How many of me?

[ivylass]

Cool website. You put in your first and last name and it tells you how many people with your name live in the US.

For the record, 161 for my name.

[Dragonlady]

183 of me!!

[ivylass]

There are 91 of me if I use my maiden name.

Funny, there are only four Diana Gabaldons. Of course, only one counts!

[bufftabby]

19 of me.

[Chacoguy]

Only one of me, which I know is wrong.

[eleanorigby]

There is exactly one of me in the USA. Ha!

(I am not reassured that 99.9% of the people with the name Eleanor are female...)


I should do my maiden name: there are 3 of me!

[Monstera deliciosa]

It says that there is only one of me (I have a very common first name, but an extremely uncommon last name). However I know that there are at least two others: My brother-in-law's wife, and a lawyer I've come across when Googling my name.

[Salambo]

44 of me.

[Old Overholt]

Originally Posted by Salambo

44 of me.

What?!!! There can only be ONE Salambo!

Old Overholt
(there's at least two of me, so long as you don't count all the bottles separately)

[ivylass]

When I google my name there someone (different middle initial) who is a PhD, director of an autism center, and another lady who writes erotic novels.

I always thought my name was rather pedestrian, so I thought an author of erotic novels would come up with a sexier nom de plume.

[Chacoguy]

Originally Posted by ivylass

When I google my name there someone (different middle initial) who is a PhD, director of an autism center, and another lady who writes erotic novels.

I always thought my name was rather pedestrian, so I thought an author of erotic novels would come up with a sexier nom de plume.

It's even weirder thinking that there is a director of an Autism center named Pussy Galore.

[taters]

There are 94 if I use my married name and only one with my maiden name.

[Carolia]

With my married name, there are 2142 of me--I married into an extremely common last name. With my married name, though, there are only 3 of me. I like my maiden name.

[HongKongFooey]

53 - I thought for sure I would be rarer.

[ryevermouthbitters]

Be careful. How confident are you that this site isn't harvesting real names to match with IP addresses that already have so much information through tracking cookies?

[Salambo]

Originally Posted by Old Overholt

What?!!! There can only be ONE Salambo!

Old Overholt
(there's at least two of me, so long as you don't count all the bottles separately)

With my maiden name, there is only one of me. Trouble is, my married (last) name is one of the most common names ever.

Actually, my maiden name is very common...but it's Irish, so my first name (Greek origins) is not typically paired with it.

[Manduck]

1 or fewer! I would have thought it was more common than that, but I bet there are a few more in Canada.

[Colonel Plink]

459. I, apparently, am common as dirt.

[threnody]

One or fewer of me. GRAH!

[Jules]

It says only one of me using my married name. But I ran my husband too, and it says there's only one of him too, which I know is false, as he's a Junior.

[Random Precision]

2131. I am legion.

[brownie55]

Originally Posted by Colonel Plink

459. I, apparently, am common as dirt.

No, 4,756 is common as dirt.

[leafrog]

7,115 of me with my married name.
19 with my maiden name.


Ahh, sweet anonymity.

[stormie]

Originally Posted by threnody

One or fewer of me. GRAH!

Me too. And I am concerned. Or fewer? Am I dissolving?

[Pere]

Originally Posted by stormie

Me too. And I am concerned. Or fewer? Am I dissolving?

No, but you may have died since the Social Security files were updated.

[stormie]

:brains: That's why the zombies are following me!

[Khampelf]

There are one (or fewer!) of me. Fewer? I've always suspected I was merely a figment of someone's imagination.

Only 30,000 share my first name. I thought it would be fewer. The more popular variation of the spelling shows 100,000.

[Orual]

I am a unique and precious flower.

[mothedrine]

I used to get excited when I would hear about someone with the same last name thinking that they might be related. Someone in our family published a genealogy back in the 60's that went back to the 1200's. Problem was that it was never updated and eventually wasn't even in print any more.

Now I knew that most of my paternal ancestors had settled in the mid-Atlantic and southern states and of course I knew they had to be slave owners. In fact I have an original will from a great grandfather where a slave is actually deeded as property. However even though I spent my early childhood in an environment of strict segregation, it always seemed to be one based on some level of respect. I was never taught to look down on or belittle other races. I remember being violently jerked away from the 'blacks only' drinking fountain when I was a toddler, but that's about it. Of course mom was from PA so maybe that was part of it, but I really don't believe that. I'm sure there was plenty of justified resentment, but I think there was also mutual respect.

I'm giving this prolog so as to put the rest of this story in some sort of context.

So what I found out was that most of the people with the same last name, actually, pretty much in every case, the person turned out to be black. When I looked into this, I found out that after the civil war, often former slaves would take on the name of the family that had "owned" them. I've always believed, or at least hoped that maybe that was some indication of how they felt about those families. I don't really know though and I'm probably romanticizing. But a lot of freedmen just made up names and I have to wonder if they really hated those families if they really would have wanted to inflict it on their children for generations to come.

I don't mean to derail the thread and if this is in any way insensitive or controversial, please split it off to a pit thread. That's certainly not the intention and I thought it might be an interesting story.

