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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. We'll wrap up today's show with your calls answering maybe rather peculiar question, have you ever met another human being or maybe a dog or a cat or another animal with the exact same name as you? 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692. "Have I ever what? What is he asking?" Have you ever met someone with the exact same name as you, human or other species? If so, how did it go? 212-433-WNYC, call or text 212-433-9692. I don't just mean the same first name as you, but someone who shares your first name and your last name. I know a bunch of you Brians out there love that we share the same first name. I hear the glee in your voices when you get on the air when you take your call and say, "Hi, Brian," but are there any Brian Lehrers out there listening right now? I did once get a letter from a young Brian Lehrer who said he wanted to do talk shows like this someday too. That would've been a funny co-host situation had it ever come to pass. Brian Lehrer and Brian Lehrer in the morning on WNYC, but I never met the guy, never heard of him getting a show. Good luck out there, whoever Brian Lehrer you are. Why do I ask this today? It's not because of that. We ran into a very cute story published in The Washington Post last week where Bret Michaels, the rock star, frontman of Poison, adopted a heroic stray six-year-old Husky named Bret Michaels.

The Husky gained some internet fame after donating blood to a sickly young kitten in desperate need of a transfusion. Maybe you heard that story. News of the good dog Bret Michaels spread to rockstar dog lover Bret Michaels. One of his three German shepherds had recently passed away leaving room in his heart and his pack for doggy Bret Michaels' companionship. Craziest part of the story, the person who originally brought the stray Husky to the Nebraska Humane Society was also named Bret Michaels. What? That part makes no sense. Listeners, we want to hear your story. Does it mean he named the dog after himself? I may be missing a piece there. Listeners, we want to hear your stories of meeting people or animals with the same name as you. Maybe your name is Jane Smith and you have a colleague named Jane Smith. I know somebody whose dad's name is Eric something, I'm going to protect their privacy, and their mom's boss was also named Eric that same thing. When the dad retired, the mom re-gifted a fancy name plaque that the dad had received to her boss who had the same full name.

Who has one? Have you ever met somebody with the exact same name as you, person, canine, feline, horse? Anyone else? How'd that go? 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692, or text your story. Or, Brian Lehrers of the world, unite. You can all call in. We'll take your calls after this.

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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Okay. Now to your stories of encountering a person or an animal with the exact same name as you and how that went. Adam in Nyack, you're on WNYC. Hi, Adam.

Adam: Hi, Brian. My wife and I moved to New York from New Orleans back in 2005. Pretty soon after, I started noticing at doctor's appointments that there was someone else with my same name, and I had to constantly give my date of birth to differentiate between us. One Christmas in Nyack in 2012, we went to a friend's house for a Christmas party and the friend sent out a Facebook invite to a bunch of people to go. When I showed up, I met a new person named Jason and he shook my hand, he looks at me, and my last name starts with a T. He's like, "You're not Adam T." I said, "I definitely am Adam T." He's like, "You're not the Adam T I know." It turns out that this other Adam T not only lived in Rockland County and went to a lot of the same doctors, not only lived in Nyack, he lived around the block from my new house, so I had that going for me.

Brian Lehrer: How about that? At least, though, they didn't do a heart transplant on you because they thought you were the other Adam T who was in for one, right?

Adam: Yes. It could have turned out a lot worse. I tried friending that Adam T on Facebook and he never really wanted to be friends. I think we're still friends on Facebook, but we've never really gotten to interact, so who knows?

Brian Lehrer: Interesting. Thank you for that story. I think maybe our next caller did make a friend out of the situation. Matt in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC. Hi, Matt.

Matt: Hi. Yes. It's funny the last caller said about Facebook because I got a Facebook message from a person years ago that was just random, "Hey, we have the same name." We became friends. It turns out we have all these similar interests. Randomly, I would look up-- I don't know. One time, I was watching YouTube videos or something and I saw this video and it was him. Then, for years, we'd been saying that we would meet up and we never did. It never seemed to work out. Then, a couple of weeks ago, I was in D.C. and reached out and he was available and we went and had a drink, and it was fun. He's a great guy. I tried to see if he was available just now so he could get on conference call, but I don't think he's available.

Brian Lehrer: [chuckles] Matt, thank you very much. At least you tried. That would've been fun, the two Matts. Lance in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC. Hi, Lance.

Lance: Oh, hi. Hi there. Well, so I grew up in the '60s in Michigan and there was a dog, a Basset Hound who lived across the street with his family and his name was Lancelot, but they called him Lance. I would be out there playing, doing things a little ways from home, and I would hear somebody say, "Lance, Lance, Lance," and I would think it was my mother. I would run home and it was the dog they were calling. That happened over and over again until they finally moved away, and so that was the end of my relationship with the family and the dog.

Brian Lehrer: Lance, thank you very much. All right. "Lance, come home. Lance." Let's see. Oh, so many coming in on text. How about, "I'm a New York City photographer. Years ago, I called People Magazine to find out why they haven't paid my invoice. They said they did. Same day, I received a check from Newsweek Magazine for a photo I didn't take. It turns out a Boston photographer with my exact same name including middle initial and I had been confused and received each other's checks. I was excited to meet my namesake by mailing him his Newsweek check, but he turned out to be a cad. He cashed my check." That's a terrible story. Maryanne in the East Village, you're on WNYC. Hi, Maryanne.

Maryanne: Hi. How are you?

Brian Lehrer: Good.

Maryanne: I had this crazy experience. I went I think it was to get my eyebrows done. I showed up at the salon and I told them my name and they said, "No, you're already here." I said, "No, I just got here." They said, "Well, there's another Maryanne Delio here." They got the woman and I said, "You have the same name?" She looked also perplexed. It was very strange. I didn't like it. I didn't want anybody to have my name. Anyway, there is another Maryanne.

