# The Old Twin "Switcheroo" **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 12, 2011, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-old-twin-switcheroo/581693 "2011-05-12T19:22:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2011, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-old-twin-switcheroo/581693/41 "2011-05-15T13:27:26Z")
[Feeling lazy](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=8399983&postcount=5). Actually, I’ve told the story twice, but the linked thread is more fun that the other one. ETA: had I been the Christine in Pyper’s story, I would have chosen either Cristina or Linda. Never understood what’s supposed to be the point of picking a name that’s got nothing to do with yours - then again, that’s something I’ve only heard of in the Dope (I’ve known Chinese folk who had “English names”, for some reason not Spanish ones, but for example Flora’s real name actually had a flower in it): ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2011, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-old-twin-switcheroo/581693/42 "2011-05-15T13:31:41Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > ETA: had I been the Christine in Pyper’s story, I would have chosen either Cristina or Linda. Never understood what’s supposed to be the point of picking a name that’s got nothing to do with yours - then again, that’s something I’ve only heard of in the Dope (I’ve known Chinese folk who had “English names”, for some reason not Spanish ones, but for example Flora’s real name actually had a flower in it): My actual first name is French. My French teacher made me pick a different one for class. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2011, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-old-twin-switcheroo/581693/43 "2011-05-15T13:52:20Z")
I once had a star student who, unknown to me, an identical twin brother. So when I saw whom I thought was my student on campus and said hello, I thought nothing of it until my student asked had I waved to his brother. He explained and obviously I had. But no intentional switch. But it is interesting how different they turned out. My student was a math major and his brother physics. Both academic stars, they both won Rhodes scholarships (I suppose that may have happened before or since) and went off to Oxford. My former student lost interest came home and his life never “jelled”. He writes for an alternative newspaper, does some translation, but no career. His brother got a PhD in physics and is in the middle of a distinguished career. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2011, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-old-twin-switcheroo/581693/44 "2011-05-15T14:24:42Z")
Mamas do NOT always know how to tell their babies a part. My twin and I still have some baby pictures, some of which were taken when we were almost toddlers, in which our identities are still unknown. And we aren’t even identical. Our voices are strikingly similiar, even to my own ears. I can call my mother and talk to her for several minutes before she reveals clues indicating that she’s mistaken me for my sister. I can’t just call her and say, “What’s up?” I have to announce myself. Our voices have fooled people at work. Once, my sister called my workplace all in a panic because I hadn’t returned her very non-important phone message, but she only could find the number for a former boss of mine. When she called him and asked if she could talk to me, he was like, “ **monstro**? What are you talking about?” He didn’t know I had a twin, nor that someone could have a voice exactly like mine, so he was majorly confused and thought I had lost my mind. We did switch classes a few times growing up. We don’t look exactly alike to the discerning eye…but I’ve learned that most people do not have discerning eyes, even if they’ve known you for a long time. The last time we pulled a switcheroo was when my sister was in vet school and I was in grad school. I had come down to her school during my spring break and we decided we would try to fool the people in her first class of the day. Now granted, at the time I was a few pounds heavier than she was and had very short hair while hers was very long. She’s also two inches taller than me, and keeps a nice tan (while I tend towards the pale side). But don’tcha know, people were rushing up to me and saying, “ **you with the face**! I can’t believe you cut off all your hair, girl! You are a trip!” A few other people were looking at me askance, like they knew something was wrong but they couldn’t put their finger on it. Meanwhile, I just sat there pretending I was my sister, while she stood in the back of the room laughing at everyone. The professor came in, started talking, and then glanced at me (I was on the front row). He paused for a few beats and then kept talking. Then I think someone shouted out, like they’d just realized there was an imposter in the room, “That’s not **you with the face**! That’s her twin!!” The gig was up and my sister revealed herself. It was hilarious. Afterwards, I went out in the hall to wait for her and fooled a late-comer. She was admiring my short hair and asked me what caused me to cut it, and I had to interrupt her and explain that I wasn’t who she thought I was. I was shocked that we were still able to fool people so easily. As kids, switching class was one of those things we would reserve for April’s Fool Day. Even though back then we really did look alike (dressing alike and everything), our personalities were always dead give-aways, so the ruse wouldn’t last very long. In the fifth grade, as soon as the teacher asked for homework and I realized I didn’t know where my sister kept hers, I panicked and ran out of the room. If I hadn’t done that, we could have gone the whole day without the teachers knowing, though some of the kids would have surely figured it out. So yes, being a twin does have a fun side. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2011, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-old-twin-switcheroo/581693/45 "2011-05-15T14:32:52Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > Moms (and Dads) of multiples today will often paint the babies’ toenails different colors, until they get to know the babies well enough to tell them apart. As newborns, **they even fool their mamas sometimes!