Personal Branding – What's In a Name?

Posted by
April 20, 2010

People often ask if I prefer to be called “Sue” or “Sue Anne”, and I usually say that I don’t have a preference.

Before I was 16, very few people called me “Sue Anne” … most called me “Sue”. We moved, and I switched high schools when I was 16 and because my first, middle and last name are so shot, teachers started calling me “Sue Anne” and it just stuck. Two years later when I went to college, “Sue Anne” had stuck.

Other than the people that get my name confused and call me “Sue Ellen” or some other strange change, I generally like being called “Sue Anne”.

In the age of Google, this has become even more interesting. A Google search for “Sue Anne Reed” is all about me. All of the 1st page results are related to me. Do the same search for “Sue Reed” and I’m not even on the 1st page.

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  • http://personalbrandingblog.com Dan Schawbel

    Sue, good post and a great question to ask. A name is everything in my opinion. You need to select the name you want. If your name is Matthew, but you want to be called Matt, then use that everywhere.

  • http://sueannereed.wordpress.com sueannereed

    Thanks Dan! Like I said, I generally don’t have a preference but I’m beginning to see the benefit of using one vs. the other in my professional life.