Cheers

[Amythyst]

Only 83 of me in the U.S. I'm a bit surprised by that, considering that three of us attended the University of Florida at the same time.

There are 708,136 of us in the U.S. with the same first name, and 36,749 with the same last name.

[3acres]

I got 121, but I think that website's just pulling numbers out of its [metaphorical] ass. I've met two men with my name, including middle name. Same spelling, too -- and there are popular variations. One lived in the apartment directly above mine and we'd get each other's mail all the time. The other worked at the same place as me; his father had the same first name as mine.

[Wolf Larsen]

I asked the question on a name where I know the answer and they got it right.

[SmartAleq]

I'm a bit of that site since it regularly insists that my first husband's last name doesn't exist. Yet there we have my ex, my kids, his dad, his stepmother, his mom, his sisters, a whole whack of cousins, one of my grandkids and gosh knows how many others including a deceased babushka who prove it wrong by having existed every day. Stupid website.

[BJMoose]

There are 3,516 of me, so y'all better watch your backs.


Actually, that number appears to be just a calculation based on the frequency of the first and last names. For example, "• There are 1 or fewer people in the U.S. named Barak Obama." Damned birthers are everywhere.

[Zeener Diode]

Only 1 of me.

There may be fewer people with this name, or none at all.

I don't exist???

[BJMoose]

You're the President of the United States?



(Actually, I get the same number for my paternal grandmother's maiden name.)

[Lungfish]

Just 13 name sakes live across the pond.

[eleanorigby]

Originally Posted by ryevermouthbitters

Be careful. How confident are you that this site isn't harvesting real names to match with IP addresses that already have so much information through tracking cookies?

Is there a way to avoid this, once I've gone and done it, which I have?

Damn. I'll be easy to spot, there being at most 4 of me unmarried and only one of me now.

[hajario]

According to the site, there are only around 100 people with my last name. I'm surprised that it's that many. I think that there are really around 40 or so.

I am the only one who has ever lived with my first and last name. There was a guy who is now deceased who has the same last name and a different spelling variant of my first name

[Anacanapuna]

Hmmm ... 794 of me if I use the name my parents gave me (first and last only) but only 141 of me if I use the nickname I adopted as my legal name. You wouldn't think there'd be that many Butthead Yablonskis in the U.S., would you?

[eleanorigby]

America IS Butthead Yablonski. :watch:

[Little Nemo]

6748 of us.

We are Legion. The time of our return is coming. Our numbers will darken the sky of every world.

I mean... interesting website...

[Pere]

Originally Posted by 3acres

I think that website's just pulling numbers out of its [metaphorical] ass.

Originally Posted by BJMoose

Actually, that number appears to be just a calculation based on the frequency of the first and last names.

Hmm. I thought it would be using Social Security registries, but the FAQ says it goes by Census Bureau data instead, and only the 1990 and 2000 surveys at that. And the intersection of first and last names is indeed a statistical projection, not an actual count of coincidence.

[Carolia]

Originally Posted by mothedrine

So what I found out was that most of the people with the same last name, actually, pretty much in every case, the person turned out to be black. When I looked into this, I found out that after the civil war, often former slaves would take on the name of the family that had "owned" them. I've always believed, or at least hoped that maybe that was some indication of how they felt about those families. I don't really know though and I'm probably romanticizing. But a lot of freedmen just made up names and I have to wonder if they really hated those families if they really would have wanted to inflict it on their children for generations to come.

My family on Dad's side was the same way. He told me one time shortly before he died that any white (our last name) people were related to us, but the blacks were descendants of slaves, and weren't related to us. I told him that I knew enough of how owners treated slaves to say that we most probably were related to them. He agreed and told me that, okay, we weren't related to them in any easily tracable way, which I agreed with. It always made meeting anyone black with my last name feel a bit awkward.

I never had that problem with Mom's family because even though they were from the same general region, they were dirt poor--they couldn't have afforded slaves if they'd wanted them.

[Burnt Toast]

Originally Posted by Zeener Diode

Only 1 of me.

I don't exist???

I get this (the one or fewer answer) with my nickname, but with my formal name, I get the message that there is 1 person with my name. What is the difference between one person, and the one or fewer answers, I wonder?

[mothedrine]

Originally Posted by Carolia

I told him that I knew enough of how owners treated slaves to say that we most probably were related to them. He agreed and told me that, okay, we weren't related to them in any easily tracable way, which I agreed with.

Yes. Excellent point. And from the pix I've seen of my paternal grandmother, I'd say there's probably more than a little truth to that. The problem is that it's not the sort of info that gets recorded in the family bible so from a genealogical perspective, it's not likely that you're every going to know anything for certain.

Personally I like the idea of thinking that I might have some African heritage. Looking at me though, it would be a little comical for me to try to claim it.

[Lady of the Cement Pond]

There are two. I must hunt her.

There can be only one!

[RealityChuck]

Just one of me, if I use the form of my name that I always use. 49 with my legal name.

Three people I work with also have unique names, a fourth has only two people with that name.

[D_Fenestrator]

Five of me.

[Chimpan-A]

27 if you use the way I spell both names.
120 with the more common spelling of my last name.