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Ask HN: How to network if I share a name with another person in the same field?

by TheAsprngHacker on 6/16/20, 8:50 PM with 9 comments

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's more, this person appears to specialize in formal verification, which overlaps with PL theory.

What can I do to distinguish myself? In addition, should I worry about discrimination for having a foreign last name?

Should I invent an alias or nickname for myself?

  • by schoen on 6/16/20, 9:00 PM

    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. :-)

  • by samizdis on 6/16/20, 8:59 PM

    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.

  • by shyn3 on 6/17/20, 6:37 PM

    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-...

  • by NonEUCitizen on 6/16/20, 11:20 PM

    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.