What's In A Name? The Story Behind my OG Blog Name

What’s in a name? Oh so many things! I thought it would be fun to share where my blog name came from and why I chose it.

When I decided that I wanted to try mom blogging, my business brain kicked in. I would be lying in bed at night unable to sleep in an internal dialogue that went something like this, “You need to make social media profiles! But you hate using twitter, character limits are so stupid. Who dreamt up that idea anyway? Can you be a mom blogger without being on Twitter? You have an Instagram profile, but you hardly have any followers because you never use social media? Do you even know how to use Instagram? Why are you trying to start a business that’s entirely based on social media when you don’t know anything about social media and don’t use it at all?” And that was just the beginning.

My OG Logo

There was a lot of self doubt that I had to get over before I started. Was I interesting enough? Would I stick with it? Where would I find the time? Would it take time away from my kids? Can I learn enough about social media to make it work? What will my friends and family think? What if I don’t succeed? Even with all that rolling around, I’m happy that I did finally start! I still don’t have answers to a lot of these questions but I knew if I dwelled on the negative too long, it’s all I would ever see and I would never start and never succeed.

Once I decided that I really wanted to do this I wrote a few test articles, the first two were my stories about finding out I was expecting Thalia and Baby #2 and I wrote one about a pregnancy pet peeve I was having. It felt really good, really cathartic, to write about these topics and my experience with motherhood in general. I was excited to share my writing with the world, but, I figured I should start small and asked some friends for feedback on my writing to see if it was any good and would be of interest to others. To my relief and surprise they said that my articles were enjoyable, real and very me which was the support and encouragement I needed!

With a newfound confidence and determination, I knew my next step was to determine a business name. Everything else kind of flows from that: logos, websites, social media profiles etc. I’ve always wanted to be an entrepreneur, I just never felt like I had a good enough business idea, but I felt like mom blogging was something that I was passionate enough about to make it work long term. Even with that in mind, I still needed to narrow my focus and figure out what my unique selling feature would be. What made me special, or different from the hundreds of other mom bloggers out there? Honestly, I’m not sure I’ve 100% figured that out yet but I knew that I wanted to build my blog around family/motherhood, with my usual tell it like it is personality mixed with a little sarcasm. I figured that if I was going to do something, I might as well do me right? I want to share the good, the bad, the ugly and the chaos of it all with people since now that I am a mom, it’s one wild ride that I’m learning no mom should be on alone. There are so many mixed messages about how to parent and thousands of products to buy that all say they’re the best for your baby, and it all makes motherhood way more confusing. I knew other moms would know the struggle. Why does my baby sleep well one night and then spend the next two weeks waking up every hour? I’ll never know! But at least I could find some other moms that could relate!

I also wanted a reminder to be down to earth. I didn’t want to be spending my days thinking “My child is so amazing! They’re going to be the next Einstein and Olympic gold medalist all before they graduate from high school!” Don’t get me wrong, my children will be amazing because they are mine, but I want them to be children and enjoy their childhood. I want them to be creative, to have dreams, and try and accomplish them even if they don’t succeed. I want to be supportive and not set unrealistic expectations for myself (okay, I’m definitely going to set unrealistic expectations for myself) or my kids so they don’t feel like they aren’t amazing or enough for me. I want to lead and mother by example and raise good, honest, and caring humans. With that in mind, I tried brainstorming potential business names that related to being average or normal and would serve as a reminder to me to keep it real and would be something relatable for other mamas out there.

I brainstormed names like:

· Just Your Average Mom

· Raising Average

· Mediocre Millers

· Happily Unexceptional

· Happily Unremarkable

· Raising Unexceptional

· Raising Ordinary

· Honest Motherhood

· Average Mommy

· Mommy Miller

Not great right? I have days where I’m not creative or original. Some of these names sound very negative and most of them were taken on social media already, so I kept brainstorming and tried to think of ways to work in a more personal angle. I kept coming back to a mix of my last name and the phrase ‘run of the mill’. I thought that putting the two together as ‘Run of the Millers’ was very witty but I have little to no sense of humour so I figured I had better run the idea by a few people first in case they didn’t understand or thought it was tacky. To my surprise they actually liked it and my blog and business name was born!

Looking back, I think I’ve had an easier time choosing a name for my blog than I did for my kids! But so far I’m still really happy with the name I’ve selected for my blog and it is a nice reminder for me to be silly and messy because that’s real life and that’s what I want to show others! Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy that there are moms out there that are happily married with perfectly clean houses, well dressed and well mannered kids, and they love their life and have it all together but that’s not my reality. I feel like there are many other mamas out there that look at that and feel bad about themselves because that’s not what they have. I want to be able to support and empower other mamas to love the life they are living no matter what it looks like. Moms, kids, and families come in many forms and we need to celebrate all of them, so I want to bring a voice to one of the less common family situations. I hope my readers and followers will help hold me to these principles and enjoy following along my crazy journey!

P.S. If you’re a mama who’s looking to start a similar journey leave a comment or send me a message on Instagram @brittanynmiller_ and let me be your cheerleader! I might even have a few helpful tips and tricks for you 😊