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.