# Most Famous Person With Your Family Name **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 23, 2010, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-person-with-your-family-name/561604 "2010-11-23T01:14:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-person-with-your-family-name/561604/121 "2010-11-25T11:39:14Z")
One character actor, who was a favorite of Frank Capra, then had a notable TV part. ---
**Author:** ![alice\_in\_wonderland](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alice_in_wonderland/32/176_2.png) [@alice\_in\_wonderland](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alice_in_wonderland)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-person-with-your-family-name/561604/122 "2010-11-25T12:47:06Z")
Homer , Marge, Bart, Lisa & Maggie ---
**Author:** ![Ruby\_Slippers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/94ad74/32.png) [@Ruby\_Slippers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruby_Slippers)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-person-with-your-family-name/561604/123 "2010-11-25T13:16:29Z")
My last name is among the top 5 most common in the US, so I have lots of choices. Probably the most famous would be comedian Robin. But then there’s also singer Andy, baseball player Ted, actor Billy Dee, tennis aces Venus and Serena, actress Vanessa, country music singer Hank (and his son and grandson), and the list goes on. ---
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2010, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-person-with-your-family-name/561604/124 "2010-11-26T02:47:00Z")
It could be [Sam Popkin](http://www.polisci.ucsd.edu/faculty/popkin.htm), a political scientist who gets called up for quotes on various important topics in the newspapers from time to time. Or maybe the mystery novelist [Zelda Popkin](http://www.uky.edu/~popkin/zelda.htm), who was the first to write a mystery where the detective, murderer, and victim are all female. (Most folks erroneously believe that Agatha Christie holds this title.) Or maybe [Richard Popkin](http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2005/may/07/guardianobituaries.obituaries1), historian and philosopher at UCLA. I am descended from the second and third but have no relationship to the first. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2010, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-person-with-your-family-name/561604/125 "2010-11-26T03:20:04Z")
Martin Luther King jr ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2010, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-person-with-your-family-name/561604/126 "2010-11-26T04:00:05Z")
Original family name: two Olympic gymnasts (1908 & '12) from Norway. Anglicised name: a certain pair that were in a Full House. ---
**Author:** ![glowacks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/glowacks/32/5548_2.png) [@glowacks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glowacks)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2010, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-person-with-your-family-name/561604/127 "2010-11-26T04:55:38Z")
Either a footballer who’s played in a decent number of international matches or a WW2 fighter pilot who had good success in the Battle of Britain. They both have Wikipedia articles, with one as the top Google result and the other is the automatic redirect from searching for my name on Wikipedia. I’d go with the former in terms of current fame, but the latter in terms of enduring fame. It would probably be a rather difficult challenge to figure out what name I was talking about with just those two pieces of information, but unfortunately I’ve made quite public another piece of information that makes it far easier. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2010, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-person-with-your-family-name/561604/128 "2010-11-26T05:02:31Z")
My last name, nobody. But a well-known actor on a long-running crime drama series has the same last name as my mother’s maiden name. AFAIK, however, no relation. ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2010, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-person-with-your-family-name/561604/129 "2010-11-26T05:16:22Z")
The most popular region of Italy to visit is our family name. The most famous person with my mom maiden name was President during WWI. ---
**Author:** ![notfrommensa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f14d63/32.png) [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2010, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-person-with-your-family-name/561604/130 "2010-11-26T05:36:23Z")
I have never heard of anyone famous with my last name, the way it is spelled. An uncommon variation. There is a more common variation and I have heard of some very moderately famous athletes with that last name. But you would have to very passionate about the sport to know who those athletes are. ---
**Author:** ![Sassy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47c2d/32.png) [@Sassy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sassy)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2010, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-person-with-your-family-name/561604/131 "2010-11-29T20:27:57Z")
An independent vice-presidential candidate, formerly governor of a middle-American state. As far as I can tell, we are distant cousins. ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2010, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-person-with-your-family-name/561604/132 "2010-11-29T22:56:06Z")
One of the few people in wikipedia that lists occupations as: Musician, songwriter, producer, astrophysicist, author. ---
**Author:** ![Suburban\_Plankton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suburban_plankton/32/219_2.png) [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2010, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-person-with-your-family-name/561604/133 "2010-11-29T23:30:05Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > Hmm, I wonder if **Suburban Plankton** and I are related. Do you live in Northern California? If not, you might be the one cousin who lives in Virginia (I think)..otherwise, I’m pretty sure we’ve never met. ---
**Author:** ![seanchai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b782af/32.png) [@seanchai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seanchai)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2010, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-person-with-your-family-name/561604/134 "2010-11-30T03:13:27Z")
A fairly well-known American composer, Aaron Copland, shares a surname with Thomas Copland (family legend about Tom, and Aaron’s father, meeting up around 1900), my late grandfather-in-law. The family story is related with 50-50 ‘accuracy’, from this side, in Aaron’s autobiography. _Shrug_ Who knows? ---
**Author:** ![Gedd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gedd/32/4938_2.png) [@Gedd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gedd)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2010, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-person-with-your-family-name/561604/135 "2010-11-30T18:53:27Z")
There are a bunch of people who spell my name wrong, including some Hebrew guy who wrote the historical part of the Old Testament. The most famous of the ones who spell it right would be two Major League Baseball players who were uncle and nephew. The uncle was kicked out of MLB for life, and the nephew was drafted during WWII to be a bomber pilot and died after being shot down over France. The rest are pretty boring compared to those two. ---
**Author:** ![gurujulp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ba9def/32.png) [@gurujulp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gurujulp)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2010, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-person-with-your-family-name/561604/136 "2010-11-30T19:11:15Z")
The Olympic Swimmer, Michael. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2010, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-person-with-your-family-name/561604/137 "2010-11-30T19:23:45Z")
I have a relatively unusual Slavic last name. I think the most famous person who shares it is probably my second cousin Mike, who was the county commissioner in my hometown for a while. ---
**Author:** ![hellpaso](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ecae2f/32.png) [@hellpaso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hellpaso)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2010, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-person-with-your-family-name/561604/138 "2010-11-30T20:32:38Z")
Well, the only ones that come to mind are a Nascar dynasty and the lead singer of a band. (yes–we’re all from the South). Oh–there was a well-known artist (back in the 40s) known for painting pinup girls & airplane nose art. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2010, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-person-with-your-family-name/561604/139 "2010-11-30T23:50:59Z")
A Nobel Prize nominee & peace activist. ---
**Author:** ![Ghostwheel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/67e7ee/32.png) [@Ghostwheel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ghostwheel)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2010, 9:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-person-with-your-family-name/561604/140 "2010-12-01T09:21:23Z")
Among the living are various footballers (rhymes with “locker”) and Rugby players from across the pond. I can’t say that I have ever heard of them before checking the Wiki though. But there is the comedian Harry, who also acts at times. And also the actor Jack, who might be funny if he played in a comedy. But there is also beauty to be found, but only with the departed when it comes to famous folk. Moira was a dancer and actress, and lovely indeed. And Norma and sister Athole were as pretty as you please. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-person-with-your-family-name/561604.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-person-with-your-family-name/561604.md?page=8)