An Accidental Advertiser

As I debated my domain choices for this blog, I ran into a problem. As I establish the blog’s reputation, how closely should I connect that with my own “personal brand”? As a job-hunter, I’m strongly motivated to promote myself to potential employers. My name should be all over this thing, including in the domain.

However, women’s names are anything but stable. We marry, we divorce, we are widowed. And while many would say that the choice is easy, that I should be Ms Jennifer Frazer from my birth until my death, I still find a sentimental draw to the idea of a married name. But as I establish my professional identity in a new industry, I find that my choices are to stick with the name I currently have or face rebranding myself down the line.

This is not a new problem. I remember as a teenager the sneers and emphasis on “Hillary RODHAM Clinton” and the general disdain for “hyphenated” families. I recall my childhood confusion when my friends’ mothers had different last names. In first grade I was unable to say “Ms” properly — it always came out “Mrs” or “Miss” — and was routinely berated by my divorced teacher for my lapses. Nowadays, I am angered when online forms require a salutation, but do not provide the option of “Miss.”

Remember when Facebook announced the introduction of personalized URLs and we all went nuts to grab ours before anyone else? Oh, but choose carefully, because you can’t change it! Then they yielded to pressure and now let you change it once. Google and Twitter are more flexible, and if I’m reading the documentation correctly, Google will even allow you to maintain multiple aliases that point to a single identity. And that, in my opinion, is the best policy. Because I am now and always will be Jen Frazer, even if I change my name and become something more.

So what to do about my current brand?

Option A: Keep my current name, brand the hell out of it, and never change it.

Option B: Use my maiden name for the time being, invest in it, and then start over again should I marry.

Option C: Emphasize a nickname or stage-name, and let my legal name be whatever I want.