Those of you who share a name with a celebrity, how do you deal with it?

I went through something similar.

I realized that a Japanese dishwashing powder company is using my face as its logo.

My brother in doppelnamer!!

I share a name with a fairly famous actor with a very uncommon name. After the “wait, is your name really XYZ?” comment I just say “yep, no relation.” with a laugh. I get it about once a week. It used to irritate me but it’s a good icebreaker, and they never forget my name.

I am just grateful he keeps himself out of trouble. Michael Bolton is rough, but no one wants to be the other Jeffrey Epstein.

Easy, just write a program that takes the fractions of a cent that are rounded off during bank transactions and deposits them in an account you control. It's foolproof.

Why should I change it, he's the one who sucks.

Not exactly a famous person, but I have a somewhat unusual name that happens to be exactly the same as a fairly prolific music executive in my country.

It's kind of a win-win, because it's not someone most people have heard of so I don't get the remarks, but also I'm basically un-Googleable lol

Back in April a bunch of us from work went over to Singapore to rig up backdeck equipment to mobilize this ship ready for work. Upon meeting the captain of the ship we had chartered for the operation, we learned that his last name was Kirk.

My family shares a fairly uncommon surname with a professional athlete we are (as far as we can tell) completely unrelated to.

My father always joked that we should answer "we don't discuss that" when asked about it, as if there had been some huge falling-out.

I have an uncle called Chris Hemsworth. He's like 65 so I don't know if he even knows the connection.

I have two middle names, and they are exactly the same names from a porn star turned politician in my country. Plenty of jokes about it.

The weirdest moment was when a teacher was correcting one of my essays and asked about the origin of my name, after I explained, he mentioned that he liked one of the movies that my name doppelgänger made, I had no answer and just said “ah…” and after some awkward silence he gave me back my essay.

I have the same name as a barely famous YouTuber, not famous enough for people to know the name in real life. The only thing that happens is that I occasionally get emails meant for him. I do own the name's website, so I'm hoping he gets really famous and tries to buy it off of me for a lot of money.

My tattoo guy shares a name with a very famous author and theres a sign outside his station that says “No not the author and if you ask you will be charged extra”

My Dad has the same name as a reasonably famous sports star in a different country. Unfortunately for me when I Google my name it’s just associated with rapists in the US… 😭

Everyone thinks I sell coke and have tons of money

What's really fun is looking like a celebrity. Dear old Dad looks like a very well known actor, possibly one who is famous for driving a silver Dodge truck in a cop propoganda TV show and being talked about in Barrens chat.

I've managed to avoid being confused for the same person by having long hair. Now I look like Jesus.

I have a student named Serena Williams. I asked her the first day if other professors make light of it. She said yes dejectedly and I promised her I wouldn't. I've kept my word so far

I love that my online presence is practically invisible because of the celeb with the same name.

I did get a really spicy email from one of their fans once.

It's terrible. I'm the one who have to deal with the consequences every time that woman makes a bad decision.

She is a great actress though.

I share a name with someone who is obscure enough to not come up in many conversations, but famous enough that he monopolizes the Google results for my name.

I quite enjoy the relative anonymity.

I met a very nice older Scotsman named William Wallace the other day. He told me at our hotel bar that he had a court date the next day for allegedly beating an Englishman with his cane, who had apparently insulted his wife. Not quite sure how he handles questions about his name, but he certainly seems to have some things in common with his famous namesake.

The jokes used to annoy me when I was younger, but now I appreciate the ice breaker they provide and just do a fake laugh and move on

I once knew a girl who shared a birth name with a porn star's porn name. She dealt by telling people to never google her unless they wanted a virus.

I share a first name with a mythological deity, so introductory conversations usually start with "Oh, like the god/goddess of...", but I don't mind it too much because I happen to really enjoy mythology in general. It's a great icebreaker most of the time and only annoying when someone frames it as "Did you know?" Like, even if it wasn't one of those dieties most of us learn about in middle or high school history class, do you think you're the first person to explain this to me in the last 30+ years of my life?

