The reason? It’s a lot easier to communicate URLs without dashes and periods. My full name is Carl-Johan Hunefalk, but as is the custom in Sweden (where I am from), I’ve had the nickname Calle my whole life.

When I started my career, I used the more formal Carl-Johan in business contexts. When I moved to New York, I ran into my first hurdle with that name – people could not pronounce it, or select half or it (“Carl” or “Johan”) to call me. We all identify ourselves with our name (or names), and for me, it was an important issue not to have my name “halved”. Of course, Americans tend to be as happy about nicknames as Swedes, so Carl-Johan was shortened to “CJ” – or “C” to those who felt even that was too long to pronouce.

I’ve been back in Europe for 8 years since moving back from New York, and have used both variations of my name, perhaps to the slight confusion for people I’ve been in contact with. You will probably see my name online in both variations if you do a search – but now it’s time to simplify.

Calle – [Ka - leh] pronounced like ‘Ca’ in Capacity and ‘Le’ in Leverage.

Carl-Johan Hunefalk = Calle Hunefalk

You can read more details about naming in my upcoming posts on creating a Personal Business Plan.