Uncommon

Having an uncommon name is a blessing and a curse. I like my name, which is interesting because there are many people who do not. I do not recall the exact numbers, but there as a large percentage of people in a recent Wii poll who did not like their own name.

What's nice about an uncommon name is that you don't get confused with other people. It's very easy to request "owen@somedomain.com" instead of the lousy "o.winkler@somedomain.com" because there aren't many Owens to request the address. You don't have to postfix the uncommon name with a last initial for disambiguation.

The downside is outweighed by the upside, but it's still there. Sometimes you need to spell your uncommon name for people that don't recognize it. "No, it's o-w-E-n." And the worst is when someone else nearby shares your uncommon name, and someone calls it, because you aren't used to hearing your name used to refer to anyone but you. It's confusing....

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