Your article (‘You get more attention than you would choose’: how an unusual name can shape your life – for better or worse, 13 November) resonated with me for obvious reasons, even though 11 years have now elapsed since the death of the singer Joe Cocker.
He was actually christened John Robert Cocker, and it is not clear where the “Joe” came from. I wrote to Joe before my 70th birthday suggesting that, as I had for most of my adult life “suffered” from having the same name, maybe he could send a message to my party.
A few weeks later, a package arrived from the US with his CD Hymn for My Soul, on which he had written in silver ink, “Small world – Joe Cocker to Joe Cocker”. Having the same name often led to conversations that would not otherwise have happened. I once arrived in Peru and an airport official told me that he had not heard of Joe Cocker but people kept asking him “Is he really coming?” (Someone must have seen the incoming passenger list.) Before anyone asked, I would say to them that, generally speaking, people were prepared to pay me not to sing.
Joe Cocker
Leominster, Herefordshire
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