Is it a bad idea to name my startup after myself or use my own name?
It's fine for consulting, personal brands, or solo creator businesses where you are the product, but it gets awkward the moment you want to raise money, sell the company, or build a team that isn't about you. Your name also can't say what you do and is hard to trademark broadly. If you're building something you hope outgrows you, pick a name that can stand on its own without you attached to it.
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This is the cleanest, research-backed answer to the exact question, and it refuses to give you a blanket yes or no. Yohn walks through two academic studies (one finding a name boost, one finding the opposite) and lands on 'it depends' on your business type, which is the honest starting point most founders need before deciding.
Where the HBR piece frames the trade-off, this essay digs into the specific ways a personal name helps early and holds you back later. It is direct about the scaling wall (everyone expects to deal with you personally) and the hiring and delegation friction that follows, which is the part founders underrate at the naming stage.
A short, honest conversation between two founders who lived this choice, with Jodie Cook admitting she named her agency after her initials almost by accident. It reframes the question around what actually makes a company saleable and independent, so you are deciding for the long game rather than for ego.
