My last name is limited to my 5 closest relatives. This is due to a bizarre misspelling 3 generations back followed by mostly female descendants.
this post was submitted on 10 Nov 2025
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Have you searched for the name outside your family line? I know you said misspelling but my last name is rare because it was made up by immigration on Ellis Island: they couldn’t understand my ancestor so decided “close enough”. Same thing as a rare misspelling.
Before the internet, we knew of one unrelated person with the same last name but only because he was he was geographically close enough to be in a neighboring phone book. When someone took my Gmail (identical first initial, last name) it was a relative. Now with the internet and person search we’ve found a handful, but only a handful
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Whoa super cool! I would ask you to say what it is but do not expect you to answer :)
Yeah. I'd like to be able to, but this isn't the kind of society where my opinions should be matched to my body.
I can tell you that the original was Sicilian.
last name? no because the last name is soo damn common that it would be impossibly to find someone solely by last name alone.
I will rejoice in being a famous Floopenhoffer!
No. Because I don’t care.
that dude is going to see a huge increase of traffic and have absolutely no idea why 🤣
My surname in my area is already associated with really bad things. So yes i am thinking on changing it. It is just hard in my country
The only issue with sharing a name with a famous criminal is on a job application. And if HR can't tell the difference between someone serving a very long sentence in prison and me, I wouldn't want to work for them anyway.
Im less worried about jobs, more worried about some random dumbass punching me upon hearing my name.
There are tv plot points about employers doing a background check, finding the wrong details, so not hiring someone. In real life I hope they would take a few steps to confirm
SIN are used for background checks in my country. As for looking up social media history, I haven't had a social in my name for many years.
Except for the exact spelling I already share a last name with a war criminal president. But since I'm in a different country and the name has a positive association with an author here, it hasn't really seemed like an issue.
I would try like getting royalty checks just by name alone. Try to pretend I'm related to them, forge some documents and stuff. That is if the person is interviewed or having books or stuff made of them.
Hell, there's a famous singer with my whole name, and I won't even give up music. Why the hell would I change my name over something someone else did?
Nah, Ford is straight up overly common.
It's nicely inconspicuous.
I share an almost identical name with some right winged POS. But I think the people I run into aren't going to confuse us.
Is your name Karlie Chirk?
Much less known thankfully.
One of my last names was severely misspelled a long time ago so I doubt anyone else not from my family has it, and I wouldn't change it. As for the other last name, it's kinda common so no I wouldn't change it either.
I have an ancestor who invented a famous sport and a second cousin who set someone on fire and buried them alive.
Sure. I have no attachment to my last name.
There are exactly two people in the United States with the same Last, Middle, and First Name as me (It's actually still true if you leave out the middle name). The other one is a few years younger than me, and when we were both somewhere in our 20's (quite long ago), the other one had a bit of trouble paying his bills. Given the unusual name, I had a few interesting calls trying to convince some really unhappy creditors that they weren't me.
A few years later they sold spices, and the multi level marketing spice company really had a problem distinguishing between us. They married someone whose first name is one letter different than my spouse.
Now the biggest problem is they are an elected politician. The good news is they moved to a coast, and I still live in the midwest. If they became more infamous, I would change my name.
Probably not. I'm too lazy.
I already share a name with a fairly famous (although now deceased) comedian so I doubt it.
If my name was uncommon and had become infamous? Yeah, I think I might change it in that case— it’d be a hard call and I’d have to think it through carefully, but I might come to the conclusion that I’d have to do it. But a common name? While it might get smudged a bit by the villain, there’d be too much dilution for anyone to care.
I feel for you, OP. That sucks.
No, changing one's name is a pain in the ass.