The thing that really bothers me is people have this strange inclination to sing my name at me after they learn it. It's been used in a good handful of songs and is even the title for one by a famous 60s/70s band. The weird thing is some people aren't even referencing one of those songs. They just make up their own little tune.

My name is Luke. I cant tell you the amount of Star Wars comments I get. Eventually you just stop caring. I'm also a twin which gets a similar amount of stupid questions about being phychic and stuff.

I share a name with a fictional character (and some real famous people but no one ever commented about those)

When I was younger it used to be annoying becouse other kids would make jokes, but as I got older they stopped and I started introducing myself with some jokes of my own (that were a bit more creative than theirs if I do say so myself)

I share a name with a professional hockey player that's not too known, but kinda known in my province.

When I search my name in Google, I'm not in the first page. That's about it. Most people don't know that player anyway.

Being glad that the person in question is so absolutely off-the-walls crazy that it actually drowns out anyone Googling for me.

They're a right-wing conservative crank who is absolutely referenced everywhere and whines constantly, he's part of a right-wing media organization. My politics couldn't be farther from theirs.

This guy is everywhere, and it makes it kind easier to be more pseudo-anonymous, because the internet will filter for this guy before it filters for me.

Oh man, don't you hate it when your social security number is the same as a famous person? Anyways, post your social security numbers ha ha, Lolz, we're having fun!

I share names with a famous athlete and I used to get comments about it regularly. I would smile and just say I didn't watch that sport. Mostly people would chuckle and move on.

Now it's been awhile since that athlete has been pro so I hardly ever hear anyone make the connection. I'm good with it lol

I share my name with Arnold Schwarzenegger, I mostly take it with humor.

I think the most famous person that I share a name with is a very famous serial killer.

I already think the fascination with serial killers is incredibly weird (this is putting ut lightly), but the past 5-10 years has only seen it become even more mainstream. My response to anyone referencing the killer to me, because of my name, is very stern and very simple:

If you can't tell me who the victims were, then shut up about it. At least have the decency to pretend you actually care about the events and not just the "oh how weird and creepy" factor.

My first and middle name are the first and last name of a very famous comedian/actor/writer. I was born in 79 during the height of his wild crazyness but my dad swears up and down that it had nothing to do with the choice of names. I'm just very happy this particular comedian is still a beloved and respected figure with no major scandals or skeletons.

I share a first + last name not with an actual celebrity, but with a character from a cult TV show (played by a much beloved comedic actor). So every once in a while, like yearly at most, someone goes "hey, just like x from y!!!" which is pretty pleasant, honestly.

I completely forgot... I sat next to a white kid named JAMES BROWN for years.

My friend's name is Will Smith. I call him white will Smith. He said no one ever called him that. He thinks it's kind of funny.

Is he lying to me?

Not too many Luigis living in the US I can assume. No big perks or benefits from it. One time a teacher said, "I don't know how to spell Luigi... so I'll call you Lewis", and slapped that hello-my-name-is nametag on me.

My wife's best friend was called Harriet Potter. I thought nothing of it until we were visiting New York in 2009 and the guy in the Warner Bros shop made a huge deal of it.

Not famous but back in the day the manager of one of local movie rental chains in town and I had the same name and for a while I never understood why my rentals where really cheap and why I never had late fees. The one I went to was not the one he worked at so nobody really knew and if they did they just thought I was his family so I just never corrected them if they pulled up the wrong account. I could of been a dick and kept movies and games but I’m not like that.

I share a name with a famous Russian scientist that has some principles named after him. People from my country don't make the association, it seems like a common enough name. Other people instantly recognise it and can't believe that's my real name.

Not mainstream famous in the English world, but my name sounds similar to the last name of 2 Mexican famous brothers who are the owners of a circus that travels through Latin America.

Of course that was a reason for some kids to bully me. I was bullied for many reasons but everytime the circus came to my country they invested a lot on TV and radio publicity so by association they would make fun of my name.

I endured (and suffered) a lot. But I've never let it make me resent my name. I love it. My current chosen name sounds similar but more gender neutral and im very attacked to it.

