Don’t tell just name. Tell a story

I meet a guy the other day. His name is Brayn Lee. And this is his story.

His friends tell him that he suppose to make up an international name because it’s good for business. Name that’s easy to remember. He came up with a name Brayn. And now even his friends call him Brayn.

And he put this name on a business card. The problem is he misspelled it. Coz he supposed to write “Brain”. And sometimes when he give his business card people saying it’s a wrong spelling.

So far he resolved one problem and got another one, right?

Maybe. Let’s check it out.

First of all you cannot misspell your name. If you write the name the way you want misspelling is impossible. This is your name and you can do whatever you want with your name because it’s your name.
You can even spell your name in 22 different ways and be fine with it.

My name is Alexey for example but on my international passport the name is spelled as Aleksei.
Which spelling is wrong? There is no wrong spelling because I’m fine with both spellings.

On my official Russian ID my name spelled as Алексей. In Russia it’s a quite popular name and it’s supposed to be spelled exactly like this.

But internationally speaking I can call myself whatever way I want.

In Thailand for example my name is Lek because for Thais “Alex” is very hard to pronounce. To pronounce “X” for majority of Thais – mission impossible. “Alek” is better. But even when I say “Alek” many Thais tend to add an “H” in the beginning and it’s very hard to make it clear to them that I’m not Halek. But when I say “Lek” people getting it really fast. “Lek” in Thai means “small”. I just 1.75 meters tall. And in imagination of thais russians suppose to be about 10 cm. taller. Ang it makes more sense, especially considering the fact, that all thais have nicknames coz their official names are very long and hard to remember. So “Lek” in Thailand works quite good.

In Malaysia I’m Alex. No problems with “X” whatsoever. But if I will say “Alek”
muslims tend to get my name as “Halid” because every muslim in Malaysia know who Halid al Walid is. But nobody knows what the heck is Alek.
One time in Melakka I had this dialogue.
– What is your name? – one muslim guy ask me.
– Alek. – I answer.
– Halid?
– Alek.
– Halid?
– Alek.
– Halid?
– Alek.
– Are you muslim?
– No.
– Why do you have a muslim name?

True story.

And now let’s go back to Brayn. When you making up an international name there is no way that you can misspell it. You making international name to make your communications easy. You don’t make it to win spelling competition.

And you can do whatever you want with your name if it helps to ease your communications.

But what about that Brayn’s friends telling him that he misspelling his name. That’s a problem, right?

Actually I think this is not a problem but an opportunity to make your communications even more easy.

What I mean?

One day at Butterworth I meet a guy with name Zuki. That’s strange and hard to remember name, right? Absolutely right. But this guy besides saying his name gave me a trick to remember. Zuki is the key from the zoo. It’s funny. And it’s very hard to forget.

Another guy in Changlun said that his name is Hisam. That’s also hard. But besides saying his name he gave me a trick to remember. Hisam is “Hi Sam”. And while saying “Hi Sam” he waved his hand to me like I was 50 meters far from him. It’s funny. And it’s very hard to forget. Because now it’s not just the combination of some strange sounds. There is a trick and funny story getting along.

Let’s go back to Brayn. You see, “Brian” is ok. It’s easy to get but it’s still hard to remember. There is no funny story. But if we have “Bryan” there is a story. Story about misspelling.

Story about how friends trying to correct the spelling of Brayn’s name.

And a story how to use this story to make another people to memorize any name.

Bottom line:
If you want to make your name easy to remember don’t tell just name. Make up a trick and funny story.