Tracy's Blog

What's in a surname?

July 2011

With my wedding just around the corner (only 40 days away... gulp!) I find it quite strange that in a few weeks time I will no longer be known as Tracy Storey.

Don't get me wrong, for me the decision of whether to take ‘Snakehips' surname was an easy one. I think it's great that nowadays we have a choice on whether we change our name. For me I have no doubt that taking his name is the right choice.

Although when I sit and think about it I can see why some people may opt out. You wouldn't change your company name as you wouldn't want to lose the brand value that's associated with it, so why change your own name?

According to some people your name is your online identity and a simple name change may cause decline in your own personal brand value and credibility. I can see the logic behind this, after all in this day and age I think most of us are guilty of running an online search if we are dealing with a new company or individual. So if you've already got to where you want to be and built your own brand identity and online presence, would you really want to jeopardise it?

Well luckily for me, I feel like I'm still at an early stage in building my career and I can control a lot of my online presence to reflect my new identity. Plus I'll be quietly pleased to say good bye to some old nicknames and rhymes, I've lost count of how many times I've heard "Tell us a story, Tracy Storey" and "If you're a storey, are you made up?"

So I stick by my choice and I think I'll start slowly introducing my new name over the coming weeks...

"Hi, I'm Tracy Storey, soon to be Tracy Morris, Communications Manager at Hunter Plastics"

In fact my new initials will be TM! Forget brand identity - I'm going to be a Trademark... haha!

So decision made, now I just have to deal with the practical implications... I thought you had to notify a lot of people when you move house but this just takes it to a whole new level, I mean literally everything has to be changed! A lot of planning has gone into the actual wedding day but I think I need to start planning for the amount of paperwork that's going to come afterwards!

Don't worry my name might be changing but my personality won't! And I'm sure there are plenty of new rhymes to go with the new name... I've already been told I should learn Morris Dancing!!