trayvon", "LaAntwon", "Chaniqua" and - well you get the drift. Their resumes go directly into the round-file.

Unfortunately my wife would fall under your category of names... well you get the drift.

[tmock00]

For me, it has made quite a difference, so much so that I've had to go under a fake name for the majority of my writing and websites, depending on the topic and subject matter.

My real first name begins with the letter "T" (harmless enough), but my last name is Mock_____.  I was interviewed for a book a few years ago, and it took a few emails back and forth just to convince the author that I was not "mocking" the very thing I was being interviewed about. Before that, I was using my married name - which is the same as someone famous - and while he and I are related by marriage and are not close, the questions about his private life persisted (he is a well known celebrity and I am a former celebrity writer). 

These days, I will occasionally use my real name, however most of the time I am known under another name in my writing and websites.  I have only one website which is under my real name. 

[Marc.Knight]

For me, it has made quite a difference, so much so that I've had to go under a fake name for the majority of my writing and websites, depending on the topic and subject matter.

My real first name begins with the letter "T" (harmless enough), but my last name is Mock_____.  I was interviewed for a book a few years ago, and it took a few emails back and forth just to convince the author that I was not "mocking" the very thing I was being interviewed about. Before that, I was using my married name - which is the same as someone famous - and while he and I are related by marriage and are not close, the questions about his private life persisted (he is a well known celebrity and I am a former celebrity writer). 

These days, I will occasionally use my real name, however most of the time I am known under another name in my writing and websites.  I have only one website which is under my real name.

So, is the use of a pseudonym better than legally changing your name to suit your needs?

[tmock00]

So, is the use of a pseudonym better than legally changing your name to suit your needs?

For me, using a pseudonym works well.  I don't want to change my name legally because other than in the writing/entertainment world, nobody seems to care.  I think there's something about seeing a name in print that seems to garner all kinds of questions and/or assumptions.  On the other hand, if I wanted to get a good story lead, or an invite to a posh party, using my more famous last name always did the trick.   

I think if I had a name that I absolutely hated or that was seriously detrimental to my career, then I would probably have it legally changed. 

[analog kid]

What is this "professional life" you speak of?

[tmock00]

Just throwing out an idea...

Maybe a suggestion would be to legally shorten your last name, or find the English translation of your last name and change it to that? 

I know many people who I believe to have unusual names or names which I find hard to pronounce, but these same names are easy for other people to pronounce.  I think in the end, you have to do what you're happiest and most comfortable with. 

[timpate]

I personly have never liked my name. I always hated being called Timmy. But I really don't think you name makes a bit of difference on how you are in life. I personly believe that is on you. Your characters. But yes in a way i guess your name says a lot about you.

[blackshap9]

For the record, I will not hire anyone for my company with names that include "Trayvon", "LaAntwon", "Chaniqua" and - well you get the drift. Their resumes go directly into the round-file.

So what are you saying here. You don't hire black people?