Come On...You Do It Too!

Do you have a name-doppelganger? There was an article in today’s Houston Chronicle about how people find others with the same name and then feel somehow connected to them. And come on...we all do the vanity search, right? A person might even feel a bit angry if the “other” had already grabbed a website with the .com URL for that name, thus sentencing him or her to a lowly .net. Or, you might feel a little put down if the other person was rich or successful, as if somehow YOU should be the best with that name. OK, I thought, and did a Google vanity search for “Mary Ann Bell.” I did find a counterpart, who likes to read and, like me, was less than impressed with the book The Mermaid Chair. The only thing that kept me going through that story was wondering if the old lady would lop off another finger any time soon. Still, I did not feel a particular kinship with Mary Anne beyond that. She is a student in Chicago with an interest in anime, which I do not share. We are generations apart. Next I went for my maiden name. I hit the jackpot! I found another professor who teaches technology classes in a library science program in Georgia. Her name, like my “real” name, is Mary Ann Fitzgerald, and her achievements are quite impressive. She is a very prolific writer and presenter, and I am proud to share her name. Next I checked my daughter’s name, Emily Herring. She is well represented in a Google search. I have done this before, but rediscovered competing postings for two young musicians of about the same age. The “other” Emily is extremely successful in her chosen areas of interest, Broadway musicals and plays. I wonder what she thinks of her name double, a feisty country singer whom she has doubtless encountered on the net. And also, what about you? Is there another “you” out there?