Your Name

What is the most awkward name you have saved someone's contact before now?

Today is Valentine's Day.

Even if you don’t get yourself or anyone a present, do this for yourself

Stop giving out only one of your names to people you're meeting for the first time online. It shows you're not intentional about your identity.

The thing about your is that it gives you a unique identity that helps you stand out amongst the billions of active users online. So giving out one of your names automatically drifts you towards getting lost in the crowd.

How can someone ask what your name is and you're replying with ‘I’m Mary'.

The question here: which of the Mary are you exactly? Mary, the mother of Jesus perhaps?

Stop confusing people by doing so. You would want people to recognize within a split second because of how distinct your name is.

So, if your conversation with a stranger on WhatsApp was on a Monday and you only tell them one of your names (Mary) to save, would they be wrong to save your contact as ‘Mary Monday' or even ‘Mary Monday WhatsApp'?

A search for the name Mary brought out over 20 contacts on my list. Now, imagine they were all saved as ‘Mary’ without another name to help differentiate them? I hope you are getting the gist now? I hope you now see why it’s important to give out at least 2 of your names online or offline?

Assuming you met someone under a tree and told them only one name (e.g. James). What do you expect them to save your name as? If your guess is as good as mine, they will save it as ‘James Tree'.

Does that look like what you'd love people to identify you with? I guess that’s not.

Does it matter?

A reason many people would keep struggling with getting people to take them seriously online is that they don’t understand personal branding. People want to do business with people and not necessarily a social media account with some random name. Making sure people know you by your full name is an important aspect of personal branding (although it’s not everything).

Some people still bear funny nicknames on their Facebook accounts. I find it hard to believe.

Many won’t consider accepting a friend request from any account not showing a reasonable name.

If my name is James Mary, I expect my contact on your device to be saved as James Mary. If you feel like adding anything before or after that, it’s your choice.

Let’s discuss this in the comments. What’s the most awkward name you've saved someone's contact with before now and why?

Happy Valentine's Day.