Not “John Smith” common, but it’s common enough.
So common, in fact, that the company I work for later hired another Steve Wright. At first, I was amused, even flattered (“They value me so highly, they’ve installed a backup!”). But the never-ending confusion started to get to me after a while.
To demonstrate: I got an email this morning. This is the reply I had to send (all details snipped):-
Yours, thinking of changing his name to Jeremiah Belchtrouser,
Steve Wright no. 435235833
Hey! I know you, you’re that…
oh no, my bad. I get confused. 
There are two of us where I work. The other one is a V.P.
When I go to a restaurant and they ask for a name, I tell them “Vilmos”, “Fritz”, “Otto”, “Mario”, or whatever pops into my head at the time. Sometimes I tell them just to make one up. Hey, they don’t need to know my real name. They just need a name to call.
I have a friend that always replaces the first letter of his last name with a “Z” when he puts a photo film in for development, or something like that. This always makes it very easy for him or anyone else to find his photos.
I thought that was pretty clever.
pan
My name is not common (Zelenak) and yet there are two of us at my job - with the same first name!. (And it’s a large company too - over 20,000 people. I solved the problem by getting married - my new name is Hall. Now I have one of the most common last names in the world but there is only one of me here - go figure.
My first name is legally spelled Robin, which leads to a lot of interesting situations, not the least of which (and the funniest) is I’m often mistaken for a man. Hence the spelling of my user name, e-mail, and other Internet-related identifiers.
That’s why I’ve decided to legally change my name to Robyn.
Robin
When you introduce yourself to people, do you still have to put up with “hilarious” “Steve Wright In The Afternoon” jibing?
Well, I have a rather uncommon first name, yet my freshman year of college, I was given a roomate with the same name. Moreover, there was another one who lived just above me. And this is in a dorm of only 20-odd people. Why, god, why?
I once received inter-office (Department of Commerce) mail meant for another Jeff Olsen. I have no idea how we ever got mixed up, I’m in the US Patent & Trademark Office and he’s over in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
I’ve worked for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), which always got mail for the National Education Association (nea), and vice-versa I’m sure. I did some temp work for the American Psychological Association (APA), which can be confused with the American Psychiatric Association (apa).
In a word, yes.
In more than one word; yes, I [censored] well do! These [censored] [censored] [censored] people think they’re so [censored] original, I got sick of that [censored] joke after the first dozen times I [censored] heard it… grrr… grumble… [censored]…
I suspect the other Steve Wright feels the same way, but I’ve never asked him. Come to that, I think most of the other Steve Wrights feel the same way. Why couldn’t we have got the respected Labour leader, and the John Smiths got the DJ?
Okay, but having an un-common name is still no picnic. Picture, if you will, growing up in the beautiful setting of the southern Appalachian Mountains, a quaint rural community.
How rural? Our foreign exchange students were from the next county.
How quaint? Our status among our neighbors increased ten-fold the week my mother volunteered to launder our church’s liturgical garments and hung several dozen white robes with pointed hoods out to dry in the back yard. [sub](That is a true story.)[/sub]
Now imagine trying to survive being in a class where 27% of the boys are named “Bubba” and your name is “Ty”. And no, it’s not short for anything.
And it’s still uncommon enough that I deal with this situation:
Person: Name?
Me: Ty.
Person: Okay, Todd…
Me: Ty.
Person: Yes, Tom…
Me: Ty.
Person: Tim?
Me: Ty.
Person: Right, Terrence.
Me: TY. Tee-Why, TY!
The next week I get a letter addressed to Mr. T. Y. Freeman.
sigh
There was two of us at my high school. One of us was a cheerleader. Both of us were in student government. My name had one consonant more than her’s but it did not change the fact that it was the same name. she was a grade ahead, but that didn’t lessen the confusion.
We do that when we eat out too. If we go to Fuddrucker’s we give the name Elmer. If we go for steaks or BBQ, we’re the John Wayne’s or simply “Tex”, although our family name is very southern and is sometimes funnier than anything we can make up. At the chinese place we’re the “Wong’s”. At the Outback Steakhouse I gave the name “Sheila Koala” with a straight face once, until my son snickered.
Abby
My wife’s full maiden name was so common she use to refer to it as her alias. When she was in college there were about 50 or so people in the student directory with the same first-last name combo. Even her middle name was common enough that there were a few with the exact same name with the exact same spelling. She majored in Portuguese and her name was so common that in most of her classes there was annother woman with the exact same name, middle name and everything. For a fairly liberated woman she had no trouble deciding to to take my last name.
I on the other hand have a first name uncommon enough that I was eight before I met someone with the same name. It was so shocking to me that I remember it very clearly. Now it is in the top 20 names for boys. Every where I go I here my once unique name used constantly. And it is usually followed by exasperated orders, …stop hitting your sister, …get over here, etc. It is very frustrating. Had I been given a more common name I would have heard it more commonly and become desensitized. My wife simply doesn’t respond to her name. She hears it and assumes it is not for her. Someone at a concert halfway across the venue wispers my name and I’ll hear it and look around thinking someone is trying to get my attention. I tell ya, I’m thinking of changing my name to Zaphod Bartman :). On the upside when I was in elementery no one ever spelled my name correctly. Every valantine card, every birthday card, every note to my parents would be spelled wrong. Even worse once they realized they had been spelling it wrong they would start to get creative. In the past ten years or so this problem has disapeared.
I’m the only one of me there is in the whole world. You search on my full name, and you get me. Just little me. La la la.
Small high school. If one was the cheerleader, was the other the entire sports team?
I’m fortunate to have a last name that starts off ‘Grz’. I’ve yet to meet someone else with my last name, let alone the same first three letters. (I can find a bunch on the internet, of course, but I want a random face-to-face meeting.)
my full christian name is yucky. i’m named after a grandmother so i can’t change it. (it could be worse, if i was a boy i could have been isaac, fritz or rudolph)
however it is shortenable, and thus i am known by about 6 versions by different groups of friends.
kit
kat
kate
katie
kathy
kitty
kitkat
but my best friends call me leena.
I never really met any Erin’s until my freshman year of high school. Then there was a flood of Erins. I thought it’d be cool, but it never was. Most of the Erins left when our school split into two high schools, and all the Erins went to the new high school.
When I was younger I would always get the, “You’re a boy.”
“What?” said I.
“Erin’s a boy’s name!”
“That’s Aaron,” corrected I.
“Whatever. You’re still a boy.”
I still get this from people.
“But…isn’t Erin a boy’s name?”
“No…that’s A-a-r-o-n.”
It’s not that hard to understand.
My full name is common, but aside from Internet folk, I’ve never met someone else with my name IRL. So far. Common names are a family tradition - I’ve felt like beating my head against a brick wall trying to trace the family tree… William Turner, William Smith, John Smith, Robert Smith, David Robertson, Joseph Robertson… I joined a Turner family mailing list, but have had no luck. I just sit and sulk as I watch the other Turners submit requests for information on “Meshack Turner” or “John Curmudgeon Turner” - why couldn’t my Turners have unusual names?!
Tygr
I went to school with a Ty. His mother said she wanted a name that was short and only had one spelling so that there would never be any confusion over his name. Instead, he’s endured a lifetime of
Numbskull: Name?
Ty: Ty
N: Ty? Is that short for Tyrone?
T: No, it is not.
N: Well, what is it short for?
T: It’s not short for anything. It’s just Ty. T-Y.
N: Are you sure?
No and not a small school at all. It was 5A and there were well over 700 in the graduating class.
Sorry, feeble attempt at a joke.