The Name Game

[da]

I have an interest in coincidences. When the fabric of one's life develops a few slip-stitches. The kind of thing you generally don't notice until suddenly, as if in The Twilight Zone, your life has a pattern you can just barely see and can't possibly understand. Then the moment passes and you're back in the humdrum world.

Of course your average day has millions of chances for "a strange thing" to happen, most with little actual effect on the world. But if you look for strange things, like magic you'll see more of them. Occasionally, they're useful; like getting a day's worth of good elevator karma; or getting a phone call from the person you most want to talk to. But mostly their intrinsic value is simply getting a chance to grin and feel like part of the universe sort of makes sense somehow.

Once upon a time, I thought I had an uncommon first name. Then I left for school, and lo, Daniels were popping out of the woodwork. In fact it turns out that Daniel Allen is not an uncommon name.

It started in my first week at school when I started getting snail mail for the other Daniel Allen, then a Senior. My second week I learned my unique Cornell user ID was shared between myself (Daniel Robert Allen) and Daniel Robert Adinolphi. We were both dra1 for a week, despite protests by Cornell Information Technologies that it was strictly impossible. Douglas Adams was right on target with the Someone Else's Problem Field. People simply won't believe reality if it's inconvenient. Interestingly enough, dra1 also works in Information Technology, which I learned from a mutual friend who ran into him at a security conference.

When I was a teenager I went to a gathering of 200 Quaker teens (YouthQuake in Glorietta New Mexico, 1994), and met a total of five other Quaker Daniels and Dans. That was fun, especially since I got to introduce some of them to each other.

In 2003 at Summer Gathering of Friends General Conference, I played the card-game Fluxx with a Daniel, Daniel, dan, and Gary. And those were just the people staying in our dorm-hall.

There have been three Daniels on the payroll of my former consulting company, including business-partner (now professor), Jason Daniel Hartline. In 2000-2001 I consulted for Millennium Pharmaceuticals. My office-mate Daniel Noël had just moved from Canada to Boston; I moved from Boston to Canada eight months later.

There's also the Daniel Allen House in Walpole, MA, and Dan Allen Drive at NC State. I guess it's gratifying- and possibly weird- that Google thinks I'm one of the most authorative Daniel Allens.

When I first got onto facebook, I found a group named "Yes, my name is Daniel Allen too." I became member number 53. Then the group vanished. No idea what happened.

Last but most definitely not least, my sweetie is a dan, with whom I have been lucky to share just about half our respective lives together.

So, that's the long version of the story when people learn that we're "Dan and Daniel" and I say, "We didn't plan it that way."

Comments

[joymoose]

Daniel is a great name. Look at all those great Dans/Daniels!

[valkryor]

I was named after the Queen of England who, at the time, was the longest reigning monarch in British history. There are a LOT of things named after her: streets, schools, parks, cities, etc etc ad nauseum ad infinitum. As a child, I was partially convinced that all of this stuff was named for ME because children are often self-centred little jerks.

Aside from the names of things, places, locations, I do not meet people with my name very often. It is more common to slap the name on a hospital than a person, it seems.

[da]

haha, kid logic...

I think I've only known one other person with your name; so I have to agree with you. Lots more Elizabeths out there.