Namesakes

During the mid-1960s in England, there was a young rock singer/songwriter who aspired to fame. He was very talented and knew that, with determination, he would make a name for himself. And he did, but not initially in the way he had planned. For across the Atlantic, in America, another British entertainer, actor Davy Jones, had passed his audition and joined up with a new TV series designed to parody the Beatles (as they were in A Hard Day’s Night) by introducing a band called “The Monkees”. The Monkees were not only a big TV hit, but also sold many records and had a very large fan base (I was one of them). Each of the group’s members became famous and their names were common knowledge. The young man in England, whose name just happened to be David Jones, didn’t want to play second fiddle to someone else who had the same name as him, so he changed his name to David Bowie. The rest is rock ‘n roll history.

Why do I bring this up? Well, like many people who surf the web, I typed my own name into a search engine to see what came out. And I discovered that there are a few people out there who go by my name. There is a Bill Irwin who is a Tony Award-winning actor and professional clown. Billy Irwin, a professional boxer, has done quite well in his field. In a Pennsylvania college, you can find a philosophy professor named William Irwin who specializes in studying the philosophical ramifications of popular culture. And there are more of my namesakes out there as well. Come to think of it, outside the Internet, I know of the existence of several other William Irwins besides me. And now I have something important to say: I am not, never have been, nor will I ever be any of these William Irwins! But I do admit to being a card-carrying William Irwin!

With the ability of the Internet to connect so pervasively throughout this country and the rest of the world, it should be no surprise that people besides me would keep running across others with their own names. And the temptation to compare oneself with his or her namesake is strong. But, at least from my point of view, this is just something that goes with the times and the technology. I accept it, but to give myself just a little bit of difference from the others, I will use my middle initial (M) with my name whenever I’m doing my blog. For first names, I use either William, Bill, or Billy, and from time to time may change that on my blog ID. I never thought that my name was all that common, but I guess when you consider the millions of people out there, the odds favor there being a few of them. Nevertheless, it is a bit disconcerting to see people out there completely unrelated to me with my name, although I’m not going to do anything drastic like David Jones did!