***Your Name is Your Brand

Your brand name represents your reputation, indicates your business ethics and becomes the symbol of what people think of you. The same is true for your own name. Your name is your brand, your representation of who you are. People received impressions of who you are, consciously or unconsciously, based on your name. When we hear a first name, we immediately think of other people who have shared that same first name that we have previously met. Our impression of others we know with the same first name correlates into our first impression of the new person. Actually our first impression of a person lies in the first initial of the first name.

Why do we go back to others that we know with the first name? It helps to know that all people are not the same and yet they share similarities. Imagine that you were given the ingredients of eggs, cheese, butter and a few vegetables. There are many different dishes that you can make out of those same ingredients. You could make an omelet, scrambled eggs with vegetables, a quiche or breakfast tacos, just to name a few items. What will you choose to make with those ingredients? Our first name gives us the ingredients that we use to make a meal while our last name indicates the dish that we will make, or how we will use those ingredients.

Our brand name also indicates how well we will accomplish certain tasks. Let us compare two names of businesses as an example. Since a name is the first impression, the names of companies and their products are of vital importance. Drug companies spend thousands of dollars researching names for their drugs.[i] Businesses realize that their name carries their reputation. When creating brand names, logos and/or trademarks for a business, it is wise to see if those aspects of the name match the intent of the business. United Parcel Service is known by their initials UPS. This indicates two things: to take advantage of them and to use their smart services. That is exactly what UPS wants people to do: use their services and take advantage of what they have to offer. Together the letters ‘UP’ says use me, take advantage of me, while the S says they are smart. Since the ‘S’ is in the final position, that is the lasting impression that one has when thinking of UPS. UPS wants to be used and is going to do its service in a smart way.

In comparison, the United States Postal Service is using the abbreviation of USPS. Adding the extra ‘S’ separates the ‘U’ from the ‘P’. By doing this, the US Postal Service deletes the message to use them and to take advantage of their service to the same extent that UPS does. While both companies state they are competent to get the job done, UPS does a better job of conveying this to the customer in their name.

Our name shares similar information about us, just as a companies name tells us about them. The best part is that once we know what our name advertises about us, we can change the things that we no longer desire about us. Within our names are multiple opportunities, to accept the gifts that we have or to succumb to the challenges and let them get the better of us. Hopefully, we will choose to share our gifts and by focusing on them we can over our challenges. Our names are our brand names and indicate to the world exactly who we are.

Full of astonishing true stories and the result of years of research, Know the Name; Know the Person by Sharón Lynn Wyeth showcases the patterns in our names and shines a light in an area that very few of us know or understand: http://www.knowthename.com.