Having the same name as a cult figure like Nick Miller isn’t bad, or even annoying, it’s just very odd

Sharing your name with a famous real person must get pretty tiresome.

The ‘no, really, what’s your name’; the ‘I bet you get this all the time’; the ‘are you any good at [insert profession of famous real person]?’

Sharing a name with a famous fictional person is… a slightly different vibe. 

Particularly a famous fictional person with a relatively small but loyal following. If my name was, say, Tony Soprano, or Rodney Trotter, or I dunno… Luke Skywalker, that would at least be predictable. 

But sharing a name with Nick Miller, a character from US sitcom New Girl, means my name popping up in all sorts of unexpected places, at unexpected times, for unexpected reasons.

It didn’t really register when I first watched New Girl that the rumpled, grumpy character on screen was my namesake. Even, for some reason, when his full name was said out loud. 

It was a bit like seeing a teacher in the supermarket: when something familiar is presented to you out of context, it doesn’t really register initially. But even when it did, my reaction wasn’t much more than ‘oh, that’s a coincidence.’

This, however, was before the internet got involved.

It’s still slightly odd to me why a character who, from my limited experience of watching the show, seems to be a dysfunctional semi-misanthrope with a chaotic love life, is some sort of unorthodox sex symbol. 

But the internet is nothing if not a haven for the unexpected, and as it turns out the fictional Nick Miller has a pretty committed fanbase. 

You don’t have to scratch too hard at the surface of the information superhighway to find quite a collection of content dedicated to the allure of Nick Miller. 

Just on YouTube, there are compilations called things like ‘Nick Miller being relatable for four minutes straight’, ‘Nick Miller being his chaotic and loveable self’ and ‘Nick Miller screaming for three minutes.’ That last one is a bit worrying. 

Buzzfeed has an article with the ’50 best quotes by Nick Miller’. Jake Johnson, the actor who plays Nick Miller, has been a guest on the podcast Thirst Aid Kit, on which he discussed the unique pull of his character. There are multiple lengthy thought pieces dissecting his appeal. 

Apparently Nick Miller’s charm lies in a combination of ‘sweetness and strength’, according to author Bolu Babalola (whose Twitter bio apparently once read ‘Nick Miller stan account’ – Bolu, I appreciate the stan).

The writer Alanna Bennett said he was ‘what we wish those men who don’t own curtains or pillowcases would be like in real life but they never are.’

Comedian Ashley Nicole Black said he ‘has all the bad boy qualities we secretly love, minus the one we really hate.’

It’s all very odd. It’s also easy to trick yourself into briefly thinking that all of these words are actually being written about you, a sort of brief ego massage before you come to your senses and remember.

And then there are the memes. Oh, the memes. There’s one of Nick Miller bashing his head repeatedly against a pillow.

There’s one of Nick Miller being gently cradled by an elderly man in a swimming pool. There’s one of him glancing down at his crotch with the caption ‘it is what it is’, which hit a little close to home. 

There’s merch, too. There are mugs, bedspreads, cushions, phone cases, birthday cards, posters, sweatshirts, all with Nick Miller’s – which is to say, my – name on them.

A while ago someone sent me a picture of a t-shirt that said ‘Nick Miller is my spirit animal’. It took a fair amount of willpower not to buy that one. 

Sharing a name with a cult figure like Nick Miller isn’t bad, or even really annoying, it’s just…occasionally very weird. It hasn’t impacted on my life in any significant way.

I’ve never been made fun of because of it. I’ve never considered changing my name. I’ve never had to wearily say ‘no, that really is my name’, like the Bridget Jones who I once answered the phone to at work did.  

In fact, now I think about it, I don’t think a stranger has ever commented on it in real life before. It’s always on the internet, with things popping up on Facebook or Reddit, or being tagged on Twitter to some meme, possibly because someone thinks they’re letting a fictional sitcom character know they’re being praised. 

There are a few real life members of the Nick Miller community. There’s Nick Miller the radio weatherman, which was a slightly disorienting experience when John Humphreys announced I was about to announce an upcoming snowstorm. 

There’s Nick Miller the hammer thrower, quite a good one too – he won gold at the 2018 Commonwealth Games and went to the Olympics in 2016, for which I was happy to accept congratulations. 

There’s Nick Miller the American football player – full name Nickelous, the show-off – who Wikipedia tells me ‘caught 55 passes for 763 yards and three touchdowns’ in 2008: I don’t really know what that means, but for the sake of our fine name, I’ll assume it’s good. 

Those are only occasional interlopers into the Nick Miller confusion, though.

Mostly, it’s the fictional character, much lusted after, weirdly admired, very popular in certain corners of the internet.

I’m off to buy that ‘Nick Miller is my spirit animal’ shirt. 

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