George Bush reads the paper every morning, putters around the house, does woodwork in his shed, and checks on his grandkids before stopping by the Belvidere Diner to shoot the breeze with his cronies. He says Belvidere is the perfect place to enjoy…his retirement?
Obviously, he’s not that George Bush. Where would the security detail stay?
“People wonder why I was named after him; I tell them I am older,” says the 85-year-old widowed father of six who retired 25 years ago as a maintenance worker for the Pennsylvania Railroad. “Sometimes pranksters on the phone will harass me at two in the morning,” he says. Even his pals joke about it. “The guys in the bars call me out and I let them talk. I go along with everyone; I don’t follow politics too much.”
But ever since the big Bushes started dominating headlines, the Warren County Bush has been immersed in a celebrity name game. He’s the only Garden Stater who shares his name with the 41st and 43rd presidents, according to whitepages.com. He’s among hundreds of New Jerseyans whose handles match those of the rich, famous, and infamous, including five Bill Clintons, a Jimmy Carter, a Richard Nixon and at least one Dick Cheney. There are also 67 John Kennedys (two JFKs), five Thomas Jeffersons, and four George Washingtons.
Martha Stewart of Egg Harbor, one of two women with the domestic diva’s name, was spared scrutiny until age 52, when she returned to her maiden name after two divorces. “It has been so much fun. It is always a topic of conversation,” says the visiting nurse and mother of one son. “It doesn’t matter where I am or who I talk to.” She didn’t say if they ask for tips on how to make turkeys out of paper cups.
“It always causes comment,” says Bill Clinton, 66, of Wildwood, whose father and son share the same moniker. “At one time, people were more sarcastic. Sometimes I would get cold calls by salesmen with sarcasm. They got cut off pretty quickly.” He says people actually ask if his wife is Hillary. He won’t say if they ask about Monica.
William J. Clinton, 76, of Chatham, who also goes by Bill, got a few minutes of national fame when he was seen on Today years ago in a segment about people with the Clinton name. “I always say, ‘Don’t laugh, I had the name first.’ But it’s very difficult to make a reservation of any kind without someone snickering,” he says.
Most of those surveyed are good sports and say they’ve never considered changing their names. Still, nearly half of those contacted declined to comment or return calls. Honestly, can you blame them?
George Washington, an 84-year-old Lawrence resident, says people never forget his name. “And I have never had a bad comment,” adds the retired American Military Services employee who found a way to avoid all the attention—he spent 47 years in Germany. But as a child, his name was a source of amusement. “With a name that stands out in school, people don’t forget you,” he says. “We had a thing in our family that the first male is named George, I don’t know how it started.” None of them, however, have chopped down a cherry tree.
Sports stars and entertainers are equally represented in this name game. There are 16 Alex Rodriguezes, 14 Michael Jacksons, six Bob Hopes, and nine John Lennons. “I hear it every day of the week,” says John Lennon of Fair Lawn, a retired heavy-equipment operator. “I got them more when he was alive. Drunks would call up and ask you to sing a song.”
Another non-Beatle is Paul McCartney of Port Monmouth. The name “is a conversation piece,” says the 41-year-old global logistics professional. “It kind of breaks the ice in business.” But he strains credulity when he reveals (truthfully) that his wife’s name is Linda. “People do double takes.”
When McCartney flew British Airways to Turkey for business, he had a limousine waiting with his name on a card. “They pulled me to the front of the line,” he says. “People were a little disappointed.”
Sinatra and Springsteen are always in the state’s musical spotlight. But these Frank Sinatras have no Hoboken roots; they hail from Perth Amboy, Freehold, Colonia, and Bernardsville.
“Even though he’s been dead for years, it has plenty of recognition,” says Perth Amboy’s Sinatra. “It has helped me immeasurably. It has made it very easy for people to remember me and to make contacts.”
Sinatra, 76, worked for decades in the Perth Amboy school system, serving as district superintendent from 1976 to 1991. He made news from 1994 to 1997 by running the Jersey City schools as an interim superintendent when the district was under state control. “I can remember years back calling down to Atlantic City and making reservations,” he says. “They thought it was the real guy coming.”
A trip to Las Vegas, and a reservation at Caesar’s Palace, got Sinatra a choice poolside suite. “It was a real first-class room,” he says. Sinatra met Old Blue Eyes: twice at concerts, once at an FDR rally. “I also have blue eyes,” he says. “So when they ask if it is real, I say, ‘I have the eyes to prove it.’”
There may not be any Bruce Spring-steens listed in New Jersey, but Ed Springsteen is more than willing to share his last name with The Boss. “I know a lot of the same people he knows,” says the 61-year-old Bay Head resident and former construction company owner. “I heard him say once on the radio that he would see my trucks going by. I used to see him at a marina in Manasquan.”
Other online searches found three Julia Roberts, two Phil Simms, one Barbara Walters, two Howard Sterns, a Gregory Peck and a Neil Armstrong.
Howard Stern of Vineland, a 61-year-old retired researcher, says sharing a name with the self-proclaimed “King of All Media” is never dull. “I’ve had people hang up on me when I call customer service or make a reservation,” says Stern. “They laugh right away or think it is a phony phone call.”
Stern once received a movie script meant for the radio host, but didn’t bother returning it: “I figured if the person didn’t know Howard Stern was in New York, they had something wrong with them.”
Hollywood royalty, if by name only, still gets the red carpet treatment, says Gregory Peck, a 46-year-old importer/exporter from Trenton, who remembers the attention he got as a child. “All the adults made a big deal of it,” he says. “My mother just liked the name Gregory.” When he earned his Eagle Scout badge at 17, Peck’s family wrote to the movie star asking him to attend the ceremony. The actor didn’t make it, but he did send a personal letter of congratulations.
“When I was in [college] I would make a collect call home and the operator would hang up on me,” says Peck, a Villanova University alum. Still, he was just another “celebrity” in his dorm. He claims that a Paul Newman and a Robert Redford also lived there—and were roommates. “There is always a small group of people who never believe you,” Peck says.
Ahh, Butch and Sundance. We miss ya.