What’s in a name?

Author - Andrew Long

What’s in a name?

Your name is an essential part of your identity and helps to define who you are and often where your roots are too.

This is topical; given the much publicised interview recently on This Morning when a guest, Katie Hopkins began to deliver her firmly held views that you can and indeed should judge someone (even a child in this case) on the strength of their name. Her view is that a Chardonnay or Tyler would not make suitable playmates for her children, as their names conjure up images of the wrong sort of family or background.

Anyway, I digress. What’s in a name? In my own experience, I have throughout my life been referred to by the name that my parents chose for me – Andrew. Not Andy, And, Drew – just Andrew. At boarding school, the first name was rarely used and as I was the second brother to attend this particular school (St Johns on the Hill in Tutshill) I was simply known as Long 2. I was never particularly tall, so Long 2 was often dispensed with and replaced with Stumpy instead – an affectionate sort of nickname which I really didn’t object to.

Fast forward over 30 years, and I began to be referred to as Drew by our close-knit group of friends when we first moved to Longhope. It was a form of acceptance for me, and, whilst I’ll probably never be truly accepted as a Forester, it made be feel at least part of the community somehow.

Since moving to the Forest, I have become quite involved in local amateur dramatics (very amateur at times) within Longhope and May Hill. This has often lead to me playing a character with an awkward name or simply embarrassing. Many of these names have disappeared into the distant past, until recently.

I decided to deliver a Talk called a 4Sight to the local Ross on Wye meeting of 4Networking a couple of months ago on my life on the stage (sounds more grand than the reality). During the talk, I gave an overview of the different roles which I have played – including Hump. Hump was a very camp Holiday Rep and apparently I played the part very convincingly…. This nickname then circulated around the 4 N circuit, but hopefully has now disappeared.

When I moved to Cass Stephens in August last year, I responded to a colleague’s rather risqué comment by stating that I was actually a Methodist Minister, which was the first thing that I thought of. This then earned me another nickname of The Rev – which I quite like, and, for internal communications still gets used to this day.

Networking seems to have a habit of bringing out new names, and again this morning I mentioned that I see myself as a Nice Guy, and as such this may be at odds with the role of a salesman. Everyone agreed this was not the case, but that they would be the judge of whether I was nice!

Returning to my original question – what’s in a name? From a business perspective it is vital. Whether you simply need to differentiate yourself from a competitor with a similar name, or you want to make a bold statement, then getting the name right is essential.

From an Insurance angle, getting the name right is essential. If your name or trading title is not accurate on your policy, this could lead to difficulties when a claim arises or even to the point that you’re not insured because your trading title is not noted.

Whatever you’re called, just make sure your name is yours, and you get it right.

Andrew Long

AKA  Stumpy, Drew, Hump, The Rev and overall Nice Guy.