A little over a decade ago, we had a glut of Jose Lopezes at one school. I'm not sure how many there were, but on multiple occasions I would have two of them in the same class.
(They were differentiated by their middle initial, unless they didn't have one. Then they would need their student ID numbers. It was confusing during roll call, but somehow we managed the rest of the time.)
I haven't noticed this issue in a while.
Last Monday. Second period. Eighth grade U.S. history.
I had a lovely little seating chart with which to take attendance.
Kaitlyn Hernandez's seat was empty. I marked her absent. I continued going through the seating chart and matching empty seats to names. And... Kaitlyn Hernandez was absent. Again. Different seat.
It took me a bit to catch it. First I assumed that Kaitlyn had been moved and one seat just needed to be fixed. But no. There were two Kaitlyn Hernandezes listed on the class roster. They had different student ID numbers. One did have a middle initial.
Just imagine... Having someone else in your same class with your same name...
I mean, I was not the only Elizabeth in my class. But at least my last name was always unique. To not even have that...
Since one of the Kaitlyns was absent (the other did arrive later with a pass), and the assignment did not require me to call on students, I did not see how this worked in practice. But it begs the question. How does this work for them? Do they share other classes? Do they like each other?
And the big one... They're in eighth grade. They have more than four years together when one includes high school. How do they navigate the next four years?
Hopefully there isn't a third Kaitlyn Hernandez hiding somewhere...
Did you have others in your school with your same first name? Did you get along with them?
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That's a really unique name to belong to two girls in the same class. I never had to worry about it. Fortunately.
ReplyDeleteNope. No problems with the first name. -did have a family with our fairly unique family name in our small town. 'No, we're not related' was said year after year.
ReplyDeleteOh wow. Maybe you were related, but very distantly.
DeleteThat can be a challenge! Interesting that they seem to be associated with Latino people. Maybe they need to come up with some new names.
ReplyDeleteThe school has a very large Latino population.
DeleteIt's any time you get a large ethnic population together.
DeleteI used to know a guy named Marc Cohen. He went to a huge university with a substantial number of Jewish students, and he knew of four other men with the last name "Cohen" and the first name weither "Marc" or "Mark" who were enrolled at the same time he was. I can think of a lot of schools where he would have been the only Marc Cohen on campus.
I remember in high school there were 4 Justins in my year. Fortunately, they all had different last names.
ReplyDelete~Patricia Lynne aka Patricia Josephine~
My A to Z’s of Dining with IC
Patricia Lynne, Indie Author
Different last names are the key. At least then they could be Justin Z. or Justin H.
DeleteHeh, that's funny. They might be used to it by now since they're in eighth grade. I suppose it isn't much different than having someone with just the same first name in your class. It's just more confusing for the teachers :)
ReplyDeleteIn second gr. one year, I had 4 Davids. Another year, 2 or 3 Miguels/Michaels. Popular names are always repeating. I named my oldest daughter Erin, thinking it was unique (being Irish), but no. Other daughter was Mary, and she stood alone.
ReplyDeleteNot too many Marys around. Once I had four Brittneys in one class (and each one was spelled differently).
DeleteMy first name is Melissa, I had plenty of classes with another Melissa in the room :)
ReplyDeleteI bet. Although, Melissa isn't as big a name nowadays.
DeleteMy name is pretty common, so I had a few others the same. I tried to give my son a unique name so he wouldn't have the same problem - Caden. Lo and behold in his nursery class there is another boy called Cayden!
ReplyDeletehttps://iainkellywriting.com/2018/04/04/d-is-for-dresden-germany/
Of course there was. Everyone tries to go all unique, but then that happens to be "the" name that year. At least he won't be alone ;)
DeleteMy first name is fairly common. My maiden name is also fairly common. I've known two other girls who had the same first and last name. One lived in the same town as me but went to a different elementary school. The other went to college with me. The college computer was able to tell us apart as long as we were both on campus, but when she graduated, I started getting her mail, and her unpaid bills.
