It’s true — there probably isn’t another “PZ Myers” in the country…at least, that’s what the “Is this your name?” site says. Go ahead, plug your name in.
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
It’s true — there probably isn’t another “PZ Myers” in the country…at least, that’s what the “Is this your name?” site says. Go ahead, plug your name in.
They can’t even spell it right.
British soccer fans used to praise their favourite player by singing “There’s only one [insert name of player]!” to the tune of Guantanamera.
So, all together now:
One PZ Myers,
There’s only one PZ Myers.
One PZ Myyyy-eerrrrs…
Feh. I get 0.015% for the first name and fewer than 0.001% for the last name, which leads them to the conclusion that I, too, don’t exist. And I’m poorly envoweled. Better not tell the missus.
Speaking of which, I’ll go plug her in…
Hans– You have a plug-in mistress? Do tell!
In case you haven’t figured this out from my comments here…
Origin: Scandinavian
Meaning: Wise
Poorly Envoweled. Oh, the shame…
I’m not even going to bother.
This was comforting:
“People with your first name are probably: Male or female“
Hmm, there are reckoned to be 1,938 of me out there. I was adopted, however…
Nope, no “Q” the Enchanter, either. Not even without the quotation marks.
Great. Just great.
My “power animal” is the naked mole rat.
Thanks, PZ…
Averagely emvoweled, only one of me in the country. Wev.
… we guesstimate there are 0 ‘PZ Myers’s
They guesstimate there are 0 ‘PZ Myers’s what?
Well-emvoweled, 6 of me, humpback whale and the number 9 (if it weren’t bullshit.)
Need I say more?
475 of me… :-(
Mom always said I was one in a million. Guess she was wrong.
My power animal is… The Red Kangaroo? I like the basic premise of having a marsupial, but I would have preferred something weird like the honey possum or marsupial mole…
Apparently there is no one with my name. And my name according them means “Powerful”
Does this mean I can proclaim myself to being a powerful being and have people worship me and give me money?
boobies
Uh…hate to state the obvious but using initials isn’t the same thing as using your actual first name. You ain’t that rare.
Whoops, sorry about that. I meant:
(.)(.)
Whoops, sorry about that. I meant:
(.)(.)
Is that scotty, the breast-obsessed porn spammer, who has returned from the dungeon?
It said 99% of people with your name are male. You mean there are female Brians getting about. Wow, I’d heard of Briony and Briana, but not that. And I’m very common. Sigh. To be a PZ.
They estimate there are 30 people with my name in the US. One of them–I kid you not–is my family doctor, no relation.
(Not a coincidence, mind you. I was looking for a doctor, had heard he was good, and his office was close to where I worked. Thought he’d have an incentive to keep me healthy on account of my name. Only after I “hired” him did I realize he may have an incentive to bump off the competition.)
Is it coincidence that the Google ads on the PZ Myers page are for “Creationism at Beliefnet” and “Believe in Evolution”?
Bob:
As opposed to a clothed mole rat?
Don’t feel bad. My ‘power animal’ is the black widow spider. & I’m ‘averagely envoweled’.
Time to answer 1 of those email spams…unless I’m confused about something?
Hehehehe.
Using my real name, which is Teh Sekrit™, there are apparently about 900 and some of me. By far, the vast majority of people who have my given name with my spelling are Muslims, although I am not. (The site didn’t tell me this; I knew it already.)
Is that scotty, the breast-obsessed porn spammer, who has returned from the dungeon?
Nope, it’s W00t, who has been bringing boobies (volar boobies at that) to liberal blogs since Atrios was anonymous. :) W00t is one of the good guys.
Power animal: Brushtail opossum? Now, I could have handled anything down to north atlantic whitefish, but brushtail opossum? Sheesh!
I keyed in my full first and last name, Anthony Pelliccio. I’m it. But I know for a fact there’s one other, that would be my father.
And there are Pelliccio’s of many spellings all over the country.
Well, I’m averagely voweled, but there are 0 of me (married name) in the US. Somehow, I don’t find that comforting. However, I think it is awesome that my power animal is the komodo dragon. I have always thought they were the coolest things. Now I’m going to go back and see what results I get from my maiden name. (And boringly, my first name means….dawn….surprise, surprise.)
