# Have you ever googled your family name? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 12, 2001, 8:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-googled-your-family-name/68520 "2001-06-12T08:01:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![reprise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ea666f/32.png) [@reprise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/reprise)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2001, 8:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-googled-your-family-name/68520/1 "2001-06-12T08:01:54Z")
There I was, bored to distraction, when I innocently put my family name into google. At best, I expected a few newspaper articles about my brother’s military honours and some genealogical stuff. Imagine my surpise when I found that there’s a system of caves in Greece thought to have been inhabited during Neolithic times which bear the family name, and a town in Papua New Guinea bears it also. Now, of course, I’m curious about how these places came to bear the family name. Oh yeah, the family name is “Dirou”, so those of you who’ve been to Greece may know something about the history of the cave system. Has anyone else discovered totally unexpected stuff like this when googling? ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2001, 8:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-googled-your-family-name/68520/2 "2001-06-12T08:11:59Z")
I typed in my family name as a dot com once. Got some poxy lighting company in Florida. Ho hum. ---
**Author:** ![yosemite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/3ab097/32.png) [@yosemite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yosemite)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2001, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-googled-your-family-name/68520/3 "2001-06-12T08:15:57Z")
I own the domain of my family name. So, as one might expect, my own domain name comes up early in a search. My family name is not uncommon in the U.K., but pretty uncommon here. So, I see a lot of U.K. references. The thing that has astonished me is how _my_ name has come up. Or someone with the same name as me. (I usually go by my first and middle initials.) Freaks me out. One nice thing I saw - I have written a “Portrait Art Tutorial” (what can I say, I like to write web pages.) Apparently some people have gotten something out of it. I found a web site of a lady who was ill for a while, and while she was recovering, used the Internet to help educate herself on drawing portraits. She cited my tutorial site as one of her influences. Her drawings looked pretty good, too! That was a really freaky (but good) feeling, to discover that woman’s web site. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2001, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-googled-your-family-name/68520/4 "2001-06-12T08:23:37Z")
I found that there’s a respected scientist at NASA called Joe Gurman. And there’s a restaurant in the Czech Republic called the Gurmán Restaurant. I have a feeling that my surname (_Gurman_, as you guessed by now) is derived from a word similar in meaning to the French _Gourmand_ (glutton), which, when you consider my user name (which I chose because I **do** love food) is a pretty good case of [Nominative Determinism](http://www.newscientist.com/weird/more.html) ---
**Author:** ![reprise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ea666f/32.png) [@reprise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/reprise)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2001, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-googled-your-family-name/68520/5 "2001-06-12T08:26:19Z")
Can a mod moved this please, just realised I clicked the wrong forum link - it’s supposed to be in MPSIMS. thanks ---
**Author:** ![flodnak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/838e76/32.png) [@flodnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flodnak)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2001, 8:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-googled-your-family-name/68520/6 "2001-06-12T08:40:53Z")
My family name-dot-com belongs to an Austrian company that sells high-tech scales and other measuring equipment. There’s also a “Hotel-Pension” of that name in a place called Tamsweg in Austria, and a German family of the same name renting out a vacation home in Lower Saxony, up by the North Sea. Oh, and some sort of lake resort in Austria. (My German really bites so I’m relying on Google’s rather nasty and useless translations.) Plus a number of people - some students, some authors (a number of them probably dead!), and one cardiologist whose name turns up again and again. I thought my name was exceptionally rare - seems it’s just uncommon, there just weren’t many who came to the US. Instead they stayed in the Old Country and started fleecing tourists 😃 ---
**Author:** ![blur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/dbc845/32.png) [@blur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blur)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2001, 9:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-googled-your-family-name/68520/7 "2001-06-12T09:05:29Z")
I’ve done that a couple of times. No one owns the family dot com name, but I found a lot of things anyway. There are quite a few writers and artists in my family, so it actually brings up a lot of pages with their work. ---
**Author:** ![Fern\_Forest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/71c47a/32.png) [@Fern\_Forest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fern_Forest)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2001, 9:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-googled-your-family-name/68520/8 "2001-06-12T09:42:09Z")
on Johnson!?!?!? it googles 9,290,000 sites Although I’ve done it succesfully with other names in my family. ---
**Author:** ![Lsura](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7993a0/32.png) [@Lsura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lsura)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2001, 9:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-googled-your-family-name/68520/9 "2001-06-12T09:49:08Z")
Yep, there are all of about 20 hits. I generally assume that they’re related somehow. Various spellings give more hits-the most I’ve found is about 50. It’s a unique name. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![screech-owl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@screech-owl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/screech-owl)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2001, 11:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-googled-your-family-name/68520/10 "2001-06-12T11:06:34Z")
