# Same name, different person. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 2, 2005, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-name-different-person/333773 "2005-12-02T18:08:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Governor\_Quinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@Governor\_Quinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Governor_Quinn)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2005, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-name-different-person/333773/41 "2005-12-04T17:19:02Z")
This [Will Rogers](http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=R000405) just missed serving in Congress with the son of [this one](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_Rogers). ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2005, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-name-different-person/333773/42 "2005-12-04T18:31:32Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > There’s also currently an aspiring SF writer who has the same name as a well-established Hugo-winning SF artist. The former has been spamming other SF writers to try to get them to buy his ebook, and hasn’t caught on to the fact that doing that is bad form. The name gets him noticed until they realize there are two of them. Care to name him? At school I was friends with a boy that had exactly the same name as a noted and well established SF writer (Hugo nominee, but I think not a winner). My friend was an avid science fiction fan and wrote a lot of SF juvenalia himself. So I’'m wondering if it might be him. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2005, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-name-different-person/333773/43 "2005-12-04T18:53:24Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > If different spellings count, there’s also Charles Dickens the writer of _Oliver Twist_ and Charles Dikkens with 2 k’s, the well known Dutch author (who wrote _Rarnably Budge_). Then there’s the author of _Carnaby Fudge_, who, if I recall, was called Darles Chickens, with two Ms and a silent Q. ---
**Author:** ![furryman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/furryman/32/99_2.png) [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2005, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-name-different-person/333773/44 "2005-12-04T19:46:11Z")
There was a Golden Age Daredevil which wasn’t even published by Timely. Also Timely had a Golden Age Angel who doesn’t have anything remotely to do with the current one. And what’s up with the Golden Age Green Hornet? Not a single speck of green anywhere on his costume(except the hornet). 😕 Am I a comic book geek because I already knew that Xemnu was originally called The Hulk? ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2005, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-name-different-person/333773/45 "2005-12-04T19:47:42Z")
> [@Peter Morris](#): > > Care to name him? > > At school I was friends with a boy that had exactly the same name as a noted and well established SF writer (Hugo nominee, but I think not a winner). My friend was an avid science fiction fan and wrote a lot of SF juvenalia himself. So I’'m wondering if it might be him. Probably not – he has the same name as an artist, not a writer. ---
**Author:** ![Mangosteen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Mangosteen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangosteen)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2005, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-name-different-person/333773/46 "2005-12-04T20:05:00Z")
Howard Stern (Sirius Radio) Howard Stern (Anna Nicole Smith’s attorney) AND Jennifer Lopez (actress?) Jennifer Lopez (Weather Channel anchor) ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2005, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-name-different-person/333773/47 "2005-12-05T00:04:12Z")
Two that confuse lots of college students doing research for a final project are [Thomas Wolfe](http://library.uncwil.edu/wolfe/wolfe.html) and [Tom Wolfe](http://www.tomwolfe.com/index2.html), so much so that before I help any student do research on either of them I ask a series of questions to make sure they’re getting info on the right one. (No sense writing a great paper on _You Can’t Go Home Again_ only to get an F for not writing about _Man in Full_.) ---
**Author:** ![Barely\_Adequate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/58956e/32.png) [@Barely\_Adequate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barely_Adequate)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2005, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-name-different-person/333773/48 "2005-12-05T00:42:26Z")
> [@Little Nemo](#): > > There’s [Harrison Ford](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001230/) the famous movie actor and [Harrison Ford](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000148/) the famous movie actor. …and the Ford dealership in Harrison, Indiana. ---
**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:** [December 5, 2005, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-name-different-person/333773/49 "2005-12-05T00:49:15Z")
There’s two different science fiction editors named Martin Greenberg. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2005, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-name-different-person/333773/50 "2005-12-05T02:04:15Z")
There’s a Brian Ekers out there who works for Her Majesty’s Stationery Office. I’ll track him down one day. There can be only one. ---
**Author:** ![Wallflower](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Wallflower](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallflower)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2005, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-name-different-person/333773/51 "2005-12-05T02:26:56Z")
[Tom Green](http://www.elvisinfonet.com/cdreview_tomgreenshow.html) and [Tom Green](http://www.tomgreen.com/) ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2005, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-name-different-person/333773/52 "2005-12-05T04:59:11Z")
[Thomas A. (Georgia Tom) Dorsey](http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/media_content/m-4271_thumb.jpg), pianist, composer, and father of modern gospel music. [Thomas F. (Tommy) Dorsey](http://www.wwwk.co.uk/images/people/music/d/dorsey-tommy.jpg), trombonist, orchestra leader, and Sentimental Gentleman of Swing. Then there’s [Harlan Leonard’s Rockets](http://www.jazzscript.co.uk/CDs/leonard40cl.htm), the little-known jazz orchestra of 1940, which included two William Smiths, one on trumpet, one on piano. Finally, J.C. (Jimmy) Johnson, piano-playing songwriter, often confused with his contemporary James P. (sometimes also called Jimmy) Johnson, a much better piano player who occasionally wrote songs. ---
**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:** [December 5, 2005, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-name-different-person/333773/53 "2005-12-05T06:13:02Z")
And of course, there’s Eve Golden - by day a mild mannered author, by night a crime fighting psychoanalist. ---
**Author:** ![Dark\_Side\_of\_the\_Floyd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bb73d2/32.png) [@Dark\_Side\_of\_the\_Floyd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dark_Side_of_the_Floyd)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2005, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-name-different-person/333773/54 "2005-12-05T06:49:38Z")
Jason Alexander of _Seinfeld_ fame and that guy who married Spears. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2005, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-name-different-person/333773/55 "2005-12-05T07:17:59Z")
When I was a kid I met a boy named **Felix Fly**. Twenty years later I ran across the name in a Nashville phone book and just _knew_ that there couldn’t be two of them in Tennessee. There were! I was pleased to learn that the two had actually met each other through a civic organization such as the Lion’s Club. ---
**Author:** ![Hometownboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/5e9695/32.png) [@Hometownboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hometownboy)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2005, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-name-different-person/333773/56 "2005-12-05T07:47:27Z")
There is a gentleman who wrote some hit songs for the Carpenters, Three Dog Night and Paul Anka. His name is the same as mine IRL, except that my first name is a one-letter variant from the standard spelling, which he uses. Just now, I checked on Google, only to discover that he is now a jeweler, and lives less than 150 miles away. I may just have to call him up and chat sometime… ---
**Author:** ![Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac8455/32.png) [@Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bippy_the_Beardless)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2005, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-name-different-person/333773/57 "2005-12-05T18:46:20Z")
> [@rjung](#): > > [Michael Jackson](http://www.radiohof.org/newstalk/michaeljackson.html) vs. [Michael Jackson](http://www.michaeljackson.com/) There is also Whisky and Beer expert [Michael Jackson](http://www.whiskyweb.com/whiskyweb/ww_main_sub.jsp;jsessionid=9813BFE848229BED81BA7FCA8D336D51?pContentID=2325&p_applic=CCC&p_service=Content.show&) ---
**Author:** ![Governor\_Quinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@Governor\_Quinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Governor_Quinn)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2005, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-name-different-person/333773/58 "2005-12-07T03:50:05Z")
[Scoop Jackson](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scoop_Jackson) and [Scoop Jackson](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scoop_Jackson_%28writer%29). ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2005, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-name-different-person/333773/59 "2005-12-17T16:07:50Z")
[Alan Campbell](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0132180/), who was married to Dorothy Parker (twice) [Alan Campbell](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0132181/), who played Joe Gillis in the Broadway production of “Sunset Boulevard.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-name-different-person/333773.md?page=2)