Maybe we'll meet one day

[shootingstar]

Maybe I'll meet the person...who has the same first and last name as I. She lives here in same city. Or maybe it will be too freaky. All I know is that she is an accountant. Total opposite of me since I am not strong numerically.

It did slightly freak me out when I lived in Toronto and discovered at the bank, there was another woman with same first, middle and last name who banked at the same branch. Incredible..in a city of over 2 million.

Met the person with same namesake as yours? Or maybe you're lucky to have a unique name stamp.

[Possegal]

I wish I had a unique name. Common last name, and a first name that was like top 10 around the year I was born and still usually makes the too 100.

When I first came to work at my current job, I was told that my email address was LASTNAMEfirstinitial@. Everyone else had just lastname@. Then I found out why, someone at my agency has my name. Now her first name is the shortened version of mine, but still, same name. Constant issues with emails going to her that should go to me, and never forwarded to me. UGH! Someone else within the same agency has my exact same name.

Back when I still lived in Pittsburgh.........

When opening a bank account once, I chose a PIN for my card and then when I got it, different PIN. They said, oh that's the one you had with your last account. YEP, not me. So I was stuck with a PIN that I could never remember because it meant nothing to me.

Had my hair cut once at a shop and they said, are we coloring it the same color as last time? I said - never been here before. YEP, someone with my name got their hair cut there before.

My 5th grade teacher ran into my mother one day when I was out of college. Told Mum she had been volunteering at a hospital in the area and she freaked out when she saw my name on a list of people in intensive care. Went in to check on me, but no, it was not me.

Got a call one night about selling my tickets to the Steeler game. First, I have no Steeler tickets, second, wouldn't sell them if I did. :) Turns out, the woman had called a number from the phone book that had my last name and my first initial. So happens, it was my brother. He gave her my number since he said he thought she really was looking for me (she told him she worked with me, not about having Steeler tickets, that he would have known was not me). So, some girl with my name has Steeler tickets.

One day when I still lived in Pittsburgh I came into work and opened the paper. In the obits section, there was someone listed who had the same name as the aforementioned brother. I chuckled and asked my boss if he thought my family would have called me to tell me my brother died. Of course it was not my brother (though he freaked out a lot of people at the courthouse when he showed up for work that day). But this man with my brother's name, who had just died, had a daughter with......wait for it....you guessed it....my name. :)

So, yeah, I know a thing or two about someone having my name. Is it possible that in Pittsburgh it was one girl with my name who previously had banked at my bank, got her hair cut at a new salon I tried, owned Steeler tickets, was in the ICU at one point, and had a father with the same name as my brother? Sure, it is possible. But I tend to fear it is actually more than just one girl in my hometown with my same name.

I sure do wish I'd either have had more creative parents, or not been so unlucky at love. (though I'd probably still keep my all too common name anyway).

[Eden]

I do not have a particularly common name, but I know that I have at least 2 fictional namesakes (both heroines of southern bodice rippers - one modern, one antebellum) and one real one who breeds and sells horses...

[Zen]

When I was in first or second grade there was another little girl with the exact name as mine; first, middle and last.
It was easy to tell us apart though,
I was the white girl :p

[sfa]

My first name is pretty common, but my last name not at all. The last time I googled it I found one other person in the US with the same first and last name. She's a teenager in New York state and I was able to find a ridiculous amount of information about her (what sports she plays and for which school, what youth group she attends, a picture of her from the youth group newsletter), so much so that it made me understand that it's not just kids who need to be warned about posting information on the internet--the adults in charge of youth activities really shouldn't be putting their newsletters online!

Sarah

[shootingstar]

So, yeah, I know a thing or two about someone having my name. Is it possible that in Pittsburgh it was one girl with my name who previously had banked at my bank, got her hair cut at a new salon I tried, owned Steeler tickets, was in the ICU at one point, and had a father with the same name as my brother? Sure, it is possible. But I tend to fear it is actually more than just one girl in my hometown with my same name.

