What’s In a Name? Pretty Well Everything

I was once asked to provide an opinion about the name of a Canadian national who had died domiciled in Portugal. My colleague was unsure how to proceed with the estate because the various legal documents of the deceased showed many variations of his name, none of which coincided exactly with the name he used in his last will and testament. This caused the Portuguese court to refuse probate in the absence of a Canadian legal opinion. (Unfortunately for me, they did not insist on viva voce expert evidence.)

Let’s call the deceased Steve Muldoon. A real old-timer, he came from a generation and a part of the country where education was often limited and record-keeping random and uncoordinated. His various documents such as birth certificate, driver’s license, Social Insurance, hunting license, passport, and credit cards, showed multiple variations of Stephen, Steven, Steve, Buddy, Bud, SJ, John Stephen, and Steven John. And of course, being Irish Catholic of a certain generation, his baptized first name was Joseph.

After robust research, I wrote an opinion to my esteemed colleague, essentially telling him that in Canada at the time (at least in the Common Law provinces) there was no statutory regulation of names and that to a large extent your legal name was more or less what your parents called you and you and everyone else shaped as you went along, and that a Canadian court would (with proper evidence) accept the will for probate.

I had the strong feeling that the Portuguese lawyer thought we were all a bunch of savages, but having paid for the opinion, he gave it a shot. I sensed that he was amazed when the court accepted it.

Formalized or not, names are important. They’re more than just our “handles”, they are part of our image, just as much as are our faces and our dress. Some are euphonious, some not so much. Some project strength, others weakness, some beauty and others plainness.

Names matter in the professions. Consider Marion Mitchell Morrison, a struggling young actor. One day, his employers in a discussion at which Marion Mitchell was not present, decided that “John Wayne” had a better ring to it. And I think they were right.

In business and in the professions, we slap names on firms, products, and services without the least thought about the impression they make. Some law firms have all twelve partners’ names on the sign. At one firm I know, the phones are answered Smith and Jones one day and Jones and Smith the next, just so nobody’s feelings get hurt. These things may be great for egos, but they’re lousy for branding.

When you’re assembling a new professional partnership, choosing a name should be more than just drawing straws or a battle of ego. For example, if somebody’s family name looks like the last line of an eye chart– should it go first, middle, or last? Or at all? This isn’t about stroking ego, it’s about branding. Smart professionals starting a new partnership often run a survey to determine which name sounds more trustworthy and memorable.

I could go on. As a man who has spent his entire life going by his middle name and having his family name mispronounced, believe me, I know about this stuff.