What is in a name?

[Karin Wells]

Is it possible to become a famous portrait painter with only two names? I mean, what important client would want to pay a big fee to an artist with only two names? I think that something as small as the addition of an extra initial could justify a pay increase for an artist.

The biggies in the portrait business all seem to have THREE names: Everett Raymond Kinstler, Daniel E. Greene, John Howard Sanden, Margaret Holland Sargent. Even famous masters of the past had THREE names. Peter Paul Rubens, and John Singer Sargent are the first to come to mind. Michangelo Buonarotti sounds like three names even if spelled as two. Let's face it though, the biggest stars get by with only one name: PICASSO, RAPHAEL, REMBRANDT. It's the little guys that really need those three names in order to start on the road to immortality.

Are those of us with only two paltry names doomed to obscurity until we come up with a classy sounding third name, or at least an extra interesting initial to insert somewhere?

First thing, Monday morning, I'm going shopping for an extra name or initial to add to my collection.