The downside of sharing a first and last name with someone.

Shadow Dragon

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 7, 2008
Messages
4,773
Reaction score
261
Location
In the land of dragons
Former CNN anchor Larry King tweeted to his followers that he was still alive on Friday, despite some followers believing otherwise.

Following the death of famed playwright Larry L. King earlier that day, many users on Twitter mistook the playwright for the CNN anchor and starting tweeting that King, the broadcaster, died instead.

"R.I.P. Larry King not just CNN viewers will miss you!" one Twitter user wrote. Another user actually tweeted at King's Twitter account asking, "Hearing a rumor that you're dead. Are you dead?" Others took to Twitter to clarify that King, the playwright, not King ,the broadcaster, passed away. But King took matters into his own hands, setting the record straight.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/...-playwright-larry-l-king-death_n_2348216.html

I think this fooled a lot of people into thinking that it was THE Larry King that died, not the playwright.
 
Last edited:

Plot Device

A woman said to write like a man.
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 14, 2007
Messages
11,973
Reaction score
1,866
Location
Next to the dirigible docking station
Website
sandwichboardroom.blogspot.com
Years ago when I was working for a financial firm, I answered the phone one day (I was a cubical dweller on a cube farm where several hundred of us answered the in-bound calls for the firm's 800-phone number). And when the guy on the phone gave me his account information, I pulled it up an my screen and told him: "Your balance is zero, sir. It looks like it was cashed out two weeks ago, the check was mailed to your house, and the check itself was cashed two days ago."

He was livid. He said he had been waiting for the check to arrive in the mail and it never came. I told him it was mailed to his address (we checked the address together, and it was correct). The amount of the check was over $20,000. He said he wanted to see a copy of the signature on the back of the check. I said I would mail him a photo copy. And then he added: "I hope I'm wrong, but my 19-year-old, good-for-nothing son shares my name, and he still lives at home with us. He doesn't have a job, and I wouldn't put it past him to have cashed this check."
 

kuwisdelu

Revolutionize the World
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Sep 18, 2007
Messages
38,197
Reaction score
4,544
Location
The End of the World
steve-jobs-reports-of-my-death-are-greatly-exaggerated.jpg
 

Alessandra Kelley

Sophipygian
Staff member
Moderator
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 27, 2011
Messages
16,882
Reaction score
5,197
Location
Near the gargoyles
Website
www.alessandrakelley.com
Both my husband and I have pretty unusual names. I have found only one person with the same name as me, and she is a Brazilian missionary. Last year she and her husband moved to Portland, Oregon -- where an orthodontist with the same name as my husband lives.

Hopefully none of our acquaintances will be confused by this.
 

LJD

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Sep 12, 2010
Messages
4,226
Reaction score
525
Happens all the time in my family.

My grandfather has the same name as a former premier of my province. My dad has the same name as a famous cartoonist, has trouble flying because someone with his name is on the no-fly list, and had his bank account frozen while out of the country because someone with the same name had an overdue student loan.

For Christmas, I gave my dad a book written by someone with the same initials and last name as me, as a sort of joke.


and high school:
administrator: We can't give you your schedule because you have a grade 10 English book that you never returned.

Me: I'm in grade 9, and I haven't even taken grade 9 English yet. There are two of us named L--- D---. It's the other one who never returned her textbook.

administrator: (consults official list containing the names of every single student in the school, supposedly) There's only one of you listed here...

yeah, that was fun...
 

Zoombie

Dragon of the Multiverse
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 24, 2006
Messages
40,775
Reaction score
5,947
Location
Some personalized demiplane
I once committed a whole week of debit card fraud because someone thought I was Zoombie X Zombie instead of Zoombie Z Zombie. Man...was my face red.

(No, really, I went to get a replacement debit card after I lost my old one and they mixed me up.)
 

thebloodfiend

Cory
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 2, 2011
Messages
3,771
Reaction score
630
Age
30
Location
New York
Website
www.thebooklantern.com
>.>

I have said too much.

Don't give him ideas.

There are Biggest Loser fanfics, after all. And both trainers are a gay man and bisexual woman in a relationship with another woman (and she has kids!). Le sigh.

Rule #34: If it exists, there is porn for it. You exist, therefor... you know the drill.
 

kuwisdelu

Revolutionize the World
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Sep 18, 2007
Messages
38,197
Reaction score
4,544
Location
The End of the World
Don't give him ideas.

There are Biggest Loser fanfics, after all. And both trainers are a gay man and bisexual woman in a relationship with another woman (and she has kids!). Le sigh.

Rule #34: If it exists, there is porn for it. You exist, therefor... you know the drill.

It's official. AW fanfic needs to exist.

I want a harem end.
 

blacbird

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 21, 2005
Messages
36,987
Reaction score
6,158
Location
The right earlobe of North America
My honest-to-Dog real surname isn't terribly common, although my first name is very so. Just for fun a while back I googled the combination, and discovered that I share it with the world's premier specialist in the scientific study of the horrible and sometimes deadly black funnel web spiders of Australia. He works at the U. of Queensland.

caw
 

donroc

Historicals and Horror rule
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 27, 2006
Messages
7,508
Reaction score
798
Location
Winter Haven, Florida
Website
www.donaldmichaelplatt.com
There is a Donald Platt who is a well-published poet, which is why I use my middle name to differentiate. That is the only identical first-last name situation I have encountered.
 

