I am not a Heinous Person

Can I just say that I had a really cool maiden name.  When Scott and I got engaged, his uncle used to joke that Scott should take my name and be Scott Fox.  It has a certain ring to it.  I've been doing a lot of thinking lately about my business name.  When I decided to start this little blog, I stuck with Laura Hanis Photography because I knew I wanted my business name to be MY name.  Here's the thing about that decision, my last name is always pronounced incorrectly.  When people meet me, they almost always pronounce my last name as Heinous instead of Hanis (think of the a as apple).  Every time I hear the word heinous, I think of Law & Order.  You know the opening song and the whole "heinous crime" thing.  So, I usually end up jokingly saying to people that pronounce my name wrong that I am not a heinous person and I did not commit a heinous crime.  It gets a good laugh. 

Having my last name pronounced wrong took some getting used to when I got married.  Even I pronounced it wrong when I met Scott.  Fox is pretty hard to pronounce incorrectly.  How else would somebody say it?  Don't get me wrong.  Our little town where we live is great.  I married into a wonderful family and I literally run into somebody that knows somebody in my family EVERYWHERE I go.  It's like a Cheers episode where everybody knows your name. 

Any who, the fact that my last name is associated with heinous crimes and monstrous people made me realize that I am so not trying to promote that image in a potential client's mind.  I still wanted my business to be my name though, darn it.  My new business name (when I actually register it and am officially in business) will be Laura Mae Photography.  Mae is my middle name and I am very proud of my middle name.  It has been passed down for 6 generations to the first born girl on my mother's side.  How cool is that?  If God blesses me with another baby and I happen to have a girl, her middle name will be Mae.  Scott gets no vote in this decision, which he already knows :) 

It feels like a momentous occasion to me that this decision has been made.  Now I just have finish designing my logo...