Curse you, Facebook!
For my whole life, I have believed that I was unique in the world. To begin with, Danielle was a very unusual name in London, Ontario where I grew up. There were no other Danielles in my classes as I moved through school, and I didn’t meet another Dani until I moved here. Back in London, there were three listings for “Donders” in the phone book: my dad, his dad, and his uncle. Now that we’ve moved to Ottawa, Dad and I have cornered the Donders market in the phone book.
Oh, I know there are other Donderses out there in the world. In fact, I have a whole book written in inscrutable Dutch, following the various Donders lineages. But never, ever have I imagined there could be another Danielle Donders.
Until now.
I found the other Danielle Donders on Facebook when Beloved set up his account last month, and not too long after found this profile from a social media hub called Hyves. We don’t seem to have too much in common, based on this limited profile information. She lives in the Netherlands, and likes Armani, Bacardi, Diesel, G-star, Hyves, Jean Paul Gaultier, Opel, Replay, Samsung, T-Mobile, Vero Moda, and Zwitsal. I’ve once visited the Netherlands and heard of a few of those things — but not most of them.
It’s weighing heavily on me, this sudden challenge to my uniqueness of nomenclature. I suppose it’s still a relatively unique name — my cousin Mike Smith would certainly argue that it is! But for 40 years I’ve been comfortable in the knowledge that I was the *only* Danielle Donders in the world and find myself surprisingly unsettled to be disabused of the notion.
I wonder if she googles her own name and is annoyed by the first three or four pages dominated by references to an obscure Canadian blogger with an addiction to the Web? (And, yes, it was this post that I was writing a couple of weeks ago when I stumbled upon the infamous “creepy thesis.”)
Are you uniquely named? How would or do you feel about sharing your name with a stranger?
I would have to say I am about as far from uniquely named as is possible. My name is made up of 2 first names, both common biblical names. A Google search for my name puts me behind a fellow known for bird books, a number of photographers, a soap opera star, a hospital in the US, 2 different music artists (one a soul singer, the other more of the hippy genre), and you’ll finally find reference to me on page 10.
Not to mention that I am the 8th generation of my family (in Canada) to carry my name. I enjoy the fact that people can say to me, “Oh, you’re that … …”
My maiden name was Krause, and there are many Amber Krauses in the world. However, my married name, Strocel, is highly unique. I do believe that I am the only one in the world, and I will admit that I would be vaguely annoyed if that should change.
I am the only that shows up on google. Does it mean that there’s no one else with my name? Maybe. But I have two family names, so that reduces the chances of encountering the same combination elsewhere. Plus there’s always a chance that my homonym would have an H at the end of “Sara”.
My husband has a very common name and mine is much more unique, and there’s not that many people around who have it. There’s only one other Facebook user with my first & last name, I live in the US and she’s in England. One of my friends, who I spend time with every week, accidently FB friended this England-me instead of me-me and England-me friended her back. My friend later friended me so now I have one friend in common with England-me. Which is trippy.
I would be extremely shocked if there’s anyone else out there with my name. Mary Lynn is a pretty uncommon name, and when you attach a Japanese last name to the end of it I think you get a combo that’s not likely to be duplicated. Even before I changed to my maiden name, I doubt I would have had any doubles out there. My maiden name was Ukrainian, but one that was shortened when my ancestors moved to Canada, so it’s not particularly common. I think one of the reasons I was fine with changing my name when I got married was that I was moving from one unique name to another unique name. Plus I just love having a Japanese last name when I so don’t look Japanese. Very Canadian of me, I think.
at one point i knew 8 julies. 3 being on the same rugby team as me. and my last name, one of the most common in french canada. so i was surprised to see that there were only 46 people with my name on facebook. i’ve gotten over not having an original name. the hubby’s on the other hand is quite unique. but i just couldn’t imagine changing it when we got married. i have been this person for 38 years, changing my name just seemed to much like changing a part of me.
My real name is Gertrude. I also recently googled my self and found a picture with someone with my name from the 30s riding an Ostrich! Really. Pretty funny. Bye the way, it is a very good idea to routinely google your name just to make sure there is nothing out there on the web that you don’t want to be there.
I thought I was uniquely named… until facebook too. Okay not true, until google search. I googled myself and someone else in another state came up. And then on facebook I found 3 other people with my name. And my name does NOT strike me as common at all, so it’s a surprise.
