So, what is in a Name?
Rather a lot, yet not as much as one would imagine. The former practically, the latter philosophically. And I discovered this difference when I decided to change the name I write under. To understand why I would change it, I need to explain how these names, former and future, came into existence.
The Past
I’ve been writing under the name W. Lance Hunt since about 2017, starting with the publication of my novel A Perfect Blindness.
Before then, I’d used a mixture of William Lance Hunt and William L Hunt.
That’s great, Lance. But so what? Three versions of the same name. What’s the problem, exactly?
Fair question.
Full Legal Name
My full legal name as found on my birth certificate and other official documents: William Lance Hunt. This follows the formula used by my father’s side of the family for several generations, where each son is a William Whatever Hunt. Same William Hunt, each with a unique middle name. My father’s was Allen; his father’s was Hue; his father’s was Elmer, etc., going back, I’m not sure how many generations. But far enough, it was a FAMILY NAME, carrying all the weight that does.
Too Many Bills
When I was born, my mother accepted the Hunt family formula of William plus a unique middle name—as long as I went by that middle name. There were simply too many Bills in one place when the family got together. Sensible, and kept me just slightly more her son than the Hunts’.
Always been Lance
So, I’ve always been Lance to friends and with family, and William to bureaucrats, office drones, salespeople, and other assorted folks who don’t know me.
Who then is a Friend, or the Formal versus Informal Me
After decades of living with this dichotomy, I finally had to settle on one to publish my novel. I had this idea that I wanted my readers and, with luck, fans to be friends. Or at least be informal. Similar to the way so many languages have a formal and informal way of saying you: Sie/du; Usted/tu, вы” (vy) / “ты” (ty).
I have a sense that this idea had grown, like a fungus, in the dark recesses of my mind, spawned when I first considered having any sort of public-facing name, as rock bassist/drummer; fine artist; writer, so since I was about 14 years old. Plenty of time for fragments of an adolescent’s ideas to fester, growing into strange, fixed ideas.
However it was birthed, it was there—that I will be Lance to my readers and not William anything. ’cause that name is for the dotted line and folks who’ve never met me and have to check paperwork or screen to discover my name.
Thus was born the new moniker W. Lance Hunt. Which, by the by, was the name I had originally requested put on my Social Security card. (Long since fixed. Don’t need official folks raising eyebrows when I finally hit 72.)
Heat of the Moment
The name made good sense as I was feverishly finalizing the artwork for the cover, dragging the novel over the finish line to finally exist in print.
But it’s Always Been Awkward
People read the name and are confused. How do they refer to me? Introduce me? As W? Which just won’t work for me, not after the junior Bush’s years in office. Skipping the W. has always proven impossible—it seems people are thinking, “why would he have put it there if he didn’t want it said?” MCs, cohosts, interviewers, and other folks always stumble over that. W. Lance simply doesn’t roll off the tongue well. I often end up telling them, “Lance is fine.”
I Ain’t Captain Amazing
Why not just drop the W and go with just plain old “Lance Hunt?”
That’s fine in person, but not so hot online. See, I don’t want to get mixed up with Captain Amazing’s alter ego. Go ahead, Google it.
See…. First hit:
There are also a couple of Lance Hunts who have recently died mixed in with the remaining hits, though one is a Lance Corporal Hunt. Scroll further, and my book, site, and social media show up at last. Pages in. Not exactly super real estate.
The Results are Better with the W.
As can be seen below, W. Lance Hunt yields much better placement:
Cool, right? Images. An overview. But who the hell are “John” or “James Hunt,” both of whom seem to have, maybe, written books? And then the writer “David Hunt”?
I mean, come on here. This is MY search result, and I’ve not got a James, John, or David anywhere in my three names. So, go get your own dammed search results, thank you very little. Imposter writers named Hunt.
But Three Full Names
They change everything. The whole first page, everything above the fold, is all me. In fact, the first nine hits are mine.
My Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Amazon Author’s page, Who’s Who press release, my website, X, a blog post from my site, and my book page on Amazon.
SEO Specialists KILL for results like that, and all I have to do is use my full name. I’ve won the SEO war without even trying. And I haven’t started updating my name across all the sites I’m listed on yet.
AI Mode is even better:
Images
The Images right below that are a Mixed bag. One of me, one of my book, then four headshots of two different dead people, who kinda share my name. A Lance William Hunt (3 times) and a William Cecil Hunt (one). A bit creepy that, but I’m a writer, so visual presentation is less important for me.
One Name I Can’t Use
William L Hunt. There are way, way, way too many other William Hunts who share my middle initial. Some are writers. Many are dead. Every one is a distraction.
Philosophical and Practical
In the end, returning to my full, formal name not only makes introducing me easier, it makes damned good marketing sense. The change is conceptually simple—Match my passport, driver’s license, birth certificate, and Social Security card. No alter ego needed. No cleverly chosen name to signal what I’m trying to be. Just me.
Practically, it’s not that simple. Changing a website? That is NOT easy, and requires far, far too much work. In fact, most of the time, experts say, “don’t do it.” So, I grabbed WilliamLanceHunt.com, and it redirects to wlancehunt.com. No broken links, or whole trees of redirects, or 303 issues to deal with.
Social media and other sites… that is proving a little tougher. So, over the next few weeks, I’m going to wrestle with updating my name across the rest of the internet. Site by site. Jpeg by png. Terms of service to consult and available names to explore.
In the end, I might need to return to the philosophical implications. This exercise might yet push me into being two people online—the writer and the…. I don’t know, private citizen? Husband and Father. I simply don’t know yet. Nor do I wish to struggle with things before I need to.
Updates in the Near Future
I know I owe an update on the Readercon and had started writing that, until I realized the name change was more urgent and important.
And, of course, the Brooklyn Book Festival, which I crowed about in September. And also what happened when I changed the description and keywords, both towards psychological thriller, then to literary fiction. And next, how my new AI vibing is going. (Hint: surprisingly well.)
Pinky Promise.
Thanks for reading
William Lance Hunt
Fun Bonus
When writing the captions above, I realized that, while I had run the searches in incognito mode, I had never searched any of these names with quotation marks. As a test, I ran “William Lance Hunt” through Google and discovered one of my late 1990s short stories, which I’d written as a grad student at CCNY, is in the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center at Brown University with the papers of my old professor, Barbara Probst Solomon. That will make sure my writing lives a good long time.
