I spent most of my early years of life comfortable with my name. I got teased some in grade school after watching the film "Man without a country" the Philip Nolan story.
I suddenly became the man without a country. "No land, just water.
A man without a country." Was a particular torture I suffered through.

Curiosity about the source of my name caused me to ask my mother, she was non-committal about it.
My father was a bit more vocal, however. It seems, my dad initially wanted me to be named after a World War II hero sailor, Doris A. Miller. My mother reportedly was adamantly opposed to her son being named Doris.
Another proposal was Noah McKinley Miller. She opted instead for Nolan Miller, and that as they say was that.

Around the age of 25, I was at work and reading the daily newspaper when I happened to read a headline that said movie star Lana Turner was escorted to a lavish Hollywood party by Nolan Miller.
What? I knew who Lana Turner was, but we certainly had never met.
At that time, I had never been to Hollywood, I had passed through California on my way to Okinawa and again on my way back home to Detroit back in the early 60s.

Clearly this must be some sort of mistake. You see at this time I had never met or even heard of there being another human on planet earth with the name of Nolan Miller.
I found the photo of the couple and sure enough this tall slim white man bore the name of Nolan Miller. Poor guy, I thought.

A few years later, my wife and I moved to Los Angeles and registered my name, address, and phone number in the LA telephone company's white pages.
Not much later, maybe a few months after the new books were printed and circulated, I started getting phone calls from people I had never met and did not know.
I decided to check the phone book to see what the heck was going on. Right there on the page was in bold print the name Nolan Miller Fashions and the number of his store.
Underneath this was in much smaller print, the name Nolan Miller with my home number. So, as I figure, people seeing the listings thought that the smaller display was his personal number and so I started getting phone calls from people, some famous, some who I guess, wanted to become famous.

My wife and I addressed this problem by removing my name and registering the number under her name. Just like that, the calls dried up.

Fast forward to the age of the internet. In 2006 I wrote and published my first book of poetry, wanting to see my name and information I did a search on the name Nolan Miller. Talk about a shock to the system. After about ten to twelve pages in, I found my name and the title of my book.
Since that time there have been so many Nolan Millers added to the world's population that it is ridiculous. Not only are there seemingly thousands of Nolan Millers, but there are even more people whose first names are Nolan but with a different last name.

One of my favorite TV shows is the Rookie. The lead actor Nathan Fillion, who just happens to be one of my favorite actors. His character's last name just happens to be Nolan.

My wife and I always watch ABCTV's Morning news show. Imagine my surprise when I learned that the meteorologist Leslie Lopez named her son, you guessed it, Nolan. I was so proud. But come on now, when will enough finally be enough?