doppelgangers
do you know other people who share your name? i always figured my name was so weird that i could be secure in the knowledge that nobody else would've taken it. like other norwegian laborers, my ancestors adopted the name of the farm that employed them -- in this case, the uggen farm. today, uggen is a norwegian euphemism for hangover (e.g., "i woke up feeling a little uggen this morning"). really -- just ask around on your next trip to oslo.well, now google news is running stories about another dr. christopher uggen:
Google News Alert for: Uggen
New area surgeon saw athletic pressures up close Kalamazoo Gazette - MLive.com - Kalamazoo,MI,USABY LINDA S. MAH KALAMAZOO -- Dr. Christopher Uggen is bringing an extreme understanding of sports medicine to the Kalamazoo Orthopaedic Clinic. ...See all stories on this topic
Shoulders are his specialty Kalamazoo Gazette - MLive.com - Kalamazoo,MI,USABY LINDA S. MAH KALAMAZOO -- Orthopedic surgeon Dr. Christopher Uggen repairs elbows, knees and ankles, but he takes particular interest in doing ...See all stories on this topic
and there are at least two more of us out there as well. chris uggen of new orleans (be)friended me on facebook and christopher uggen of kalamazoo connected with us as well. i think we're all a little disappointed that we're no longer unique but a little happy that we're no longer alone.
Chris is now friends with Christopher Uggen and Chris Uggen.
posted by christopher uggen @ 8:29 AM
3 comments
3 Comments:
I, too, often thought I must be the only Jesse Wozniak in existence, but in addition to the son of Steve (born only a few weeks after me), the moniker also belongs to an ATV racing superstar, a celebrity photographer, and a shitty jam band drummer in small-town Michigan. Ah, the power of the internets, though I'll note that the other Jesse Wozniak's found me, I didn't find them through what one could argue is the slightly vain move of having one's name set on google alert...
thanks, woz. google alerts can be a handy tool for academics -- if you see how journalists are using your work, you can sometimes correct the record or, at least, get out in front of the hate-mail. here's an example from the WSJ: http://chrisuggen.blogspot.com/2006/08/sunday-section-gave-us-mention.html
plus, of course, there's the vanity thing. :)
I have a moderately unusual name (first name is much less common than either Christopher or Jesse; last name is more common in the U.S. than Uggen and less common than Wozniak, according to http://www.publicprofiler.org/worldnames/Default.aspx and http://www.namestatistics.com/) and didn't make it to age 10 without running into a doppelganger. Plus, when I was 21 and applied for my first credit card, I found out that our credit histories had been merged. It was only fixed because he is male, I am female, and the record that led to our histories being merged was a hospital bill that listed the patient as "Male". Otherwise, it was a surreal "well, prove you aren't that other person!" sort of situation with the creditors.
"We have here the Existential crisis you ordered, ma'am!"
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