[Nan3cy]

When a name is unusual, I tend to react to it according to how I feel about people I've known with that name. Take Lance -- I think Lance Armstrong, whom I admire in some ways, but he's controversial enough that I feel sort of neutral to negative about the name. (And if my last name were Armstrong, I most certainly wouldn't name a kid Lance.) But when a name is really common, I just react to how I feel about the sound of the name. I like the name Benjamin a lot, and I think I've read that Johnson is the most common last name in the country. So even though I've heard of Ben Johnson and the doping scandal, that just isn't the first thing I think of when I hear the name. There must be dozens, if not hundreds, of Ben Johnsons  between the US and Canada. If our Ben Johnson were in a different sport from T&F, my guess is that no one would even think twice about it.

[Nan3cy]

When a name is unusual, I tend to react to it according to how I feel about people I've known with that name. Take Lance -- I think Lance Armstrong, whom I admire in some ways, but he's controversial enough that I feel sort of neutral to negative about the name. (And if my last name were Armstrong, I most certainly wouldn't name a kid Lance.) But when a name is really common, I just react to how I feel about the sound of the name. I like the name Benjamin a lot, and I think I've read that Johnson is the most common last name in the country. So even though I've heard of Ben Johnson and the doping scandal, that just isn't the first thing I think of when I hear the name. There must be dozens, if not hundreds, of Ben Johnsons  between the US and Canada. If our Ben Johnson were in a different sport from T&F, my guess is that no one would even think twice about it.