Comments on: How strange is this guy's name?

Question: How strange is this guy's name?

shesbookish — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 21:20:47 -0800

Where do I look for unique names listed in the social security system?

I have an acquaintance who claims that his first name is unique in the U.S. To be more precise, he said that he is the only person with a social security number who has his first name. I get the feeling that this guy likes to fib a little and I would love to figure out if this claim is true. When I google around all I can find is a listing for popular names in the social security system. Anyone know where to find the very unpopular or unique names?

By: Flunkie

Flunkie — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 21:49:55 -0800

This won't necessarily give you an answer, but it's worth a shot:

The Social Security Administration's "Popular Baby Names" page

Many tools there, including one where you can type in a name. If that name was in the 1000 most popular male names or the 1000 most popular female names for any of the past bunch of years, it will tell you so.

You may think, "But his name is not popular". Yeah, well, 2000 names is a lot of names. For example, the name "Unique" shows up. About a thousand girls are born and named "Unique" every year in the United States.

By: Flunkie

Flunkie — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 21:51:14 -0800

I'm sorry - part of what I said is not true. It's not 1000 girls per year - it's that the rank of "Unique" is near 1000 each year.

By: Flunkie

Flunkie — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 21:52:29 -0800

Which is still hundreds of girls per year.

The point is, give it a shot. OK, I'll shut up now.

By: enn

enn — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 21:54:55 -0800

Social security records for living individuals are not, to my knowledge, public information. You can search the records for deceased SSN-holders at various places around the web; the term you want is Social Security Death Index.

By: Ookseer

Ookseer — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 01:21:37 -0800

Social Security names and numbers are most certainly restricted information.

Try this search. Apparently searches all the first and/or last names from the 1990 census.

By: thilmony

thilmony — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 04:21:38 -0800

Let us know if it's true!

By: Bokononist

Bokononist — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 04:56:49 -0800

I'm really curious how it is he claims to have learned this.

By: jeffrygardner

jeffrygardner — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 05:49:19 -0800

I'm really curious what his first name is.

By: JJ86

JJ86 — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 06:02:44 -0800

Ookseer said: Try this search. Apparently searches all the first and/or last names from the 1990 census.

My first name wasn't in the census. I guess I wasn't counted and my name is unique. (Not Unique)

By: beagle

beagle — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 06:08:45 -0800

It's possible somebody at a social security office told him that after doing a search. Doing so would probably not be revealing a state secret. But it can't be confirmed from outside the social security system.

Ookseer's link purports to search census records, but it comes up empty on real names of several people I know, so I'd take it with grains of salt.

By: banannafish

banannafish — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 07:16:25 -0800

What's his name? I'll look it up on E-Verify.

By: DMan

DMan — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 09:26:35 -0800

MeMailed you.

By: shesbookish

shesbookish — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 11:37:03 -0800

Just to point out: I'm not interested in getting the guy's ssn, just want to find out if his name is truly individual. Also, the name searches won't be terribly effective for me, because I only know him by a nickname as he says that his full name is too embarrassing to reveal. I guess I was hoping that there was a list somewhere of the most rare names found in the social security system, just like they do the lists of the most common names. It looks like there isn't one, though.

By: Flunkie

Flunkie — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 15:01:26 -0800

I only know him by a nickname as he says that his full name is too embarrassing to reveal.

Ummm... huh?

Then what information could we possibly have given you which could have helped you determine the answer to your question?

By: DMan

DMan — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 17:24:37 -0800

Well, if you don't know his real name, the only way you can figure out the answer is to either extrapolate the full name from the nickname (rather difficult, especially if he's right) or to find out his name. I have a way to look up stuff like this up and it seems like banannafish does too. But it's hard when we don't know the name :)

What's the nickname, at least? Is that also unique, or is it common?

By: shesbookish

shesbookish — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 17:28:52 -0800

Flunkie, the information I was looking for was a list of unique or singular names on file with social security or some other government agency. Apparently such a list doesn't exist or at least isn't available to the public.

I'm not comfortable sharing the nickname, as it would completely embarrassing for me if the guy with a strange name googled and found this question.

By: Flunkie

Flunkie — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 18:46:00 -0800

Yeah, my question is how such a list would help you with what you told us you wanted to do:

he said that he is the only person with a social security number who has his first name. I get the feeling that this guy likes to fib a little and I would love to figure out if this claim is true.

I'm not asking you to share his nickname. I'm asking you how you expect a list of uncommon names would help you figure out whether his name is unique, when you don't even know his name.

By: shesbookish

shesbookish — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 19:34:58 -0800

I guess I thought that such a list would be short enough that I could use the knowledge I have on hand (his nickname, ethnicity, etc.) to narrow down or determine which name from the list was his.

I know it seems like a stretch, but it's just been nagging at me for a while so I thought I'd toss it out there.