that’s my name, don’t wear it out!
i have an uncommon enough first name that i don’t frequently meet (in person or otherwise) anyone else with the same name. i’ve grown accustomed to being the only me around, and i’m of the opinion that i fill the role of being me with a certain level of skill.
when i meet a guy who shares my first name, the fact that he goes by my name starts him out with a bad impression. i take offense to another dude using my name — it’s like he knew about me and decided he could do better at being me and so chose my own name for himself. so before i even start to get to know this other me, he’s insulted me.
of course that’s only my initial impression, though the fact that this other dude is out there doing his own thing under my name does have long-term effects. once i get to know another me, if i genuinely don’t like him, his very existence makes me look bad because he has soiled the good name of me. i am associated with this undesirable other me not by my own choosing. if not for him using my name i’d just ignore him, but since he’s a me out there doing things i don’t want to be associated with, it’s personal.
it’s like i’m that programmer from office space named michael bolton, but i don’t even have the option to shorten my name to “mike” to distance myself. in fact my name is used as a shortened version of a few longer names, so i’ll often see an undesirable me as less than a true me — he’s only me as a nickname. since my name isn’t short for anything i clearly have more right to it than a guy who is too lazy to use his entire first name.
thankfully, some guys manage to be me in a way i don’t mind — in fact some of them might even be better at being me than i am! here it actually helps my opinion of the other me because i will want to promote him over a lesser me. after a while of telling people i know how awesome the good me is, i start to believe my exaggerations and he becomes an almost mythical hero in the saga of me.
whether i can’t get enough of them or can’t stand them, i definitely have strong opinions about dudes who use my name. however i feel i’m going to do it that much harder because they’re out there representing me through sharing my name.