Most companies usually hope to establish themselves as a recognizable brand where whenever you hear their name you will immediately think of a certain type of product category. It’s important to not a have a name that sounds like someone else’s business too for various legal reasons. But how about for your real name and if you do business as a sole proprietor as an example? Well, this got me thinking as apparently recently there was an actor in Hong Kong named Yu Menglong that died which many were claiming was due to foul play. As you can imagine, everyone began to put their detective hat on. The thing is, apparently, he is actually referred to as Alan Yu many times as an English name. With that, people are inadvertently finding me thinking I may be related to him and that incident.
I have no relations to the person as Alan Yu is a common name to my understanding but it’s kind of an interesting example on how your name can put you in the spotlight. This could be a bad thing too as for many people when it comes to famous criminals, if you share the same last name with them this will automatically make people think you must be a criminal too. Would you ever literally change your name if it was giving you too much attention on an issue that you have nothing to do with?
I guess sometimes it can work in people’s favor as I remember when it came to .com domain names there were many examples of people registering names for specific purposes only for then say a TV show with the same name come out that gave them so much publicity. The sure took advantage of it too. In that sense, I suppose it all depends on your mindset in regards to the extra attention.