About my name

My business name, that is to say. It happened again this weekend -- someone sent out an official e-mail with my business spelled Earth Fae. This sort of thing happens to me all the time. I fail to get e-mails because people spell my address wrong. Or I hand someone my business card and they frown at the name and try to figure out how to say it. I've also gotten Erth Fae, Earthe Fae, and probably other spellings that I've forgotten. Why did I do this to myself?

Well, the problem is that I was a 16 year old geek when I named my business. I rightfully wanted a name that would be uniquely mine, to avoid confusion and make it easy to get the same user name for my eBay handle, my e-mail, and whatever else I needed an account for. I had this brilliant idea that I would name my business after a world I had made up for my writing and gaming hobbies, Erthe. Of course, at the wise age of 16 I thought that Erthe was a wonderful name for an imaginary planet. It was just like Earth but spelled differently! How awesome was that? Fae was for the human-sized faeries who lived there, and for the fact that I made fantasy jewelry. Designs because by unspoken rule, almost all handmade businesses use Design or Creations in their name.

Thirteen years later, I occasionally regret my decision. People misspell and mispronounce my name all the time. And while the name and faerie logo still work well for my Etsy shop, it doesn't necessarily fit with my line of tribal jewelry and the fact that I do most of my vending at belly dance events. It's a good thing for me that a lot of dancers are also into fantasy. In fact, one of the things that I need to do this week is make a faerie necklace for one of my troupemates.

For better or for worse, I am more or less stuck with this name. I could change it, but then I'd have to create a new Etsy shop, blog, Facebook page, e-mail address, website and more. I'd lose 13 years of name recognition, a couple years of Etsy feedback (which admittedly, is mostly from purchases, HA) and knowing my luck, I'd probably pick a name that someone else would want to use.

So that's my story. I hope you'll join me in having a little chuckle as I look back at 16 year old me, who thought she was so cool, so smart, and would probably really only do this for a few months until she got a real job anyway.