# How Many Of You Are There? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 20, 2006, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-of-you-are-there/377251 "2006-10-20T17:29:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![ladybug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/46a35a/32.png) [@ladybug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ladybug)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2006, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-of-you-are-there/377251/101 "2006-10-21T01:30:27Z")
Wow. Only 88. I’m actually surprised. When I was in undergrad, there were two other students at UF who shared my name (one even had the same middle name). I used to put my SSN on all of my tests and papers to avoid a potential mix-up. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2006, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-of-you-are-there/377251/102 "2006-10-21T14:27:03Z")
Two. I was the only one, but someone with my first name recently married a guy named Dan [my surname] so now there’s two. Frighteningly, they live in the town I grew up in. No, I’ve never met either of them…I googled my own name and made the discovery this summer when I saw the strangest obituary. My last name is an Ellis Island creation, so there are only 1,800 people with it, all in the US. ---
**Author:** ![Roonwit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/54ee81/32.png) [@Roonwit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roonwit)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2006, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-of-you-are-there/377251/103 "2006-10-21T15:10:19Z")
[QUOTE=chappachula] I had thought it contained accurate info from the census bureau–i.e. the real names of actual people. But no, it’s just a statistical game. It counts first names, it counts last names, but it makes no attempt to list pairs of first and last names that actually belong together , because a real person with those names exists somewhere. [/QUOTE] So, _statistically_ speaking… There are 1,412,852 with my first name, 824,914 with my last name, and 3,885 with both. I find this easy enough to believe, because I know 2 other people in this small town with the same name. I guess that ‘unique…like everyone else’ thing has some truth to it. ---
**Author:** ![Ludy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Ludy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludy)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2006, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-of-you-are-there/377251/104 "2006-10-21T15:19:43Z")
Well I have two last names (my mom never changed her name when she married and I have both on my birth certificate so I could go by either) Using my Dads name - 2 Using my Moms - 0 There are 0 people in the US with my Mom’s last name. Seeing that there are a number of them in Canada I find that odd. Really odd because I know one of her cousins with that last name has been living and working in the US for about 20 years. Go figure. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2006, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-of-you-are-there/377251/105 "2006-10-21T16:57:18Z")
414 With my common name. 192 With my formal name. One of them is in my Lodge back home, causing endless confusion. ---
**Author:** ![Bambi\_Hassenpfeffer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Bambi\_Hassenpfeffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bambi_Hassenpfeffer)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2006, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-of-you-are-there/377251/106 "2006-10-21T17:27:53Z")
[QUOTE=Antinor01] Using my first name, 149. Using my middle name which is what I go by, 16. [/QUOTE] What he said, except 187 and 11. ---
**Author:** ![sleestak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/919ad9/32.png) [@sleestak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sleestak)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2006, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-of-you-are-there/377251/107 "2006-10-21T17:28:37Z")
According to this site there are 12 of me out there. According to White Pages there are 16 of me. I am pretty certain that there are more than that. I think what the site misses, at least in my case, is that while my first name is fairly widely used (52nd most used) and my last name is fairly rare (7633), a lot of males with my last name are likely to share my first name due to cultural and regional trends. My last name is Swedish and my first name is, as far as I can tell, more widely used in Swedish families. Also, I think that in the area where my father grew up my first name is more widely used. Oh, and my Dad doesn’t exist according to that site. Which I know is wrong. There are at least three of him out there. Slee ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2006, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-of-you-are-there/377251/108 "2006-10-21T17:33:13Z")
114 but I’m not one of them either. My first name is the 17th most popular 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![pendgwen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3da27b/32.png) [@pendgwen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pendgwen)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2006, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-of-you-are-there/377251/109 "2006-10-21T17:36:04Z")
23 My last name’s pretty common but I use an uncommon spelling of an already uncommon first name. ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2006, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-of-you-are-there/377251/110 "2006-10-21T17:36:36Z")
Strange!! I entered my pals name, David Smith, and there is not a soul in the US named David **or** Smith ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2006, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-of-you-are-there/377251/111 "2006-10-21T18:47:37Z")
