Should You Name Your Business After Yourself?

Should you name your business after yourself? Here’s how to decide (and what not to do)!

Whether or not you should name your business after yourself or give it its own unique name has been a debate since the very first business was founded (or so I assume).

On the one hand, naming your business after yourself is simple. Classic. Timeless, even.

But on the other hand, you might not want to always be the face of your business — and naming your business after yourself does keep you at the forefront of things, whether you like it or not.

I've walked countless Rebrand Experience clients through this decision — here are the questions we answer together, so every angle is covered.

Using your own name as your business’s name makes sense if…

✅ You offer boutique-style services, are heavily involved in client delivery, and don’t plan for any of that to change.

I personally keep my business's name as my own name (Rebecca Peterson Studio) because I book clients first and foremost through relationships with them. I will always be heavily involved in every single piece of client projects — so even in the situations I do get support with those projects, I'm still coordinating the project and am the point person for every single client.

✅ You don’t want to grow your business beyond yourself. You do want to keep representing your own brand.

My client Kaelynn is the perfect example of this. She wants to keep her business name the same as her actual name because she is her business.  She has zero plans to hire a client facing team, and she likes it that way.

✅ Changing your business’s name would cause more problems than it solves.

If your business's marketing presence is incredibly established and its entire reputation is associated with your literal name, it's going to be a huge headache to change your business's name and try to reestablish that reputation.

At this point, I typically recommend keeping your business name but changing other strategic touchpoints in your marketing to make it all make sense together (and let you step out of the spotlight, if that’s your goal).

>> PS — want some help doing exactly this? Check out The Rebrand Experience, a conversion-focused brand design and marketing transformation for businesses who want to outlast trends, outpace their competition, and leave a lasting impact.

Using your own name as your business’s name isn’t the right move if…

✅ Your business is growing beyond a “personal brand”

There's a point in a lot of businesses where the founder's name starts to feel like a ceiling instead of an asset — and that's actually a good problem to have! It means you've grown.

If you're stepping into more of a founder or director role, hiring a client-facing team, or building something with the potential to run without you at the center of every project, naming your business after yourself can make it hard for you to actually step out of the center of your business.

Ally Glover is a perfect example of this. She'd built a strong personal brand as a social media manager, but when she was ready to shift into an agency model, her own name wasn't going to cut it anymore. She needed something that could carry a team, speak to a new audience, and exist as its own thing — separate from (but complementary to) who she was personally. 

That's how Goldie Social was born. And beyond just the name, the Rebrand Experience gave her the structure to step fully into a CEO role: clarified offers, messaging that spoke directly to her ideal clients, and a visual identity her whole team could carry forward consistently. 

✅ Your name is hard to spell, say, or remember

If people consistently misspell your name when they're trying to Google you, can't remember how to pronounce it, or have to ask you twice at a networking event — unfortunately, that’s a sign that a different business name is likely better for your growth. A business name should make you easier to find, not harder.
 

✅ Your name is too similar to someone else's in your industry

If there's already an established business in your space with a name that sounds like yours, looks like yours, or gets confused for yours — you're inadvertently building their reputation every time someone can't remember which one is which. (See also: cease and desist letters, which we've already covered.)

Getting ready for a name change? Let’s make sure it unfolds perfectly.

>> Read this post about how to choose a new business name,

>> Read this post for how to actually market your new business name, OR

>> Check out The Rebrand Experience and let me handle all of it (from the name research to the rebrand to the launch strategy) for you!