{"id":2005,"date":"2026-07-09T00:36:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T19:36:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=2005"},"modified":"2026-07-09T00:36:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T19:36:15","slug":"they-forged-enduring-friendships-from-massive-same-name-group-chats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=2005","title":{"rendered":"They forged enduring friendships from massive, same-name group chats"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-adroot=\"true\">\n<p>Last month, journalist Matt Cohen<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Matt_D_Cohen\/status\/1564376495333806080\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\" class=\"T3D\"> tweeted<\/a> about his years-long Instagram group chat comprised of fellow Matt Cohens, which he calls \u201cthe most wholesome thing I\u2019m a part of.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>In the chat, one Matt Cohen shared that he \u201chad [his] first day of college classes today,\u201d to which a Matt Cohen responded \u201cNice. Just started my first job. Real world is brutal enjoy college man.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGot married!\u201d and \u201cJust started my dream job!\u201d chimed in fellow Matt Cohens. Another Matt Cohen announced he had launched a weed brand. The Matt Cohens, who have turned a shared name into an informal online club, planned a Zoom Happy Hour to catch up.<\/p>\n<p>Your name clones usually lurk around you like a shadow. You get their junk mail, their emails, their Google results; glimpses of their intimate moments via their digital ephemera. They are strangers \u2014 but they don\u2019t have to be.<\/p>\n<h2 data-md-text-align=\"center\">Hello, our name is&#8230; <\/h2>\n<p>Around the world, people are maintaining multigenerational, global friendships with their same-named counterparts \u2014 Jake Wright, William Hodgson, Jordan DaSilva, and Josh Brown, to name a few. Sometimes, name twins commiserate about shared experiences: a sixteen-member Council of Aaron Johnson chat laments about the viral <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/Dd7FixvoKBw?t=105\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\" class=\"T3D\">Key and Peele sketch<\/a> that introduced the now-inescapable A-A-Ron nickname. Perhaps the best, or at least the most publicized, example of same-name camaraderie is the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/04\/26\/us\/josh-fight-nebraska.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\" class=\"T3D\">Josh Fight<\/a>, when a group chat of Josh Swains organized an April 2021 meeting in Lincoln, Nebraska to fight for the \u201cright\u201d to the name. More than 900 Joshes showed up.<\/p>\n<div class=\"sWr iGR CEt\">\n<figure class=\"Qf5 E1M\">\n<div style=\"padding-top:74.2504%;\" class=\"vmZ F8Y ap2\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imgix.bustle.com\/uploads\/image\/2022\/9\/8\/300183c6-52c9-442d-9742-df7a34792fe5-screen-shot-2022-09-08-at-153056.png?w=375&amp;h=278&amp;fit=max&amp;dpr=2\" srcset=\"https:\/\/imgix.bustle.com\/uploads\/image\/2022\/9\/8\/300183c6-52c9-442d-9742-df7a34792fe5-screen-shot-2022-09-08-at-153056.png?w=375&amp;h=278&amp;fit=max 375w, https:\/\/imgix.bustle.com\/uploads\/image\/2022\/9\/8\/300183c6-52c9-442d-9742-df7a34792fe5-screen-shot-2022-09-08-at-153056.png?w=375&amp;h=278&amp;fit=max&amp;dpr=2 750w, https:\/\/imgix.bustle.com\/uploads\/image\/2022\/9\/8\/300183c6-52c9-442d-9742-df7a34792fe5-screen-shot-2022-09-08-at-153056.png?w=760&amp;h=564&amp;fit=max 760w, https:\/\/imgix.bustle.com\/uploads\/image\/2022\/9\/8\/300183c6-52c9-442d-9742-df7a34792fe5-screen-shot-2022-09-08-at-153056.png?w=760&amp;h=564&amp;fit=max&amp;dpr=2 1520w\" sizes=\"(min-width:768px) 760px, 375px\" alt=\"\" class=\"uMj EdX\"\/><\/div>\n<p><figcaption class=\"TrI\">The Luke Davis chat and Matt Cohen chat sharing periodic life updates<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>The Paul O\u2019Sullivan Band has four members with one thing in common: the name Paul O\u2019Sullivan. The quartet materialized after Baltimore Paul started \u201cindiscriminately adding other Paul O\u2019Sullivans on Facebook\u201d and realized that a few different Paul O\u2019Sullivans were musicians. These days, a quartet of Paul