EEEEK! Are you kidding me? (Voiced in a positive utterance from my mouth this past Friday afternoon, May, 2, 2008). What’s in a Name? Now to answer your question, will adopting a catchy name help your career? Well, it certainly can be a conversation starter. There’s a female voice talent named Bobbin Beam and a female guitar virtuoso named Kaki King. Alliteration helps. But at the end of the day, it’s not the name itself but how you FEEL about your name that enhances your confidence, and your talent, persistence and marketing skills that will get you the work.
I somehow subscribed myself sometime back to Susan Berkley’s “Inside Voice-Over:” newsletter some time ago and read the following to my complete surprise:
An Inside Voice-over subscriber writes: “As a loyal reader of your newsletter, I do not believe I’ve seen a discussion of using a stage name. For someone who is not yet known, what are your thoughts about using a name other than your actual name as a way to more easily catch the eye of potential clients? I’m not talking about anything ridiculous like Tom Deepvoice, but instead something more subtle. I know this is done in radio, particularly if your actual name is not very catchy or easy to pronounce”
Do That Name- “Bobbin Beam”
Susan Berkley: “Okay, I have a confession to make. Berkley is not my original last name. It used to be Silberkleit before I changed it legally many years ago when I was first getting into radio. Unless you’re German or know one of my relatives, you probably can’t pronounce it, and that’s why I changed my name. When I decided to change my name I made a list of potential names I thought sounded cool at the time, including Susan Silverlight (very native American, very hippie) and Sage Bennett (which I still like). I gave all my choices to a numerologist who picked Berkley as the name with the best ‘vibes’. She was right. It’s been a great name and I intend to keep it ’til the end.
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