Women, picking the right name can enhance your political career

Valentine's Day is nigh and women in love are asking themselves: What will my name be if I marry him?

The romantics are scribbling down options to see how it looks and how it sounds. First and last. First, middle and last. First, maiden and last. It's almost a compulsion. We start doing it as kids and can't seem to stop.

But here's some advice to women in politics. Pick a name and stick with it. And make it two names, not three.

Political consultant Dan Hart, or as I like to call him, Master Manipulator (notice that's two words not three), persuaded Jan Laverty Jones when she entered the world of politics and ran for mayor that she needed to become Jan Jones.

Hillary Rodham Clinton refused to take the name Clinton when she and Bill Clinton married in 1975, only changing her name legally in 1982 two years after he lost his re-election bid for governor of Arkansas. She's bounced back and forth between Hillary Rodham Clinton and Hillary Clinton during the time she's been a politician in her own right. Currently, she's Hillary Clinton on her campaign Web site, yet some newspapers still use all three names.

Is this an identity crisis?

When she was running for attorney general, Catherine Cortez Masto asked to be Cortez Masto on second reference, honoring her father and her husband. Her late father, Manny Cortez, was a recognizable name in Las Vegas politics, plus it emphasized her Hispanic roots.

But her news releases just call her Masto on second reference. In the office, she is called "General Masto," which is the proper form of address for her job. But all the options create confusion, especially for computer searches.

Lynette Boggs had a perfectly good political name, but when she married Steven McDonald, she added his name. When he filed for divorce from the county commissioner, one of the things he wanted back was his name. He didn't want it to remain attached to hers.

Yvonne Atkinson Gates is another three-name politician married to a judge with a good short political name: Lee Gates. Guess she didn't want to confuse the voters with Commissioner Gates and Judge Gates, especially when one or the other was under fire for something or other. So she is Atkinson Gates and he is Gates.

Hart said he doesn't have any scientific studies to back him up, but "generally speaking, shorter is better. It fits better on bumper stickers and billboards and it's punchier and more recognizable."

He advised Jones to go short. I'm talking name, not hemline.

"Jan Laverty Jones sounds like a friend of Kenny Kerr," the female impersonator, he said. "Jan Jones sounds like the mayor of Las Vegas."

Longer names can sound poetic and rhythmic, Hart said, but take up too much space for advertising.

The best female politician name in Nevada has four parts, is rhythmic and ethnic, and has masculine overtones at the beginning and the end: Frankie Sue Del Papa. The former attorney general's name is memorable, although so many times her proud Italian name was misspelled as Del Pappa, even on official documents.

Now these musings come from a woman who insisted her byline be Jane Ann Morrison. Southern girls relish having three names and are comfortable being called by two of them on first reference; it seems friendlier.

But when I was engaged to a man with the last name of Hooker, I was adamant that my byline would never be Jane Ann Hooker. When I asked Hart about the prospects of a political career for Jane Ann Morrison Hooker, Hart nearly choked on his own laughter before conceding that in Nevada such a name might not be a detriment.

"It would get a lot of attention," he laughed.

His wife, Amber, traded her maiden name of Andersen for Hart and Amber Hart sounds like a great political name. "She thinks it makes her sound like a stripper," her husband said. She's got a point.

Wonder what Chelsea Clinton will do when she marries, particularly if she turns out to be the only daughter of two U.S. presidents.

Bet she decides to keep it, even though it's a name reviled as well as beloved. If she decides to abandon the Clinton name, surely that's a political statement.

Jane Ann Morrison's column appears Monday, Thursday and Saturday. E-mail her at Jane@reviewjournal.com or call (702) 383-0275.