O\u2019Sullivans, who hail form from Baltimore, Rotterdam, Manchester, and Pennsylvania, have come together to form a bona fide musical group. <\/p>\n<p>Since its early days, the social internet has been lauded as a way for niche interest groups to connect, and name twins are no exception. A chat titled \u201cCouncil of Bens\u201d hosts 2500 Benjamins and Bens, and when one Ben caught wind of a similar group chat of Sydneys, he created a chat just for people named Sydney or Ben, which has been going strong for months. Chris Lenaghan added 7 other Chris Lenaghans to a chat, and soon he had same-name friends from Ohio to Belfast to Birmingham. In a Josh Kaplan group chat on Twitter, fellow Josh Kaplans use the chat to congratulate each other on achievements and awards: \u201cA win for one JK is a win for all.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Samuel Stewart, a 19-year-old Exeter student living in London, formed an Instagram chat of fellow Samuel Stewarts after reading about the Josh Fight. For a few weeks, they chatted about their days; older Sam Stewarts gave advice to younger Sam Stewerts. \u201cThey seemed to take me under their wing as if I were a younger version of them,\u201d said a 19-year-old Sam Stewert when we talked on the phone. But the chat went awry when one Samuel Stewert started asking for money. \u201cI felt a bond with the fellow Samuel Stewarts, but the name connection wasn\u2019t quite strong enough for me to start giving away my college fund,\u201d Sam told me.<\/p>\n<blockquote data-md-text-align=\"center\" class=\"rs0 Dhu\"><p>\u201c<strong>They<\/strong> seemed to take me <strong>under their wing<\/strong> as if I were <strong>a younger version <\/strong>of them.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The chats aren\u2019t strictly social \u2014 sometimes, they\u2019re the most practical way to sort through same-name mixups. Will Packer, a strategist in New York, recently used the Will Packer chat to see if any of his name brothers had been contributing to his inbox clutter. \u201cAny of you from Queensland?\u201d he asked. \u201cSomeone tried to create a PlayStation account with my email.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>College student Nolen Young says, \u201cI once created a Facebook Messenger group chat with everyone I could find on Facebook with my exact same name, spelling and all. There were only two other people. One of them considered giving me a job, and the other was an old man who started commenting on all my photos. I&#8217;ve messaged the former a few times because he owns every domain name and email I&#8217;ve ever wanted, and he keeps telling me I can only have them when he dies.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s easier than ever to connect with same-name pals today, but the uncanny allure of name clones predates social media. Tahnee Gehm, an artist and animator based in L.A., organized a Web 1.0 catalog of Tahnees when she was a teenager.<\/p>\n<div class=\"sWr iGR CEt\">\n<figure class=\"Qf5 E1M\">\n<div style=\"padding-top:75%;\" class=\"vmZ F8Y ap2\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imgix.bustle.com\/uploads\/image\/2022\/9\/14\/936d21cd-a6a9-4d80-89e6-7a383071400d-d2348f40-75bb-4e79-bffc-c16901df5c75-unnamed.jpeg?w=375&amp;h=281&amp;fit=max&amp;dpr=2\" srcset=\"https:\/\/imgix.bustle.com\/uploads\/image\/2022\/9\/14\/936d21cd-a6a9-4d80-89e6-7a383071400d-d2348f40-75bb-4e79-bffc-c16901df5c75-unnamed.jpeg?w=375&amp;h=281&amp;fit=max 375w, https:\/\/imgix.bustle.com\/uploads\/image\/2022\/9\/14\/936d21cd-a6a9-4d80-89e6-7a383071400d-d2348f40-75bb-4e79-bffc-c16901df5c75-unnamed.jpeg?w=375&amp;h=281&amp;fit=max&amp;dpr=2 750w, https:\/\/imgix.bustle.com\/uploads\/image\/2022\/9\/14\/936d21cd-a6a9-4d80-89e6-7a383071400d-d2348f40-75bb-4e79-bffc-c16901df5c75-unnamed.jpeg?w=760&amp;h=570&amp;fit=max 760w, https:\/\/imgix.bustle.com\/uploads\/image\/2022\/9\/14\/936d21cd-a6a9-4d80-89e6-7a383071400d-d2348f40-75bb-4e79-bffc-c16901df5c75-unnamed.jpeg?w=760&amp;h=570&amp;fit=max&amp;dpr=2 1520w\" sizes=\"(min-width:768px) 760px, 375px\" alt=\"\" class=\"uMj EdX\"\/><\/div>\n<p><figcaption class=\"TrI\">Tahnee hangout in Paris. From left to right: Tahne\u00e9 Engelen, friend Juliette, Tahnee Gehm<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cMy dad was into computers and he got me a URL with my name,\u201d she says. \u201cI built an atrocious \u201890s website in 2001 as an eighth grader, and I started getting messages from girls all over the world named Tahnee.