Am I Who Everyone Should Believe I Am? A Michael by Any Different Calling Remains Quite as Famous
Tuesday, November 30th, 2010Have you from time to time condluded you had a very popular name? What do you think you might do if you met another person who also has your name? With the Interwebs it is now quite easy to meet people who go by the name your parents gave you. Perhaps they go by a different full name. Conceivably they spell your name very differently from you. Large numbers of people discover our people who also have our names. Rarely our counterparts may even enter work we pursue.
There is a minor league baseball player named Michael Martinez. But one may have heard of also a high school athlete called Michael Martinez. And there is a famous racehorse jockey called Michael Martinez. Professional basketball too has an athlete called Michael Martinez. So when you discuss sports with someone who likes Michael Martinez, be certain both of you are speaking about the right Michael Martinez!
Some segments of the educational field may have heard of more than one Michael Martinez in the field of political science. If you follow the career of many news writers one might know about quite a few journalists billed as Michael Martinez. Reading about Michael Martinez could be confusing were a Michael Martinez to write about a Michael Martinez. Lecturing on politics would be challenging enough yet what if you are the political science professor Michael Martinez talking with the columnist Michael Martinez as you’re both following a game featuring Michael Martinez?
Should one think this is all impossible, think how “Michael” is often listed in the top ten names given to male children in the United States. Frequent variant spellings of “Michael” spread across other languages like Russian (Mikhail), Swedish (Mikkel), among others, mix in even more Michaels. And the family name “Martinez” may be in the top twenty. Throughout the Americas perhaps twenty million people use “Martinez” as a last name. Therefore the probabilities that parents would name their child “Michael Martinez” are pretty reasonable.
We all occasionally meet someone named “David Smith”, “John Jones”, “Robert Jones”, and “Tom Rollins”. Okay maybe it is possible that popular surnames include “Black”, “Jones”, “Smith”, and “O’Neill” or “O’Neal”. Common first names include Michael, Jack, John, William, David, Bill, and Ed.
Parents researching names for babies do not need to be alarmed. Your of us may have shared names and some may one day meet several doppelnamers. However it is not simply one’s name which defines what we are. One’s friends, one’s choices and family also make up one’s life. You make your own place in life in a significant way. Therefore do not be concerned over people who may also have a name just like your own. Rather, look at these doppelnamers as if they are long lost alter egos whose lives could have been your ownbut for the grace of God.