What is in a name?
Woman in the Middle | November 19, 2013When I married Hubby, I was given a new last name that is the second most common last name in the United States. (Go ahead, look that up and see if you can figure it out!) This name has connected me with people of different races, creeds, colors, and probably national origins, none of whom I am related to. My maiden name was unusual enough that if I had ever run into someone with the same last name (which I never have) I would have fallen on them like a long-lost cousin. But the new name is everywhere and I don’t even blink an eyelash anymore if I am introduced to a person with the same last name.
What having a common last name has also done is turn off my assumption switch, at least when it comes to names. Recently we were in the hospital emergency room due to, well, an emergency. (It wasn’t hubby or me). The doctor treating the relative with the emergency had the last name of Nguyen. It is my understanding that Nguyen is as common in Vietnam as Smith is in the United States. He explained that when our loved one was switched from the emergency room to a room in the hospital the case would be taken over by Dr. Nguyen, who he explained was a female doctor who was not related to him in any way. It took me a moment. First I thought “Why would he think we would think they were related?” But then I remembered that the last name association switch is in the off position for me and Hubby and I think I then murmured something like “Of course she isn’t related to you.”
So, dear readers with more unique names than I, would you have wondered if the two Dr. Nguyens were related?
One of my doctor’s last name is Chung. There are at least 4 other doctors in our local area with the same name, one of whom is his wife. I guess Chung is the Chinese equivalent of Smith.
My married name is extremely unusual where I live. But travel 400 miles south to the Mississippi coast and LOTS of people have my name. You see, the family came from Europe and were early and prolific settlers of the Gulf coast. I was down there years ago visiting my husband’s sister and a DJ on the radio was talking about someone with my last name. He paused for a moment and then said “That name around here is like Smith or Jones everywhere else.” My husband is quite interested in genealogy and knows that he is only remotely related to most of the people with our name down there, so the name association switch stays mostly in the off position too. But just let him find someone in another part of the country with our name and he is all over it!
Not me, because I also knew that Nguyen is like Smith in Vietanm. people with my last name ar probably related to me, though. I thought when I traveled to Switzerland (where my grandfather was born) it would be more common, but no they were all related to me!
To be honest I may have thought they were related because I do not think of Nguyen the same way I think of Smith or Jones or Brown which are the most common name in Australia although thinking about it Nguyen is pretty common here as well…………….
I don’t usually think that someone is related to another unless the name is rather rare. Just because someone is Indian/etc and has the last name of Patel does not mean that they are related to any other Patel/Chung/Nguyen/Smith/Jones. Then again, I grew up with a very rare last name for the US. When my parents pass on, there will be no one left in the USA with my maiden name. It still exists in Germany, but as my grandparents had 3 girls and 1 boy, and that boy, my father, had two girls, and we chose to take on our husbands’ names, my maiden name will disappear. My married name is more common, but still no where close to Smith/Jones/etc. It’s unfortunate that the doctor actually had to clarify because he’d been asked so many times.
I know several Nguyen’s, so I wouldn’t have thought they were related.
My daughter married info a Smith family. Unfortunately for her, in the county we live in she is now related to lots of “Smiths”. She just has to learn which ones. Lol