Your Name on Your Resume

The first thing you include on your resume is your name. Simple, right?

Well, I can tell you that after 24.5 years of writing resumes, even something as basic as including your name on your resume comes with questions:

• What if the name you go by is different from your birth name?
• What if you have a maiden last name and married last name? Do you use a hybrid last name, married last name, etc.?
• Do you use a nickname on a resume, or is that too informal?
• Do you include your middle name, a middle initial, or leave it off?

As in many aspects of developing a resume, there is no clearcut answer to many of these questions. Often, what you find yourself doing is including the "best possible" solution. So, how would that apply to the questions above?

• I feel that it is best to go by the name you use on a daily basis. If your name is Jonathan Morrison, but you go by John, use John (some may disagree).
• I think it is best to include a hybrid last name if many people already know you by your maiden name (e.g., Cindy Dorotik-Warren). However, if most people know you by your married name, then you go with that.
• Regarding a nickname, what I have done in the past is include it in quotes- such as Nathan "Rocky" Bennington- because the client told me most people know them by the nickname.
• Middle names or initials are arbitrary- this depends on how much you use your middle name/initial.

Now, for all of these, a question comes up: what if I want to purposefully use something more formal on my resume b/c it's an official employment document? Fair point. I would still contend that the name you include on your resume fits the criteria of what you use most frequently on a day-to-day basis.