She was the first female to command a Coast Guard cutter, the ex-wife (twice) of actor/song-writer James Coburn, an author and daughter of a world-famous clown, a chemistry professor, and a social worker. No, I'm not talking about one lady with a mind-boggling résumé — make that five remarkable American women who all share the name of Beverly Kelley.

It used to be common practice among traveling salespeople and frequent fliers to check out the local phone book for one's appellation. Searching out people who share one's moniker is much more productive, these days, with access to the World Wide Web. You can either type your name into your favorite search engine or head to http://www.samenameasme.com and let founder Robin Barratt do it for you.

The au courant phrase for one's name twin is "Googlegänger" — a term of unknown authorship that won the American Dialect Society's award as 2007's "most creative word."

So why do so many folks feel a connection to utter strangers just because they share the same "handle"? Social and behavioral scientists offer some answers.

First, there is the "name-letter effect" or the tendency to be influenced by initials or letters in one's name. Studies by B.W. Pelham et al published by both the Journal of Consumer Research and the Journal of Personality & Social Psychology report that the name-letter effect may even extend to choice of residence, spouse and/or favorite product brand.

To illustrate, Jack is more likely to move to Jacksonville, marry Jackie and eat at Jack in the Box than is Phil, who, on the other hand, might relocate to Philadelphia, marry Phyllis and dine on a Philly cheese steak.

Pelham further concludes that the name-letter effect seems to apply to choice of occupation as well. For example, he reports that a disproportionate number of dentists seem to share the name Dennis.

To answer skeptics who counter that individuals do make life decisions for reasons other than letters of the alphabet, Pelham and colleagues compared their test results to random chance. They discovered, for instance, that the number of Virginias who move to Virginia turned out to be 36 percent higher than could be expected by chance alone.

Additionally, it appears that a "same-as-me" effect may impact politics as well. During the 2000 presidential campaign, analysis of campaign contribution rolls demonstrated that people whose surnames began with "B" were far more likely to contribute to George Bush; those whose surnames that began with "G" favored Al Gore.

However, there is a downside to allowing the letters in one's name to affect one's behavior — however unconscious that may be. Leif Nelson (UC San Diego) and Joseph Simmons (Yale) investigated the effect of name resemblance on batter strikeout statistics. Bear in mind, strikeouts are recorded with the letter "K." After analyzing performances of major league baseball players over a period of 93 years, the investigators found that batters whose names began with "K" struck out at a significantly higher rate than all other batters.

The same researchers targeted academia in a follow-up study that reviewed 15 years of grade-point averages for Masters in Business Administration graduates from a large private American university. They found that students whose names began with "C" or "D" (I suspect you are already ahead of me here) earned lower GPAs than students whose names began with "A" or "B."

In 2001, a Hollywood screenwriter-actress-model calling herself Angela Shelton criss-crossed the country in a 33-foot RV in order to make the acquaintance of 40 other Angela Sheltons ranging in age from 22 to 48 years. Why? She had a hunch that these women shared something beyond just a name — something much more personal.

Two statistics, startling to her, emerged as the various Angela Sheltons let down their hair in conversation: not only were most Angelas employed as "angels of mercy" (nurses) but 70 percent had experienced sexual abuse or spousal violence. (Note: both predicaments begin with the letter "s.")

Angela's unique social experiment resulted in an award-winning documentary, appearances on "Oprah Winfrey," "Larry King Live," "48 Hours Investigates," "Lifetime Television for Women," and a 256-page eponymous paperback published by Meredith Books only this month.

Granted, my sample of Beverly Kelleys may be modest, but I did find a number of commonalities with my name twins: I, too, know what it is like to bump my noggin on the glass ceiling yet eventually break through, to be married (just once) to a musician with a flair for the dramatic, to be forced to share a funny father with the spotlight, and to spend time writing, teaching and caring for others.

Would I wish to meet my Googlegängers some day?

I already have. Remarkable women. They just don't happen to share my name.

— Beverly Kelley, Ph.D., who writes every other Monday for The Star, is an author ("Reelpolitik" and "Reelpolitik II") and professor in the Communication Department at California Lutheran University. Visit http://beverlykelley.typepad.com/my_weblog/. Her e-mail address is Kelley@clunet.edu.