What's in a name?

November 8, 2016 5:17 PM

Your name as an infographic - neat facts presented cooly.
For me: THERE ARE APPROXIMATELY 4 PERSONS NAMED 'MY NAME' IN THE UNITED STATES. IF YOU DON'T LIKE PEOPLE NAMED 'MY NAME' YOU SHOULD PROBABLY GO TO NEW HAMPSHIRE (NONE LIVE THERE).
posted by unliteral (70 comments total)

who says actuaries don't know how to have fun
posted by griphus at 5:33 PM on November 8, 2016 [9 favorites]

RUDE there is apparently one other person in the US with my name and that can't be true

there can be only one and that is me

where are you Other Hermione, I will fight you
posted by Hermione Granger at 5:36 PM on November 8, 2016 [12 favorites]

.2% of people named Bridget are men. Clearly, their folks didn't consider the "tease" factor when naming the boys.
posted by she's not there at 5:37 PM on November 8, 2016

wow apparently there are 4 of me (firstname lastname) in USA. I thought I was the only one...
posted by supermedusa at 5:38 PM on November 8, 2016

There are apparently 3 people in the US with my name, and, according to these statistics, 1.8% of them are female.
posted by BigHeartedGuy at 5:39 PM on November 8, 2016 [3 favorites]

161 for me. I feel so... ordinary.

Mind you, I think from that I will be extra careful on Tuesdays and Fridays in January. Bit concerned that both names mean I will pop my clogs in the same month.
posted by Brockles at 5:43 PM on November 8, 2016

JANET IS A REALLY UNPOPULAR BABYNAME.

No kidding.
posted by interplanetjanet at 5:46 PM on November 8, 2016 [5 favorites]

My name is boring so I used my wife's. Seems like all of the Croatians in the USA live in New York. So there's something I didn't know.
posted by wilful at 5:51 PM on November 8, 2016 [1 favorite]

The average life expectancy of people named Sean is 30.6 years. Any idea why that might be? (I'm the mother of a Sean and I don't need more things to worry about.)
posted by she's not there at 5:52 PM on November 8, 2016

There is nothing on me. I WIN.
posted by New England Cultist at 5:52 PM on November 8, 2016 [5 favorites]

The average life expectancy of (First Name) is 40.8 years.

*checks calendar*

Well, shit.
posted by Aznable at 5:53 PM on November 8, 2016 [5 favorites]

I'm atypical of my name in almost every way, including gender. Might have something to do with being outside the US though.
posted by threecheesetrees at 5:59 PM on November 8, 2016

There are 89 women in the US with my first name and last name. Their average age is 48, which is exactly how old I am! That's a little eerie.
posted by Squeak Attack at 5:59 PM on November 8, 2016

I don't understand this. 900633 humans in the US are given my very common first name, but only 3 deaths of people with that first name have been reported to the Social Security Administration. It doesn't give a time frame for those death reports. Only 3 people every? 3 people this year? Even the latter seems lower than I would have expected.
posted by layceepee at 6:06 PM on November 8, 2016

Two of me, that many? Good, I actually have a plausible beard. Maybe. I think I actually know a full third of the people with my surname.
posted by cotton dress sock at 6:23 PM on November 8, 2016

I'm not 100% on there being that many, though... I've lost my wallet more than a few times over the years... maybe I'll run a credit report on myself, in case of shenanigans.
posted by cotton dress sock at 6:26 PM on November 8, 2016

I always thought my name was kind of unusual (and by these stats, it is - only 32 others), but when I got to college, there was already another one of me there. Too weird.
posted by kevinbelt at 6:32 PM on November 8, 2016

The average life expectancy of (First Name) is 40.8 years.

I saw that most of my name have a life expectancy of 63 years. I have to think that's because most of the people with the name (though popular in the 70s & 80s), lived and died back in those high cholesterol years of yore and most of the longer living ones are still alive. I imagine a similar pattern would emerge for those with names that haven't been popular since the Gold Rush.
posted by rhizome at 6:35 PM on November 8, 2016 [1 favorite]

About 10000 of us. We are white, we are millennial, and we die young.
posted by idiopath at 6:47 PM on November 8, 2016

Average age for my first name is 10 years old... people keep yelling my damn name in toy departments telling kids to put things down.
posted by GuyZero at 6:51 PM on November 8, 2016 [1 favorite]

2. Yeah I know who the other one is. Do you ever just realize that getting away with a crime spree is not in your cards?
posted by efalk at 7:25 PM on November 8, 2016

I am the only one of me in the US, and 96% of me are Caucasian, apparently.

