To get around the internet, one needs a browser, like Edge or Chrome. I like the one called Firefox. It has a history that includes early work and it includes easy links to Pocket. The more I use it, the more I collect free interesting and useful articles from many publications. Today, I saw an article called "Why Are So Many Asian American Women Named Connie?"
t.ly/Rg2Zp (short link, provided by Firefox)
A Chinese American woman was told by her parents that she could select an American name for herself and she chose "Connie". She knew about the newswoman Connie Chung and liked her. She was in a shop one day and her name was called to pick up an order that was ready. The call used her name but the order was for another Chinese American woman, who had the same name she did. Back at her dorm, she did some exploring of names of students at her college and there were many with her name.
I read about 50 years ago that Kirby was the 511th most common name in the US. I learned the term "Googleganger", formed after the German word "doppelganger", literally "double-goer", another person, unrelated but who looks very much like me. A Googleganger is a person who also has my name.
I have known for a while that there are many other living Americans with my first and last name, spelled the way I spell mine. There was a joke in a TV show, where a person explained the members of her family: "my brother Darryl and my other brother Darryl". Normally, we use names to keep people straight and parents would not name two children with the same name.
These days, the business of identity, identification is very much alive as I try to show a computer that I am the right guy. Middle names, addresses, phone numbers, zip codes, birthdates, location and other bits of info connected to me are often used to identify me.
