MY NAME IN A NUTSHELL
By Dan Miller
April 1, 2008
Starting today, I shall be known simply as "Dan."
I figure, if it's good enough for folks like Cher, Prince, Beyonce, Wynonna and Bono, it's good enough for me.
Many people function just fine with one name.
One of them is, apparently, my 9-year old daughter McKensie.
Every week, when she places her modest little offering in the church plate, she signs her name on the envelope simply 'McKensie'.
Yet, church administrators know exactly who she is.... and when we receive our statements from the church, itemizing our contributions, there's always a column correctly listing McKensie's donations.
My news co-anchor, Demetria Kalodimos, never needs to use her last name.... at least not in Nashville.
After being on television here for almost a quarter century, she's known to everyone as "Demetria" with no more information needed.
And there are others.
If I mention "Pacman".... is there any doubt in your mind who I'm referring to?
And think of all the country stars who we can quickly identify by one name.... Loretta.... Garth.... Emmylou.... Waylon.... Willie.... Hank Jr., and many others.
And that brings us back to me.
Since I'm writing this on April 1st, I'm allowed to claim that I'm dropping my last name.
But it underscores a troubling reality.
Not only are there untold thousands of "Dans" -- there are even lots of 'Dan Millers' out there.
As a matter of fact -- (and I've written about this in the past) -- there are so many Dan Millers that, when you Google the name, literally hundreds pop up.
Even right here in Nashville there are quite a few.
It occasionally leads to misdirected correspondence.
There's even a Dan Miller at NBC in New York whose inter-office emails I somehow receive at times.
Last year a young woman wrote me a letter telling how much she enjoyed my new self-help book, and asking if I'd be so kind as to send an autographed copy to her husband.
I told her I'd be thrilled to do that, except for the fact that I've never written a self-help book.
OK, I have -- out of burning necessity -- read a few self-help books, but I've never written one.
There is, I'm told, a Dan Miller living in Brentwood who has written such a book.
Ya know, to stand out from the crowd, I guess I should have followed my instinct years ago and adopted "Fabio" as my professional name.
But that's now being used by someone else..... someone I'm already mistaken for most every day.
___________________________________________