So I’m in the planning phase of creating my personal lifestyle/travel brand and I’m trying to figure out the username. Would you use a curated name like @doyoutravel or @iamgalla, or would you just use your personal name?
I feel like using your personal name depends on how good it sounds. Mine is nothing too special so I feel using something like @doyoutravel and a really good picture of myself could work better, and then include my name in the name field on my profile.
I think there is a reason why most personal brands use their own name! People know them by their name… It doesn’t matter if your name is nothing special, once you are known…
(e. g. Thomas Müller here in Germany, couldn’t hink of a more common german name, yet everyone knows him). Depends also on what exactly you want to do with your brand.
Is it about you or are you planning on offering some service etc. 
I think it‘s better for IG when you have a name wich shows what your Account is a about. The username is one of the most important tools you have to make people checking out your account. But ofc doesn’t make sense for every niche. For example if you are politician
It kinda depends on the direction you want to go with your brand. Like if you are going to be posting more personal content like about yourself or with yourself in it I would have like @yournametravel or something like that maybe.
Then if its more of a generic travel page I like @doyoutravel etc.
I think going with your personal name helps you if for whatever reason you want or need to pivot or change your brand in the future. For example if your username is travelbob or something like that, but you decide to really focus on lifestyle or fashion and stop traveling then you’re in a bit of a bind.
It also depends on how you may want to monetize the account. Using a travel related name may also be limiting with regards to products you may want to advertise. BobSmith can hawk ice cream, alcohol, water bottles, services, hotels…but TravelBob may be limited to hotels and car rental companies.
But if you do use a travel related username, I also suggest keeping it general as to not corner yourself even further. E.G. if you go with BackpackerBob, but then 5 years from now you have sponsors and want to stay for free in the St. Regis Maldives and not a dirty hostel…well a lot of travel institutions will be turned off by the connotation of backpacker in your brand name.
But also if your name is in any way complicated or hard to spell that could work against you.
Or you could do something related to your name that would also keep it short and recognizable like instead of John Smith you could to Jsmth, JohnS, Smithy, JohnnyS, Josm, etc etc etc.
Seems like in Instagram, the shorter the better.
But if you do use your personal name, I would make sure you do something Travel related in the name field just at first while growing to be sure people know what you’re about.
I chose a really general yet niche related name for my account, but I used my nickname instead of my real name. Now as it is growing I sort of regret doing that and am slowly deciding whether or now I may change it. But changing a username is a whole other ordeal and I feel a bit trapped in my silly nickname.
Good luck with your project!
if you use your real name,you become more trustful to the audience
I don’t know what’s your plan to monetize, but I would expect anything general like @doyoutravel to be shoutout/brand/tour operator account while @yournameplussomethingsuggestingthatitstravelaccount to be an influencer.
Also, as a customer, I would value higher an opinion about a destination/travel tip etc. from a person who is using their own name. (it’s kind of reassuring forme).
I would probably follow @doyoutravel for pretty pics and @yournametravel for the whole value of the content.
It’s probably just me, but thisishowi see it. 
You can never go wrong in developing your personal brand with your real name. Sure you might grow faster or help you better communicate with your audience with a curated name, but none of this will last forever except with your real name.
Use your personal name? Why? Because when you pivot (and you will) the pivot won’t be attached to a brand name.
Their is another way: Choose a name that is just sounding nice but doesn´t have any meaning attached. Therefore if you later want to broaden your portfolio you can do so easily without having to rebrand.