Even though I’m also called Eamonn Holmes, when I met the TV legend I pied him off

Funnily enough, whenever I say my name, ‘Like the man off the telly’ isn’t the standard response. 

Most times, I get people saying ‘Amy?’, ‘Annie?’, as if ‘Eamon’ is too hard to understand.

You really don’t want to see how they attempt to spell it on Starbucks cups (there was a time they put the number 2 in there!). 

Once that’s clarified though, the next port of call is for the person I’m speaking to to alert me to the fact I share a name with a famous person. 

I was about five or six when someone made me aware. I was at school, they were hosting some awards for the kids, and the Chuckle Brothers were there. 

A teacher was talking to Barry and Paul and introduced me, mentioning that I shared a name with their then-BBC colleague. 

I don’t really remember anyone making a big deal of it at the time, but I thought it was funny. 

Clearly, so did teachers, as throughout primary and secondary school they drew attention to it and it felt like I could never mess around because they all knew me by my stand out name. 

Thankfully, other kids didn’t take the mick too much. 

Still, I was a bit self-conscious. At one point I wished I had a ‘normal’ name like Eddie or Joey. 

Whenever I would go to the doctor’s or dentist’s I would ask reception to make sure they didn’t call for me in full, requesting they only said ‘Eamon’ or ‘Holmes’, never both, as I didn’t want the attention. 

Of course they never listened. 

I’ve since questioned my parents about why they called me what they did, and I remember jokingly saying to my mum, ‘You musn’t have liked me when I was born’. 

But although Eamonn Holmes was around when she was pregnant with me, he wasn’t massively famous. I was named after my dad, also an Eamon, but took my mum’s surname. 

I don’t really think I’ve done too badly on the name front though. There have definitely been benefits! 

It’s been great at breaking the ice in job interviews. It was the same case when I was single and dating. 

Unfortunately, my now-girlfriend wasn’t wooed by my Eamonn Holmes opener as she’s five years younger and, like a lot of millennials I speak to, she didn’t really seem to know who my namesake was. 

There have been some downsides to my moniker. 

When I was younger I rang up Live & Kicking, wanting to be part of their phone-ins, but the lady on the other end kept going, ‘really? Is that really your name?’. I was around eight or nine and of course being genuine, but she just wouldn’t accept I was telling the truth. 

Then there was the time I was stopped by the police for slightly speeding. I could tell straight away that the officer didn’t warm to me, and it became even more obvious when I didn’t have my license and had to tell him my name. 

When I said ‘Eamon Holmes’, you could see he just really wanted to tell me to f**k off. Instead, he rang the car through the radio and when the person on the other end replied confirming I was telling the truth, he was furious! He really wanted to knick me, but I had done everything else right! 

I also have to deal with a lot of disappointed Amazon delivery drivers when they hand the parcel over to me and not the famous Eamonn.

A lot of people really like the TV host; I think that’s because he doesn’t seem to take himself too seriously. I don’t follow that many famous people too closely – but I think he seems like a nice one. 

He was when I met him, at least. Four years ago I was watching the wrestling at Wembley when I heard a few guys in front of us calling out his name and trying to have a bit of banter with him, as he was a few rows in front of them. 

I text a friend to mention I was in the same place as the star and he encouraged me to go and meet him as I’d never have another chance. 

I went over and asked for a picture – not mentioning our shared name. It was short and sweet and I went back to my seat. 

But the friend I was with, without me knowing, later went over to him and mentioned we had the same name, which prompted him to come over to me. 

He was so nice and asked lots of questions, but I felt so bad about keeping him away from sitting with his family, and that a crowd had gathered and were trying to get pictures with him, that I pied him off slightly! 

After that encounter I started following him on Instagram, but it’s not always easy for me on social media. I get tagged in a lot of stuff meant for him (weirdly, a lot of Elvis posts); I used to reply to every one telling them I was the wrong Eamon, but I’ve since deleted my Instagram and created a new account where my name is slightly different. 

On Facebook too, whenever I comment on stories – mainly about football – I get a lot of banter. 

I’m a big Chelsea fan, whereas my namesake is a Manchester United supporter, so people often reply to me saying that my opinion doesn’t matter because of my name. I just think it’s quite funny! 

My son looks like he’s set to inherit some of the jokes, too.

His name is Riley, but his middle name is Eamon and I’ve had a few friends and teachers already asking why! 

You can find out more about Eamon and his work here and here.

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