You can trademark your name, your image, or a stylized combination of both, but only in connection with specific goods or services. Trademarking “yourself” does not mean nobody else can say your name or that you own it in every context. It means nobody else can use your name to sell the same types of products or services you have registered. Most people searching for this conflate personal identity with brand identity, and that confusion leads to either filing too early or filing wrong.
What You’re Actually Protecting (And What You’re Not)
A trademark on your name protects it as a brand identifier. If you are a coach and you register “Jane Smith” for business consulting services, that registration stops other people from offering competing consulting services under the same name. It does not stop a different Jane Smith from opening a bakery, and it does not prevent anyone from referring to you by name in an article, a review, or a conversation.
This is where the right of publicity fills in the gap. Trademark law is federal, and it protects source identification for goods and services. The right of publicity is a state-law protection that prevents unauthorized commercial use of your name, likeness, or persona, like someone putting your face on a product without permission. The details vary by state, so this is a different analysis from federal trademark registration. These two protections work together: trademark covers your brand, and right of publicity covers your identity.
If you are building a personal brand around coaching, consulting, speaking, or content creation, trademark registration protects the commercial side of your name. Right of publicity protections arise automatically under state law, but federal trademark rights require registration for full nationwide enforcement.
The Personal Name Hurdle
The USPTO does not treat your name the same way it treats a made-up brand like “Nike” or “Spotify.” When you file your personal name as a trademark, the examining attorney runs it through a specific analysis, and the outcome depends on whether you are filing your surname alone or your full name.
A surname filed by itself faces a refusal under Section 2(e)(4) of the Trademark Act, which bars marks that are “primarily merely a surname” unless you can prove acquired distinctiveness. The USPTO weighs five factors: how rare the surname is, whether the applicant actually has that surname, whether the word has any non-surname meaning, whether it looks and sounds like a typical surname, and whether the stylization creates a distinct commercial impression. Common surnames like “Johnson” or “Smith” will almost always trigger this refusal. Less common surnames with alternative meanings, like “Bird” or “Lane,” may clear the bar without additional evidence.
Filing your full name (first and last together) can give you a better path than filing a surname alone, because the application is no longer just a bare surname. But the USPTO still evaluates whether the public will perceive the mark as a personal name rather than a brand identifier, which can trigger a “failure to function” refusal. A name used only to identify you as a person, rather than as the source of goods or services, will not register.
There are practical strategies to strengthen a personal name application. A distinctive design, logo treatment, or brand element can help create a separate commercial impression. A generic descriptor by itself usually will not solve the problem, but it can clarify the goods or services when paired with a stronger name presentation. You can also demonstrate five years of substantially exclusive and continuous use as a brand to support acquired distinctiveness, which is the evidence that consumers associate your name with your specific business rather than just you as a person.
One more requirement catches applicants off guard: Section 2(c) of the Trademark Act requires written consent from any living individual whose name appears in a mark. If you are trademarking your own name as a stage name, that consent can be handled in your own application because you are the named person. If your brand incorporates another living person’s name, you need that person’s signed consent in the application.
Filing Reality for Personal Brands
Most personal brands do not fit neatly into a single trademark class, and that is where costs escalate quickly. A coach who also sells online courses, speaks at conferences, and has a merchandise line is operating across multiple Nice Classification categories. Coaching and consulting typically fall under Class 35 (business management consulting) or Class 41 (education and training services). Online courses and speaking are Class 41. Merchandise like branded apparel is Class 25. Downloadable digital products are Class 9. Books are Class 16.
Each class requires its own $350 government filing fee, and you cannot add classes after you file. If you submit an application in one class and later realize you need three more, those are three separate filings. Through my firm, the cost of federal trademark registration is $1,195 plus $350 per class in government fees. A personal brand filing across three classes would pay $1,195 plus $1,050 in government fees, totaling $2,245.
The practical move is to prioritize the class where your revenue is strongest. If most of your income comes from education or training, Class 41 may be the first filing. If it comes from business consulting, Class 35 may be the better fit. Add merchandise and digital product classes once those revenue streams justify the expense.
Specimens trip up personal brand applicants more than almost anything else. The USPTO needs to see your name functioning as a brand in actual commerce, not just appearing on an Instagram bio or social media handle. Acceptable specimens include a website homepage showing your name prominently with a description of services and a way to book them, a course landing page where your name appears as the brand offering the program, or printed promotional materials for speaking engagements. The specimen must show a direct association between your name and the services you offer, plus evidence those services are available for purchase. Screenshots must include the URL and the date accessed.
When Trademarking Yourself Is Worth the Investment
Federal registration makes sense when your name has real commercial value that extends beyond your local area. If you have a national audience, sell courses or digital products, license your name on merchandise, or compete in a space where someone else with a similar name could cause genuine confusion, registration gives you the legal tools to enforce your rights anywhere in the country.
It does not make sense yet if you are a local service provider with a small following, no products beyond direct client work, and no realistic risk that someone else will use your name in your industry. You already have common law trademark rights just from using your name in commerce, and those rights protect you in your geographic area without any filing.
The gap between common law rights and federal registration is enforcement. Common law rights require you to prove your reputation in each specific market where you claim protection, which is expensive and uncertain in litigation. Federal registration gives you legal presumptions that make ownership, validity, and nationwide enforcement easier to prove. If your personal brand also involves protecting your likeness or image, federal registration strengthens that position too. For a growing personal brand, that shift from “I have to prove my rights” to “my rights are presumed” is the practical value of registration.
Next Steps
If your name is your business and you are generating revenue under it, a trademark registration protects the brand you have built. I can evaluate whether your name is likely to clear the USPTO’s personal name analysis, identify which classes match your actual business activity, and file an application that positions your mark for approval. Contact my office to get started.
