Same Name Difficulties...anyone else?

[Rafiki Rafiki Rafiki]

We moved to a new state, a new school district, and a new house.

I enrolled my daughters in the school, and I couldn't seem to get the cafeteria payments to work in the automated system. So I called the school and left a message with the secretary...who in turn, sent my message not to the cafeteria lady...but BACK HOME with my daughter.

Great. So I call again, leave another message. Nothing. I send three e-mails. Nothing. Finally, I go INTO THE CAFETERIA in person today and the cafeteria lady gives me a number.

IT WASN'T MY CHILD! As it turns out, there are two little girls in the SAME district with the same name. That wouldn't be out of the ordinary if her name was Hannah Smith...but it's NOT...it's something substantially less common. They even have the same middle name, but thankfully, the other child spells her middle name starting with a K instead of a C.

I fear we will have problems until one of us moves out of the district...I just hope this other child isn't some sort of delinquent. I can see problems ahead!

Has anyone else had the same sort of problem with the same name? What did you do to fix it?

 

[golfgal]

Wow, what a mess. We haven't had that problem before. We were the only ones in our old town with our last name so that made things easy. I would call the school and see if there was a way to differentiate the two kids either using a number with one of the names or one using a full name Jane Cathryn Smith and the other going by Jane Smith or Jane C. Smith. I know there were two boys in the high school when I was teaching that both had the same name, first, middle and last and one went by Sean and the other went by Sean David. It was slightly less confusing but mix up's still happened.

 

[Kitty 34]

We were the only ones with our last name for the longest time in our small town until about 5 years ago. A couple moved in and ironically not only had the same last name, her DH and my DH and our sons shared the same name. Luckily my son at the time was in high school and her son was in middle school. She and I both work, tho for the same school system so often time that get's confusing as we're both Mrs. So and So.

Once we did get a lunch charge letter stating out son owed over $5 in lunch fees but since my son had never ever bought a lunch the whole time in school we figured out quickly it was sent to the wrong household.

 

[vetrik]

I had 2 girls in my grade in high school who had the same exact name - first, middle, and last. They were even in the same class sometimes. I don't know if they ever had any problems at the administration level with records, etc. I know the way they solved it in class for homework and calling on them was to have one girl always assigned to use her middle initial and one girl would not.

 

[barkley]

dh went all through school with a kid who had the same first and last name. not a huge problem in school but the guy had several run in's with the law in our hometown so anytime dh got pulled over for a traffic stop he had to forewarn the officer to contact a person at the police department who could confirm he was'nt the guy with the outstanding warrants. we've had to adopt using dh's middle name for all financial transactions because the other guy has terrible credit/evictions and since they both show the same town of birth unless someone goes the extra mile to compare ssn's it can be a mess.

just our luck-the jerk recently got status as a 'registered sex offender' in california. hoping it does'nt cause any issues for us.

 

[SC Minnie]

There was another person in our town with the same first and last name as mine. I had a common last name but an uncommon first name. We even lived on the same street. I used to get her mail and even collections calls.

 

[Jennasis]

All throughout my school years there was girl in my school with the same first and middle name. but get this:

We also shared the same birthday and were born in the same hospital!!

i used to kid my Dad (who chose my name) that he wasn't very imaginative. he just walked through the nursery and saw a name he liked! I later found out that I had indeed been born first, timewise. So it was they who "stole" my name.

Fast forward to my adulthood: 3 1/2 years ago I moved from NY to a VERY small town in NC. I found out (after I started working with the local 4-H and they ran a background check), that there was a woman in town with the same first and last name as me. Unfortunately for me, she is a crack-head and known drug dealer!!!!!!!! I went to greta lengths to let EVERYONE know that my business and I had nothing to do with this lady. Seems that parents were reluctant to send their kids to my summer camp and riding program becuase they thought she was running it! Once I got word to 4-H and the rec department and schools, it all worked out. I was thrilled when DH and I married last year and now I can use that last name!

 

[Rafiki Rafiki Rafiki]

I'm curious about the other little girl now. I hope she doesn't do something awful, like fail out of school....

 

[EthansMom]

We live in a very small NE town (more of a village, really). BIL & SIL live 5 doors away, MIL & StepFIL live 3 blocks away, and FIL & StepMIL live 1 mile away. DS is in the same grade as his cousin (one class per grade, so they'll be in class together for the next 6 years). I'm always having to explain which Mrs. XXXX I am and who my kids are. Poor DH has the same first name (spelled differently) as his Dad. We've gotten several phone calls for BIL and FIL.

 

[I Love Pluto]

My daughter's SAT scores were confused with the same name person who scored less than half what she did. It was a mess, but we did get it all cleared up.

 

[Blondy876]

I shared my name (well before I married) with a delinquent in another town. We were about the same age and she was being arrested, stealing cars, and dealing drugs. I remember going to a college class and having the professor surprised that I was there because he had seen my name in the police blotter and thought I would be in jail.