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>To catalog her new pen pals, she created a \u201cHall of Tahnees\u201d webpage with a photo, bio, and hometown for every Tahnee she could find. The <a href=\"http:\/\/tahnee.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\" class=\"T3D\">site\u2019s<\/a> \u201cTahnee-only area\u201d was a \u201cweird, unique club.\u201d Once, she says, a singer from the band Hanson used the website to track down a girl named Tahnee he\u2019d met at a concert. And the Tahnee bond has lasted decades: Tahnee Gehm has maintained a long-distance friendship with Tahne\u00e9 Engelen since they were in high school. A few years ago, Gehm spent two weeks visiting Engelen in Paris, where she works as a neurobiologist. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s nice to know that my name buddy is living my alternate life and absolutely killing it,\u201d she told <em>Input <\/em>over the phone.<\/p>\n<div class=\"sWr iGR CEt\">\n<figure class=\"Qf5 E1M\">\n<div style=\"padding-top:52.1267%;\" class=\"vmZ F8Y ap2\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imgix.bustle.com\/uploads\/image\/2022\/9\/8\/5f0d4a8e-c57f-47f3-9fd0-5fd544800799-screen-shot-2022-09-08-at-160338.jpeg?w=375&amp;h=195&amp;fit=max&amp;dpr=2\" srcset=\"https:\/\/imgix.bustle.com\/uploads\/image\/2022\/9\/8\/5f0d4a8e-c57f-47f3-9fd0-5fd544800799-screen-shot-2022-09-08-at-160338.jpeg?w=375&amp;h=195&amp;fit=max 375w, https:\/\/imgix.bustle.com\/uploads\/image\/2022\/9\/8\/5f0d4a8e-c57f-47f3-9fd0-5fd544800799-screen-shot-2022-09-08-at-160338.jpeg?w=375&amp;h=195&amp;fit=max&amp;dpr=2 750w, https:\/\/imgix.bustle.com\/uploads\/image\/2022\/9\/8\/5f0d4a8e-c57f-47f3-9fd0-5fd544800799-screen-shot-2022-09-08-at-160338.jpeg?w=760&amp;h=396&amp;fit=max 760w, https:\/\/imgix.bustle.com\/uploads\/image\/2022\/9\/8\/5f0d4a8e-c57f-47f3-9fd0-5fd544800799-screen-shot-2022-09-08-at-160338.jpeg?w=760&amp;h=396&amp;fit=max&amp;dpr=2 1520w\" sizes=\"(min-width:768px) 760px, 375px\" alt=\"\" class=\"uMj EdX\"\/><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>Sometimes, all it takes to spark a friendship is a similar email address. Seth Capron met an older Seth Capron after noticing their similar interests based on the emails he mistakenly received \u2014 soon, they realized their physical resemblance, too. These days, the older Seth jokes that he could pass on his career. \u201cI was actually considering that as I move into retirement, the Younger could just carry on in my former role of Seth Capron, affordable housing consultant,\u201d said \u201cSeth the Older.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Name buddies sometimes have a parasocial relationship with each other\u2019s digital footprint. As a kid, Chris Lenaghan found online videos of a different Chris Lenaghan doing wheelies and \u201ccool BMX shit\u201d and immediately told all his friends that it was him in the videos. Years later, thanks to a big group chat, Chris Lenaghan met the BMX trickster, who he now calls \u201cOhio Chris,\u201d and they ended up becoming close friends. <\/p>\n<p>The chats don\u2019t always advance beyond acquaintanceship, though. Evan Quigley, a University of Florida student, says that the Evan Quigley group chat is \u201cmore like a running joke than true friendship.\u201d (The Evan Quigleys, bonded by name alone, proclaim unconditional public support for one another by commenting \u201cway to go, Evan Quigley\u201d on each other\u2019s posts).<\/p>\n<div class=\"sWr iGR CEt\">\n<figure class=\"Qf5 E1M\">\n<div style=\"padding-top:100%;\" class=\"vmZ F8Y ap2\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imgix.bustle.com\/uploads\/image\/2022\/9\/8\/c785c8d5-9667-452f-8463-344fbe441846-seth-capron-seth-capron-1.jpeg?w=375&amp;h=375&amp;fit=max&amp;dpr=2\" srcset=\"https:\/\/imgix.bustle.com\/uploads\/image\/2022\/9\/8\/c785c8d5-9667-452f-8463-344fbe441846-seth-capron-seth-capron-1.jpeg?w=375&amp;h=375&amp;fit=max 375w, https:\/\/imgix.bustle.com\/uploads\/image\/2022\/9\/8\/c785c8d5-9667-452f-8463-344fbe441846-seth-capron-seth-capron-1.jpeg?w=375&amp;h=375&amp;fit=max&amp;dpr=2 750w, https:\/\/imgix.bustle.com\/uploads\/image\/2022\/9\/8\/c785c8d5-9667-452f-8463-344fbe441846-seth-capron-seth-capron-1.jpeg?w=760&amp;h=760&amp;fit=max 760w, https:\/\/imgix.bustle.com\/uploads\/image\/2022\/9\/8\/c785c8d5-9667-452f-8463-344fbe441846-seth-capron-seth-capron-1.jpeg?w=760&amp;h=760&amp;fit=max&amp;dpr=2 1520w\" sizes=\"(min-width:768px) 760px, 375px\" alt=\"\" class=\"uMj EdX\"\/><\/div>\n<p><figcaption class=\"TrI\">Younger Seth Capron jokes that Older Seth Capron \u201cis somehow me in the future come back in time to teach me something or otherwise achieve some sort of low-budget sc-fi time loop plot point.