Now I have to make a choice..for my maiden name, I get a definition of what the name means, and my power animal is a T Rex! (I’m also poorly emvoweled with my maiden name…) But there are 273 of me this way. So which name do I use and which power animal is cooler? And how does this thing KNOW that I’m a carnivore?
My personal power animal is apparently the Loch Ness Monster.
True Story.
My power animal is the Japanese Mothra. I’ll take it! All 0 of me.
One of 37, poorly emvowled, and with the Madagascar Fossa for a power animal. I feel so special.
Ha! The site estimates that zero other people have my name, but I know better. There’s a guy less than fifty miles from my home town who not only has my name, but has a felony conviction to boot. For lewd and lascivious behavior. Why, I never!
According to this, there are 0 of me in this country… I don’t exist. I wonder if that makes me god?
Feh. It guestimates that there are 0 others with my name.
The thing is, I know of another with not only the same first and last name as me, but also the same middle name.
And I found out about him because he is currently in the Federal Penitentiary in Florida.
Not only is there nobody with my name, but my children Malachi, Zimzy, Darwin and Leif as well as my wife Pashanta are also all alone.
Unfortunately I have a common name, which is why I named my son something original and yet not too odd: Theory.
My power animal is Tyrannosaurus rex. Fear me.
I’m also “well envoweled”, but it’s a Latin name, so it doesn’t really count, does it?
There are 242 of me in the US, supposedly. It turns out I’m a bit rarer than 1 in a million. Yay for me.
And my power animal is (and I’m completely serious) Mike Tyson. Your power animals better hide their ears…
According to that site, its unlikely that my nephew even exists.
It estimates that there are zero of me as well, but I know better. There’s some weirdo at Thomas College who has my name, though I shall soon be conquering the #1 spot at Google for our name. Soooooooon….
It says there are probably 3 people with my name. So me, my dad, and someone else.
I just put down my latest volume of Cerebus the Aardvark (I’m well into the “Dave Sims’ misogynistic nervous breakdown” part of the series now) and turn to this. Plugging in my name, I find that my power animal is the Giant Anteater. Hmmm…
Feh. Needs better data. My first name is rare but is completely ethnically specific, and the program didn’t recognize it. My last name is fairly common and is also highly ethnically specific, and the program managed to get that one wrong.
The method by which it guesses how many doppelgangers you have – strictly by frequency of first and last names – strikes me as fairly useless unless both of your names are fairly common. Also, it assumes the two are independent, which seems unwise. I’d guess there are at most a few thousand Americans with my (actual) first name, but it isn’t surprising that one of them has the same last name (and is unrelated). It is a bit vexing that the fellow should be a successful author with several books published and significant visibility on the web.
I wonder: how many members of the current generation, in naming their kids, try to maximize their searchability by using unusual names or combinations of names? How many might try to minimize it?
Poorly envoweled indeed! Harumph!
And I take offense at being equated to the Hairy-Nosed Wombat!
For you others, how much can it be worth if your power animal never existed (Loch Ness Monster), or is extinct?
Says there are possibly 36 of me out there. I lived near one apparently when I lived in Northern Virginia. I used to get answering machine messages for some other Jeff all the time. My wife thought I was living a double life.
Pardon me, I need to go trim my nose hair…
Warren Terra asks if people are either mazimizing or minimizing the probability that their kids will have unique names in Google. The Wall Street Journal had an article recently on people having trouble with their names producing too many matches, and sometimes the wrong ones, and the determination of some to give their kids low-probability names.
As for me, the 940-some people allegedly sharing my name are plausible, as I’ve run into a couple, directly or indirectly. But they get the surname Drake totally wrong, atributing it to Gaelic ducks and leaders, with no mention of its actual Latin root. The Draco who showed up in the Domesday Book as a landowner in Devon might have something to say to them. With a dragon as a family totem, who needs a western desert mongoose? May these guys be pursued by “Fearful fiery Drakes, and Blazing bearded-light,
Which frights the World.”
My real name owns the fictional blast-ended skrewt as a power animal… me buddy ‘agrid conjured it up for me. My fictional name claims the Siberian Chipmunk. Altogether now… awwwww.
On the other hand there are probably 2368 people using the mundane version of Paul Myers.
