Matthew Fleisher

Name: Matthew Adam Fleisher

Age: 20

Born: 1995, Maryland

Matthew was the 2nd most popular male baby name in 1995, making up 1.6350% of newborn male babies in the US.

According to Social Security databases, 685 Matthews were born in Maryland in 1995.

Do you like your name?

"Yes, because it's nice and average and unobtrusive."

Have you had any experiences in which the popularity of your name has either bothered or helped you?

"Matthew Miller. Middle school. Better than me and more attractive than me at almost everything. He has a six pack at the age of thirteen, and just a big old chest, and I was so jealous of that boy. So, in that way, having another Matthew that I thought was cooler than me. He was cooler than me. He was studying physics when he was twelve. He would carry around a physics text book. He’s at Harvard right now."

Do you agree that society feels a "need for uniqueness"? Have you ever felt this?

"I don’t think fully. I think I’m an intrinsically very different person, so I don’t really need to try to be different than people. I think I’m just very naturally not like a lot of people. Like my voice [is very deep and booming]. I stand out in a crowd. It’s not hard for me to sound like whatever I want to sound like because everyone will listen."

Collective identity, or "sameness", has been shown to be felt as strongly and be equally as powerful as uniqueness. Do you agree that sameness can be powerful? Have you ever felt it as such?

"Yes, I like a lot being the same. I like assimilation for myself because I experience being the other so often, and I experience leading a room unintentionally so often, that its nice when I get to sit there, not talk, not having people looking at me to speak, just kind of doing my thing."

Which do you think is more important, uniqueness or sameness?

"It's about balance. I think it's important to see yourself as an individual and have that moment of individuality, but it's also important to see yourself within the collective so that you an identify and affiliate with a certain group of people and have that certain level of empathy drawn by identity, which influences and creates that unique identity through narrative."