I live in the USA. My father was a surgeon who was well known in an area of about one hundred miles in any direction from my very small hometown. Owing to our unusual surname, I was forever meeting people who would ask, "Oh, your name is 'Doe?' Are you related to Dr. 'John Doe,' the surgeon?" This occurred from early childhood onward. When I was in my thirties, I moved eight-hundred miles away to a new part of the country. I was there several months when I thought, This is one place where I'll never be asked that old, familiar question. That evening, I attended a gathering of a nationally-known social club where I was approached by a woman who had just become a member. We introduced ourselves, and she asked, "Oh, your name is Doe? Are you related to Dr. John Doe, the surgeon?" It turned out that she was born and raised in the small town I was from. Her father had done some work for my father. We also learned that we had some acquaintances from that area in common, and that we'd grown up just a few miles from one another although we attended different schools.