At least the animal is appropriate, the Kalahari Meerkat. It is described on one of the websites dedicated to it as a nurturing and cooperative animal which helps raise the young of others.
Me, I’m down there with the rest of the zeroes.
My personal power animal is the Yellow-bellied Weasel. (It’s difficult to imagine anything more oxymoronic.)
At least I’m well-envoweled.
All zero of me.
Your first name isn’t “PZ,” numbskull. It’s “Paul,” and when that is plugged into that page, the result is:
Still rare, but not any sort of “one in 300 million” crap you’re trying to be smug about.
Just for fun, I put in “Jesus Christ”.
“According to the US Census Bureau°, 0.157% of US residents have the first name ‘Jesus’ and 0.002% have the surname ‘Christ’. The US has around 300 million residents, so we guesstimate there are 9 ‘Jesus Christ’s.”
“Your ‘Numerology’ number is 7. If it wasn’t bulls**t, it would mean that you are spiritual, eccentric, and a bit of a loner. Introspective and analytical, you think deeply and preferseclusion.”
But this one is the best,
“Your personal power animal is the Arctic Lemming”
nuff said
Sumatran Orangutan.
Ook! Oook! Ook! Runs off, waving hands above head, to the Mended Drum to celebrate.
Apparently my wife does not exist. This is going to take a bit of adjusting to.
Well PZ according to a search on my name I rate a 0.
“The US has around 300 million residents, so we guesstimate there are 0 ‘Denis Castaing’s”
So our recent encounter in Cambridge MA must have been of the “There are fairies at the bottom of my garden or God exists” variety of nonsense.
I assure the world I am alive, well, and as always enjoying reading your blog. “Atheism for Ever”
DenisC
My power animal is Mike Tyson? WTF?
Heh. My father named me “Christian” (a feeble effort, that..it did not take at all!). The name finder says:
Your personal power animal is the Vampire Squid
Yippee!!
As an Atheist, I could be more thrilled about the fact that my name means “God is gracious”.
Other than that – averagely envowelled, power animal is a black mambo, and there are 0 of me in the United States. Since I live in Scotland, this could be true, but I doubt it.
What a curiously pointless website.
475 of me… :-(
Mom always said I was one in a million. Guess she was wrong.
Well, there are approximately 300 million people in the US and 475 of “you”, so she wasn’t so far off. Will you settle for being 1.58 in a million?
That has really spoilt my day as I had totally forgotten that my forename meant god is gracious. Though obviously can’t be referring to the ever loving xtian one then, no wonder I became an atheist. Though I do like my power animal, a hippopotamus, one of most dangerous animals in Africa.
Bah, the imperialistic applet does not even support the characters in my name…
I did a search for Kent Hovind (just for fun) and it guessitmate that there are none.
87.6% have a higher vowel make-up. This means you are poorly envoweled. (Should I be concerned?)
Your personal power animal is the American Bison. (The Bison is cool, I guess)
According to the US Census Bureau°, 0.008% of US residents have the first name…and fewer than 0.001% have the surname. (Apparently, there are 0 people with my name. Except for me, I assume)
At least I’m not this guy:
The US has around 300 million residents, so we guesstimate there are 100,439 ‘James Smith’s.
There are 591 of me.
That’s a lot of unknown people.
Deepsix – one of those is my cousin! And a great-uncle. And I think a second cousin once removed. Wait, I think my family may single-handedly be responsible for most of those.
Woot! My personal power animal is the Vampire Squid. I am made of awesome.
Pretty much no one in my family exists, including me. And my power animal is the Blue Tit. Hmmmm.
My power animal is the spotted skunk. What kind of power is that?
At least I’m very well emvoweled…but then, I’m always being told that
Oh Man! I’m a Domestic Ferret. NOt even WILD or Exotic????
And there are 35 of me in the US. No wonder I’m confused! (At least I have 34 copycats out there to blame….)
Hey, No! That wasn’t me – you must mean that ‘other’ tony!
At least I’m probably male!
There are 6 vowels in my 12-letter name. For some reason, it decided that my name is 33% vowels. Therefore, I conclude that this site doesn’t know what the hell it’s talking about.
Although I do like being a king cheetah.
My power animal is the Griffon Vulture. A carrion eater. How special.
