I want an online presence but my real name is WAY TOO COMMON
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I feel like I am ready to take the step of starting a website, instagram, twitter, youtube, or whatever. But my problem is my name. Jenny or Jennifer Jones is just about as common as it gets. Much of what is not a zillion letters long is also already taken. I feel like if I am trying to make a name for myself then I should probably use my name and not some catchy phrase that would be harder to associate with me. Maybe a catch phrase would also be less professional. I have thought about reverting to my maiden name (husband says go for it) but then how does that work for legal purposes? I want all my "online stuff" to match up and be easily traced to me. Any thoughts???
My Maiden name is Blazer, by the way. Much more fun than Jones :face_with_stuck-out_tongue_winking_eye: !
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Coming from a Sarah Perkins, I feel you. I went with my middle name for my online stuff, so I’m Sarah LuAnn everywhere. Still professional but with a bit of personality... I hope.
I actually started my website etc. before getting married. My maiden name is Bowthorpe, which is a tad long and when I say it people can’t spell it, when I spell it people can’t pronounce it... I just didn’t want the bother.
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I know how you feel. I'm by far not the only Jonathan Anderson and another one already has a corner in the design field so I don't want to be misassociated. I had my tag as ArtisticMrJ and I kinda like it but it lacks the professionalism. No I go with jonandersonillu after what Lee White does but it still hasn't grown on me enough to be satisfied with it. I also thought about initials and my middle name but J. Douglas A. Sounds too dapper and J.D. just isn't me. At least not yet.
Wish I had some answers or other suggestions. Hopefully someone can chime in with some insight to help the less uniquely named among us.
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I'm lucky not to have this problem as my real name, Vanessa Matte, isn't too terribly common - but it does lend to comments on how funny it is for an artist to be named Matte haha...
I think Jenny Jones is really catchy! You just have to find an iteration that's not already taken.. Maybe hyphenate? Jenny Blazer Jones?
What about your middle name? I have heard of people going by their full name, or first name + middle name. That would be Vanessa Suzanne for me which is a bit lame, but I bet your middle name is better haha
But online, anything goes really. My instagram name is ness.draws and my website's name is Ness Illustration... -
If you add "illustration" or "draws" to the end it looks like it's easy to get everything the same but twitter, and JennyJonesDraws is available on everything. If I were you I'd just pick a modifier to add to the end, as long as it's simple and relates to what you do it will be easy enough for people to remember and you won't have problems with people wondering how to spell it! Unfortunately, I share a not-so-common (or easily spelt) name with a past miss teen Wisconsin so all my handles were taken, I went with a moniker but it's near impossible to even come up with a relevant moniker where all the handles are available.
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Wow thanks for the great advice and sympathy/commiseration, everyone. I will try the suggestions on for size and see what seems to fit. I'll let you know soon. I want to get the show on the road. Maybe "Jenny Jones ...something or other" will up and running by the weekend. Thanks again!!