Brian Lehrer: That's interesting, that feeling that you didn't want anybody to have your same name. What was that about? You felt proprietary?

Maryanne: Yes, I want to be the only one. Then, I thought, "Well, maybe we're related in some way."

Brian Lehrer: Your uniqueness as a human being got called into question.

Maryanne: Yes. I think I insulted her though. I said, "Do you like your name? Because I'm not crazy about the name Maryanne." She said, she was very indignant, "Yes, I like my name." [laughs] There wasn't going to be any friendship there. Anyway.

Brian Lehrer: Now, the debate between the Maryannes, is Maryanne a good name or a bad name? On this side-- Maryanne, thank you very much. Scott in Kew Gardens, you're on WNYC. Hi, Scott.

Scott Heider: Hey. My last name is Heider, which is very rare. I was the only one in the New York phone book back when New York had phone books. I used to be a flight attendant. Shortly after 9/11, I was on the Delta shuttle between here and D.C. and they gave us names of some of the passengers. One of them happened to have my first name. I went up and I approached him, had him ring his call button, and he pronounced the last name wrong, and his family was from Iowa and my family is from Abingdon, Virginia, and there are dozens of Heiders there. Apparently, we're not related, and he wasn't all that impressed by the connection.

Brian Lehrer: Right, okay. Yes. Very different than Maryanne's story, where people -- they had a strong reaction to meeting somebody with the same name, so [unintelligible 00:10:24].

Scott Heider: Yes. [unintelligible 00:10:24] He was a business person. Maybe, I don't know, his mind was elsewhere or just he didn't care. Anyway, that was the end of that.

Brian Lehrer: Yes. Right. It's interesting because as you started with, it's an unusual name. Scott, thank you for your call. There have been conventions, and I forget exactly what the name was, but I know I've seen these referred to in the press, like the John Smith Convention, and people get together somewhere who are all named John Smith. Easy to do probably with that name. I don't know if it was that name, but some name like that, super common American name. They have John Smith or whatever the name was conventions. Well, what do you do? Does that give you something meaningful in common, other than those of you who might be actually related? Anyway, people have all kinds of reactions to having the same name, including getting together at conventions. Anthony in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC. Hi, Anthony.

Anthony: Hey, how are you?

Brian Lehrer: Good. What you got?

Anthony: I had a medical procedure done, and in the bed next to me, I had the exact same person's name, and they had the same exact birthday as me. The nurse kept asking me all these very specific questions trying to make sure I was the exact right one going in. Since we were getting the same thing, he just went in right before me.

Brian Lehrer: You were getting the same thing?

Anthony: Same exact procedure.

Brian Lehrer: A little less risk there. You weren't going to wind up with his kidney or something like that.

Anthony: Yes, I woke up and I checked all my organs, they were still there.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you very much. Wild. Let's see. Here's one via text. "Hi, my name is Susan Schwartz. I can't even count how many other Susan Schwartz's who I've met in my life aside from in every single doctor or dentist's office, but also professionally. In fact, there was another Susan Schwartz in my office building and her patients would be sent to me and vice versa. Sometimes we would get each other's checks. I also had a new patient come in to meet me after speaking on the phone, and the person said, 'You're not the Susan Schwartz from my synagogue.' At another point, I got together for drinks with two other Susan Schwartz's who are constantly getting confused. The Susan Schwartz club." I guess a mini convention there. Lucy in Williamsburg has a dog story. Lucy, is that right? Hi.

Lucy: Yes. Hi, Brian. Longtime listener. I have so many passionate views and I can't believe this is my first time calling about this because-- [laughs].

Brian Lehrer: Next time, call about the Speaker of the House or something, but go ahead.

Lucy: Yes. [Laughs] My name is Lucy, and I can imagine all the Lucy's out there just can be like, just relatable, because I feel like there are more dogs named Lucy than humans. I didn't even realize that Lucy was such a popular dog name. Sometimes I'll meet an acquaintance of a friend and I'll introduce myself, and they'll be like, "Oh, my dog's name is Lucy," or even cat, and I'm like, "What am I supposed to do with that?" You and my mom have great taste in names, or like Lance had a similar story that walking down the street, and I'll often hear, "Lucy, no, no," and I'll just be turning around [chuckles] --

Brian Lehrer: Like, "Stop scolding me. I didn't do anything." Yes. That's just about the first name like the previous caller Lance who had that with the dog. All right, one more. Patrick in Newport, Rhode Island. Patrick, you got to do it in about 30 seconds, you're on WNYC.

Patrick O'Connor: Hey, Brian. My name is Patrick O'Connor and I went to SUNY Maritime, and I showed up the first day and I was deleted from the roll of incoming students because there was a Patrick O'Connor the class ahead of me. We ended up becoming good friends at school, and then fast-forward 13 years from when I graduated, I moved to Newport, Rhode Island and I go to vote in the November election and they already said another Patrick O'Connor existed in the town, so I had to fill out a provisional ballot. I walk out of the polling place and who is there? Patrick O'Connor from college.

Brian Lehrer: I did not think the last word in this segment would be disenfranchised, but there you go. Patrick,-

Patrick O'Connor: [chuckles] Yes.

Brian Lehrer: -thank you very much for your call. Thanks to all of you who called talking about your shared name experiences. That's the Brian Lehrer Show for today. Produced by Mary Croke, Lisa Allison, Amina Srna, Carl Boisrond, and Esperanza Rosenbaum. I only know one of each of those. Zach Gottehrer-Cohen produces our Daily Politics podcast. Our intern this term is Muskan Nagpal, and we have Juliana Fonda and Matt Marando at the audio controls. Stay tuned for the one and only Allison Stewart.

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