What's in a name?

The past few days I have been pondering what to call my business. Do I stay with 'Behind The Veil Portraits'? Or should I go by my own name and call it something simple, like 'Portraits By Jowita'?

As much as I would like the recognition for the photos I take, I know that nobody can pronounce my name when they first see it. Portraits by who? Jowayta? Jowhyta? Jaweta? And other such variations. My name is pronounced 'Yovita' by the way. Yes, nothing like the way it's spelt. I love my name, but boy has it been frustrating. My name was never pronounced correctly during role call in the first few weeks of a school year. The only time it was ever EVER pronounced correctly was in Year 11 Art, because my teacher was Polish. I nearly fell over in shock! Now, as an adult, when meeting new people, I can't ever say my name only once. I have to say it about five times and people still can't remember it or pronounce it correctly. Is it really that hard??

Anyway, this brings me to a story I heard recently. A friend of a friend said that, after much job searching and with little success, she decided to make her own way in the world and look for work overseas. She realised she could not sit around and wait for the world to change for her, or for the opportunity to just fall in her lap. She needed to change herself and her way of thinking to be happy, and go out and take action. This kind of made me rethink my whole view on my business. Here I was thinking that my name is my name. People just need to get used to it. It's not that hard to pronounce! But then I realised I am one of maybe three Jowitas in Australia (would love to meet them if they're out there!). Unless I become massively famous any time soon, people are just not going to bother with a name they don't 'get'. It doesn't make sense. Why is the J a Y??

As a business person, I realised I can't expect the world to change for me. It aint gonna happen. I am offering a service. It's not about me but about what I can do for my clients. For now, I will stick with Behind The Veil Portraits. But when I'm a superstar world renowned photographer, well, then we'll see...