\u201d<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>People with uncommon first names can bond over shared experiences \u2014 mispronunciations, playground taunts, and misspellings. More than a dozen Zaviens have come together via Snapchat. \u201cNone of us had ever talked to another Zavien,\u201d one Zavien told <em>Input. <\/em>And a 14-member-strong \u201cCouncil of Ethyns\u201d chat, which started on Instagram in 2019, is mostly dedicated to tongue-in-cheek malice toward Ethans (with an \u201ca\u201d). They also just pop in the chat to say \u201clove you Ethyn\u201d a lot.<\/p>\n<p>Still, the unlikely connections evoke nostalgia for a simpler internet, less cluttered with surveillance and corporate interests, where people went to meet new friends. Occasionally, wholesome chance online encounters remain. \u201cText door neighbors,\u201d for example, or people with phone numbers one digit apart, show how easy it is to stumble upon an unlikely friend. Most notably in the wrong-number-gone-right stories, the duo <a href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/news\/nation\/2021\/11\/16\/thanksgiving-text-created-tradition-grandma-teen\/6403371001\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\" class=\"T3D\">Wanda and Jamal<\/a>, whose viral wrong number ordeal has led to a six-year-long-and-counting Thanksgiving tradition, is now set to be featured in an upcoming <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/jamal-hinton-wanda-dench-netflix-viral-thanksgiving-text-exchange\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\" class=\"T3D\">Netflix movie<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a big world out there \u2014 lots of Matt Cohens, more Alex Stewarts, and even more James Smiths \u2014 and your name buddies have never been easier to befriend. And I think that\u2019s beautiful. <\/p>\n<p>But just because we\u2019re<a href=\"https:\/\/limo.libis.be\/primo-explore\/fulldisplay?docid=LIRIAS1127935&amp;context=L&amp;vid=Lirias&amp;search_scope=Lirias&amp;tab=default_tab&amp;lang=en_US&amp;fromSitemap=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\" class=\"T3D\"> psychologically<\/a> inclined to like our own name, doesn\u2019t mean you\u2019ll have a guaranteed connection with your name clones. Just ask <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2009\/jul\/21\/same-name-couple-facebook-marry\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\" class=\"T3D\">Kelly Hildebrandt<\/a> and Kelly Hildebrandt, the couple that tied the knot a year after they\u2019d met when name-searching on Facebook and then, four years later,  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/news\/us-news\/same-name-irreconcilable-differences-kelly-kelly-hildebrandt-end-marriage-flna1b7949562\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\" class=\"T3D\">called off<\/a> the marriage due to irreconcilable differences. It\u2019s not <em>all<\/em> in a name.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last month, journalist Matt Cohen tweeted about his years-long Instagram group chat comprised of fellow Matt Cohens, which he calls \u201cthe most wholesome thing I\u2019m a part of.\u201d In the chat, one Matt Cohen shared that he \u201chad [his] first day of college classes today,\u201d to which a Matt Cohen responded \u201cNice. Just started my&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2006,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/imgix.bustle.com\/uploads\/image\/2022\/9\/8\/4ac4d27f-3716-431c-aeb7-70977e0deac2-unnamed.png?w=1200&h=630&fit=crop&crop=faces&fm=jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsweek-trending"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2005\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}