That being said, when I google myself, results pertaining to me do not come up first. Which is good, and then possibly bad if a potential employer looks for me. There’s a facebook status update that I different Ari wrote saying something about how “I’m facebooking at work” and I’m like, eff, I hope people don’t think *I* wrote that cuz I didn’t!
I did stumble on someone with my previously believed to be unique name. I didn’t feel weird about it though. I actually considered contacting her.
On an unrelated but related note, my daughter made me read Twas the Night Before Christmas yesterday, and the book that we have actually says, ‘Donder’!
I would be VERY surprised to encounter another Fawn Fritzen anywhere in the world. Fritzen is not a common last name, particularly in North America; it’s concentrated in Germany, of course, and also in Brazil. The chances of anyone being named Fawn in a non-English-speaking country are pretty darned low — I mean, it’s low enough in the English-speaking ones.
In fact, I wouldn’t be just surprised, I think I’d be twigged out. Fortunately, Google doesn’t seem to suggest there’s anyone else but me around.
I feel for ya!
For the longest time I was the only Christine Hennebury who came up in Google, but in the last few years I have discovered a soccer player in her late teens and a nurse in the midwest share my name. Neither of them is on Facebook though.
It is disconcerting to discover that you aren’t Tigger after all (The most wonderful thing about Tiggers is IIIIIIII’m the only one!).
Well so far the first three pages of a google search link back only to me. My married name is fairly unusual and since I use it now, that makes the entire name fairly uncommon. My maiden name was very common and I frequently stumbled upon other Carly (Maiden Name)’s out there.
While in University I traveled across Canada for a year giving retreats for junior and senior high school students. I introduced myself to one group of 7th Grade girls in a small town in northern Ontario only to have one of them respond with, “MY name is Carly!” and then turn around and walk away. I thought it was pretty funny, but she apparently was quite offended to meet another one.
READ THIS ARTICLE!!! they found each other on facebook because they share the same name, and now they’re married!! too funny.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jul/21/same-name-couple-facebook-marry
So far I am the only one with my name that I have ever been able to find. I would feel like you if I found another one of me – kind of sad. But I see there is another FF above me (Hi Fawn!)
I am uniquely named (completely obscure German last name with preppy English first name = not common) and I think I would be devastated to find out otherwise (but also kind of excited, maybe?). I’ve done the Facebook search, the phonebook searches – I appear to be safe.
For the longest time I was the only my full name that showed up on the Internet (or at least the rare google search of my full name that I made). And then suddenly, another my name showed up in an academic journal as a thanks for mouse DNA typing. Which, clearly, not me. And then I found another ‘me’ on LinkedIn – who sells cosmetics somewhere in the North Eastern United States. So, someone other than the DNA typing girl. And someone other than me. *Sigh*. I also thought I was unique in the world. So I hear you…
I am still the only ‘me’ on Facebook though. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or not.
I always thought I was the only one with my name out there, but Google has shown me that there are at least two more: a teacher in Scotland (which sort of makes sense, since that’s where my dad’s side of the family is) and a student at U of T. We are probably related in some way. Other than a kind of surprise at finding out I’m not the only one, it hasn’t bothered me much.
Well, I share my last name with three brothers who had a big hit in the 90s…
One of them married a Natalie. (I don’t know which one.) I found this out when I used to own my domain name name and my hits went from about 14 people (all family) to thousands over the course of a week. Turns out these two had a baby or got married or something. (Oddly this Natalie also shares my middle name.)
There is also a professional soccer player in Montreal… and one other person. If you google me, I, myself do not show up until the fourth page. There 142 of us on Facebook.
The Man has an unusual name. He’s the only one on Facebook. There are 4 people with The Boy’s name… and one looks REALLY creepy (old men in suits shouldn’t be on Facebook). For some reason this upsets me. hahaha….
When I google my real name, everything that comes up is me. So far, there’s no one else on the internet with my name. I admit, that I kind of like that.
My husband, on the other hand, has a ridiculously common name. (Not John Smith, but something like that.) He likes that he can hide on the internet. It would be very hard to stalk him because if you google him, you’d have to sort through way too much to find him. So the common name does have its advantages ….
I’m with you, Dani. I think I’d be a little crushed too. I had a relatively common name until I took John’s last name and now I think I’m unique (at least according to the Internet and as we all know, the Internet knows all). I kept my maiden name for quite a few years after I got married (that Women’s Studies degree was nagging me until I realized that my “maiden” name was actually my estranged father’s name) and now I really enjoy all the comments I get on my name.