Before I started this blog, I thought I was the only Nancy Nall in the known universe. It’s such an oddball name, after all — who other than my parents would choose it for an innocent girl baby? It turns out that I’m not, of course; since the Google came around I have virtually “met” at least a dozen relatives (all Nalls in the U.S. go back to a single ancestor, so we’re all at least distantly related), including a couple of Nancys. But this e-mail may be the best ever:
are you by any chance THE talented, nancy nall who starred on the Riley High School stage in Firefly, among many other memorable performances? if so, though you may not remember, I played opposite you in that one.
No. But if I were, I would certainly remember my co-star.
brian stouder said on September 7, 2007 at 11:44 am
‘The Talented Nancy Nall’ cannot help but be head and shoulders better than Mr Ripley!
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Connie said on September 7, 2007 at 11:55 am
I would have thought I was the only Connie Ozinga as well. But if you google my name, you will find that a Connie Ozinga in Maryland passed her seamanship course. If you add my middle name, Jo, I have zillions of google pages, mostly due to things like years worth of monthly board meeting minutes. There are not that many Ozingas in the entire country.
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Mindy said on September 7, 2007 at 11:55 am
I once Googled my husband and came up with three other guys who have his name with wives who have my name. Two of the couples live in Minneapolis. I bet they get each other’s phone calls all the time.
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Danny said on September 7, 2007 at 12:08 pm
Imagine my astonishment when I found out I was not the only Danny Smith.
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deb said on September 7, 2007 at 12:18 pm
i have a doppelganger who’s a bad artist and another–although i guess it could be the same woman–who’s a dog breeder. give you a little jolt to google yourself and find the word “bitches” right next to your name.
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LA mary said on September 7, 2007 at 12:54 pm
At least once a day someone tells me they either know another Mary Poole or they think they already know me. It’s one of those basic sounding names. My maiden name was a nice weird Frisian name, likes Connie’s is, and no one ever said they recognized that one.
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John said on September 7, 2007 at 1:08 pm
Just a slight correction (since you probably got the it from me), “virtually all Nalls in the U.S. go back to a single ancestor”. There are a few families started from different immigrants and a couple of name changes (from Noll, Noul or Neal, for example).
I truly hope you answered that you are The Talented Nancy Nall, but not the aforementioned actress.
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Connie said on September 7, 2007 at 2:11 pm
LA mary, I love it when people recognize my name as a “nice weird Frisian name.” That is the reason I didn’t change my name when I married.
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brian stouder said on September 7, 2007 at 2:42 pm
Way way way (waaaaaay) back in kindergarten, I sat next to a girl named Brighetta Ohzie – probably spelling that wrong, but her name was pronounced brigeetah (emphasis on the ‘gee’) ohzee. A very nice person, and I think her parents spoke German
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Jen said on September 7, 2007 at 3:53 pm
My doppelganger is a cousin by marriage, and “borrowed” my credit rating to buy her house. Gotta love those free market-driven credit bureaus and their commitment to accuracy.
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Linda said on September 7, 2007 at 5:08 pm
Jen, you got off easy. When I tried to refinance my house, they mixed up my credit records with someone with a similar first name, born on the same day, in the same hometown, with a SS number 1 digit off from mine, who had bad paper everywhere. It took months to straighten it out, and one of the credit bureaus had the nerve to scold ME to be careful.
And googling my name only reminds me of how many people with the same name are smarter and more accomplished than me.
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MichaelG said on September 7, 2007 at 6:54 pm
There have been at least three other Michael Goldens who worked for the State of CA. Wildest of all is that there was one with the same middle initial who worked in the same unit where I work doing the same thing that I do. We used to call him my dad. He retired several years ago. Imagine the problems with network log ons, email, messages, travel claims, etc., etc. It was endless. Worse still was that he was a bigoted, racist SOB. They used to call me the ‘good Michael G’ and he was the ‘bad’ one. I still get messages and mail for the guy. Our people came from the same area in the west of Ireland so I assume we’re related somewhere way back. What a trip that was. I also ended up having to fix some jobs that he had fu I mean, messed up. I felt like a fool trying to explain how it wasn’t my fault. I’m lucky so far to not have had any credit or ID problems because of any of the others.
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Jen said on September 8, 2007 at 8:50 am
Linda: I can actually relate. Same 1st/last name, same year of birth, and all her bad paper got mixed up in my file. Her FICO jumped 200 pts, and mine went down 300. I found out when my employer (a financial institution) sent a VP to give me the “bad kid” talk for not meeting conditions of employment. QUITE the rude awakening. At least it only took 6 months to fix…
http://www.annualcreditreport.com
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Julie Robinson said on September 8, 2007 at 9:52 am
I grew up with a very uncommon name, Pigott; go ahead and take a minute to imagine the possibilities on the playground. Even so, when we were married I didn’t immediately change my name; that didn’t happen until we were starting a family and I came to feel we should all share a name.
There still isn’t a good solution to this–who gives up their family name, do you just pick a new name and make both sides mad? We have friends who both hyphenated, definitely the most equitable, but they both have unusally spelled and pronounced names. What happens when their boys marry? Especially if they find women who also have two last names.
They shouldn’t have any credit switch problems, though.
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ashley said on September 9, 2007 at 11:27 am
Well, there’s this.
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Bev said on September 9, 2007 at 7:28 pm
I found your blog some months ago while trying to find out who the heck Red Trabue was. I too, wondered if you were Nancy Nall from Riley H.S. – whose little brother was my first “boy friend, not boyfriend” as I said back in first grade. I figured out quickly you were too young to be ‘Riley Nancy’ but have been happily reading your blog ever since. Alas, I still don’t know why they name roads and parks after Red Trabue…
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