La Vigne is French for …

“The Lover.” That’s what J used to tell me when we first started dating. It’s actually “the vineyard.” So J has French descent, none of which he embraces, but that’s beside the point. Coincidentally, my first name is actually common among French … men. That wasn’t my Mom’s intent and our family has absolutely no French heritage. She was pregnant with me watching soap operas and liked the name of Susan Sarandon’s character at that time. That’s where it comes from.

So anyways, I’ve been communicating with this researcher in Canada this week regarding her study that I was covering for work. We had a couple of email exchanges and today I got an email asking if we should be corresponding in French because my name makes it seem like I come from Quebec! Of course, she also thought I was a guy. Too funny!

Awhile back, I came across this Web site that tells you how many people have your name. There is only one other person with my first and current last name (J shares his name with 17 other people). Surprisingly, there are currently 39,490 people with my first name alone. I have noticed it’s becoming more common because in the last 5 years or so, I’ve met a lot of people with my name. And females at that! Previously, I never really met anyone with my name.

Now, if I kept my maiden name, there are far fewer people with that last name and there are 0 people with the full name!!! I used to be the lone one.