May your fears, Possegirl be never realized. Some freaky stories of yours. :eek:
There are several of "me" worldwide..we probably fall in the same age bracket, since lst name made tops in 1940's-50's. Last name is on top 10 popular names worldwide among those with Chinese last names.

My partner has a common English first name and his last name. (He has and uses his legal German first name quite often) He once was a mailed a bank account statement...the other guy was 3 x richer than he.

A sister of mine who is a pharmacist met her namesake who was also a pharmacist. It was a freaky moment.

[SadieKate]

:confused:

Um, my father and brother have the same name.

My husband has the same name as not only another resident in (the last towm) but his wife had the same first initial as I. We got calls from all his boy scouts. He also has the same name as a radio talk show host with diametrically opposite political beliefs.

I have a cousin I've never met with the same name.

You just deal with it.

[shootingstar]

Just shootin' the breeze with stories of the strange and wonderous in real life, SadieK.

Is that ok? :rolleyes:

And no, no one in my extended family has my name. To me, it's just dull. Actually in my extended family there is an attempt to give a child a full name that truly doesn't exist yet in the family.

Methinks certain cultures tend to do that more often than other cultures, older generation naming first name and 2nd last name to younger generation family member.

[TsPoet]

Unless some very weird coincidence occurred sometime, there have been 3 people with my first name, my Grandmother and Second Cousin are both deceased, so it's just me now. The 3 of us all had different last names. I googled myself about 10 years ago and came up with a couple of mentions of me, surprised me, but OK.
I googled myself about 6 years ago and found out that a Star Trek roll player character had my name (one of those blue species with the antennae, can't remember what the species was called).
I googled myself about 4 years ago and found a maker of wine thermometers had my name.
I googled myself about 2 years ago and found that a "home for wayward girls" had my name. I was excited about that one, cool! Took me a few weeks to remember to google it at home, as I didn't want to click on that link at work. I was terribly disappointed to find out it has something to do with women-owned businesses.
Gosh, I feel like I just started a "figure out my name" game.

[Tokie]

I love my husband's last name! I transferred to a new high school as a sophomore. My same grade namesake there was a notoriously dysfunctional person. Teachers would call my name and look up with a snarl that changed to a smile when they saw I wasn't her. I think she changed to continuation school the year I transferred there, so we never met. At UC Berekley (admittedly, a large school) I was "Jane Ann Doe" (not my name, but close enough!) # 4!The registrar gave me a card to establish that I was her #4, not her 1,2 or 3! When I moved back to California and applied for my drivers license, they refused me because I had outstanding warrants under my full name AND birthdate! I convinced them that it wasn't me with my SS#. And motel clerks would always make cracks about my name when I called to make reservations about it being an alias. No beauty shop or PIN # experiences though - that's pretty bizzare! Tokie

[Blueberry]

To my knowledge, I'm the only person with my first and middle names (southern) and my DH's last name (not southern). Seriously. It's kinda cool.

Pre-getting married, there was someone who shared my name. With really bad credit. It took MANY hours to get her crud off my credit report:rolleyes::rolleyes:

[snapdragen]

There is a woman with my name in Toronto, she's a yoga teacher. I wonder if we're distant relatives, my family went to Canada during the revolutionary war.

[badger]

a relatively famous author has the same name as me. Thankfully she's not that known, but I get asked often enough if I'm her or if I was named after her. She's not much older than me, so the latter isn't it, but neither is the former. Just our parents all thought it was a cool name :D

There was supposedly someone in Vancouver with the same name as me but I haven't come across her in a while (used to come up when calling cable or utility companies).

[OakLeaf]

My first name is very common, my last name is one of those names that most people have met one person with that name. No, we're not related. ;) There are a dozen or two people nationwide with my same first and last name (interestingly, at least two on Google are doctors), but I'm not aware of anyone with my same middle name as well.

