We have all done it, admit it, you have Googled your name, in all it’s variations to find out what information is out there about you. Am I right? I knew it. Well I am no different and one night I decided to Google myself, not in the sexual way but in the search engine way. Well since that day I have been depressed, I find out that there are several people who have my name that are much more important than I am, so they tend to show up earlier on in the search process then I do, by about 32,300,451. Oh I’m not complaining, I mean there is a famous author born in 1973, I have shoes that old. Then there is the recently departed TV Actor by the same name, he appeared in hundreds of episodes of various TV shows and each and every one of them has a load of pages that show up in the search, before me. Then, just when I thought I had pretty much seen it all there is a super famous meteorologist with the same name as me, well his middle initial is different, but that didn’t stop him from showing up on Google several million times, all ahead of me.
Ok, I know, we all have names that are not unique, even if we think they are. The problem is in the publicizing of our names for hopeful fame and fortune as Authors. Obviously we want to show up in search engines, hopefully in the top 30 or 40 pages, unlike my 32,300,452nd position. So I guess that brings me to the point of this post, I know, finally. When you create a “pen name” do you do it to keep the crazies away from yourself in real life? Or do you do it to get a higher ranking on Google et al? I am thinking of a few, of course my wife had a couple that I couldn’t use, and even still they didn’t do much better in Google, so I wasn’t worried.
I know a lot of you out there use pen names, tell me how you decided on what you did, what was the motivation and why did you select the name you did. I am wanting to publish my second work, my first Fiction Novel, later this year and need to come up with a much better name for myself.
Ramblings,Reviews and Interviews 
Perhaps a good pen name would be: themostgoogledpersonontheplanet. That should do it. Hey, just keep slugging out the books and you’ll beat that meteorologist’s pants off at the very least. 😀
You may be right, especially since all the Stud names are taken 🙂
My gosh. I rolled off my chair on that one. 😀 You’re one funny guy Peter.
Use a name that means something to you. Or an old family name that you like. 😀
Oh my, an old family name, hmmmm nope better not do that. Thanks for the visit, I love your website.
Google auto-corrects my name to “SN Boyce,” so I’m waiting to get big enough to where it stops doing that….OH and one of the images that appears for my full name is a grave stone, so at least yours isn’t THAT depressing. LOL
I chose S.M. Boyce back in middle school for one of my first writing projects and it stuck. It’s just my initials, but it works and it’s all set up for a flood of jokes, which is always a good thing.
If you don’t like the initials idea, you can always toy with names of your favorite characters (at least, those in the public domain) and craft yourself a new one that strikes your fancy from combining a few neat syllables together in a new way. I vote for something that involves the word “Huckleberry.”
-S.M. Boyce
Very good ideas S.M. I tend to find a middle initial also works to allow the name to roll off your tongue. But really, the huge authors in history probably used their own names, but they didn’t have google to worry about, even up til 2000. Thanks for the tips.
A gravestone? Oh my goodness. That’s too rich. 😀 Mine usually comes up with a dorky post from a hundred years ago. Your gravestone trumps my dorky post though, that would be AWESOME. 😀
Yeah, I think I would use the gravestone, and the name, just because.
I thought tacking the initials of the country where I live (NZ) would help me to be found easier on Google. Then last year the bloody New Zealander of the Year was announced as… Paul Callaghan. I also regularly get phone calls inviting me to scientific symposiums. I’m really tempted to turn up to one and dazzle them with my high school science ignorance. It would be a laugh but I haven’t had the nerve to go for it yet.
If I was to choose a pen name, I think I would have to go for facebook (no capitals or initials) as this is the most commonly searched term on the net. Don’t suppose that I’d rank very highly though.
Nice to ‘meet you’
Thanks Paul for the visit and the comment. I try to flavor most of my posts with humor but there are some serious things here and there scattered about. I have really struggled with this name thing, as much as I would like to keep my name I think something more authorish, is that a word, would serve me better. My search continues, I will post in here if I come up with some good ones. A pleasure to meet you and I loved your blog, and the story of Jiggs, very well written.