ReplyDeleteMy mnarried name is also fairly common. I use my maiden name as a middle name.
I went to college with a girl who has the same first name as me. Her maiden name is my married name and her married name is my maiden name. so if I signed my letters "Mary Smith Jones" she would sign hers "Mary Jones Smith".
My younger daughter went to preschool with another girl with the same name. My sister went to junior high with another girl with the same name, even the same middle name.
Very confusing.
It is. Yikes. You had it bad.
DeleteWhen I married my husband we "Brady Bunched," each bringing 3 children to the brood. We each had an "Emily." No one said anything, but there was definitely a little jealousy (That's the best way to describe it) on both of the the girl's parts, despite 20 years difference in their ages. One of the girls was an adult , married and out of the house, but here came this new "Emily." It was hard enough for her to watch her dad become dad to 3 new daughters, but to share her name? That added insult to injury. He did adopt my daughters so we had 2 Emily Ericksons. Thankfully, they have both grown to love one another, but it is an interesting thing to have 2 daughters with the same name.
ReplyDeleteTwo Emilys in the same family. Yikes. I totally get why they would be put out.
DeleteMy name is a little unusual. No one with my name in school, but I have a cousin with my exact name (my maiden last name, that is) except his first name is lacking the last letter of my first name, to make it more masculine. We were named after the same relative. Alana ramblinwitham.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteA cousin? That means your parents and his parents did that deliberately. Well, as long as it all worked out ;)
DeleteWe had multiples of my names! But not always the same second name. And there were some differences in some classes.
ReplyDeleteMy name is Nasreen. So there were Nazreens- with a 'z' lots of them! Nasreen is sort of less out there! When I google all I get are authors named Nasreen. Imagine that!
Oh yes....there were four Pam's in my graduating class. But...there were two Pam M's! When we became friends on FB we were nicknamed P1 and P2. I was P1 cause Montgomery came before Mossack! The N in Montgomery comes before the S in Mossack!!! haha...but then we had Pam Goodman and Pam Goins. There you go...two Pam's with Go's .....haha
ReplyDeleteOnce I worked somewhere that had three Lindas. Two with the same last initial. So, I numbered them. It didn't really work, but they only worked together for a short time.
DeleteTwo in the same school and the same grade is amazing. It's a common last name - we had one in our grade - but paired with the first name is unusual. I've never even met someone who spelled their last name the same way as my maiden name was spelled. (Wittmeyer - all others spell it with an H.)
ReplyDeleteWow! I remember having a Korean (I believe) young man in my choir during junior high. I didn't know him and always thought the director was saying 'on to' instead of his name: Han Thu. Silly, huh? Me and my imagination. I'm no longer sure about the spelling, TBH, but he was one of the rarer nice people in that school.
ReplyDeleteJust one? We had a fairly substantial Asian population at my high school.
DeleteWhen I was in school I went by Lee (as I still do) and I can't remember but one other Lee in the schools I attended. Certainly not in any of my classes at least. There were almost always a few Mikes, Johns, Karens, Dianes, and the like, but I don't recall how the teachers handled the duplication. I didn't pay attention to a lot of things in school.
ReplyDeleteArlee Bird
Tossing It Out
It probably didn't come up much. Somehow teachers manage to handle it.
DeleteI was the only Yvonne. One benefit of a relatively uncommon name.
ReplyDeleteBut common enough that people have heard of it. It's a very fine line. Your parents did well ;)
DeleteIt is crazy how that happens. No one else with my name that I've ever encountered :)
ReplyDeleteThere weren't many. I grew up with Debbies, Karens and Cathys.
ReplyDeleteFunny how some names define an era.
DeleteThere were usually a few Amandas in my classes, but because I went by "Mandy" I was fine. ;) Can't imagine sharing a last name with another student. That would be weird.
ReplyDeleteI imagine it would depend on your last name. My last name... Yeah, when a student said she knew someone else by that name, it was a relative. But Smith or Jones or Gonzalez or Rodriguez... I can have two or three Gonzalezes in one class, and none of them are related.
Delete