You could declare it to mean that, but you shouldn't. When there is more than one way to extend a concept, professional mathematicians tend to balk, whether the extension feels natural to an amateur or not. And if the extension feels unnatural (as this one does to me), it can cause confusion even if you take care to define it right at the beginning.
Visualize the real number line with $0$ in the middle, the negative numbers to the left and the positive numbers to the right (you can orient it differently in your mind if you want, but then you'll have to adjust some of the following words). Then, if $x < 0$, that means $x$ is to the left of $0$, it is negative; and if $x > 0$, that means $x$ is to the right of $0$, it is positive.
Now visualize the complex plane coming into focus with the real number line as its central horizontal axis. The numbers $x$ on the real number line have $\Im(x) = 0$, and $\Re(x) \neq 0$ except for $x = 0$. Perpendicular to the real number line, you have the imaginary number line. The numbers $y$ on the imaginary number line have $\Re(y) = 0$, and $\Im(y) \neq 0$ except for $y = 0$.
Maybe we could call those complex numbers such that $\Re(z) > 0$ "positive" and those with $\Re(z) < 0$ "negative." But to do that feels wrong because we're ignoring the imaginary part of the number. The real and imaginary number lines divide the complex plane into four quadrants. Thus, a complex number $z$ such that $\Re(z) \neq 0$ and $\Im(z) \neq 0$ is in one of four quadrants, which we could call "positive-positive," "positive-negative," "negative-positive" and "negative-negative."
But this quadrant concept does not seem to be too useful. For example, in algebraic number theory, the concept of norm is much more useful. The norm of an algebraic integer in an imaginary quadratic integer ring (such as $1 + i$ in $\mathbb{Z}[i]$, for example) is either $0$ or a positive real integer. Numbers like $-1 + i$ and $1 - i$ are called "associates," but since they have the same norm, it's not of much concern which one is in which quadrant.