Years ago there was a teacher in the next town over that shared my name. We used to get each other's mail pretty regularly, but never met. When she got married, I got a few congratulations, but she took her husband's last name and that was the end of that.

[alpinerabbit]

I share names with a TV presenter, so lucky if someone googles me, that person turns up first and I can do my subversive activities without fear of retribution :D:D:D

[uforgot]

My maiden last name is so unusual that the only people in the US that have it are relatives. I married and then was a Smith. Now I'm back to my huge maiden name that I have to spell all the time. When I google my last name, I only get my brother, nephews and my school web page.

[Tuckervill]

I went all through high school with another girl who had my exact same name. It wasn't so bad.

If you google yourself, you may find lots of people with your name, no matter how unique you think it is!

Karen

[Tuckervill]

I have two brothers, one who married at least 20 years ago, to a woman named Debbie. Then my other brother married about 2 years ago, to a woman named Debbie. Now I have two sisters-in-laws named Debbie Clark!

Karen

[tulip]

My first name is a very uncommon southern double name. My last name is also quite uncommon except in pockets of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Louisiana, Virginia, and Pakistan (but that's not my ancestry). I never heard of anyone with my first name until I was in my 30s. I was looking at a bulletin board and there was a notice with my name on it, but with a different last name. Turns out, she worked in the same office complex. I called her up, but she wasn't so impressed as I was.

Googling, I have found one other person with my first name in Ohio, and one in Brazil (with a Japanese last name). Go figure.

I don't think I'll ever find anyone with my first and last name, not to mention in combo with my middle name (which is very common).

[malkin]

Last time I googled my name I found I share with a minister at a mega-church in Seattle. So far, I'm not aware that anyone has confused the two of us.

[bmccasland]

I don't own a winery in NorCal. Although I when I lived there, I wish I knew I had a doppleganger in name and would have dropped by! :p

[jobob]

I always thought my last name was unusual but when my nephew was killed in Afghanistan soon after 9/11 & his name was splashed across the papers (being one of the first military casualties in the war on terror, his death was a big media event, unlike the thousands after his ...), I found out that there are many with my family name in the midwest & south, which was a surprise to me.

Another big surprise was when I joined facebook recently & I searched my last name. I found about 50 others with it, a few of whom are my known relatives, but there were a great many whom I never heard of living in France (which makes sense since my paternal grandfather was born and grew up in France). Kind of neat to know I'm part of a large extended family. In France. :cool:

[Crankin]

My husband's last name (you know, the one I used to use here) is not that common in the US, or so we thought. It is more common in Canada. Well, one time he went to pick up his rental car somewhere, in Texas and they said, "Oh you have 2 reservations." There was another person, with same first, last, and middle initial renting a car at the same place. But he couldn't stick around to meet the guy. Now he has found out that 2-3 others in the US have the exact same name because they have emailed him.
My birth name is not super uncommon, but it is spelled differently than most of the people who have it. One time, I went to apply for a very small loan to finish grad school and I was turned down because of bad credit. So I went to the credit bureau in Phoenix and found out that they had my parents' 300.00 Sears bill on my credit report. My dad's name is Robert, similar to mine and the first 3 numbers of our SSNs are the same (very different from the ones in AZ, which all begin with 5 or 6). They wouldn't remove the mistake until my dad went down there and threatened lawsuit...

[aka_kim]

My name is quite common, although it's never caused any problems. My last name is always good for at least a full page in the phone book, which currently shows 5 others with my first and last name. I have a double at the LBS and at the doctor's office, and several at large companies I've worked for over the years. I've never met any of these doubles. Googling my name brings up 173,000 hits - among them a poet, several MDs, an actress, a photographer ... my doppelgangers are all much more accomplished than I.

