I get asked a lot about how I came up with my blog name, The Prudent Plastic Surgeon.

It really is an interesting phenomenon that pretty much all of the physician bloggers out there have rap or superhero names. This is something that Ian Cook (of CarpeDiem MD) hilariously talks about…

Setting the stage

In June 2020, I was finishing my training and had just started my financial education.

This was after I had identified that my financial cluelessness was a big contributor to my feelings of burnout and decided to make a change. My comeback story was starting…

In making this change, others around me started to notice and ask some questions/advice.

I realized that I was far from alone in feeling this way. Further, I realized that pretty much all of the other physician bloggers out there were pretty much already at financial freedom. There wasn’t someone at the beginning of the path sharing their experiences.

So I decided to be that person and started this blog!

But I needed a blog name

Sitting in Brooklyn at Selenid’s aunt’s apartment, I signed up for a hosting service and opened a WordPress account.

Now, to decide on a blog name.

I wanted something that portrayed the dichotomy at the core of the blog: the fact that I was a plastic surgeon but was not in a financially good place.

Most people would assume a plastic surgeon, or any doctor, would be set financially. But this isn’t the case, not even in the majority of cases.

So, my initial blog name…The Poor Plastic Surgeon.

I quickly moved on

The name is clever, at least I thought. But it’s a bit too much “woe is me.” And that is absolutely not the sentiment of the blog or one that I wanted to convey.

Sure, I felt burned out and had a net worth of -$500K. But I was not poor or in any way disenfranchised.

So I moved on from The Poor Plastic Surgeon

The alliteration needed to stay though

I really liked the alliteration of the “P’s” in the name.

So I needed something else starting with a “P” that conveyed the sentiment and values of me and this blog.

I sat on Titi Gloria’s couch thinking for a while. And then “prudent” popped into my mind. And it just made sense!

“Prudent” and “plastic surgeon” are not 2 things that usually go together. People imagine (for good reason some times) plastic surgeons as showy and making it rain. But that isn’t me. Nor did I want that to become me.

So, I officially became The Prudent Plastic Surgeon.

And the rest is history…

What do you think? What would your superhero or rap name be? Should I have chosen another one? Let me know in the comments below!