What’s In A Name?

I don’t have a particularly unique name. In the US, “Anderson” is the 12th most common surname and among Canadians the moniker ranks 18th; it’s not hard to imagine there might be a few “Dougs” in the mix. That said, the name has served me well and it has been, for the most part, functional. When I’m in a room, and someone says, “Hello, Doug Anderson”, I can be reasonably certain that I should say probably say something.

In the past, I’ve lived close enough to another Doug Anderson that our mail would be delivered to the wrong Doug Anderson. We would get together once a month and trade the errant messages. One time, knowing the other Doug Anderson was on holidays, I received a bill for his son’s guitar lessons…and paid it for him. Doug was predictably appreciative (we’re like that).

A quick search for “Doug Anderson” produces a wild collection of people from just about every corner of the planet. A quick scan of the websites attached to Doug Anderson (and the respective occupations) show that all of the following statements could be true:
-Doug Anderson is a terrific author.
-I was glad Doug Anderson performed the operation, it saved my life.
-I enjoyed my classes at Doug Anderson.
-Doug Anderson has a helluva jump shot.
-Doug Anderson is a remarkable baritone.
-There’s police tape around Doug Anderson’s house...again.

Certain names for businesses became common and this arrived out of necessity; take, for example, A1 “insert business type” in “any town”. The name “A1” became preferred because people used the phone book and being listed first had its advantages. Today the advantage lies with a memorable domain that performs well on search engines. In the course of a week, 80% of us will use Google to search for a product or service…and we need to be where our customers are looking for us (at a minimum, your business should be listed on Google Maps). If you’re looking to start a business, a terrific place to start is Go Daddy to find a domain that is memorable and relevant.

While I’m usually comfortable being one of a number of “Doug Andersons”, I have entertained changing my name to something more unique (especially when I was on radio). The change has worked well for Gordon Sumner (Sting), Cherilyn Sarkisian (Cher), William Blythe (Bill Clinton), Thomas Mapother (Tom Cruise) and Oprah’s real name is Orpah. The name “Robert Loblaw” always fascinated me as I liked the idea of introducing myself as Bob Loblaw. And, if your name happens to be "Jesus Murphy", I’ve changed my mind and I’m selling the domain.