Of course, that's just the United States. . .

[xiphias]

HowManyOfMe.com

There is: 1 person with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

I know that there's a Marine Engineering Mechanic in the Royal Navy by that name, and a Cub Scout leader in Wales. (It's possible, I suppose, that they are both the same person. But there's at least one other "Ian Osmond" in the world, and probably at least two. Just not in the USA.)

Comments

[ckd]

It seems that they just multiply the proportions of first and last names to get the number of folks with a particular name.

Check out Mohammed Garcia, for example.

[worldmage.livejournal.com]

I got 0 people with my name. Of course, I know for a fact that that's bullshit since both my adopted dad and I have the same first and last names. :P I suspect it works through statistical projection, cross-referencing the estimated number of people with each name and coming up with another estimate. Chances are there's more than 1 person in the U.S. with your name. ;)

[holyhippie]

I can pretty handily prove that this just uses statistics, and doesn't really have a database of names with the number of instances of each name in the database.

I punch in my name, and get the answer '184' for other people with my name. OK, I can't prove or disprove that, sounds reasonable, given that my first and last name isn't that uncommon.

I punch in the names of both my kids (first names 'Corwin' and 'Kjersti') and the database chokes - it can't find either name in its database, so thinks there are no other people with the same name in the country.

In both cases, I know this to be false. I can easily find with google another Corwin and Kjersti that share my last name. The other Corwin even goes to the medical clinic we used in Palo Alto, CA.

This tool is probably always right, within a margin of error - and with common names, the margin of error is probably in the thousands. With uncommon names, it may say 0 +- 5 - so it could be just one person with that name, or 5 - and no easy way to tell the difference.

[lazy-boring-man.livejournal.com]

Wow, I just realized I read your entires all the time, and I have no idea what you're real name is.

[hfcougar.livejournal.com]

There are 0 of me too. I've escaped again!

[beardedone.livejournal.com]

You are fortunate in that you are unique within the US. I'm hidden in a crowd.

[rebmommy.livejournal.com]

Doesn't surprise me that the other "Ians" are in Great Britain since you have an "English" name - named after your great-grandmother who always said she was from England. Turns out that they weren't really English after all - just stopped in England on the way to America from Poland. Family history - sometimes suspect.

Antie Cedents

[(Anonymous)]

His great-grandmother was named Ian ?
Do I want to ask about great-grandfather?

dod

Re: Antie Cedents

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

My sister and I were both named after our great-grandmother Lillian. I got the last three letters; Leila got the rest.