I was thumbing through my high school yearbook the other day, just looking at some of the people and names.
(BTW, “Sam and Max” was right: Swap yearbooks with someone you know that’s around the same age sometime. The same people go to every high school, they just have different names. )
Anywho.
I run across a fellow a couple years younger than I.
Ricky Martin.
No, not the Latino singer. Just a regular guy that happened to get screwed by pop culture a couple years ago. I wonder to this day if he changed his name to Rick, or Richard, or if he just weathered the storm and put up with all the giggling jackanapes.
Anybody else know someone whose name got screwed by the fame of another?
My daughter went to elementary school with a Courtney Cox. She’s only 16, and I think the famous one’s been famous for at least 16 years.
This year, I’ll have a Rachel Green in my class (Jennifer Aniston’s character on Friends). I teach four-year-olds.
I had a Michael Fox in my class a few years ago (middle inital wasn’t an ‘J’, though). I guess he’d be eight now.
I can’t imagine saddling my kid with something like that, even if the person is likeable or if it’s a family name. Just too troublesome.
When I was in school, I had a friend named Ernie Green, whose mother and sister were both named Rachel. Since I was born in 1959, it’s pretty obvious that neither Rachel was named after Aniston’s character.
I went to college with a John Lennon (not named after the Beatle) and a Debbie Reynolds (whose name was inspired by the actress). My brother knew a Cindy Crawford who was older (and less attractive) than that model with the mole.
There was someone a few years younger than me in my school district named Michael Jackson… He would have been born in the early eighties. Why would your parents do that to you? (even if MJ was a bit more normal back then)
Back in the mid-80’s, I worked with a guy named Eddie Murphy, who was half Irish and half something else but definitely not African-American. He usually introduced himself as Ed, but since nearly every guy at work ended up with -ie tacked onto their name (Frankie, Jimmy, Paulie, etc.), he inevitably ended up being called Eddie.
In my retail grunt days, I once processed a return for a high school-age kid named James Bond. The 007 franchise would have been about 10 years old when the poor guy was born; you’d think his parents would have been more sensitive to the fallout from a name like that. :smack:
I shared many of my undergraduate classes with a Jennifer Lopez – when the singer/actress was an elementary school student – and a Linda Lovelace, who tried (mainly in vain) to keep her first name a secret in favor of her middle name, Blanche.
Alright, this one’s a stretch, but it’s the only one I can think of for now: there’s an episode of Family Guy where Peter fears he has breast cancer.
Trying to be reassuring, Meg says “Mom, Debbie Miller’s dad had a lump on his breast and he turned out okay.”
“Really?” says Lois. “Who’s Debbie Miller?”
“A girl I just made up.”
The next day, just like I did every day, I sat down in drama class. Across the room from one Debbie Miller. I’m not sure if any of my friends were watching Family Guy, and I’m pretty sure Debbie didn’t know why I was laughing…
I’ve got a good friend named Dave Thomas. It is easy to differentiate between him, the actor, and the fast food magnate who share his name because he is (1) several decades younger; (2) significantly thinner; and (3) black.
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