If you are a person with a generic name, life's a bitch. I've learned never to answer when someone yells my name (unless I recognize who it is) because it's always for someone else. They never have my name when I'm looking for it on "name" items (you know, pens and stuff) on because every other Jennifer has already taken them first. I once met a twentysomething Jennifer who had just bought some name pens- they were the first things with her name on them that she had ever found in a store.
I always loved it in high school when we'd have a sub and there would be three or four Jennifers in a room and the sub wouldn't call out last names in the roll call. Every time we'd all have to yell "Jennifer who?" My running on multiple-Jennifer reflex got so bad that when by some fluke I was the only Jennifer in a class I still yelled out "Jennifer who?" during roll. Once I even had a class where there were seven Jennifers. Two dropped out, but the damage had been done- the teacher called every girl Jennifer for the rest of the year. . I also love when there are two Jennifer R's in a class and I'm the last one, but I always forget that and answer to the other's name in roll call (thus really pissing Jennifer #1 off). There were thirteen Jennifers that graduated in my high school class. I once read that the most typical names for parents to name their children are Michael and Jennifer. I actually know a family who named their kids those names! I know a Mike who wants to kill all other Mikes. I asked if he could do the Jennifers too (I'm kidding) and he said it would be too expensive.
The problem has become so bad that there is now a Web site for preventing children from naming their children Jennifer (it's at www.geocities.com/Heartland/7731/). According to the page's creators, "There just may be enough of us to form our own country, giving a whole new meaning to the line in the Cheers theme song, "Where everybody knows your name."
Here's some more stuff from the page:
"Some of you who have stumbled across this web page may be wondering, "What's so wrong with being named Jennifer?" Well, growing up with the most overused name of the 20th century, let's take a look at the facts:
In school, constantly being known by a last initial. (Jennifer F., Jennifer R., Jennifer
A...) The feeling of not having your own identity.
The fear of telling people your name, knowing the response, "Another Jennifer?!?!" is
coming. (Happens to me all the time- JR)
An astounding impact on the future: Most Jennifers have the tendency to adore unique
and rare names. If Jennifers become a little insane with having one of the world's most
common names, what about our poor children, who will have to suffer the horrors of
constantly having their names misspelled or mispronounced? It could become an ugly scene!"
It's a lot of fun when there are a lot of people with generic names around. Especially when you have two or three friends (or ex's) with the same name. My friend and I spent our senior year dating a couple of guys named Jo(h)n (they used different spellings), and we wound up having to resort to using last names to tell them apart. It's even more confusing when this problem is in your family tree. I have about three sets of cousins with the same name, and almost every male in my family is named either Robert or Ronald. It's gotten so bad that no one can tell the difference between "Ronnie" and "Robbie" at family gatherings.
Now before those of you out there with "creative" names (that actually required some thinking to come up with) start e-mailing me to complain about the hardships of trying to spell your name to everyone and NEVER having a name item of your own, I do agree that you guys have it rough. But hey, at least when someone yells, "Lakeishamaine!" (or whatever you may be named), you know that they mean you!