Here I am writing another post about my new business name. Annoying I know, but you are all just so wise, I can’t stop myself from turning to you. (Is the sucking up helping?) I’ve decided to make things a little more fun for you by turning it into a contest.

If you suggest the name that I end up going with in the comments below, I will mail you a special surprise. What is this surprise? I do not know yet. It will not be a free car. It will also not be a hamster. So something in-between a free car and a hamster.

Before I married That Husband, I didn’t actually understand what he did. He said the words “management consultant” but that didn’t really mean anything to me. Now when he says “management consultant” I hear “professional researcher”. Being married to a professional researcher is awesome, because whenever I have a question about something, he figures it out for me. He donated 2 full hours of professional researcher time to the topic of what I should name my business and he came up with a few criteria that we are going to follow (because we are all about statistics in this family). This is not to say I can’t be successful if I don’t go by these rules, but these are what we have decided to shoot for.

Fact: You should use your real name in some way in your photography business name.

Fact: You should use photography, not “photo”.

According to the guidelines TH and I have decided on, I need to be using my name in some way, and I need to use photography.

I don’t want to use Nichole, Andersen, or my married name. I don’t want to use Nichole because no one is going to spell it correctly, and because I just don’t like it enough. It’s a great middle name and everything (thanks mom!), but if I choose it as my business name I am going to be saying it over, and over, and over. I just don’t really like saying “Jenna Nichole Photography” over and over. Plus my wedding photographer goes by Kelli Nicole Photography, and that is just too close for me. Remember my thing with individuality?

I don’t want to use Andersen because my mom is using it (individuality again), and because I am changing my name to my married name (eventually), so that won’t really be my name anymore. And also because every person on the planet will spell it Anderson, not Andersen.

And we all know that using my impossible to spell, pronounce, and remember Polish married name is a bad idea. Jenna B Photography (which uses the first initial of my last name) won’t work because it is already taken.

Leaving me with only one option Jenna _______ Photography. TH and I have decided that the best option is just to make up a new middle name for me. Who says you have to go by your actual name? I like to think of it as my stage name. Like Marilyn Monroe or something. Except she changed both of her names and I don’t want to do that. Jenna is a nice name so I would like to keep it in the running.

This is where you come in! Go ahead and give That Wife a new middle name.

The new middle name must be:

1. Spelled one way by the majority of people.

2. Sound pretty with my first name.

3. Be easy to spell.

4. Be an available domain. (You can check that by going here to Network Solutions and typing in your idea in the “Find A Domain” box if you would like.)

I would love to hear what you would suggest as a new middle name option. Remember Jenna Nichole is out. So is Jenna Marie (we liked that one but it is already taken). What do you think I should choose?

*If two people suggest the same name and I go with it, the first commenter wins. AND you can comment as many times as you want. But don’t just go around giving me 50 options in your comment to try to win if you don’t really like them because that isn’t a cool way to play the game.

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