During my childhood there was a point where my best friend and I shared the same name. The weird part is we not only shared the same first name, “Fernando,” we also had the same last name “Rodriguez.”

It was fine though because he went by “Nando” and I went by “Ferdi” (as you know because of the name of this site). We also had different middle names, so no big deal (NBD).

Sometimes when two people meet with the same first name, someone stupid might say something like, “Oh, which one is the better one.” — and by “someone stupid” I mean ME, because I always say there’s a Good Rick and a Bad Rick in my life, and those two Ricks know which is which.

Unless one of the two people with the same first name refers to themself in the third person during day-to-day tasks (like The Rock used to) there should be no problem. It’s not a problem until someone else shows up.

Think about it. How many times a day do you call yourself by your own name — only if you’re introducing yourself to someone new, telling a telemarketer that you are yourself over the phone or ordering a Starbucks drink (but most people use a fake name at Starbucks anyways).

The problem comes when other people are around. When other non-[your name] people are around they are going to refer to you and the other person by that same name. Of course, there are always nicknames, last names, initials and other ways to refer to people other than by their first name.

I rarely call anyone I know by their true first name. I’ve always made up nicknames so that I don’t forget people’s real names and make them feel forgettable. I don’t even call my own sister by her real name.

I feel like this name problem may be sort of the same as being a twin. Twins know that they aren’t the other twin, the only problem is when other people are around and they start getting confused as to which twin is which. Also, twins are tricky and can always pull the old switch-a-roo on you, so be careful with twins (we all know about the Switch-a-roo thanks to Tia and Tamera from Sister, Sister).

In middle school we had three Danielas in my class. Three Danielas who were all friends. We collectively decided that they would go by Dani A, Dani B and Dani E (based on their last names).

Just don’t ever be a triplet or more than that because that would just get down right confusing for the entire world.

And now I leave you with this to explain the picture I chose for this article, in case you don’t get it…