[redrhodie]

I have a fairly uncommon name, but there are 3 or 4 others here and in Canada who share it. Luckily, I got my name for my website and email before any of them :p

I actually emailed one of them once after seeing a "60 Minutes" segment on a bunch of guys with the same name who had a convention (for lack of a better word). I thought it would be funny to contact another one of me. Well, it didn't go so well. She saw the email coming from "her" name and thought it was creepy. I shoulda known better.

[Selkie]

There's an Irish Opera Singer with my name! Also a journalist in California. Weird coincidence because I majored in journalism but worked in the field for a very short time.

[HillSlugger]

My full name is a Googlenope. Without the middle name it's pretty common.

[shootingstar]

Google only covers part of the world. Not everyone has their name published on the Internet. Probably more people who would have your name set than recorded on the Internet.

Wang Tao-- a Chinese name set, that has over 100,000 guys who have it. (Wang is a last name.) No doubt, there must be English language equivalents, ie. John Brown or Bill Smith.


http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/06/13/china_surname_crisis/

http://www.squidoo.com/chinesesurnames

I am aware there is a woman with same name set as myself who is also a librarian but in the U.S.

[bmccasland]

My last name isn't that common, and several years ago, I worked for a different agency. Anyway I get this email reminding me to turn in my time sheet - but it wasn't from MY supervisor. When I moved to that "Region" I really messed up one particular supervisor, as now he/she had to look before they hit [send] - when I was in a different Region my name didn't pop up on the mailing list database, but there were now two of us with the same last name working in the same Region, and I was first on the database as my first name came sooner in the alphabet than the other person, so I'd often get his emails. Fortunately nothing bad. One day I was in the other office, and hunted down The other guy, "Hi, I'm B McC looking for R McC." The constant email mix-up was about to be solved, he was moving to a different Region. Then I solved it but good, I changed agencies. But we did figure out we are distant cousins.

[RoadRaven]

Met the person with same namesake as yours?

I went to collect my bus ticket when I was about 16 only to be told I already had - after much insistence the ticket person went to get the person who had collected my ticket... and she had my name! She lived about an hour out of the city lived in!
:p

[Aggie_Ama]

When I got married I discovered there is a fairly famous person in some circles (I had never heard of her) with my new name. I guess she is a polarizing person because I get fan and hate mail addressed to her delivered mistakingly to my email on occasion.

Funny thing, my maiden name is a little more unique. I have second cousins named Gary and Alan, when I worked in another town I met a man named Alan with the same last name as me who coincidentally had a brother Gary. And yes the birth order was the same. Then the twilight zone music started playing.

[short cut sally]

My DH has the same name as an area Trooper. I got pulled over once, they asked who my husbands name was, told them, they let me go. I wasn't lying. I just wasn't telling them which L.J. I was married too:D

[ny biker]

There are so many other people with my name that I had to get an unlisted phone number because I was tired of all the phone calls for the woman who had stopped paying her student loan payments and the one who had ordered a series of books from Time Life, etc. Not to mention the call from the guy who thought he was leaving a message for his daughter (he wanted her to pick up his dry cleaning) and the guy who was calling from Kentucky. And so on and so on.

When I lived in NYC and bought a pair of eyeglasses at the LensCrafters in my neighborhood, they had another customer with the same name.

When I moved to DC and made an appointment to see a neurologist for migraines, they had another patient with the same name.

We are everywhere.

None of these people are related to me. My grandfather's last name was changed when he went through Ellis Island, so I can trace all the relatives who have my name.

[GLC1968]

When I lived in NC, there was a woman at my bank with the same name including middle initial (my married name), so I had to use my entire middle name. Here in Portland, there is a girl who sells jewelry with the same name (I stumbled upon her blog and etsy site once).

There is also a character in a popular 80's tv series that shared my name with me. It was one of my mom's favorite shows back then.

My maiden name? Nope. No one. Not a soul. My last name was so distinct that the only people in the entire world who had the same name (spelled the same way) were the 5 people in my immediate family. I had to be very discrete when online as all the google 'hits' point right to me and to my family.