 

[mermaidlady]

When I started at the hospital I had a background check and it came up positive for multiple felonies. I have an extremely common 1st and last name so I had to have my fingerprints run through the state to verify it wasn't me who was a convicted felon. I lost 3 months of pay while the paperwork went through

 

[Aidensmom]

I haven't yet run into a problem with my son (we have a very common last name, which is why we tried to choose a less common first name), but there are tons of people in the Tampa area with the same name as me. A couple have long arrest records (I've looked my name up with the Sheriff's dept for fun ), we get numerous phone calls from collection agencies for some of them, and last weekend when we checked into our resort at WDW, we had to make sure we got the right room as there was someone else checking in the same day with the same name. (I had a discount and a better room, I'm a good DISer. ).

 

[FroggyinArk]

back when i started first grade, we were in the process of moving.

i started school in the new town living with grandparents,

all went well.

till the 5th day of school.

when the school in the old town contacted my mom,

school "is this B.A.M"
mom "yes"
School "is your son J.A.M"
mom "yes that is m y son,"
school" date of birth 5/2"
m,om "Yes"
School" starting first grade this year?"
mom" yes"
school "madame we are calling because your son has not attended class since the first day."
mom" you must be mistaken, he is at my parents attending school there, has never attended school here"
school" your name is B A M ...
mom"yes
school" sonm is J A
mom Yes
School" Husbands name is also J.A
mom" yes that is correct.
school" you live at 1610 east 16ht?
mom" no we live at 1610 West 16th.
School" are you sure?
mom " UH yeah...

turns out there was a family of a different race, lived at exactly the same adress on the east side of town, have the same names, and dates of birth, yes mom dad and mine all duplicated...and the ages, so we contacted the folks, tturns out the dads dad shared name with my grandad and the great grand dad was hte same name.

the best we can figure out, my great grand dad had built railroads with a slave crew,
and at the end of each contract he had given the slaves thier freedom, and his name. and apparently on occasion, he fatherd a child by one of them. which was then named after him, and that is where this family had came from. we got ot know them, and it was cool after we straightened out the schools.

the son and i kept in touch for aw hile during high school

my dad and i have to be cautios, we signed up for the same ip service a few years ago,, they wouldnt lethim register because they had me as already having thier service and thought we were faking an address,,lol,, dad annd i have to be careful at tax time.. his name is on lots number 203 205 and 207
mines on 202 204 and 206 same street,, right across from each other.
we have to use ss numbers on all banking accounts to keep my dseposits out of his accounts,

and i recently learned that the boy from first grades grandmother has moved into a town near us, so now i gotta watch for t hat cross again too.

 

[Swimnoid]

There was a woman who lived a few miles from me that had the same name. My name is not very common so that was the first shock. Then it seemed like she was my doppleganger. We ended up going to a couple of the same doctors who are located in a different town and they have way different specialties so it really was a fluke. One time one of the doctors nurses called up to confirm that I had an appointment to have a tatoo removed and I said, "I dont HAVE a tatoo!" and cancelled the appontment. OOPS! We had the same vet. I would get all kinds of calls from bill collectors who wouldnt believe it wasnt me. She died recently. If that isnt spooky reading an obituary with your name on it. Some people thought it was me and I had to straighten that out. But I dont get any more calls from bill collectors.

 

[LindsayDunn228]

I don't have a Jane Smith kind of name, but I ran into a girl in college with my name, first and last. The girl was a total delinquent. I got put on housing probation, chapel probation, academic probation, got put on probation by my sorority, YOU NAME IT because of her. My major was never right either. I was a psych major, she was a chemisty major. Imagine the confusion.

My LAST semster in college I had a class with her. It was so tempting to tell her her partying ways had made MY college life quite difficult! LOL!

 

[Sleepy]

Many decades ago, when the military paid you by a check, my father received another person's check. They had the same name, but my Dad's name was so unusual, it seemed unlikely such a thing could happen. My father and brother have the same name and their credit reports keep getting mixed.

 

[pigletz]

I once took my kids on a field trip to the Great Lakes Science Center. I couldn't figure out why my kids in the front row kept giggling during the presentation so I got up to tell them to settle down. One of the kids pointed out that the girl doing the presentation had the same first and last name as me. I went up to her at the end of the presentation to tell her that we had the same name and she didn't really care. I thought it was funny.

Since then I've been mistaken for this girl several times. My mom ran into my second grade teacher and when she told her that I had become a teacher she said she already knew. My mom asked her how and she said that she saw me on TV. Apparently this girl had been on the news promoting the education programs at the science center.

A couple of years ago I started getting calls from someone looking for her daughter who was missing. The woman didn't leave a number and her number on my caller id came up as private so I couldn't call her back. Apparently she was a friend of this girl who shares my name and the mother thought that she was hiding her at her house. I felt so bad that I couldn't call her back. Luckily she finally called when I was home so that I could tell her she had the wrong number. Lately I've been getting collect calls from someone in a prison. I never accept them but I wonder if he's looking for this other girl.