I have a pretty uncommon name and happen to share it with a local news reporter/host. I don't ever watch the local news so I rarely think about it.

At least a few times a year someone I don't know will bring it up. Mostly it's if I have an appointment or made reservations. I'll check in and they'll have a disappointed look and say they expected someone else.

I get the name Monday to Wednesday, celeb gets it Thursday to Saturday. Sundays we alternate bi-weekly (allowing for special occasions where one of us really needs it).

I share my name with a US state and people always have the exact same jokes. I've also begun using the pretend like I've never heard it method and it's pretty funny sometimes to act like I don't even get it at first.

Go by a different name.

Or if someone asks for something from me, ask how much they'll pay me for it.

I have the same last name as a famous video game character and my girlfriends first name is one letter off from said character. I realized it on our second date but never mentioned it as I thought it would be weird. She figured it out a couple months in and said she didn't mind as it would be easier than telling people her current last name.

I have two thirds of a name shared with a famous actress. It used to bug me that people would call it out all the time, and for a short period of time I even considered going by my middle name instead of my first name. Around the time I got married and people shifted the third part of the actress's name to a verb I started to warm up to it, and nowadays I mostly consider it a bit of built-in name recognition and mnemonic for people remembering my name.

The only time I've even been aware of someone with my name is when Google started sending me alerts about highschool sports where "I" was mentioned. It's always from Florida or some similarly fairly-far-away place (I'm in Ontario, Canada), and certainly not me.

I've been involuntarily following this kids sports career just because Google keeps sending me emails about my name being mentioned. I wish the kid all the luck in the world. I hope he makes it some day.

He's far too small of a player to be known about by even the most avid sports fans in my local area. I'm somewhat aware of at least three more people with my same name, and one with my last name as their first name, and my first name as their last name.... I get their emails all the time; there's literally one letter of difference, as my last name adds an 's' to the name (think Steve vs Stevens... kind of thing. Neither my first nor last name is Steve or Stevens, but it's the same idea).

I've also gotten receipts for motorcycle parts in my name, shipped to someone who is clearly not me... again, for a location that's rather far from me geographically (in my inbox/by email). I've also had my email signed up for several school board mailing lists for counties that again, I don't live in, and have never lived in.... so that's fun. I used to try to email my email-address-neighbor to get the messages to them so they would know there's a problem and call the relevant people to have it fixed. I never recieved a response and the messages never stopped coming, so I tried to unsubscribe, and failing that, made an inbox rule to file them in the round "very important" bin 🗑️

My name is rather unique, so I'm a bit surprised that even this much has happened to me.

My father-in-law shares a name with a famous actor. We got him to sign my partner's motorcycle helmet so they can go around and say they got their helmet signed by the actor. We use it to mess with our friends a lot.

I have a friend that shares the name with a New York Times best selling writer. The first time I saw one of his books I was like "Da fa?".

I share a name (although spelled different) with a famous singer in my home country.

It rarely comes up, although when I was 5 a girl at school was convinced she saw me on TV. The singer was probably in his late twenties at the time...

Came to think about @JonJones at twitter. The poor guys phone blows up anytime Jon "Bones" Jones has a fight coming or generally fucks up outside the octagon. The guy behind the tw.. x account is a great guy though never meddim

Not exactly what you asked, but I ship for an online retailer and we get some good ones. Had James Brown, Mike Jones (281-330-8004), and Timmy Turner today. We handle it by laughing (in good fun), or in the case of Mike Jones, yelling his phone number throughout the warehouse much to the chagrin of our uninitiated elderly CS team.

To your "rules" (of course there are none lol), rest assured these people are not around to hear us lightheardedly referrence the celebrity or cartoon character they're named after. And my name is a dick joke and we have a guy named "Rape," we've earned the right.

I share a first name with a pretty popular fictional character. I tend to enjoy the attention when people don't believe me or ask if it's like that one show/book. Fun stuff I gotta say. (thank fuck it's not a real person that could become racist/transphobic/worse)

I have the same surname as one of the most important composers in music history from the 1500-1600. It wouldn't be so bad if I wasn't a musician, and a composer specifically, myself.