"2. Yeah I know who the other one is. Do you ever just realize that getting away with a crime spree is not in your cards?"

My brother has the same situation but failed to camp out on his name on twitter and his doppleganger is REALLY RACIST and my brother got a call from HR and had to be like, nooooooo, that guy lives 1200 miles away. Anyway he's a big advocate for defensive social mediaing now. (PS, my brother's doppleganger did go on a crime spree, at least jail slowed down his twitter account.)
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 7:56 PM on November 8, 2016 [3 favorites]

My net worth is apparently a lot more than it actually is. It's nice to be thought of so highly, at least.
posted by turbid dahlia at 8:10 PM on November 8, 2016

6, and yeah, I know about 3 of them from their mailing list signups.
posted by Kyol at 8:12 PM on November 8, 2016

In light of the 'election thread has been (very) temporarily disabled.' Here is Donald Trump:

96% OF ALL DONALD TRUMP ARE CAUCASIAN, 1% ARE MIXED ETHNICITY, 1% ARE HISPANIC, 1% ARE ASIAN, 1% ARE AFRICAN AMERICAN
CONSIDERING ALL OF THE SHOWN FACTS AND STATS THE ESTIMATED AVERAGE NET WORTH IS: $218,400
THE AVERAGE LIFE EXPECTANCY FOR THE LAST NAME TRUMP IS: 73.7 YEARS

Sorry America, he's still got 3.7 years left.
posted by unliteral at 8:52 PM on November 8, 2016 [3 favorites]

According to this site, I've already exceeded my life expectancy, and with the election news, I'll probably fall over very soon in a fatal bout of depression.

That said, I quibble with some of the facts. I get a Google alert for my pretty common name, and I think there's more of us that this report says. In fact, there's someone with my name who goes to the same medical center--I know, because our medical records get mixed up--and there was a girl two years ahead of me in elementary school with the same first, middle and last name.

Still, this is fun to play around with.
posted by etaoin at 10:49 PM on November 8, 2016 [1 favorite]

After checking my name (duh of course that was first) I thought I would check that of a close friend. Turns out there's no one with his name, evidently not even him.
posted by janey47 at 10:53 PM on November 8, 2016 [2 favorites]

I thought it was especially funny that it specifies the number of *humans* with that name because I just looked up my cats names (one shares a name with 3 humans, the other with 2 humans).
posted by kitten magic at 11:19 PM on November 8, 2016 [2 favorites]

Apparently would fit in California. The name I usually sign is 1st, the still-legal middle names I usually sign with for stuff I don't want to be associated with is 2nd (1st in Mass). My "doctor" name (First name, mothers' side) still has someone, too.
posted by lmfsilva at 11:38 PM on November 8, 2016

There are 48 people with my firstname-lastname combo in the US. 17% of us live in Massachusetts. I got a lotta local dopplegangers apparently.
posted by Spatch at 11:54 PM on November 8, 2016

It says there are two of me but I do not believe it. Everyone in the US with my surname is loosely related and I am, AFAIK, the only Kate.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 11:56 PM on November 8, 2016

one of 2 (or 3) in the US - says most people with same last name are in WI - would have thought Mass/New England as it's French-Canadian.

Novel, but doesn't make me feel better about the election.
posted by From Bklyn at 1:09 AM on November 9, 2016

I feel bad for the 2 American men called Eleanor! My first and last names are very British, would be interested to see a UK version of this.
posted by ellieBOA at 1:29 AM on November 9, 2016

There are none of me.
posted by atoxyl at 1:59 AM on November 9, 2016 [1 favorite]

And yes I do live in the U.S. Actually it doesn't get anybody with my last name (these people exist they are called my family). Hmph.
posted by atoxyl at 2:02 AM on November 9, 2016

There are two with my full name in the USA and they are 96.6% male.

Of course it also says there is only one with my name on Facebook which I know is incorrect. Admittedly, it might only be looking for Americans.
posted by antiwiggle at 2:21 AM on November 9, 2016

Also, there are 93 with my surname in the USA (compared with about 140 adults in the UK). According to the site 67% live in Ohio.

What's in Ohio? Is it a nice place?
posted by antiwiggle at 2:31 AM on November 9, 2016

They seem to be searching twitter for #FirstNameLastName. instead of @
Because my twitter name is literally @FirstnameLastname and apparently no one with my name is on twitter.

