Expanding the current system of names

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Expanding the current system of names (6/27/05)

At some point I was in a class of about 30 students, 5 of which had the first name of Jason. It turns out the 1970s were roughly the zenith of a naming craze for the name Jason. Seriously, have a look. Try your own. This was only slightly annoying, but trouble arises for folks who have a popular first name and a popular last name. At one point I think I saw that Wells was the 256th most popular last name in the US. End result?

A whole lot of Jason Wells'! Not a whole lot of folks have an Amazon wish list but do a search for Jason Wells. Not one or two, nor 5 or 10, but 59 results pop up! Before the net this wouldn't be a problem but with 59 other doppelgangers out there, all with overlapping interests, going to the same websites, some problems crop up. For instance, we tend to have to get creative with usernames. More to the point though, I've wondered if anyone will ever confuse me for Jason Wells, or Jason Wells, or Jason Wells, or Jason Wells. There are a lot more than that. Most people who know me know I work in the technology field, so they might come across this link and assume it is me. It isn't!

These days the Google results for our names have become a right of passage, of sorts, and that is where the problem arises because it could be so easy for someone to mix people up, or worse. Another example involves the names of wanted terrorists. The US is a three names culture, but a lot of countries have 5, so when coming here the 5 name folks can just rotate through combinations of their names, making a nightmare of those terrorist watch lists.

So, perhaps it is time to expand beyond the three name system. Catholics use 4 (a confirmation name is added), which is good, and I wonder if a similar system could be worked out for non Catholics, such as at the time of school graduation or the like. It struck me that choosing a name from an American Indian tribe might be an interesting proposition to many, of joining a second family essentially and ensuring the survival of the American Indian identity. There's got to be other possibilities. Got one? Send it in!