As we’ve discussed previously, brand naming is an essential element in your overall brand image. The right brand name can be a huge asset to your company and a bad brand name choice can be disastrous. With that in mind, it seems like a good time to revisit the subject by looking at some famous brand names and their origins.

As noted in this branding article, many famous brand names come directly or indirectly from the names of the founders and/or their family members. The article mentions brands like Taco Bell, Toyota and Wendy’s as brand names which come from the family names of the owners of the company. There are hundreds of others, like Ford, Disney and Warner Brothers. Last names as brand names are extremely common in business.

But there are other things named after real individuals which you may not be aware of. For example, universities like Stanford, Duke and Harvard are named after real individuals, usually major contributors to the early development of the university. The Charlotte Bobcats of the NBA were named after their owner Robert Johnson. Despite the fact that they use their name as a noun to describe their computers, (as in “Dude, you got a Dell”) , Dell Computers is named after its founder, John Dell.

In summary, you can have success using your own name as your company’s name. Moreover, with a little creativity, you can do it in a way that no one realizes you’re doing it and make your name a separate and distinct brand name beyond just being your name.