{"id":133445,"date":"2017-05-10T13:36:53","date_gmt":"2017-05-10T19:36:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/05\/10\/on-having-an-extremely-common-name.html"},"modified":"2017-05-10T13:36:53","modified_gmt":"2017-05-10T19:36:53","slug":"on-having-an-extremely-common-name","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/05\/10\/on-having-an-extremely-common-name.html","title":{"rendered":"On having an 'extremely common name'"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since I do, in fact, have an extremely common name (heck, with a common surname and thus a raft of celebrities and sports figures that share it), I found this article particularly interesting.<\/p>\n

Having a very common name has never particularly bothered me. Most times, I've actually enjoyed it. <\/p>\n

Like one person quoted in the article, there's a sort of shallow kinship with all the other "Daves" out there. It was a common enough name at my college that we actually had a "Dave" club, led by our college president of the same name. One year there I roomed with another Dave, and of the other three people in our hallway segment that shared the same phone there were four Daves (I would answer the phone "Dave, Dave, Dave, Ron, and Dave. Dave speaking.")<\/p>\n

There was a brief period in my sophomore year in high school when I decided that I wanted something unique. So I started writing my name as "Davyd." That was really cool for, like, two weeks, before my teachers started getting confused and asking questions, at which point I went back to the original.<\/p>\n

(In that I was copying a friend named Eric who had decided to go by "Erick" — he still does to this day.)<\/p>\n

I never particularly chose or preferred between "Dave" and "David". i went by the latter most commonly growing up; at some point the former became the most common, and as I've been doing job apps, that's what I've been using (except when asked for full legal name). That said, too many mocking renditions of the Ballad of Davy Crocket made to me in junior high rendered that diminutive off-limits.<\/p>\n

One advantage to an extremely common name (sort of the opposite of stuff that's hinted at in the article) is that it creates some useful anonymity. I mean, I know that nobody is truly anonymous on the Internet, and it would not take a massive amount of research to learn which of the many people with my name I am — but a simple search by name cranks out many pages on Google before there's any chance of finding me. That allows for some casual (if not to be fully relied upon) separation of Work and Play.<\/p>\n

Another advantage (I'll call it an advantage) is that the name comes up in all sorts of cultural circumstances — from "Dave's not here, man," to "I'm sorry, Dave, I can't do that."<\/p>\n

I like my name. I don't feel particularly traumatized for having an extremely common one. In many ways, it's kind of nice — especially not having to spell it to others all the time.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n
\n
\n<\/a>
\nThe psychological effects of growing up with an extremely common name<\/a><\/span>
\n“Parents are really, really worried about their kids being ordinary.”\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

View on Google+<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since I do, in fact, have an extremely common name (heck, with a common surname and thus a raft of celebrities and sports figures that share it), I found this article particularly interesting. Having a very common name has never particularly bothered me. Most times, I've actually enjoyed it. Like one person quoted in the … Continue reading “On having an 'extremely common name'”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-133445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10134,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/08\/28\/weekend_update.html","url_meta":{"origin":133445,"position":0},"title":"Weekend Update","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 28-Aug-06 6:24am","format":false,"excerpt":"Occasionally lazy, mostly crazy. FRIDAY: A \"long\" Friday for me, to make up for this coming Friday being off. Still a fairly placid day, very little e-mail, little activity --...","rel":"","context":"In "Doctor Who"","block_context":{"text":"Doctor Who","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/franchises\/media-tv-doctor-who"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10709,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/11\/14\/i_am_me.html","url_meta":{"origin":133445,"position":1},"title":"I am me!","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 14-Nov-06 7:47am","format":false,"excerpt":"Discovered another \"Hill, Dave\" in the corporate e-mail system, which is a recipe for hi-jinx and\/or disaster as folks route critical stuff to the wrong one. One of the drawbacks...","rel":"","context":"In "Job Jollies"","block_context":{"text":"Job Jollies","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/job-jollies"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":19785,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/01\/07\/artifacts-from-a-bygone-era.html","url_meta":{"origin":133445,"position":2},"title":"Artifacts from a bygone era","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 7-Jan-11 5:31pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Stacy Johnson uses\u00a0\u00a0HuffPo article as inspiration to describe things that \"kids born in 2011\" will probably never use or recognize. \u00a0Like most such articles, I think it overreaches in a few areas, though it's an interesting discussion. Video tape: Starting this year, the news stories we produce here at Money\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Hi-Tech"","block_context":{"text":"Hi-Tech","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/hi-tech"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/BuggyWhipsAd.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":21623,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/07\/17\/unblogged-bits-sun-17-jul-11-2330.html","url_meta":{"origin":133445,"position":3},"title":"Unblogged Bits (Sun. 17-Jul-11 2330)","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 17-Jul-11 11:30pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries .... The Google Effect: New evidence of the Internet\u2019s impact on brain and memory recalls Plato\u2019s ancient warning \u00ab The Teeming Brain - The question is, are you going to just decry it, or figure\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Animation \/ Cartoons"","block_context":{"text":"Animation \/ Cartoons","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-cartoons"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3551,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/10\/29\/whats_new_is_er.html","url_meta":{"origin":133445,"position":4},"title":"What’s new is, er, newer again","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 29-Oct-02 9:04am","format":false,"excerpt":"Eleventy zillion years ago -- well, actually, last June -- I wrote of the meme of typing your name plus \"is\" into Google to see what comes up. Well, the...","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging & Internet"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging & Internet","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9416,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/07\/11\/lost_verizon.html","url_meta":{"origin":133445,"position":5},"title":"Lost Verizon","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 11-Jul-06 2:45pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Because when it comes to the fine print, it doesn't matter what you're told, it just matters what they decide to honor.\u00a0 As this Verizon customer learned when he was...","rel":"","context":"In "Big Business"","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133445"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133445\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}