** > [@Cazzle](#): > > A family I knew with identical twins painted the toenails of one baby so they could tell them apart when they were naked; they colour coded their outfits so they could tell them apart when clothed (their sisters referred to them as “the pink baby” and “the yellow baby”). **For most of the first year of their lives, and to their great embarrassment, neither parent could tell them apart.** … Bolding mine. I wonder how often the world ends up with twins who go through life with the other’s birth certificate. In other words, as the infants mature & the parents conclude once and for all that \*this \*one is Bob & \*that \*one is Bill, they get it backwards compared to how the infants were named & certified at birth. Not that this would really matter much, but it’s an interesting idea. Nowadays in the more advanced countries, I wonder if there’s some standard hospital procedure to mark the newborns in some more-or-less permanent way so there’s no doubt which is really Linda & which is really Abby? Like the Dahm’s tatoos mentioned above. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2011, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-old-twin-switcheroo/581693/46 "2011-05-15T14:42:46Z")
Weirdly, I have never known a set of twins. At least, I have never known anyone and known that they were part of a set of twins. > [@Pyper](#): > > In middle school, I was in band and Spanish class with a girl I’d never met before named Linda. The first day of Spanish, we were all required to pick Spanish names, so Linda was called Guadalupe. One day, almost a year later, I saw two Lindas walking home together! It turned out that I had band with Linda, but Spanish with her identical twin Christine, who I had always called by the Spanish name Guadalupe. All this time I had thought they were the same person. This is one of my small nightmares. I have enough trouble telling non-twins apart… ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2011, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-old-twin-switcheroo/581693/47 "2011-05-15T14:52:55Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Bolding mine. > > I wonder how often the world ends up with twins who go through life with the other’s birth certificate. In other words, as the infants mature & the parents conclude once and for all that \*this \*one is Bob & \*that \*one is Bill, they get it backwards compared to how the infants were named & certified at birth. > > Not that this would really matter much, but it’s an interesting idea. > > Nowadays in the more advanced countries, I wonder if there’s some standard hospital procedure to mark the newborns in some more-or-less permanent way so there’s no doubt which is really Linda & which is really Abby? Like the Dahm’s tatoos mentioned above. The hospital puts namebands on immediately - generally before Twin B is out - and does footprints usually within minutes of birth, unless there’s a more pressing medical issue to deal with. They send home a set of footprints on the hospital issued - commemorative, not legal - birth certificate. While it’s theoretically possible for[identical twins to have identical finger/footprints, in reality they don’t.](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1277/do-identical-twins-have-different-fingerprints) So if you do mix up your twins early on, you can footprint them and compare them to the hospital’s paper to figure out which is which. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2011, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-old-twin-switcheroo/581693/48 "2011-05-15T15:17:37Z")
Is it illegal if a twin tricks his twin’s partner/spouse and has sex with her pretending to be the other twin? Is that rape? Technically it was nonconsensual since he wasn’t the person she wanted ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2011, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-old-twin-switcheroo/581693/49 "2011-05-15T16:56:09Z")
> [@DivineComedienne](#): > > …I do remember watching “My Three Sons” when the oldest son married and had triplets. His wife could not tell the babies apart so she put dots on their feet with a marker to distinguish them, and was beside herself when Uncle Charlie gave the babies a bath and washed the marks off! Even back then, I knew a mom would be able to know her babies. > [@WhyNot](#): > > Moms (and Dads) of multiples today will often paint the babies’ toenails different colors, until they get to know the babies well enough to tell them apart. As newborns, they even fool their mamas sometimes! > [@Cazzle](#): > > …For most of the first year of their lives, and to their great embarrassment, neither parent could tell them apart… > [@Max\_Torque](#): > > The [Dahm triplets](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicole,_Erica_and_Jaclyn_Dahm) have tiny dots tattooed on their bottoms: Jaclyn has none, Nicole has one dot, and Erica has two. This was done when they were babies so that their parents could tell them apart. I went to school (grades 1-12) with a set of identical twin boys. Their parents were so afraid they wouldn’t be able to tell them apart when they were babies they had one twin _circumcised_ :eek: and the other left intact. And to answer your next question their parents had learned to tell them apart without making them drop their pants by the time they were potty trained. All throughout elementary, middle, & high school they could switch without their teachers realizing, but we friends and class mates could tell them apart. Also one of them was gay and the other straight. I’ve only ever met one other set of mixed orientation identical twins. > [@YogSosoth](#): > > Is it illegal if a twin tricks his twin’s partner/spouse and has sex with her pretending to be the other twin? Is that rape? Technically it was nonconsensual since he wasn’t the person she wanted It could be considered [rape by deception](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_by_deception) in some jurisidictions. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-old-twin-switcheroo/581693.md?page=2)