What's in a Name?

Deciding your new practice’s name is an important task, and one you need to accomplish as one of your first practice start-up steps. I found the job surprisingly difficult. I’ve started two practices in my life and my first one was eponymous, with a “P.C.” tacked on the end. That was a big mistake because I found it nearly impossible to simply separate my business from my personal life at tax time and for other business related transactions. (By the way, names used in this article are totally fictitious, to protect the innocent…)

I would recommend against naming your practice using your own name because it limits you in many ways, and you lose the benefits that a more descriptive name would bring to your practice. Your business name will probably be incorporated using your practice’s name, although I have seen larger (typically multi-specialty group) practices use a more general over-arching name for the whole enterprise and then multiple “dba’s” (“Doing Business As…”) for the individual practices under their umbrella. You need to discuss these options with your attorney if you think that arrangement brings you some advantage. I find it confusing.

I like to keep things simple. I recommend you use your specialty as a base name, and then some descriptor to differentiate you from other competing practices in your specialty located nearby. Picking a name like “The Alliance Partners” doesn’t indicate that medicine is your service. On the other hand, naming your practice “Cardiology Associates of Your Town” won’t be helpful to your patients looking you up in the yellow pages and finding your practice listed just before “Your Town Cardiology Partners”, so also be cognizant of your competitors’ names when choosing yours, of course.

You need to pick a name that will grow with you, if you indeed intend to grow your practice into a larger enterprise. Are you solo, but are pretty sure you’ll take on one or more partners in the future? Then besides not naming your practice after yourself, you may choose to add “Group” or “Partners” to your name initially even if you’re the only doc there now. Is there any possibility you’ll open a second office in another town? Naming yourself Blueberry Street Internal Medicine Group may not make sense when your second office is opened on Main Street in the next town over a year or two later.

Naming is important and I’d suggest you bounce your ideas off a marketing person if necessary before creating your business corporation. Otherwise all the brand recognition and good will you develop under that name will be lost if you have to rename your practice later for some reason. Choose wisely.