Have you ever Googled yourself? I mean have you gone onto www.google.com (1) and typed in your name and hit search? Some people recommend that you do this to keep up on what may be considered the fact or fiction posted on the World Wide Web. You can even set up Google alerts and get an email each day if your name ever pops up in a news story. A media relations buddy of mine does this just to see if his name is out there anywhere. I am going to sign up to get weekly emails because there are lots of people out there with my name.
What about the Jeff White who is an artist? His website is www.jeffwhiteart.com (2). He paints about items in nature that relate to things that affect him. Apparently there is a Jeff White in Las Vegas, Nevada that is a custom jeweler. His website is www.jeffreywhite.com (3). He apparently has a cool jewelry lab that can make fancy things. I like shiny things, so I might look him up whenever I stop by Vegas. This next guy gives me the willies. He is also a Jeffrey C. White and he is a Research Entomologist. What the heck is that? It’s a bug guy. www.bedbugcentral.com/about/profile.cfm/jeff-white (4) He works for a company called Bedbug Central and hosts Bedbug TV. This guy treats bed bugs. You know those little guys that were in the news last night and that your Grandma warned you about. Eww. There are a couple photographers out there. www.jeffsphotos.com (5) and www.jeffwhitephotographer.com (6). Each of them does some nice work.
Other more famous Jeff White’s included a movie visual effects guy www.imdb.com/name/nm1578635/ (7), and a musician www.jeffwhitemusic.net (8). Now these guys are pretty cool, but I think I have found my three favorite other me’s. This first guy is an Australian Rules Football Player and apparently one of the premier ruckman in the league for the Melbourne Football Club. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_White (9) I bet this guy is huge in Australia.
Then you have this group of other Jeff’s. www.santabarbarasurfer.com/index.php/news/article/santa_barbara_legend_jeff_white/ (10) speaks of a legend in Santa Barbara who touched many people. www.bu.edu/recognizes/gift-impact/scholarship-fellowship/white-scholarship/ (11) talks about a man who left this world way too early and fulfilled his final wish. His parents then decided to honor him. I know I will make my own mark on this wonderful world still, but just to honor these men’s names would be awesome.
Now I also found real estate agents, mixed martial artists, a knife guy, car dealers, mechanics, heck even doctors. Google came up with 84,400,000 results in just .29 seconds. What is out there on your name?
bornbleeding 
Other than the sale and purchase of our homes, so far I’ve not been surprised by what I see online about my name or any of my monikers. Largely, what is out there is due to my own doing.
I have a very common last name (about as common as yours), but a very uncommon first name. Since the internet has been available I’ve tried to find people with my first name (which is more common as a last name) and I came across a few over the years. What has struck me however is discovering women that share my name – which I’ve always thought was a very masculine name – to the point of being a little befuddled and upset to find a young woman in England using/sharing my first and last name (as well as some soccer fan there which may or may not be the woman).
So much for having a unique name.
Personally, while there’s plenty out there about/of me online – often of my own doing – I do my level best to try and keep a low key and restrict what’s out there.
While your name may make genealogy a bit difficult, the commonality offers a bit of anonymity and thus a measure of privacy.
Well howdy, WA! Nice to see you here on my STL friend Jeff’s site. Connections, connections…
Most of the stuff out there is me, my twitter, vimeo, facebook and other stuff. I think there are two other Jason Starbuck’s in the US, and there’s one over in England. Also, there is a book called Yankee Pasha, the Adventure’s of Jason Starbuck. Kind of cool.
Oo a book. That’s pretty cool. I thought the coffee place was you too…lol
This is a great post, Jeff. For the longest time I was afraid to google myself bc of what might come up! I finally did and it wasn’t so bad. In fact, there really wasn’t much out there on me. Apparently, I’m not all that! lol. What a creative idea to write about it.
You have a little more unique name than most. Thanks for all your support Aimee!