Will the real David Hughes please stand up?

Well, it's hard to be definitive - there's a lot of us about. And a lot of us work in creative fields of one sort or another. A quick search on Google will undoubtedly yield David Hughes the illustrator (brilliant) and David Hughes the dancer (also brilliant) and a host of other David Hughes' of varying degrees of brilliance.

But it's a big world and there's room enough for all of us to co-exist without confusion. Or so I thought, until I pitched up one evening at Sadlers Wells and was given complimentary tickets that had been set aside pending my arrival. Initially grateful, if somewhat bemused, it eventually dawned on me that I wasn't the David Hughes they belonged to. They were for that other David Hughes - the dancer mentioned earlier. I did the decent thing.

Seth Godin, in his book 'small is the new big' had it about right when it comes to naming. Less than enamoured with his own name when he was younger he now recognises that it has been a bonus to have a monicker that's anything but mundane.

What goes for individuals goes double for businesses. For a long while, encapsulating the product or service offer in the business name was what it was all about - International Business Machines, Shredded Wheat, General Motors, Burger King - the list is long and littered with generic phrases that have become household names. And there's no doubt that this approach has worked very well for those I've just mentioned. Although, to build that equity in their brand name, they have invested heavily in terms of time, effort and money.

The new rule, according to Godin, particularly for the smaller business that doesn't have such deep pockets, is to create something that may be meaningless but is more likely to get you found online without too much contention.

Recent unwelcome notoriety surrounding our own fairly innocuous business name, David and Associates, may be sufficient reason for us to change to something less commonplace in the future.