The joys of a common name

[EricKei]

Surprisingly, there's several Eric's (or Erik, in my case) at my office.

Yet another Eric, here ^_^

We had that issue at more than one school I went to. In one class, we had three of us -- I usually wound up as either "Hunter" (middle name) or Big Eric. One of the others was "Big Mouth" because, well -- let's just say he was not good at playing the Quiet Game The teacher had to tape his mouth shut on more than one occasion to keep him from chattering during tests. He eventually did it of his own accord when he knew he'd have a "talky" day. (Note that he had no problem with the tape, and it was never forced on him)

[Andara Bledin]

My workplace currently has 4 Michaels.

Again.

And 2 of them are completely different than last time we had 4 Michaels. And this time, 3 of them are in the same department.

Being a Polly, I don't run into too many problems, except that nobody seems to be able to hear "Polly" when I say my name, so I get a lot of calls for Paula, and we used to have a Paula here.

^-.-^

[Golden Phoenix]

Now, y'see my name is uncommon. Very uncommon really, however there is an advantage to this. Because it is actually very simple it is often mentally translated into something more common. Therefore, we have 3 Sarah's in our spartment, and me. If someone says "sarah told me" we can't be sure if it was one of them or me.

Same goes for charlotte (two of them) Sara (one) and in once case Shaleena (wtf?)

Of course that's providing they remember may name at all.

Having an uncommon name can be handy ^_^

[Lace Neil Singer]

My name is fairly uncommon; yet, at the petrol station, there's a collegue who has the exact same name as me, spelled the exact same way. XD Plus over at the main store, there's two more women with that name, again with the exact same spelling. Small world indeed.

[AccountingDrone]

There were 2 Robert Mxxxxxx at the sub base here in Groton for a few years. Made mrDrones getting mail interesting. His middle name is Andrew and the other guy was Edward, so at least there was a *little* difference there

[LadyAndreca]

There's two Education majors at my school with identical names. "Elizabeth Ann Smith" and "Elizabeth Annah Smith". Not only that, they're in the same education concentration: the first is double majoring in special education and music, the second in special education. They are constantly getting each others' e-mails, often about sensitive information including college medical and financial status, class updates from teachers, everything. They finally met each other this semester when they had a class together so they could find out who they'd been forwarding all these e-mails to, but they can't get the school to keep them straight.

[otakuneko]

It also helps confuse things when employers google you.

Given that I have never had (and don't really intend to have) a myspace, facebook, twitter, or other social networking account, AND I share a last name with a Democratic senator (whose first name is a common variation on mine and comes up if you google my name), and my middle name matches the last name of a certain well-known Republican senator, an employer googling my name would likely never find the real me even if I DID have a facebook. My domain name is also registered privately.

[Chromatix]

My father, grandfather and *his* father were all named John. With the same (not quite so common) surname. But they did at least have unique middle names - my grandfather had two of them. I got a slightly different name to break the monotony.

The common names in Finland are of course different, but when I changed employers I was a little taken aback to find that the Sampo in the new office looked exactly like the Sampo in the old one. It does at least make it easier to remember his name. (Sampo means "mill" in Finnish, and is also the name of one of the large banks.) And as a foreigner, my name is suddenly a lot more unique than it was at home.

[Golden Phoenix]

It also helps confuse things when employers google you.

Given that I have never had (and don't really intend to have) a myspace, facebook, twitter, or other social networking account, AND I share a last name with a Democratic senator (whose first name is a common variation on mine and comes up if you google my name), and my middle name matches the last name of a certain well-known Republican senator, an employer googling my name would likely never find the real me even if I DID have a facebook. My domain name is also registered privately.

If you google my real name in quotation marks every result (bar one) is actually me...which is why i firmly belive that i am the only person in the world with this name.

The other one site is a porn site and there's a full stop between the first word and the 2nd. Someone sharing my first name who lives in a town with my 2nd name as part of it. Heh.

[Peppergirl]

My name is Tracy, and I regularly get referred to as Stacy, Teresa, Terry, Tonya. Usually I just acknowledge whatever they call me and move on in the conversation, because it's easier that way. And it gets them off my phone faster.

Last week though, I got called 'Donna'.

Yes, 'Donna' and 'Tracy' sound very similar.

[simplyanother]

I fully believe you can go into any public place and yell "MIKE!" and at least 7 guys will turn around.

My name isn't uncommon, I do have a slightly less common spelling, but it's not unusual. It's not as common as say Jennifer, Melissa and Heather, for women born around the time I was. But it's not unheard of.

There is another woman at work with the common spelling of my name. She's Big Ourname, I'm Little Ourname.

I tried to convince them to call us Proper Ourname and Other Ourname, but no dice.

[draftermatt]

I fully believe you can go into any public place and yell "MIKE!" and at least 7 guys will turn around..

Well that's how Phoebe met her husband on Friends.

My name is Matt (obviously). My parents named me Matthew because they thought it wouldn't be a common name. There were four of us in the same nursery at the hospital.

At work there's Matt the drafter (me), Matt the trucker, and Matt the erector.

It's fun on the phone "Hey Matt, it's Matt"

[Andara Bledin]

The common names in Finland are of course different, but when I changed employers I was a little taken aback to find that the Sampo in the new office looked exactly like the Sampo in the old one. It does at least make it easier to remember his name.

My brother has a problem with creditors coming after our dad harrassing him, instead.

They have the same first and last names, but different middle names with different initials, even.

This post reminded me of that because my brother's middle name is Eino, after our maternal grandfather.

My name is Tracy, and I regularly get referred to as Stacy, Teresa, Terry, Tonya.

I work with a Tricie. She gets all the problems you have, plus Tracy.

^-.-^

[Midorikawa]

It's fun on the phone "Hey Matt, it's Matt"

Yeah, that's always fun, even more on a department wide 2 way radio. Worked in IT for the county government back in Texas. Was fun saying "Mike to Mike, what's your 20?" or whatever. :-D

[smileyeagle1021]

It's fun on the phone "Hey Matt, it's Matt"

my boyfriend's dad's name is Mark... I have before been over at his house and heard his dead in the other room "hey Mark, this is Mark, is Mark available?"
...of course, every time I hear it I can't help but giggle like a little school girl (why, that didn't make me sound gay at all, now did it )