Jayme named the farm.  I can take no credit for it, but I like it.  Sage was my grandmother’s maiden name. She was a wonderfully sweet, but wickedly determined woman. My most vivid memory is of her using a chair to move around the room after bone cancer caused one leg to be useless.  No waiting on her!

Russian Sage is also a lovely purple perennial.  Jayme loves the color purple. And I love this particular flower.  It is sort of mystical, like the alpaca.  We’ll grow lots of it on the farm. Finally sage means a person of experience or wisdom.  Now we have some doing to live up to that!  But the name works for us.  Determined, mystical and eventually wise and willing to share.

TIPS

Now if YOU are just starting out and trying to decide on a name, you could think about a couple things?

1. What will have meaning for you and make you feel good about your farm’s name?

2. How do you want people to know you?  People will come to you when they are looking for _________________  (fill in the blank)

3. In more marketing terms, what do you want for a brand (your promise to your customers) and your identity (your look and feel)?  Of course this depends on what you will specialize in.  Will it be fiber?  Breeding for better fiber.  Breeding for better alpaca AND fiber?  Educating people about alpaca?  Selling alpaca stuff?

So your farm name matters.  And remember you may change your mind about your promise – so be careful about how specific to your early ideas your name and identity is…things change.

Try out a few names.  Check at http://www.godaddy.com and find out whether a web domain name is available for the ones you like best.  A .com is the best, but if you are really in love with a name that is taken for .com, go for .net.

Go to http://www.alpacainfo.com/.  This is the website for the Alpaca Owners and Breeders Association.  Here you can check on whether someone else already has registered a farm name the same as the one you have chosen.