How many Cleopatras ARE there anyway?

Isn't it funny how deeply we feel about our names? We've heard them spoken in many tones, in many places, and they've become as much a part of us as our eyes and noses. I hadn't really thought much about how personal a name is until recently.

I'm in an on-line group that includes several of us with the same first name. We'd each added a bit to the end to differentiate one from the other. (for instance: CleopatraBob, CleopatraF., and CleopatraCincinnati.) Well, recently one of the Cleopatras dropped the suffix and started using just the name Cleopatra.

Every time I see "my" name there identifying someone else I feel myself frowning. It'd be different if we'd all gotten together & decided who was going to be THE "Cleopatra" but we didn't. Usually I'm good about sharing, but for some reason this is really bothering me.

I find myself thinking that people might read things that she has written and think that I am the one who wrote them. (Not that she writes anything "bad", she is a lovely woman and a very kind person which is one more reason why I don't understand why it bothers me that she's using our name without the identifying suffix.)

Really this is the first time I've ever been around a group of friends that included someone sharing my first name. Maybe that's why I feel so possessive about it. I could always change my forum name, but I've been on there for years & don't feel having the hassle of people not knowing who I am, etc.
:-P

I guess I could change it to just Cleopatra, too, & get people REALLY confused with 2 of us sharing exactly the same name... maybe the other Cleopatras would do the same... heck, maybe everybody on the forum could just become Cleopatra! (snort!)

Anyway, just had to talk about this because it has been on my mind & you know me - if it's on my mind long enough it ends up on this page. (Well, maybe not ALWAYS but sometimes.) It's not a big deal and I don't know why in the world it makes me frown... but thinking about having 200 Cleopatras on a forum did make me snicker, so that's an improvement! (Well, IMHO it's an improvement - the cat who was sleeping on my chest until I so rudely woke him up with my snickering might not agree.) (snicker)

Signing off - the Childish Cleopatra