I recently received the following question from an artist:
I was wondering if I could get your opinion on having an artist name.
Do you think it’s a bad business move to give yourself an artist name? If when you may concerned or want to protect your private life from your business life would that be a sufficient reason to have an artist name?
I was wondering what your thoughts were?
–Victoria
Many artists have asked variations of this same question. I’ve worked with artists who use their real names, along with a number of artists who have adopted pseudonyms. After all, it’s quite common for actors and authors to change their names.
First, let’s explore the possible reasons that might lead you to change your name:
- As the artist above mentions, you might want to use a different name in order to protect your privacy.
- Some artists change their name because their birth name doesn’t have an artistic ring to it. Artists are a creative lot, but that doesn’t mean that their parent’s were particularly creative in the naming department.
- Artists with common names may choose to change their name to avoid having their work confused with other artists of the same name. This has become more important with the advent of the internet. If your name is Bob Smith, any hope you have of getting website traffic from Google searches is pretty slim.
- Some artists have changed their names to fit better into a new culture or language. Many artist immigrants adapted their birth names when they came to the US. Mark Rothko was born Marcus Yakovlevich Rothkowitz, for example.
- Perhaps you just want to reinvent yourself.
These are all valid reasons, but you should weigh very carefully the costs and disadvantages of using a pseudonym. These could include:
- Building fame and notoriety around a pseudonym commits you to using the artist name forever. It’s hard enough to build name recognition once – think about having to do it twice if you eventually decide to go back to your birth name.
- Confusion. If you continue to use your real name with family and friends, you are inevitably going to run into some confusion. I’ve had people come into the gallery and ask to see an artist’s work. They were dismayed when I informed them that I didn’t represent that particular artist. Only later did I realize they were looking for the work of one of my artist who uses and artist’s name.
- Paperwork. There’s a fair amount of paperwork involved in changing your name if you want to legally have a new name, and if you don’t, you have to create paperwork with your bank to create a DBA account.
Many artists have overlooked these problems and gone ahead and changed their artists name and have built successful careers using a new name. It’s not a decision to be made lightly – your name is your brand when you are an artist. If you are convinced that your given name just doesn’t cut it, however, a name change may be just the right strategy.
Have you every considered changing your artist name? What ultimately helped you decide what to do? Are there other factors that I’ve failed to consider above? Please share your thoughts and comments below.