
Ask HN: How to network if I share a name with another person in the same field? - TheAsprngHacker
As I prepare for college, I would like to do more to network myself and build my career. I currently plan to go into academia and specialize in programming language theory. I have a common western first name and a common foreign last name. When I search up my name (first and last), the top results are a computer scientist at UBC who shares my first name, last name, and middle initial! What&#x27;s more, this person appears to specialize in formal verification, which overlaps with PL theory.<p>What can I do to distinguish myself? In addition, should I worry about discrimination for having a foreign last name?<p>Should I invent an alias or nickname for myself?
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schoen
Yikes, the shared middle initial is a challenge because that's what most
people in this situation fall back on.

A few possible ideas that some people have used:

(1) Try to use a variant of your first name if it's a name that has variant
spellings available, or a shorter or a longer form (Tim/Timothy,
Kim/Kimberley, Will/William/Bill, Cate/Catherine/Kate/Katherine/Katy).

(2) Consider using your _full_ middle name instead of just middle initial.

(3) Consider using your first initial and middle name instead of your first
name and middle initial (like C. Wright Mills or J. Presper Eckert). This
pattern is not uncommon in the English-speaking world although it is most used
by people who simply don't _like_ their first names that much.

(4) If your last name is a transliteration from a different writing system
(like Cyrillic or hanzi), consider using a different transliteration method so
that your last name is spelled slightly differently in English.

(5) Maybe contact the other researcher to describe your situation? I imagine
most people would be amused and sympathetic in this situation.

(6) Maybe adopt a second middle name so that you have two middle initials
instead of one. While this still might allow for some confusion, I think most
publication venues would accept it.

On the bright side, there were two different researchers at the same time in
the same department at Bell Labs named Stephen R. Bourne (one of them wrote
the Bourne shell, /bin/sh) and apparently both of them had successful careers.
:-)

~~~
schoen
I wish I had immediately thought of my two-time coauthor J. Alex Halderman
([https://jhalderm.com/](https://jhalderm.com/)) as a present-day computer
scientist who gets cited by first initial and middle name.

And also the famous albeit fictitious J. Random Hacker! (Perhaps inspired by
the inaugural FBI director J. Edgar Hoover.)

------
samizdis
There is nothing wrong, if chosen well, in the adoption of a recognisable and
unique handle/nickname. But your thoughts and ideas as expressed in material
searched online will distinguish you, not your name.

People search for names when they know the name already. Until your name is
well known in your field, and your ideas are sufficiently differentiated from
those of your namesakes, they will search for the areas in which you operate.
If you distinguish yourself, you will be uniquely identifiable by your
original thoughts and work.

If you are happy with your name, don't change it for fear of being mistaken.
If your insights and achievements stand up on their own merit, you won't
suffer on account of a shared name.

~~~
TheAsprngHacker
Thank you for the advice.

> People search for names when they know the name already. Until your name is
> well known in your field, and your ideas are sufficiently differentiated
> from those of your namesakes, they will search for the areas in which you
> operate. If you distinguish yourself, you will be uniquely identifiable by
> your original thoughts and work.

If I go by my real name, what would be the logistics of citing work? I'm
worried about the situation where a reader may see my name cited and assume
that the work was done by the other person, or see work done by the other
person cited and assume that it was done by me. The issue may be exacerbated
by tools such as Google Scholar.

~~~
samizdis
I'd hate my words to have been taken as advice. I can see the pitfalls that
you have pointed out; I've never had to consider even as a remote possibllity
that my scribblings might be cited anywhere.

My reply was pretty much to say don't overthink things and to be confident in
your uniqueness, your viewpoints and your contributions to your field.
However, I see your pragmatism.

(I cannot resist a flippant aside, though: Google Scholar will probably go the
way of all Google products that were useful but showed insufficient profit.
Don't make decisions that assume its continued existence.)

If you have a nickname that you like, there's no reason not to use it. If you
have friends who might suggest one, then canvass their opinions. If you are
into your birthright geography, append a place name as helping to define you.
(Pyrrho of Elis, the founder of sceptic thought, is known now by name with
place.) But beware of sounding pretentious.

Nowadays, some exalted people have resolved similar problems via the expedient
of handles such as "realDonaldTrump". So be careful about your choices.

Whatever you decide to do, linger over any decision. Also, this being HN, you
should get many better and more useful responses than this. But please don't
fret. Maybe move this concern to a lower peg for now.

Edit to add: I've only now read properly the last bit of your original post:
"In addition, should I worry about discrimination for having a foreign last
name?"

Worry will do no good, and disguising the name or westernising/anglicising it
will not prevent the prejudices inflicted by the sort of people who harbour
them. Such people are looking for victims; and they do exist. But fuck them.
They grow rarer and more endangered as the clock ticks.

Use a negative reaction to your name as a positive indicator that such people
are not fit employers or associates or anything; they are to be ignored, and
resisted/fought if they get in your face.

I really hope that some proper HN people weigh in on this.

------
shyn3
Studies show foreign names are more likely to be looked over for applications
so I would recommend it [1].

[1] [https://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-bias-
hiring-0504-...](https://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-bias-
hiring-0504-biz-20160503-story.html)

~~~
TheAsprngHacker
Maybe I missed it, but the article you link doesn't support your comment. The
article details an experiment that found that there actually _wasn 't_ a
hiring bias between white, black, and Hispanic last names, with the caveat
that the most common black last names according to the US census aren't names
that society stereotypically associates with black people.

However, I am Chinese-American, and the study doesn't involve Chinese last
names at all. I am worried about growing suspicion towards Chinese-Americans
due to relations between the US and China (with the current Covid-related
xenophobia being a manifestation of this deeper tension).

~~~
shyn3
Wow complete failure on my end. That does go against my original comment, I
just presumed all the studies are the same. Look up "Whitening," it's a common
concept. I attached another study. I don't know about the racial tensions, I
don't think it's a big issue, but a lot of people struggle to pronounce
foreign names so many foreigners use an alias, where I am at least.

[1] [https://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/minorities-who-whiten-job-
resumes...](https://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/minorities-who-whiten-job-resumes-get-
more-interviews)

------
NonEUCitizen
Try suffixing with "...the Younger." For example, if your common western first
name is Bruce, and your common foreign last name is Lee, you can call yourself
Bruce Lee the Younger.

Or prefix with "Young" \-- Young Bruce Lee.

