Is It Better To Go By Your Full Name To Brand Yourself As An Artist Or A Otherwise?

[chst4917]

My name is Chelsea Sturgill and I've been branding my photography/filmmaking business as "Chelsea Photo & Film" for the last year and a half. I see most other artist just go by their first and last name all the time and I would rather do that too but I feel like my last name is weird or has a tinge of geekiness maybe? Which name seems better to you for long term business marketability?

[Baldric]

As it is looks ok to me, no problem

https://www.facebook.com/chelseaphotoandfilm/

Freelance photography & videography service based in Denver, Colorado.

[Prudie]

For me Chelsea would suggest it was London based and very judgementally the first name Chelsea conjures up a bit lacking in depth but if it's been working for you and you're from US anyway I don't see a problem.

[Ratty2E]

Personally, I think you should use your full name. There's nothing wrong with your name, use it and be proud.

[waterboatman]

Whatever you're happy with Chelsea.

[waterboatman]

You could just use your initials. CS Photo & Film.

[mikey4444]

Chelsea is word normally used for a district of London, not a first name, as it is in America.

But as Americans are unlikely to realise that, then I guess that you could continue to do as you are at the moment.

[Peter Pedant]

sturgill is OK
as it is memorable and just about can serve as a USP
( unique selling point)

it would also help with market identification
when we speak of photos - we would think of 'Oh that funny named girl in Colorado well if I am ever there from Much Fooing in the Marsh I will call in'

and there is research isnt there
that if you get people to talk about X
they are more likely to remember X ( like discussing it here)

Memo to myself as I push my zimmer frame back to Much Fooing in the Marsh - " if ever I am in colorado ...."

[ummmm]

Chelsea is a first name here too, Mikey. My sons half sister has that name.

[Peter Pedant]

// Chelsea is word normally used for a district of London, not a first name, as it is in America. //
and dont forget Chel-C

Chelsea Clinton changed all that - and wasnt there chat the the World's greatest lover has sort of 'done it' in Chelsea ? There was some crude rumour at the time that it was only luck that Chelsea C wasnt called Wimbledon Park Bench .....

I am sure I have heard children called Soho ( a place in London and also south of Houston ) and Tribeca

Oh and can I finish by commenting again that
if Tuesday Weld had married the son of Fredric March
she would be Tuesday March the Second ?

I was struck by the thought that the actress Tuppence Middleton in Sens8 had married the rugby player Lee Halfpenny then the her name change would be Tuppence Halfpenny

I am not sure if she would be able to sell that
( or even change it)

[mikey4444]

Ummm...yes, I realise that but its a relatively new name I would have thought, probably inherited from some TV person, or a celebrity perhaps.

The name Gary, for instance, didn't exist until Gary Copper changed his name from Frank, at the advice of his agent, who came from Gary, Indiana.

This is how new names normally come into use. I was a bit surprised to encounter a few little girls call Chardonnay, a few years ago, almost certainly taken from "Footballers Wives" !

A few years ago, when Willy and I were out walking in the Beacons, we came upon another chap with a Yorkie, who he called Merlot. When I asked him why Merlot, he replied that he wasn't big enough to be a Cabernet Sauvignon !

[ummmm]

Lol...

I have an uncle Gary :-)

My grandads name was Chestnut. He went by that name until the 60s when he changed it. Who would call their child Chestnut!!?

[Peter Pedant]

There is a good chapter in Freakonomics on this

would a girl who should have been named Temperance
have a lesser chance as Temptress ?

and you will recollect that Patricia the stripper's stage name was - Delicia.... Delicia appears in Catullus' poetry - as a plaything I think - Catullus was a bit ... you know ... like that