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Did you know that while there are 57 Cindy Kirk’s in the United States, there are 297,734 people named Cindy? Have you ever stopped to wonder how many of YOU there are?
I was at a restaurant several years ago and they refused to take my check. The manager told me I was on one of those bad check lists. I knew something had to be wrong. When I did some investigating, I discovered it wasn’t ME who had the bad credit (of course, I already knew that) it was a woman of the same name who lived in a nearby city.
I got it cleared up fairly quickly and easily…thankfully we didn’t have the same middle initial (Thank you, Mom, for giving me an uncommon middle name).
I was talking to a woman that I know through my day job and she was telling me that her son shares the same exact name (first, middle and last) with another young man AND they share the same exact birthday. Worse yet, they both applied for their SSN around the same time, so the numbers are very similiar. She said it has been a nightmare because unfortunately (and isn’t it always the way) the other guy has been arrested several times and has –you guessed it–BAD CREDIT. The two young men also have insurance through the same company. Almost unbelievable, but true.
Have you ever met someone with the same name? I’ve never met anyone personally, though I have corresponded through email with a couple of women who share my name. 
This week I’d like to give away a couple books. So everyone who comments on this posts will be entered into the drawing to be held Sunday night at 9pm CT. If you tell me how many of YOU there are, you’ll be entered twice!!
The website I know you’ll like is: http://howmanyofme.com/
Here’s some fun information straight off the site:
There are 310,139,582 people in the United States of America. If everyone in the U.S. lined up single file, the line would stretch around the Earth almost 7 times. That’s a lot of people.
The U.S. Census Bureau statistics tell us that there are at least 151,671 different last names and 5,163 different first names in common use in the United States. Some names are more common than others.
There are 44,844 people named John Smith in the United States. There are 975 people named James Bond, 103 people named Harry Potter , 437 people named George Bush, and 31 people named Emily Dickinson. However, Johnny Cash (33 people) songs aside there are, statistically speaking, very few boys named Sue.
What about you? How many people share your name?
I’d like to know!!
Filed in: Jaunty Post
Sep 4th
2010
8:23 am
Laura Said:
1,608 people share my name. Many years ago there was a grandmother with my name who became very famous because she was growing pot. I took a lot of ribbing about that. And a few months ago I was in an auto accident and the person who hit me said her son’s teacher and I had the same name. Oh, and maybe the best of all, a couple of years ago someone I worked with came across a business card taped to a gas station pump. The person had the same name as I did and sold adult sex toys. I think everyone realized and believed it wasn’t me but they loved teasing me about it. I took the business card and still keep it with me to this day. lol
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Sep 4th
2010
8:25 am
Kristan Higgins Said:
There are two other Kristan Higginses on Facebook; both are quite entertained to share their name with a romance author and are often accused of having a secret career. My son, on the other hand, shares his name with an IRA terrorist, so every time we fly, we have to show up at the airport early to prove that our little guy isn’t a threat to national security (though if they saw his closet, they might disagree).
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Sep 4th
2010
8:49 am
Kirsten Said:
Hi Cindy, I checked out that site and there is: 1 or fewer of me. Wow, didn’t know I was THAT unique.
I saw this movie: Christmas Caper, some time ago. There is this scene where the leading lady is catching up on old memories with her former boyfriend who is now the sheriff. She talks about how he had taken another girl to the prom, guess what her name was? (the other girl) Yeah that’s right Cindy Kirk. Thought of you when I heard it.
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Sep 4th
2010
9:31 am
Solveig Said:
There are just under a 1000 women named Solveig in Iceland.
About 50 of those have the same father´s name as well but only I have those two names and my last last name 
. It is so sad when people have to pay for other peoples cock ups 
but the thing that really really makes me angry are parents who name their kids names that are 100% certain going to make other kid´s make fun. Are the parents really that stupid or just cruel?
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Sep 4th
2010
10:22 am
Shana Said:
My real name is Shane Bolks, and there is only one of me
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Sep 4th
2010
10:24 am
Karen H in NC Said:
Hi Cindy,
Great post today. There are 130 with my exact same first & last name in US. 1,024,329 share my first name and 39,126 share my last name.
I have run across one of those with my same name on some of the romance reader boards. She is a reviewer at one book site and when they run a contest that I want to enter, I have to cc my entry to a person who knows me because their rules don’t allow their reviewers to enter their contests…but I’m not the reviewer! I found out about this when I was denied a prize once because the owner of the site thought I was one of her reviewers. It’s all cleared up now, but was a problem for a while. Fortunately, I’ve never had major problems with credit, identity, insurance, etc.
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Sep 4th
2010
10:27 am
EllenToo Said:
268,274 with my first name
99,238 with my last name
AND 86 with same first and last name
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Sep 4th
2010
11:05 am
Cindy Kirk Said:
Laura,
Wow…that’s a lot of people sharing your name. Can you give us a discount on the sex toys…oh, wait, that’s not you. lol
Kristan,
I can’t believe your son shares a name with an IRA terrorist.. who’d have thought???
Kirsten and Shane,
You really ARE unique!
Kirsten,
Thanks for the movie tip…I think I’ll check that one out!
Solveig,
1,000 with your first name? Sounds to me like it must be a popular name in Iceland. Does it correlate to any specific name we’d commonly see in the US?
Karen H,
I can’t imagine having the same name as someone in the industry.
Ellen,
Wow, I never realized there were so many women named Ellen.
