Art Business: Pseudonym or Real Name?

For most artists I would recommend you work under your real name unless you are already widely known by another name or nickname. It's just easier and simpler to remember your own name and it doesn't confuse people when they're writing out a cheque payment for your latest artwork.

However there are good reasons to use a pseudonym so it's worth thinking about if you're just starting out promoting yourself and your art.

Some reasons include:

• Your real name is very common e.g. John Smith
• Your real name is hard to remember, pronounce or spell.
• You want to hide your gender or protect your real name for privacy reasons.
• You want a more interesting, memorable and unique sounding name.

In my creative practice I work under the pseudonym 'The Extraordinary Tourist' and am most known as 'TET' the acronym version of my longer name. I even sign all my artworks with TET rather than my real name, David Arandle.

My pseudonym came about as a result of adopting  'The Extraordinary Tourist', a name that comes from one of my fictional character creations, as my online name in various forums. Obviously the name its self is a little long to type out so people started shortening it to TET but the full version is very memorable - and sounds kind of interesting too.

When I started selling my art online as well, more people knew me as TET than they did my real name so I decided to adopt it as my name to work under with my art and other creative endeavors online. That way people who knew me would know it was my art and they wouldn't overlook my work because they'd never heard of this David Arandle person.

Not that I keep my real name secret. Look at any of my profile pages on any online social network and you'll see they all include, usually in the opening sentence, 'my real name is David Arandle'. I do this so that people who only know me as David can also find me online. (For example, an old school friend is interested in seeing what I'm up to, finds me, and then decides to buy some of my art - which has happened to me).

I also keep my real name associated with my pseudonym because TET is not quite as a unique name as David Arandle. If you type TET into a search engine you'll see it's also a Vietnamese holiday and a famous military offensive during the Vietnamese war. By associating my real name with my pseudonym I ensure people looking for 'TET the Artist' can confirm it's me when they see my real name.

The above point also makes the case for working under your real name online. If you have a fairly unique name that is easy to remember then anyone looking for you online via search engine is going to find you straight away.  However if your name is John Smith, there are an awful lot of John Smith's in the world, you may want to consider a more unique pseudonym.

Often pseudonym's are used to hide gender. Which happens a lot in publishing. For example a male writer of literature targeted at females may consider adopting a female name so as not to put of readers who may think, male author, male target market and not give the book a chance.

I'm not a real advocate of using pseudonyms to hide information such as gender or your real name just because, sooner or later, people are going to find out whatever it is you're hiding. Which could, potentially have a damaging effect.

I happen to think The Extraordinary Tourist is a more interesting name than David Arandle. Which was the reason I started using it in the first place. That might be reason enough for you to consider using a pseudonym too. Just try to use something unique.

Test out your pseudonym in a search engine and see what comes up. While you're at it search for your own name and see how many people come up that you share your name with. That may just convince you to try a pseudonym from the get go.

If you do use a pseudonym I would recommend associating with your real name, as I have, unless you have a specific reason not to, such as privacy. It'll save you the confusion when people see you using your real name and will stop them thinking 'but I thought your name was...'