Gah! The first of 326 searches is a Canadian with my last name who lost a major court appeal on ‘search & seizure’ (several hours after arrest, ‘illegal’ search of the car produced several kilos of marijuana and cocaine). On the American side, my last name is the author of many dissertations on diseases, lipoproteins or mushrooms. It’s also a laundry tub design. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2001, 11:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-googled-your-family-name/68520/11 "2001-06-12T11:19:59Z")
I have a unique last name. It brings up either me, my brother, or some distant cousins I don’t really know. However, because my name is Maori and it actually has a definition, it was also the title of a popular book, so most often it brings up dissertations or references to this particular tome. Which is a shame because I found the book to be horrendously dull. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2001, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-googled-your-family-name/68520/12 "2001-06-12T11:53:30Z")
Since my married name is West, I wasn’t going to try that, but my maiden name is unusual in this country. Apparently there are two professors who share my name who’ve written a LOT!! I also found my brother - he was mentioned in the WSJ when he was hired as CFO by his current employer. Over 1000 hits overall… ---
**Author:** ![Amazing\_Tiki\_God](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/779978/32.png) [@Amazing\_Tiki\_God](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amazing_Tiki_God)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2001, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-googled-your-family-name/68520/13 "2001-06-12T12:43:40Z")
Let’s see I’ve found a fish restaraunt in Amsterdam that shares my last name, a heavy metal band in Sweden, a crap load of stuff on Lucius Verus, and some stuff on Lucius Annaeus Seneca. Other than that there isn’t too much coming up although I’m not going to look over the 157,000 different hits to see what they all are. And as you may have guessed Lucius is my last name. Oh yeah and some realtor lady in Colorado owns the dot com of my family name. ---
**Author:** ![Vinnie\_Virginslayer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/53a042/32.png) [@Vinnie\_Virginslayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vinnie_Virginslayer)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2001, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-googled-your-family-name/68520/14 "2001-06-12T12:48:41Z")
I’ve typed in my full name, and I could not believe how many Vinnie Virginslayers are out there!😃 But seriously, Ladies and Germs . . . If you want to measure your personal Q rating, type in your full name into Google. The number of times you come up in the first few pages should give you an idea if you are happening or not! ---
**Author:** ![Spritle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Spritle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spritle)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2001, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-googled-your-family-name/68520/15 "2001-06-12T13:18:49Z")
I’ve done it. It seems that I am a Caribbean born soccer player for West Ham. Go figure. I’m also related to some lady named Helga, who was famous for painting watercolors of plants. If there’s some family money, I’ll investigate this… 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2001, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-googled-your-family-name/68520/16 "2001-06-12T13:39:01Z")
Yup. Although it’s not a common name either in the US or France, it’s the name of a major French chemical company, and half the name of a major French-Italian candy company, who also owns the website with my family name. I’ve also found a chef in France with the same first and last name as my father. –sublight, PWI. I rock. Literally, in fact. ---
**Author:** ![lestrange](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/aca169/32.png) [@lestrange](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lestrange)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2001, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-googled-your-family-name/68520/17 "2001-06-12T13:56:14Z")
I’ve done this before. the family name yields a few personal websites (at least one moderately famous person, who I knew about before), a publisher, and…an archeological site in Scotland. Lots and lots of genealogical stuff. Mr. Lestrange’s name seems to just turn up personal sites, some of them in German. My mom’s maiden name doesn’t turn up much interesting, my step-dad’s name turns up his obit. Now, first name with last name reveals that I am, apparently, claims manager for a life insurance company. I myself do turn up in the minutes of Sacred Harp singings for various years. ---
**Author:** ![Olentzero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/90ced4/32.png) [@Olentzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Olentzero)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2001, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-googled-your-family-name/68520/18 "2001-06-12T14:03:08Z")
My family name’s [dot.com](http://dot.com) is some consulting firm out in Santa Clara. I thought at one point there was a [firstname-lastname.com](http://firstname-lastname.com) out there with my name on it but I can’t seem to find it. My name is common enough that simply putting that into Google gives me 707,000 hits - plenty associated with a certain type of box; first+last gives me 1200, of which the first is about a murder case in Mississippi in 1948. It apparently is fictional (I always wondered if there was a _real_ Yoknapatawhpa County) but finding that the accused murderer _and_ his father shared my and my father’s names was a little disconcerting. The first real person to share my name on this list works at the Marine Physical Laboratory of the Scripps Institute of Oceanography at UCSD. ---
**Author:** ![Myron\_Van\_Horowitzski](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de053/32.png) [@Myron\_Van\_Horowitzski](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myron_Van_Horowitzski)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2001, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-googled-your-family-name/68520/19 "2001-06-12T14:03:44Z")
Swiss watches. Who’da thunk it. ---
**Author:** ![wring](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@wring](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wring)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2001, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-googled-your-family-name/68520/20 "2001-06-12T14:11:57Z")
well, my family name is a common noun, so it would be a very silly thing to do. I have googled my entire name and discovered: 1. I signed in on a friend’s website (who’d have thought?) 2. There’s a doctor with the same name - lots of articles about her. 3. Nothing else remarkable. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-googled-your-family-name/68520.md?page=2)