Xelebes

Delerium ex Ennui
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Aug 8, 2009
Messages
14,205
Reaction score
884
Location
Edmonton, Canada
No one shares my name in Canada. Haven't come across any in the US however there are some close ones. I think I've spotted a Philip Siebold or two. There is also the famous botanist and physician, Dr. Phillip von Siebold, who published a few books on botany in Japan.
 

druid12000

You're out of your tree...
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 23, 2011
Messages
7,213
Reaction score
507
Location
The dark side of the moon, making sinister plans..
I had to get a transcript of my bank account a few years ago. I told the teller my name and she immediately asked for my ID. Puzzled I asked why (I had been going to that branch for years and knew all the tellers). She said, 'There's like three hundred of you in the computer'.
I have a very popular and generic name.
It's even in a movie.
Gah!
 

Roger J Carlson

Moderator In Name Only
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 19, 2005
Messages
12,799
Reaction score
2,499
Location
West Michigan
When we registered our daughter for kindergarten, her records were all messed up. They had the wrong birth date, the wrong address, the wrong parent names -- everything. After some research it turned out that there was another little girl registering that year with exactly the same name including the middle. We had many issues with school records until the other girl moved out of district.

A few years ago, I switched to a new doctor who re-prescribed all my medications. A couple of them were denied because they weren't covered by Medicaid Part D. The only problem is I'm not retired and don't get Medicaid. Turns out that doctor has another Roger Carlson who does.
 

Williebee

Capeless, wingless, & yet I fly.
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 11, 2007
Messages
20,569
Reaction score
4,814
Location
youtu.be/QRruBVFXjnY
Website
www.ifoundaknife.com
My personal email is a middle initial different from a member of the Republican "old guard" in North Carolina. I get a lot of his mail. I started forwarding it after the first couple. Nice guy. We exchange notes now and again.
 

DeleyanLee

Writing Anarchist
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Sep 6, 2007
Messages
31,660
Reaction score
11,407
Location
lost among the words
I googled my name once and discovered that it was also the heroine of a Harlequin Romance and the character was a part of a series. At the time, I was a member of RWA, so I emailed the author for the giggle. She not only giggled, but sent me a signed copy of the entire series so I could read what "I" was doing.

My name also belongs to a prominent lawyer in the Atlanta area, IIRC. Other than that, my own accomplishment come up in the search.
 

Plot Device

A woman said to write like a man.
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 14, 2007
Messages
11,973
Reaction score
1,866
Location
Next to the dirigible docking station
Website
sandwichboardroom.blogspot.com
Here's a true story that might make for an awesome set up for a novel or a screenplay.






A young 20-something girl who had about the lowest-paying job at the financial firm where I worked (over 5,000 employees) labored as a lowly file clerk in the bowels of the company's vast records room. Her name was Curry Michaels.

Unusual name, right??

I sometimes needed to e-mail her an internal e-mail via the company's Lotus Notes e-mail system. And when you would go to the field for "To" to fill in the name of the person you were attempting to e-mail, it (of course) started to second guess your intended recipient by flling it in with all the possible names you might have been angling in upon. So, if you typed in the name "Curry" it filled in with SEVERAL possible names. Now even though she was the only person at that company whose FIRST name was "Curry," it turns out that about 5 other people worked there whose LAST name was "Curry."

And ...

Among the 5 folks whose last name was Curry, there was a dude on the Board of Directors who made about 120k per year, and his name was .... Michael Curry.

So, one day, I needed some records from the records room, and so I sent her an e-mail, and within minutes I got a reply back NOT from the young lady named Curry Michaels, but instead the reply came from Michael Curry, the dude who drove a Lexus and had his own private secretary. He sent the e-mail as a "forward" to Curry Mciahels, and he cc'd me. In it he said to her:

"Hello Curry,

Here's another one for you. Have a great day!

Mike"

I called Curry on the phone and I apologized vehemently to her. She said "Happens all the time. He gets my stuff. I get his stuff -- and some of his stuff is SUPER sensitive! Mike and I have fostered a great relationship because of it."
 
Last edited:

archerjoe

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 21, 2009
Messages
3,268
Reaction score
369
Location
Fargo
Harvey Pekar created a strip from his experiences finding another Harvey Pekar in the phone book. Before he thought to contact the other person, he saw his obituary in the paper. He felt sad but he wasn't sure why he was more sad over this than any other stranger's obit.

As for me, there are two other people with my first and last name in town. One occasionally writes letters to the local paper complaining about TV shows. Because you know the Fargo Forum is the hot spot for TV executives to listen to viewer complaints :rolleyes:
 

DancingMaenid

New kid...seven years ago!
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Aug 7, 2007
Messages
5,058
Reaction score
460
Location
United States
My first and last name are both pretty common, so I'm far from unique. It briefly caused some trouble because scheduling at my company is all computerized, and it turns out there's another employee in another state with the same first and last name as me. A manager once accidentally scheduled that person instead of me, even though they didn't even work in the same state.

However, my middle name and last name, which is what I actually go by, is really uncommon. It's a bit intimidating, actually. When I google myself, most of the results that actually involve that name combination are about me. And then there are these weird results for illegal downloads of Supernatural episodes or something, which I find a little alarming since I don't want people to think it's actually me. The results are pretty incoherent, though, so I think I'm probably safe.
 

blacbird

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 21, 2005
Messages
36,987
Reaction score
6,158
Location
The right earlobe of North America
A "Larry King" moment happened again just today. I caught a news headline that Richard Adams had died. My instant thought was "Richard Adams, author of Watership Down". But, nooooooo, it was Richard Adams, the gay rights activist.

Back in the early 1960s, in the first year of its existence, the New York Mets baseball team for a while had, on their 25-player active squad, three pitchers named Bob Miller. They were legendarily horrible, still hold the all-time record for most losses in a season, and maybe this was the reason.

caw