Also, this just reinforces my belief that infographics are mostly useless. The information on this page could be communicated more clearly and readably as a list of bullet points. The bright contrasting jangly colours (especially blue and red today), pointless images and typographically mucked about with different sized text all make it pretty hard to draw any real conclusions.
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 3:28 AM on November 9, 2016

Looks like my first name peaked in popularity around 1940: it was already on a huge downslide when I was born, and right now, it's bottoming out at number 990. This site says there's 10 with my firstname/lastname combo in the US; last time I googled me, there were 6 of us with my exact firstname/middlename/lastname --- my favorite is the slam-poet in Seattle.

And the life expectancy thingie says I've got 8.7 years to go; dang, guess that means I won't get lucky enough to avoid President Cheeto's administration.
posted by easily confused at 4:44 AM on November 9, 2016

Nobody has my name. Nobody.
posted by thegirlwiththehat at 4:56 AM on November 9, 2016

Life expectancy for my first name: 10 years. Huh. (though people with my uncommon last name have an expectancy of 72 years).

Also, there's only 1902 people with my last name. That's a very small amount. And 80% of them live in Louisiana, while .2% live in VA (my state) So, basically my family.

This is a good distraction from the election, thank you.
posted by FirstMateKate at 5:15 AM on November 9, 2016

Nobody has my name. Nobody.

Not even you? Do you exist? Have you checked recently?
posted by dinty_moore at 6:00 AM on November 9, 2016

Projected net worth using my legal first name: $147K
Projected net worth using my common nickname: $84K

People named Katherine are apparently fancypants.
posted by catlet at 6:13 AM on November 9, 2016 [1 favorite]

There are only two people in the U.S. who have the same first and last name as my sister -- well, OK, I can believe that, because she married a man who has an uncommon last name.

Then it goes on to say: "if you don't like people named Sister's Name, you should move to New Hampshire. None live there."

Uh, at least one person named Sister's Name lives there ... that would be Sister.

Huh.
posted by virago at 6:51 AM on November 9, 2016

± 2 UnitedStatesians have my name, ± 87 have my last name

Oh dear — people in my own country have trouble spelling my last name correctly, with it consisting of 6 letters and all that.
posted by farlukar at 8:02 AM on November 9, 2016

My name is in there, and it's just as deeply unpopular as expected, but it also appears that my stepmother's last name doesn't exist in their database. It's a highly unusual name, but I'm not used to it not showing up in anything at all.
posted by PearlRose at 9:13 AM on November 9, 2016

I wish I was worth ($113 K) what it says I was worth.

Apparently I am worthless.

starts theatrically sobbing..
posted by Samizdata at 9:27 AM on November 9, 2016

I'm with Hermione.

I thought I was the only person with my goofy name. There's a kid somewhere, I think the site mentioned Texas? And somehow our average age is 9. If there's two of us, and I'm in my mid forties, is he immortal? Or just a glimmer in a young man's eye?

Either way, I think we all know what I have to do.

/cut to wide shot of me on a motorcycle with no eye protection.
posted by Sphinx at 9:44 AM on November 9, 2016

Most people with my first name are young enough that I suspect their moms watched that one HBO show back in the 90s. Most of the people with my full name live in NY State, and I am one of them. The real surprise is that .02% of those with my first name are male (though I'm not sure that it's accurate).
posted by droplet at 10:35 AM on November 9, 2016

There are two of me in the U.S., and we two are living in three different states. None of which *I* live in or have ever lived in.
posted by weeyin at 10:39 AM on November 9, 2016

If you don't like people named [my name], you should probably go to Hawaii. (None live there.)

Don't tempt me to be the first. : )
posted by SisterHavana at 10:40 AM on November 9, 2016

Five other people in the US with my full first and married last name.

One other with my maiden name in the US, and no others on Facebook. The other one must be 48. because our average age is 51.

My nickname and married name? 3,669. And that's why I took David's name. I was frickin' tired of spelling mine. (Also, I'd like to know where my $84K net worth is hiding.)
posted by corvikate at 10:58 AM on November 9, 2016

Huh, I have a very ungoogleable firstname lastname (my last name is an English pronoun and google doesn't do punctuation so it picks up <...firstname. Lastname...>

Apparently there are 19 people in the US with my firstname lastname.
posted by porpoise at 12:07 PM on November 9, 2016

331 people with my name and it seems like most of them keep trying to use my gmail account
posted by exogenous at 12:42 PM on November 9, 2016 [4 favorites]

So how does this actually work? It looks like there's probably a separate list of first names and of last names and then you can search the possible combinations? And then I'd guess it's coming up with the numerical estimates by based on the probability of the intersection? Because it doesn't recognize anybody with my last name - which is ungainly but verifiably belongs to 8-10 people. In fact if you search for that name Google will pull up most of the ones I know plus ~2 I don't! But it does recognize a modestly-more-but-still-not-really-common variant, and lets me combine it with any first name. And doing that - or picking other odd combinations of names - I can make up people who stump Google but this app always estimates that there are "2." I guess that's effectively the minimum resolution?
posted by atoxyl at 1:54 PM on November 9, 2016

That's my guess without looking at the JS or request data.