3 of me and 0 of my husband’s name. If I had taken his name, apparently there is one person with that combination. I don’t live in the US, though. So I’m not one of the 3 mes. ---
**Author:** ![AngelicGemma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/439d5e/32.png) [@AngelicGemma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AngelicGemma)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2006, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-of-you-are-there/377251/112 "2006-10-21T18:55:50Z")
None. Yay! I’m one of a kind! ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2006, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-of-you-are-there/377251/113 "2006-10-21T19:05:29Z")
I’m unique, as anyone who knows me will attest 🙂 There are 19,498 people with my first name, and 13,019 with my last name, but I appear to be the only person with my combination of first and last names. In the U.S., anyway - I also have the same name as a British neurologist. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Blue-Sighted\_Shadow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecae2f/32.png) [@The\_Blue-Sighted\_Shadow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Blue-Sighted_Shadow)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2006, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-of-you-are-there/377251/114 "2006-10-21T19:11:05Z")
There are 14,998 people with my first name, 15,178 people with my last name, but there’s only one me. I double-checked with Google and only 2 hits came up. Hey, that’s 50% more than the last time I checked! ---
**Author:** ![Kat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b19c9b/32.png) [@Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kat)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2006, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-of-you-are-there/377251/115 "2006-10-21T19:13:36Z")
There are 179,981 people with my first name and 3480 with my last name. There are 2 people with both my first and last name. Based on other responses, I wonder if either of them are me. I also wonder about middle names now. ---
**Author:** ![gardentraveler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gardentraveler/32/3576_2.png) [@gardentraveler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gardentraveler)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2006, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-of-you-are-there/377251/116 "2006-10-21T19:52:42Z")
There are 125,987 with my first name. It has the same male-female stats as Lisa (99.9% female). I also have a girly (although quite unusual) first name and would love to meet the guy with my first name. I’m surprised they say there are that many with my first name. My last name is _much_ more common and they say there are 239,975 of us. The numbers seem unlikely to me. I’d think fewer with my first name and more with my last name. They found 101 with my first name - last name combo. That seems about right, maybe even a little low. There were at least 3 of me in Ohio last I checked White Pages and none of them were me. GT ---
**Author:** ![JimOfAllTrades](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@JimOfAllTrades](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JimOfAllTrades)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2006, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-of-you-are-there/377251/117 "2006-10-22T00:55:57Z")
I’ve got a dirt common first name combined with a very unusual last name (at least in the US, in the UK it’s much more common). According to that site, there are 2,560,232 people in the U.S. with the first name **Richard** , which is statistically the 8th most popular first name. But it also says there are zero people with my last name. While statistically close to zero, it’s actually probably around 40 or so. My wife, who has been heavily involved in genealogy for almost 20 years, has spent a lot of time looking for people with my family name. As near as we can tell, outside of my immediate family, there can’t be more than a couple of dozen in this country, maybe as few as 10. So zero isn’t really that far off the mark. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Push\_Up\_Bra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/edb3f5/32.png) [@Freudian\_Push\_Up\_Bra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Push_Up_Bra)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2006, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-of-you-are-there/377251/118 "2006-10-22T01:06:19Z")
I appear to be a rare individual - none of me, none with my last name and then’s there this: > [@](#): > > There are 31,497 people in the U.S. with the first name Stefanie. > Statistically the 1033rd most popular first name. (tied with 24 other first names) > \*\*More than 99.9 percent of people with the first name Stefanie are female. \*\* (Bolding mine)…that is good to know… ---
**Author:** ![Waenara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/50afbb/32.png) [@Waenara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waenara)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2006, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-of-you-are-there/377251/119 "2006-10-22T01:16:11Z")
It says there’s none with my last name and almost 15,000 with my first name. But I’ve googled my last name before and there were a couple hits from people who seem to be in the US. ---
**Author:** ![Man\_With\_a\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cab0a1/32.png) [@Man\_With\_a\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Man_With_a_Cat)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2006, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-of-you-are-there/377251/120 "2006-10-22T01:19:24Z")
2102 I’m going to hold a reunion. BYOB of course. 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-of-you-are-there/377251.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-of-you-are-there/377251.md?page=7)