As an artist your name becomes your business identity. Suddenly it matters that you have the most popular boy's name of the last many years. Before it just meant things like figuring out that 13% of your French class shared your name. Now it matters. There are a number of other Michael Phipps with web presence, and a few of them are even artists. Fortunately Phipps isn't extremely common, though. The main problem with the name, however, is that people tend to glance at it and see it as a similar, more common name. I think back in school that more substitute teachers called out "Phillips" than "Phipps" over the years.
Now there is a worse problem. Another common mistake is for someone to glance at my last name and see "Phelps". This didn't used to be a big deal, but now that "Michael Phelps" went from slightly known to ultra-famous, I can't travel the web without him being brought up. I have nothing against him, but that doesn't mean I want to talk about him with everyone I meet. Now if someone leaves a response to this post and says "Michael Phelps? Who?", I'll be their new best friend.
