If you have ever taken a marketing or branding course, you might have heard the term name fluency used to describe how easily a brand name rolls off the tongue. By marketing standards, a brand name that is short, familiar, or easy to pronounce is considered more "fluent"—and more valuable.
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But whose tongue? By that logic, any name that's unfamiliar, unusual, or inconvenient is inherently devalued. Maybe that is acceptable for branding... but it definitely isn't acceptable for people.
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At the Museum of Names, we believe it’s time for a reframe. Name Fluency isn’t about how easy a name is for you. It’s about how fluent you are with names that reflect our beautifully diverse world of languages, cultures, and histories.​

What Exactly is Name Fluency™?

Name Fluency™ encompasses your ability to:

• Understand the significance and origins of names across cultures

• Recognize and address name-based bias in systems, habits, and institutions

• Use names respectfully, even when they are new or unfamiliar

• Notice who is being overlooked or marginalized—and why—based on their name

• Correct mistakes without panic or guilt, and model better practices for others

 

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It’s Not Just About Pronouncing Names Right

 

Everyone forgets names sometimes. Everyone makes mistakes. This isn’t about perfection, it’s about attention.

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When names are consistently shortened, erased, misread, or mocked—intentionally or not—it sends a subtle but powerful message:
“You don’t fully belong here.” That’s not the same as a one-time slip or a moment of forgetfulness. The harm often stems not from mistakes themselves, but from patterns of neglect—and from a lack of awareness about just how meaningful names really are.

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Name fluency is about building that awareness. It’s about how we listen, how we respond, how we recover, and how we model better norms for others. This training helps you do all that with clarity, confidence, and no judgment. It meets you where you are and gives you tools to lead with intention and respect.
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But Why Names?
 
Why champion name fluency, and not world cuisine fluency, fashion fluency, or meme fluency?

Well, first off, we're the Museum of Names.

But second and more importantly, names are like vital organs. They're always with us - baked into every single human and almost every interaction. They're engaged dozens, even hundreds of times every day, with and without our consent, and are indelibly wired to the brain and body. Names are an integral part of who we are, how we identify, how we belong, and how we are seen by and interact with the world.

The real question is not why name fluency is needed, it's why it's new - why name recognition is still an emergent issue in civil and human rights law and gets insufficient attention in most DEI and corporate culture programs. We're at the very beginning, and we have a long way to go.
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Join Our Free Intro to Name Fluency Workshop!

Whether you like what you're reading or are skeptical, we invite you to join our free 40-minute workshop introducing concepts and hard data behind name fluency. Whether you're an executive, early-career professional, educator or activist, this free, fast-paced workshop introduces a brand-new way to think about cultural inclusion. It’s fresh, it’s deep, and it just might change how you see every name you encounter—including your own.
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In this interactive 40-minute session, you'll:

• Discover how the extraordinary power of names can help or harm people professionally, socially, and personally.

• Learn how to recognize and foster name fluency in yourself or your team - and where you might need work

• Explore the hidden signals names convey in emails, meetings, and databases

• Get practical, actionable ways to practice name fluency and enhance your leadership skills. ​

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"People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."
— Maya Angelou

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Reserve Your Spot Now!

May 22, 2025

11:00-11:40 a.m. EST