(*starts looking at the JS and request data*)
posted by atoxyl at 1:57 PM on November 9, 2016

Okay that's unenlightening. Anything interesting is happening on the backend.
posted by atoxyl at 1:59 PM on November 9, 2016 [1 favorite]

There is only one of me.
Bow to my uniqueness.
posted by Hairy Lobster at 2:06 PM on November 9, 2016

There are none of me in the US.
posted by Promethea at 4:36 PM on November 9, 2016

Yeah, it doesn't recognize my married name. My maiden name comes up with 2 of me in the U.S. and a quick Google search later, and why yes, there is a lovely young highschool girl who has that name as well. Two of me!! I'm oddly pleased, my name is so weird, I didn't think it would ever happen.
posted by sharp pointy objects at 5:00 PM on November 9, 2016 [1 favorite]

One of my kid's names doesn't even register, and my daughter only has two name dopplegangers in the country. We won at giving our kids unique names :)
posted by COD at 6:01 PM on November 9, 2016

my last name is an English pronoun

Are you Dr Who?
posted by lollusc at 6:14 PM on November 9, 2016 [1 favorite]

So how does this actually work?
GurbangulyBerdimuha is the creator.
posted by unliteral at 8:19 PM on November 9, 2016

one of 2 (or 3) in the US - says most people with same last name are in WI - would have thought Mass/New England as it's French-Canadian.

History!

The State of Wisconsin is but a wee babby, not gaining statehood until 1848 -- it's star #30 -- three years after Texas and two before California. While the American Revolution was raging in the stripes, Wisconsin was watching from the nosebleeds as part of the Province of Quebec, having been recently acquired in the French and Indian War by the British. For the century prior to that, it was part of Canada, i.e. New France, Cismississippi North branch, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Old France, Inc. (Louis, Louis, and Louis, proprieters). After the Revolutionary War, Wisconsin became American on paper, but continued to be just a few pockets of French people ruled by the British until after the War of 1812; the opening of the Erie Canal in the 1820s drew in the Yankees and European immigrants, hey presto you've got yourself a territory, yada yada railroads, blah blah statehood, bada bing Laura Ingalls.

(As if that weren't complicated enough, imagine it all with a series of acetate overlays showing Menominee, Sauk, and Fox territories being stolen, clawed back, given away in overseas treaties by foreign kings without the owners' consent, strongarmed away, fought over inter-tribally, etc.)

History!
posted by Sys Rq at 11:13 PM on November 9, 2016 [1 favorite]

I am one of 86, and according to my first name statistics, I've probably been dead for five years.

Daughter 1 is one of five in the US, which are split into 3 boys and 2 girls. (I'm going to ignore the outlying .1% on their gender statistics.)

Daughter 2 has a name so unique it's not even in their listings - neither first nor last name.
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 11:23 PM on November 9, 2016

Thanks unliteral. Great fun...There are about 27 people named (my name) in the USA. If you don't like people with the name (my name) you should probably go to Vermont (None live there).
posted by Schroder at 12:57 AM on November 10, 2016

My last name isn't in the system. It doesn't even compute.
posted by Valancy Rachel at 7:43 PM on November 10, 2016

there are 188 of me but good luck googling for me! muahahahaha.

331 people with my name and it seems like most of them keep trying to use my gmail account

I've gotten so many free coupons from my old email address because of my doppelgangers trying to sign up for things.
posted by numaner at 3:08 PM on November 15, 2016

exogenous: "331 people with my name and it seems like most of them keep trying to use my gmail account"

Same here, even if I don't use that account any more really, nor does it have ANYTHING to do with my real name.
posted by Samizdata at 10:21 AM on December 8, 2016

I think this is fudging things as I don't know that I buy that there's a second Sunshine Hillygus (in addition to the poli-sci person at Duke) when they say there are no Hillyguses in NC.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 10:37 AM on December 8, 2016