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Sep 4th
2010
11:06 am
RobynDeHart Said:
There are evidently only 2 Robyn DeHart’s in the US – I’ve seen before that the other one is an elementary school teacher and I’ve often wondered if she gets accused of writing “those naughty books.” I didn’t know she was the only other one though. My maiden name, Robyn Ratliff, well, there are 7 of those. So I’m not terrible common.
Clever blog, Cindy, as usual!
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Sep 4th
2010
11:14 am
Solveig Said:
I don´t think there is a correlating name in the US but I lived in Michigan for a year babysitting 3 children. A girl and twin boys. The boys could not say my name so they usually called me Snowflake
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Sep 4th
2010
11:14 am
Margo Maguire Said:
I don’t meet many Margos… Not sure how many Margo Maguires there are! There is a new website developed by some geeks at MIT to check on information just like this – try it!
http://www.wolframalpha.com/
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Sep 4th
2010
11:23 am
kris Said:
there are 2 kristine gilson’s and I’m assuming I’m one of them
not too long ago, an aquaintance told me that he had googled a topic that I work for my job because he needed some information and my name came up everywhere. I’ve done alot of public speaking at international conferences. so, I guess I’m famous too and i didn’t even know it
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Sep 4th
2010
12:01 pm
Cindy Kirk Said:
Robyn,
What I remember most about your name is when that reviewer accused you of making of the DeHart part. lol
Solveig,
Snowflake…I like it!
Margo,
If you go to the website in my post, you can also check out your name: http://howmanyofme.com/
Kris,
You’re famous and you don’t even know it!! lol
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Sep 4th
2010
12:12 pm
Barbara Elness Said:
Wow, there is only one person with my name, me! There are however, 1,519,703 people in the U.S. with the first name Barbara. And 158 people in the U.S. with the last name Elness. I guess I don’t need to be worried about anyone getting me mixed up with someone else, LOL. That was fun. I did my son’s name and his said “There are 1 or fewer people in the U.S.,” I’m not sure how there could be fewer than one, since he does exist. I thought that was pretty funny. My sister’s name said the same thing.
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Sep 4th
2010
12:49 pm
Cindy Kirk Said:
Barbara,
I KNEW you were one-of-a-kind!
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Sep 4th
2010
2:59 pm
Jane Said:
That’s a cool site. There are 23 of us that have the same name in the U.S. 386.679 have the same first name as me and 18,472 have the same last name.
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Sep 4th
2010
3:04 pm
Cindy Kirk Said:
Lots and lots of Jane’s
But that doesn’t make you any less unique.
I agree, it is a cool site!
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Sep 4th
2010
3:39 pm
Terri Brisbin Said:
Cindy –
Having grown up a Smith, I’m used to there being lots of ‘me’….LOL!
I actually ran into another Terri Smith while in Disneyland — she was a waitress at the restaurant over the Pirates of the Caribbean…
Terri B
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Sep 4th
2010
5:26 pm
Emily McKay Said:
There are 44 Emily McKays in the U.S.! Who knew?
But of course, I’m not really an Emily McKay. I’m really Emily McKaskle, and there’s only one of those. I’m truly the only me.
But here’s my weird story. My maiden name was Beierle, so I was Emily Beierle growing up. Pretty unusual name, right? But then, when I was in the 7th grade, a sixth grader entered my school named Emily Byerly. Same pronunciation, but with the Americanized spelling. I thought that was so strange. I only met her once. She was a very surly, rebellious type. I always wondered if she was that way by nature, or if she was just annoyed that I got there first.
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Sep 4th
2010
6:55 pm
Sally Bishop Said:
88 people share my whole name. I’m the only one with my maiden name but it stayed intact through immigration registration in the 1700′s so I expected as much. Fun site though.
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Sep 4th
2010
8:33 pm
Nancy Robards Thompson Said:
Apparently, I’m the only Nancy Robards Thompson in the US. There are 5 Nancy Robards and 2,478 Nancy Thompsons nationwide. Fun blog, Cindy!
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Sep 4th
2010
9:34 pm
catslady Said:
There is only one of me – woo hoo – I am unique lol.
There are 169,030 that share my first name Jeanne
And 1,665 that share my last – Sheats
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Sep 4th
2010
9:45 pm
LouisaCornell Said:
Wow, one or fewer people share my real name Pamela Bolton-Holifield! And only one person has my pen name Louisa Cornell. How cool is that! I have actually received a message from the person who has my pen name as her real name via Facebook and she thinks it is cool that a romance writer (even an AYUP one – as yet un published)has her name. What a neat site!
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Sep 4th
2010
11:06 pm
Cindy Kirk Said:
Terri,
I didn’t know you used to be a Smith.
Emily,
She was annoyed because you got there first. lol
Sally,
Wow, your family immigrated in the 1700′s. Impressive.
Nancy,
I always knew you were one of a kind.
Catslady,
I’m surprised there are so many Sheats in the USA. You’re the only one I know with that name.
Louisa,
Sounds like you picked a great pen name!!
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Sep 5th
2010
5:18 am
pjpuppymom Said:
That was fun! It says:
1,670,144 with my first name
Fewer than 115 with my last name
1 or fewer with my first and last name
My late dh gifted me with a very unusual last name!
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Sep 5th
2010
7:35 am
Laurie G Said:
Laurie is a popular first name 176,786! I think this may be due to the Partridge Family series where there was a character with Laurie for her first name (Susan Dey). I didn’t watch the show.
My last name only 115.
So luckily I’m the only one with my whole name.
I also checked out my maiden name that last name was slightly more popular 1503.
Luckily I was still the only one with that name too.
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