There’s plenty of discussion out there on business names, but on personal names — not so much. Baring traditional marketing efforts, in most cases it’s much the same, since we’re ultimately selling ourselves throughout and within every facet of our lives. Does something happen to us psychologically when we hear a certain set of vowels and consonants role off the tongue; and then associate that sound with a face and personality? Unfortunately, this brief analysis won’t answer that question, but it’s certainly a worthy consideration. We know our complex human brain is taking-in and processing mountains of information even as we sleep. From a marketing standpoint, we assume and hold constant the likelihood that the effect of a name or title is profound. To support this hypothesis we need look no further than Hollywood. Some actors use stage-names for two reasons: (1) Their real name lacks pizazz or memorability; (2) No-one can share the same name within the SAG and/or IMDB. A strong example is Michael Keaton, whose real name is Michael Douglas. Isn’t that a pip!
From our cursory research, we observe that some names are adopted and completely different from ancestry. However, many families retain their original name for centuries, some or most with slight spelling differences. Some names sound like they’re completely made-up, but are actually very close to their original spelling and pronunciation. And some are comically similar or identical to inanimate words out of the dictionary.
Consider Rip Torn. We have two English verbs that mean the same thing but with a different tense. Had to be made-up, right? Well, not so fast. Born Elmore Rual Torn Jr., Torn was originally Turin, northeastern Scotland, dating as far back as 1323, Aberdeenshire. Ancestral arrival to America is recorded in the mid 1800’s. Torn is one of many alternate spellings, but pretty close. ‘Rip’ is a family name passed on to the Elmore we all know and love. So he didn’t just make this up. Although we would have enjoyed it just the same.
Some names rhyme comically with honorifics: Mister Pfister or Doctor Proctor (proctologist perhaps?). Does humor translate into clients or dollar signs? Funny commercials certainly grab our attention. Some people choose to use reduplicated names: Kristoffer Kristofferson, Erick Erickson, Harry Harrison, Robbie Robertson, John Johnson, etc. Does this redundancy trigger a perception of competency or professionalism? We’ll need a survey on this one — Just strikes us as odd. Looks and sounds more like a typo.
Unlike inherited, unaltered personal names, business names are quite deliberate. We at Passion Fruit Voiceovers contend that a client needs a team that deploys a passion for their craft and overt productivity and profitability, like fruit on a vine. And our name says exactly that.
So visit PassionFruitVO.com TODAY! We look forward to hearing from you! No matter what’s in your name.
Providing enterprise scale female voice-over talent and male voice-over artists for global clientele. Services include: Commercial and Narration Voice-overs, IVR, TTS, Mobile Media Content, Transit Announcement System Voice-overs, e-Learning Courses, On-Hold Messaging, Multilingual Voice Talent, Language Translation, and Audio Engineering Services, via Source-Connect, ISDN, Phone Patch, and FTP.
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