On Sun 22 Jun 2003 02:42, Leon Brooks posted as excerpted below: > We also have friends who have 11 children, one of whom is named Jonathan > and another one John. Causes endless confusion when Aussies typically > abberviate Jonathan to Jon.
I-yeeeee! My first name is John, but I have chosen to go by my family name, Duncan, because as I put it, there's always to many Johns around -- UNLESS you need one! <g> Duncan is a bit less common. However, I can't IMAGINE, having a brother by that close to the same name, as well, or rather, I CAN, but I don't find the idea at all to my liking! <g> I've even worked in situations where there was a Don or a Donna and we were always either failing to answer someone, or answering when it was for the other, because all you hear in many cases is the jON, or dONa. It was about then, college age for me, when surnames are often used unmodified, that I started using Duncan. It took about three years, but I pretty much quit responding to John, as I never used it and therefore always assumed they were talking to someone else. That was meat-space, but I still used John Duncan in iSpace. Some years later, there was another one in one of the newsgroups I was a regular in, and I decided to use the same simply "Duncan" in iSpace as well. I've been using it for some years now, and naturally use it here as well. Altho I know it is by no means a unique identifier in the global namespace, I've never run into another individual going by that handle operating within the same sphere of influence, either in iSpace or in meat-space, tho one of my work customer's kids is goes by Duncan as his first name, and I remain comfortable with the handle. -- Duncan - List replies preferred. "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." Benjamin Franklin
