I share a name with a very famous professional athlete. I don't even think about it usually but as soon as I have to give my name to someone I can pretty much count on some remark about the athlete by the same name.
I've dealt with this in many ways over the years but my most recent method is to pretend to have never heard of that famous person by the same name. That makes the conversation awkward and they usually move on.
Also, if you meet someone who shares a name with a celebrity, keep these things in mind:
- There is nothing you can say about it that is funny or clever. We have heard it all before. Just don't.
- If you do have something to say about it that is truly original and absolutely hilarious, see the previous rule.
I share my name with a former baseball catcher that is most noted for an incident at home plate where he punched a guy that probably deserved it. I rarely get called on it though, he was not that well known, and he has been retired more than a decade.
The names are both common enough that there have been a few other notables with it as well, like the cinematographer that married a fairly high profile Hollywood actress a few years back.
My full name exactly matches a famous pitcher and catch people giving me the nostalgic smile of "wait... it's like the baseball player, right?" or "He's the best". Luckily I was named after him, so I have the excuse of not really knowing much about him
I tried googling myself and I found it difficult to find any of my shit online even with specific keywords. So that's kinda nice.