I send that image to Meade (along with the link to the website the alert wants me to click), and this conversation follows:
June 22, 2025
I caught a glimpse of my own obituary.
In the email this morning, the Google alert I've had on my name for decades brings this:
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24 comments:
1. "Cousin" was just a guess from Meade. She is not my cousin, not first cousin anyway. This is the first I've heard of her.
2. By "paper straw," I don't mean to stir up the old plastic straw/paper straw controversy. The paper is the wrapper for the straw, whatever the straw itself is made of. Everyone knows how to blow the wrapper off a straw, right?
3. I meant "too self-aggrandizing," not "to."
4. What does "toast being written" mean? I don't know, but unlike you, I have a way to check.
It's always a bit disconcerting to google your name, and discover how, even it it seems fairly distinct, even unique, it is shared by many others.
We've probably all done that, just to find out what sort of people are running around with our name. I've found out that, as far as Google knows, I'm the only one of 'me' out there.
I should have made that Google alert on "Althouse," without the "Ann," because I'm interested in other Althouses (and have a longstanding tag "other Althouses") and the name "Ann" is SO often a middle name that it pulls in people who are not really named Ann Althouse.
To have a "fairly distinct" name is dangerous, because when people find it on line, they're more likely to see it as you. But if it's common — like Bob Smith — they'll assume it's not. Good if you don't want to be found.
The worst kind of name is one that famously belongs to someone else, especially if it's someone bad. You never know, some awful person with your name may become famous today.
I had 3 obituaries in 2023.
When I enter my first name in Google (just the first name) I receive a response that includes my grandfather, for whom I am named. It is his middle name, but he went by it as his given name for a lifetime. He is the first instance of this name listed in the FamilySearch site (thank you, LDS!) in the English language. I have a cousin who has exactly my grandfather's name (he's the III), but goes by John - his first name. I never use this word while posting anywhere, and any search to find this name would indicate that I am the only individual in this nation with this word as a first name.
Being unique is overrated. My handle is not a clue.
OMG. Please tell me you don't Google yourself.
I think you and Meade need to start taking some bus trips and report back to us. With photos. And paper straw wrappings strewn about.
Prof: "You never know, some awful person with your name may become famous today."
At least you're not Ann Wayne Althouse.
RR,
JSM
> The worst kind of name is one that famously belongs to someone else
"Michael Bolton: No way! Why should I change? He's the one who sucks."
--Office Space
As far as I know, I am one of two people in the world named "Yancey Ward" (the other lives in the Dallas, Texas area) . When I add my middle name, I am the only return from Google.
"I read the news today, oh boy...."
She hails from Updike country. I'd almost forgotten that old slang term for Germans: "Fritz." A Fritz from Fritztown. When I lived back East, someone pointed out that the term Pennsylvania Dutch was actually a mis-translation of the term Deutsch. Lots more people of German ancestry in PA than Dutch. Though my German great grandparents landed in Wisconsin.
Chipper at 100. We should all be so lucky.
I have the most common Irish name in America. I run into myself all the time.
I have an unusual last name, but I knew from google that there was a father and son in New Hampshire who shared my first and last name. The father passed a few years ago, and the obituary was eventually sent my way. He was survived by two brothers who shared the same name as two of my own brothers. THAT was unexpected.
Sorry to have missed your service. Lol.
My namesake is a semi--famous mathematician. And, he's younger than me, and objectively healthier.
I have a rare German surname. The few times I've met someone new with the name, my first thought is "How are we related?"
But despite that, there are more than a few people with my first+last name. There are over 4 dozen on LinkedIn, with most being in the US.
One day at work, I received a full page and from a Tucson newspaper, advertising a Jeep dealer with me same name as mine. An alert customer caught it and mailed it to me. Alas, the dealership went out of business a few years after. But I did see a Jeep - in Madison - with a tire cover from that place and I snapped a picture of it.
Googly amended the 'a' in a subliminal? Hallucinatory? Transition.
There’s an Althouse on the Cass County Planning Commission.
I’ve never met anyone in person — outside of my family— with my last name.
Back when I was very broke, I used to get emails addressed to a doctor who shared my name. They were looking for doctors to take surveys about pharmaceuticals and paying with $100 gift cards. I took a LOT of surveys for a while.
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