Every people I've interacted with in my trade has made some remarks on it, and if someone searches "[name] composer" they obviously won't get to my music!

Ok, how many people have asked you how many people ask you about your name?

OK ok, how many people have asked you about how many people have asked you about how many people ask about your name?

Think I broke both rules...

Wow, is that your real name?

My brother shares a first and last name with a semi famous person that is mentioned rarely. Maybe once a year I see a post about him. Whenever I see my brother's name on the internet, it always creeps me out.

There is nothing you can say about it that is funny or clever. We have heard it all before. Just don’t.

This applies to so many things. For the one person it's a spontaneous one-time joke, for the other it's every time they meet someone new.

I share a name with a cultural icon from the 90's. As time goes by, younger people don't notice. It was annoying having to say "yeah, I know, I was born before she was famous.." all the time. Older people still make the same tired jokes, over, and over, and over...

I shared a name with a character on 90210. It was pretty annoying for a decade but it's been awhile since anyone has made that comment

Not much, people always ask me if I'm named after the celebrity.

I assume I am because there's very few other people with my name except him so I guess so.

Only did was climb down a ladder. Which I have also do not many occasions or I guess I'm living up to the name.

• There is nothing you can say about it that is funny or clever. We have heard it all before. Just don't.
• If you do have something to say about it that is truly original and absolutely hilarious, see the previous rule.

What if I am said celebrity though? 🤔

Been there. Idk it doesn't bother me, it bothers more when try sort of apologize mentioning that it probably bothers me.

"Oh sorry everybody must tell you that" Like yeah... and that too 😅.

I don't use it a lot as it's not that famous unless you are into that sport but sometimes when meeting new people I say jokingly (this not the name or the sport but as an example) "Hi, I am Roger Federer but I don't play tennis".

I'm lucky I don't have a common last name and that nobody cares that I share a very common first name with famous people.

I tried looking up famous people with my last name and the results showed variations of my last name for a while before finally showing mine. Most I've found is some obscure Swedish actress who's probably well known and loved in Europe and someone who apparently got inducted into the motorcycle hall of fame in 2005.

OP is named Michael Jordan

My partner's name is also the name of a very famous (mostly to boomers) multi-grammy award winner. He works in finance and he's gotten the Michael Bolton experience many, many, multiple times. He says its always super awkward, with really bad jokes or people thinking they're being clever with quips like Are you related or Do you have a new album coming out? hurr durr. But he's also never experienced anyone under 50 noticing his name, so its slowly happening less often

My last name is used a lot on movies. There's also been a football player that had nearly the same name and there's a basketball player with the same same name.

For the most part, I just ignore it. But some people are weird about it because they assume I just be related somehow and I'm going to introduce them...

I share my name with a former baseball catcher that is most noted for an incident at home plate where he punched a guy that probably deserved it. I rarely get called on it though, he was not that well known, and he has been retired more than a decade.

The names are both common enough that there have been a few other notables with it as well, like the cinematographer that married a fairly high profile Hollywood actress a few years back.

"Nice to meet you! Hey, I just thought of a real dumb joke. Bet you never heard it before. But nevermind that, tell me about yourself."

I have the same name as a Hollywood writer/director. But he's not crazy popular/notable except maybe in horror circles, and also our name is common enough that there is no worry about people making weird comments to me. Additionally I enjoy his movies and joke that "I made this" when his name shows in the credits.

My last name is very similar but not the same as a popular fairly long running TV show title/family name. I got teased about in elementary school and middle school a lot. By high school no one cared even though the show was still on. To this day people still pronounce my last name like the show even though it is obviously a different name if you read it.

Not quite the same thing, but my first name inspires people to quote Dr. Seuss to me. Eventually I dropped it and started using my middle name instead.

I do share a last name with a couple of celebrities, and people will ask "any relation to (celeb whose name is spelled differently)?" Depending on my mood I'll either point out the spelling or tell them he's my cousin. Or bring up the celebs whose names are spelled the same.

I have a friend who's name is Alexander. I call him Hamilton

What's the celebrities name?