Meet Your Alter Ego...Or Just Get His Mail

"I guess my name's a relatively common name," says David W. Bell '86. "It's not that common, not like John Smith."

Wrong. Although there are two David Bells at Harvard, there is no John Smith.

But David Bell is certainly not the only name which appears twice in the student directory. More than 30 names, including David Lee, Jennifer Hall, and Manuel Lopez are shared by more than one student.

While at first such duplications seem mere coincidences, they can often end up being a comedy of errors for the students who receive each other's mail, phone calls or identities.

Jonathan F. Fernandez '88 was eating lunch at the Union when the two freshmen across from him introduced themselves and asked him if he lived in Wigglesworth. He replied yes, since he had lived there last year. The two giggled, describing his roommates. Fernandez had no idea what they were talking about.

And he shouldn't have. After all, he isn't really Jonathan Fernandez '89, a Wigglesworth resident, or at least Jonathan D. Fernandez, the Jonathan, Fernandez they were talking about.

The freshman Jonathan Fernandez says that he was surprised to discover another Jonathan Fernandez, "I thought that was a pretty interesting combination."

Perhaps, but not unique. Certainly not like Maria Cigarroa. Yet, there are two at the college--and they're sisters. Maria Elena '88 explains that they never get mixed up because she is called "Mari-elena" and her freshman sister is "Marisa."

Things are not as easy for David William Bell '86. When he was a sophomore, he went to University Health Services (UHS) and was kept waiting while they told him he didn't go to Harvard anymore. If UHS hadn't figured out that there was another David Bell in their records, he might still be waiting.

The following year, Bell received a letter from President Bok congratulating him on winning a prestigious scholarship. "I hadn't applied for any; I didn't know what was going on," Bell says. He told Bok's office, so that it could then send the letter to the right David Bell, a graduate student.

"I thought my problems were over. Now there's another David Bell," he says. "I guess my problems will be haunting him. Maybe he'll get my overdue library fines."

Or maybe he'll get W. Bell's financial aid forms or term bill--a prospect which is not unlikely, as many students know.

Freshman year, Robert M. Fox '87 was "red-dotted" at registration. He thought his mother had sent a check, and when he went to the registrar's office, they said they had received his check. It was really that of another Robert Fox, though. "I came within a few hours of having to take the semester off," says Fox.

Jonathan Cohen '86 was on the other side, when he received his term bill, after he had already paid the bill. The University acknowledged receiving $200, but asked for the rest.

The University's accounting also puzzled Adam L. Epstein '86, when it detracted $2000 from his financial aid form. At first he accepted it, but then he realized the University had been sending him the financial aid package of another Adam Epstein. Certainly, the Postal Service is mysterious enough without the added confusion that can come from receiving someone else's mail addressed to you.

Although Jennifer J. Hall '87 had met her classmate who shares her name at freshman registration, she didn't connect when she received a letter from someone she had never heard of. "I didn't have a clue," she says, or at least until she remembered the other Jennifer Hall.

David J. Cohen '86 was even more clueless when he received an envelope with a University of Miami t-shirt and two 8 x 10 pictures of orchids inside. "I realized it wasn't for me," Cohen says. "If my friends played a trick on me, it would be funnier--a dead animal and condiments."

He tried calling all the other David Cohens in the directory, but none of them admitted to having heard of them admitted to having heard of the last name on the return address. So, Cohen got the number in Miami of the people listed on the enveloped and called them.

When a deaf woman answered the phone, "I figured it wasn't the right person," he says. Finally he tried calling the last David Cohen who lived off campus. He couldn't get in touch with him, so he brought the troublesome envelope to his house and left it there, and hasn't heard anything of it since.

Too bad the package wasn't for David Y. Cooper '88 who remembers the time he went to the Science Center to pick up a package that turned out to be for David J. Cooper,'88. "I called [David J. Cooper] and he picked up the package and lived happily ever after," says David Y. Cooper, "but I was sort of disappointed I didn't get a package."

John Jong-Han Kim '88 of Lowell House says he feels pretty bad too when he gets his housemate, John Jae-Yoon Kim '87's mail. "Sometimes I get an invitation to a party and I don't know whether I was invited or not," he says.

Although Stacey D. Anderson '89 always knows that her packages are hers, Stacey L. Anderson '89's roommates aren't always so sure.

"I was carrying some boxes with my name on them," says Stacey D. Anderson, "When I bumped into some of (the other Stacey's roommates), carrying boxes with my name on them. They wondered why I had stolen them."

Telephone calls can be equally perplexing.

Marc Dillon '85-'86 was woken up by a call from someone who asked to speak to his son, Jeff. He couldn't place the man who claimed to have met him before and they talked for quite a long time, exchanging pleasantries, while Jeff kept on trying to figure out whom he was talking to.

Then, the man asked again to speak to this mysterious Jeff. "I said, 'wait a minute,' and I started thinking what I could do here," says Dillon, "If I said I didn't know who Jeff was, I was in an embarrassing situation and he could be in an embarrassing situation. So I got back on the phone and took a message for Jeff."

Mixed-up phone calls aren't quite so pleasant for Andrew M. Kaplan'88 who says he frequently receives phone calls for the other Andrew Kaplan who is in charge of the HSA Laundry Services.

Ironically enough, aside from David J. Cohen's mail mix-up, the four David Cohens at Harvard don't get confused too often.

While they do not know one another, they have a common bond in sharing the most common name in the student directory, according to David S. Cohen '88. He says, "I enjoy looking through the phone book just to make sure that no name's competing."

David J. Cohen says he worries more about a mix-up between him and a David Cohen who didn't get into Harvard. "There was a David J. Cohen in my high school," he says, "actually, I'm not the one who's supposed to be here. He's the one who got in."