planetdan

Saturday, April 29, 2006 :::

A Call to Participate

Almost three years ago, I read a news headline that stated "Who will distribute Mel's movie?" I immediately thought "Huh, Mel Brooks has a new movie?" Then I clicked on the link to realize that, of course, they were referring to Mel Gibson's controversial Jesus flick. It got me to wondering, who else would've made this mistake? Which names get the most common assumptions? Who owns the market on the first name Sally? Struthers or Field?

So I sent out a list of names to a few friends and got my answers. It wasn't exactly comprehensive, but I thought it was fun and interesting nonetheless.

So I want to do it again. If you're interested in participating, you can download the new list of names at the link below, fill in the name of the first person you think of for each first name, and email it back to me at the address provided. You don't actually get anything for participating, but it's really fast and easy, and usually only takes a couple minutes to complete.

The Name Game '06 - Official List of Names (.txt)

There are simple rules:

1. Enter the first name you think of, whether it's someone famous or your next door neighbor or a character from a book you read in middle school. Don't try to be clever or funny or intelligent. The whole point is to get your initial reaction.

2. If it's a personal acquaintance or family member whose name I might not recognize, just make a note that it's a personal person. You don't need to use their last names if you don't want. For example: if the name is Tina, and the first person you think of is an old childhood neighbor named Tina Johnson, then you can just enter "Tina, (childhood friend)".

3. Likewise, if you enter any person, celebrity or otherwise, who you think dan might not be familiar with, then feel free to make a note as to who they are.

4. Don't worry, I won't post your list or your name. It's all confidential and stuff. So feel free to enter the names of old boyfriends, prior crushes, etc. You don't even need to put your name on it if you don't want.

5. Send your reply by Sunday, May 7th, 2006. That gives anyone who is interested a whole week to participate! I'll compile the results into a format that I find interesting sometime soon after that.

Thanks in advance!

UPDATE: As of today, 5/12/06, I am no longer taking Name Game submissions as the deadline has passed and I have officially begun pouring over the data, the results of which are very interesting. I received almost 200 entries, so give me a week to organize my findings. Thanks for playing!

::: posted by dan at 3:42 PM :: [ link ] :: (12) comments

Comments are Closed On this Post

12 previous comments:

Dude, you have way too much time on your hands.

Fortunately, so do I, so my entry has been sent.

By

Joel, at 6:37 PM

Woohoo, an interactive blog!

I'm a procrastinator though so I probably won't even do the damn thing til, like, the 8th, realize it was due the 7th and my effort was all for naught and delete it and end up crying into my Ben and Jerry's, feeling like a useless bum.

Cool.

By

Darcy's Twin, at 5:25 AM

I've already played this game...but I enjoyed it so much the first time...I'll play again!

By

Kristina, at 8:43 AM

>>> "Who will distribute Mel's movie?" I immediately thought "Huh, Mel Brooks has a new movie?"

Who else? Me, apparently, 'cuz I did the exact same thing just now

By

Mr Mark, at 9:54 AM

kool site, my grandma sent this to me! Shes OLD
Do you HATE bush, cuz i do

By

alyssa, at 1:53 PM

ok, i filler it out and sent it, my quick reflexes are lame... I seriously couldn't think of a few.

Great game though...

By

the other sarah, at 5:55 PM

Sent mine in but I have to say - one feeds off the next - if you do Bill Clinton - you can't help but pick Hillary Clinton too!

By

Anonymous, at 8:38 PM

i agree. when i would do a celeb then i'd think of a celeb for the next one.

so fun to be in one of dan's polls. ha ha

By

aisy, at 11:49 PM

I totally imagined I would be struck with literary character after literary character, but no... apparently I watch too much tv.

By

miamack, at 9:34 AM

I started reading your blog when I randomly found it; funny. and good work diversion. I'm sending you the file from spygirl_63, so its not a virus!

By

spygirl, at 8:47 AM

WOHOO!!! I'm numero uno on the list!! Davis is the last name for all you who want to know a Tracy..

By

TracyD, at 1:33 PM

That was a lot of fun, Dan. I think it would interesting to see which names have shifted over the past three years. Does Sharon Stone still monopolize her name? We shall have to see...

By

Zoe, at 1:51 PM

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