Lately I’ve been having a light-hearted twitter fight (with Albert Ma) that I’ve been losing. Its been fun (for me anyway), but it has reminded me the power of a name. Our unique identifier.
Of course, our names aren’t unique. There are no fewer than a dozen Seth Neal’s that come up in a google search (although, admittedly, I spend a lot of time online so I’m most of page 1). And if you happen to have a name like David Brown (like good friend and author David Mark Brown), well unique is the last word you would use for your name.
First names are even worse.
Seth is the best first name
I love my first name. Usually when someone says Seth in a crowd I’m the only one who turns his head. I like that.
Even better, Seth has all sorts of cool history too it. You’ve heard of Cain and Able, right? Well Seth was born right after Cain whacked Able. In Hebrew I think Seth means “chosen to replace” or something. I usually just shorten that to “chosen”.
But I didn’t just live for 912 years. In Egypt I was actually a god! Its true, Seth was a god of chaos and darkness in Egypt. In other words, I was one bad muther–shut your mouth! But I was talking about Seth?
Of course I have modern influences too. I helped Jane Roberts basically write a book. While dead. It was pretty grovvy.
Give me my name back!
Of course, today, I’m not the only one who goes by Seth.
Seth Godin is probably best known as an author. He’s a peddler of ideas and thoughts. Good work if you can get it. And although many of his ideas seem pretty obvious when thought about; when you look out and survey the land you see that not everything is that obvious to everyone.
Like many of the well known Seth’s, Seth Green is an actor / celebrity type. Meh. Who makes a living making people laugh. Yea! Again, good work if you can get it. And he seems to stay busy, so good on him.
Now Seth MacFarlane is funny (and buddies with Seth Green which I personally find comical for some reason). Seth MacFarlane is probably best known as the writer and creator of Family Guy. His writing is great.
Counting down the list…
Seth Rogan is close to my favoriate Seth. He probably is the only Seth who might give my name back if I asked him too. I only say that because he’s Canadian. I love most of the characters he plays as well. Although I want my name back, this cat can at least borrow it.
My favoriate Seth has to be Seth Meyers though. Hilarious. He was at his absolute best this past spring at the White House Correspondents’ dinner. Funny, good looking–reminds me of me. What’s not to like?
The point
Well, there isn’t one. I just want my name back. Its mine. What’s not to get about that? My 3 year old gets that.