George Bush’s power animal: Blue Tit
I’m going to assume this is similar to Blue Balls.
There are less than .001 people in the country with my last name (which I already know … all of them are relatives, and all came frome the same German brothers who fled Germany in the 1850’s.) However, the site predicts that there are 0 people in the U.S. with my name. Funny, I never knew I didn’t exist.
Well, it appears I don’t exist as well, but I already knew that. And unfortunately, my power animal, the Mountain Gorilla, is an endangered species.
Hmmm. Maybe it’s also time to ban DSM. Your response to a brief and trivial comment about an odd website is totally inappropriate and freakily out of joint. Grow up.
White-lipped peccary? Hmm, aggressive bacon.. that’s a tad ambivalent. The site’s take on totems and numerology is amusing, but a lot more name-woo could have been mocked with a bit more effort.
I got “0 others”, too, but I know that’s wrong. That seems to be an artifact of using only 3 significant digits in calculating the odds. I have a less than common last name, but it’s not particularly unique, and I have a fairly common first name. Locally there is someone with my name wandering around the police reports. I’ve had a couple of problems, fortunately the physical description doesn’t match outside of gender and age.
According to this, they estimate one other person with my name they way mine is spelled. The most common spelling estimates 57 (probably) female people with that spelling. The other two spellings come up with 11 and 9 respectively. That’s a total of about 79 people who would answer to my name, since the spelling doesn’t affect the pronunciation at all.
My personal power animal is the dwarf zebu. I had to look this up and it’s the dwarf version of India’s sacred bovines, so it’s a little sacred cow!
I am poorly emvoweled, so please, PZ, keep that in mind if you ever feel tempted to disemvowel me. Who knows what might happen? Has anyone done a study on the effects of vowel deficiency?
Not only does it say there are 475 of me, but someone with the same first name as me has already posted (#16) to say there are 475 of him, so perhaps there are two of us here already.
If I use the common short form of my first name, I am averagely envoweled, my power animal is something called the “Blast-ended Skrewt”, my numerology number is 7 (making me a bit of a loner) and there are 7 people with my name.
If I use my whole first name, I am poorly envoweled, my power animal is a Grizzly bear, my number is 5 (making me adventurous) and there are 16 of me.
Apparently, nicknames make quite a difference.
“According to the US Census Bureau°, 0.951% of US residents have the first name ‘Xxxx‘ and fewer than 0.001% have the surname ‘Yyyyyyy‘. The US has around 300 million residents, so we guesstimate there are 0 ‘Xxxx Yyyyyyy‘s.”
So I don’t exist at all. Probably.
My personal power animal is also the vampire squid.
I’m beginning to think it says that to all the girls.
I always figured that if I had a personal power animal, it’d be more like a leach or a tick.
Satin Peruvian Guinea Pig, gag. I guess it beats Siberian Hamster or something.
From the site: I am a Christ-bearing Bull Shark, there are 34 of us (two per foot of the Jesuses in the country [one is missing a leg]).
And my number is 8. Because I like to ate stuff (like Messiah Drumsticks.)
Here’s what I get with my married name:
Here’s what I get using my ‘maiden’ name:
FWIW, I changed my last name to my wife’s when we got married. =)
Duck billed platypus is almost as cool as the giant squid….
Cheers.
I remember trying this site some time ago, and it told me that there were no more people with the same first and last name as me. Turns out, my cousin has the same first and last name as me. So there, silly probability calculation website!
Your cousin also misspells “Inoculated”?
According to them:
My thoughts:
No surprises there.
Did anybody get a 13-stripe ground squirrel for a power animal? Trade ya. . . .
:)
As I suspected, I too, am utterly unique, nominally (so to speak)!
Nope, sorry. I kinda like my little sacred cow, or dwarf zebu. Besides, nobody else seems to have gotten that one!
Although T-rex or Mothra would’ve been cool…
2,284 Pamela Greens in the USA, and judging from the collection calls I’m getting, NONE OF THE OTHERS EVER REPAID THEIR STUDENT LOANS!! Freeloaders.
(It’s true, before there was caller ID, every year I’d get an angry call from someone who, once they established my name, would launch into an angry diatribe about my spending habits. No problem that my middle name, birthdate, social security etc etc etc didn’t match. Guess that’s why they were working collections.)