My first name, Dorrie, is actually short for Dorothy. Dorrie in itself is not that common, but common enough that the domain dorrie.com was already taken so I had to settle with dorrie.de for my homepage (.de is for "Deutschland"/Germany).
My last name, Van Cleef, is pretty unusual, too. Most people think right away of Lee Van Cleef, the bad guy in many Italian westerns. Nope, not related.... and not related with Van Cleef & Arpels, either... DARN! And yes, Van Cleef is my maiden name.... I took it back after my divorce. My dad was born in Amsterdam, Netherlands, so I actually brought my family back to the old world.
At facebook I use my real name, Dorrie Van Cleef......now, imagine my surprise when a name popped up on that google search: Dori Van Cleef ..... and it wasn't ME!
Yep, there's another Dorrie/Dori Van Cleef on facebook! I immediately sent her off a note and a friend request, which she accepted. If I understood her right, Lee was one of her uncles... and her favorite uncle is a "Robert" Van Cleef, just like my older brother.
I thought it all so fun..... and weird.
Dorrie, the one and only!
P.S. my brother, Bob, had a dispute with Van Cleef & Arpels because he had already dabbed the domain vancleef.org which they wanted. He had to prove that it was really his name and then he got to keep it.
Companies will try to wrestle domain names away from people, but they don't always win. In our town, a man named Chevrier had a nickname "Chevy" (which he was able to prove) and called his restaurant Chevy's. General Motors tried and failed to make him change the name because Chevy is one of their trademarks, but the guy did have to remove the '57 Chevy from the roof of his business :-)
ReplyDeleteNow that is very interesting, Dorrie/Westy :)Thanks!
ReplyDeleteWe should be friends on FaceBook too! I'm in there more often than blogging...I did'nt think I'd like it, but now it's growing on me,lol.
I don't like *some* of their "games." Takes too darn much time!!