Help!!! Cant think of a name

[JohnTrav]

The national PPA and the several local affiliates in and around Philly constantly have competitions. As you win competitions or have a piece make it past the first round you earn merits towards a PPA masters cert. the masters cert can help you market your business.

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Thank you I will look in to that

 

[sm4him]

I can't even pretend that I'm not still completely befuddled by this. I have a BSBA degree, with a major in marketing, but I still can't figure out why you wouldn't want your NAME associated with your photography business.

However, I am not always in control of what my little brain decides to do, and today, while taking my mother to her doctor's appointment, my little brain decided it would be fun to think up names for this business.

AKA Photography (...Also Known As...)
Alias Photography
AP Photos (for Anonymous Photographer)
ICTYWIABTIHTKY Photography (I Could Tell You Who I Am, But Then I'd Have To Kill You)
Not Me Photography--just because it rhymes
Photos by Who
1PI (1 Photographer's Images)

...oh my goodness, I could go on.

For some reason, this reminds me of how I picked the name of the first book I intend to write--it was one of those stupid FB games, but the result was so awesome, I decided I have to use it at some point. You had to go to two different sites, hit random and then choose 2 or 3 words from a certain section of the resulting page.
This is how I came to title my future autobiography, "The Terrible Squirrel Cage of Life." :lmao:

 

[Mitxil]

DO you do any particular type of photography?

-Mithil

 

[ceejtank]

Reported mitxil as spam.

 

[JohnTrav]

Reported mitxil as spam.

Thanks

 

[MLeeK]

I think the business association doesn't hold so true for artistic professions. BUT using your name doesn't mean you can't have a Pixel Photography as a part of it too... Here's the reasoning I have learned or come to over the years:
YOU are the artist. Think of this as you are creating priceless paintings. YOU create those paintings. YOU sign your name as the artist. YOU are always YOU. However, you may dabble in several genre's of art. Perhaps Oil painting-portraits, Acrylic Landscapes and Charcoal Nudes. You can then have Pretty Portraits by YOUR NAME which is totally different than Lovely Landscapes by YOUR NAME and totally different than Hot Nudes by YOUR NAME. Could even be different stores, websites, etc.
In the photography business people tend to do more than one thing or at least for a while. They may even switch in the middle of their career.
If you use YOUR name you go back to that you are always you thing. Your images belong and are branded to YOUR NAME.
Now today you may be doing family portraits and plan to do that for the rest of your life. Fun Family Portraits may be a great name for today's plans. However, 5 years in you may discover all of a sudden that you want to be a wedding photographer. Fun Family Portraits no longer fits, nor does it fit the branding you want. However, if you were YOUR NAME you could simply now add in Elite Weddings by YOUR NAME.

Furthermore-you are having a hard time deciding on a name that "fits" right now. If you sieze on "mustang sally photos" today, you may wonder what the hell you were thinking in a couple of years. Especially if you are young at this point. You WILL evolve.
Why do I say this? Because I did it when I started. I had a cute as heck name. Thankfully we were military at the time and when we moved from state to state I had to start over and got out of the cute name. My business is registered under my name. I also now have 2 "add on" names to distitnguish my different work-sports and weddings/portraits. MUCH happier with that decision!

That was really long and probably not what you wanted to hear, but it's my 2cents on the thought.

Whatever you choose today be aware of the future. Don't use words that will be associated with something cheap-I know quite a few people who used the word photo in their business name and hate it now. Imagery, Pictures, Pix... all seem to be regrets I run into.

 

[CCericola]

Having the name if his business something other than his name maybe helpful if he intends to hire other photographers. I'm sure there is no Mr. Lifetouch or Miss. PicturePeople. He could end up having a large staff of photographers for a successful sports/events photography company. So I can see the why. Try Wordlab | company names product names naming service It is a great free resource for names, slogans, etc...

 

[MLeeK]

Having the name if his business something other than his name maybe helpful if he intends to hire other photographers. I'm sure there is no Mr. Lifetouch or Miss. PicturePeople. He could end up having a large staff of photographers for a successful sports/events photography company. So I can see the why. Try Wordlab | company names product names naming service It is a great free resource for names, slogans, etc...

Definitely a good point!

 

[MK3Brent]

What The Foto? DOT COM!

 

[MLeeK]

What The Foto? DOT COM!

Sung in the voice of Peanut...

 

[MK3Brent]

Photo-RuhRoh.com!

 

[WPH]

I know this covers coming up with domain names. But it's actually really good for business names as well. There are lots of really useful tools to get a lot of business name ideas quickly.

How to Hack a Dominating Domain Name for Your Website | SEOmoz

Cheers

Peter

Wedding Photography Hive

 

[JohnTrav]

Thanks for the input everyone.