A couple of days ago, I discovered on a blog that I just happened to visit, a quote that was attributed to me. What’s the problem you ask? The problem is those were not my words. I never made the statement. In fact, I had never even visited that blog before. Thank goodness it wasn’t a negative statement. And it would have been all right to be quoted if those had been my words, but they were not. Since I was not the author of the quote, why was it credited to me?
I know what you are thinking. Of course, I know full well that it is not unusual for several people to have the same name. Numerous people throughout the world share their name. So the quote could actually have been made by my namesake or it may have been made by someone impersonating me because she (or he) didn’t want to disclose her (or his) own identity.
As I have discovered, plenty of people have the same first name as I do, just as countless people share their name with Charles Smith, Kathryne Johnson, and William Jones. But come on, there are not a lot of people who share the same given name and the exact hyphenated surname. Are there? Raise your hand if you know them. Just as I thought.
Take Kathryne, for instance. And notice the unique spelling of her given name. Now let’s say that Kathryne’s last name is — we’ll use a hypothetical — Johnson. You could probably find women named Kathryne whose surname happens to be Johnson. You may even know one of them personally. But when Kathryne Johnson marries and becomes Kathyrne Johnson-Coleman that name becomes a little less common, as was the case when I combined my given name with my hyphenated surname. It became somewhat uncommon.
I’m not saying that it’s impossible for people to have the exact name. But if that is the case, I wish that person sharing my name when being quoted on a blog or some other public place would use a pseudonym. Jill Doe probably wouldn’t mind sharing her name. Do you think?