What's in a name?

I get asked a lot where I came up with the name of my business, The Prismatic Peacock, so I thought that it was time to put the answer in writing for you all.  I actually came across the peacock graphics first and instantly fell in love with them.  They couldn't have been anymore "me." They were colorful, eye-catching, flowing, and featured an animal.  OK, so I knew that my business name would have peacock in it, but when I started researching peacocks and what they represent I got even more excited.

Beauty aside, peacocks represent numerous characteristics and symbolism across multiple cultures and time periods.  To the Egyptians, the peacock represented royalty, immortality, and resurrection.  The Greeks and Romans viewed the tail feathers of peacocks as representing the "all seeing eye," and deemed them sacred and treasured animals.  In Hindu peacocks are associated with the deity Lakshmi and represent fortune, compassion, kindness, and patience.  Catholicism associates peacocks with resurrection, renewal, an immortality.  In Buddhism the peacock represents openness and living in truth.  Feng Shui uses peacock feathers to promote luck, enhance protection, boost awareness, and to attract a desirable mate.  Who wouldn't want their business to be associated with integrity, beauty, vision, royalty, spirituality, incorruptibility, and luck?

The next step was to figure out what the rest of my business name would be.  I thought about it, asked family members for ideas, and jotted down notes and catchy words in several brainstorming sessions.  Nothing was working out to be the right fit.  I knew that the majority of my business would be making soy candles, but I also knew that I didn't want to limit the possibilities for my business, future growth, or expanding my product line.  I knew that color, fragrance, and variety were key parts of what my business would be about.  So I jotted down some keywords and dug out my trusty thesaurus.  I looked up tons of words, played with different combinations, and then looked up name possibilities online to see if they were taken.  When I came across prismatic, I knew I had found my business name.  I loved the alliteration of the two P's and the meaning of the word.  Prismatic means like a prism, spectral in color, brilliant, and highly varied or faceted.  This was a perfect way to get across my love of color and to give me room to grow and expand my product line.

The Prismatic Peacock is not just my business.  It is my second "baby".  I love this business, nurture it, take care of it daily, and delight in watching it grow.  It's a huge time commitment and a labor of love.  It involves our whole family and is involved and interwoven into our daily life.  I take pride in it, and I'm proud to talk about it and promote it.  I take photographs of my products and shamelessly show them off to everyone.  It involves long hours, hard work, dedication, commitment, and perseverance.  It also takes love, patience, experimentation, sleepless nights, and courage.  The skills, experience, and qualities that I gained in becoming a mother are invaluable when applied to being an entrepreneur, artisan, and business owner.  The beautiful thing is that I have the amazing privilege of being both!