As someone named Coby, I liked that no one else seemingly shared my name. I’ve never run into another Coby in my entire life. Although I know they exist because a simple Google search brings up a handful of people with that name. But every time I hear “Coby,” I know someone’s trying to get my attention.

Then Kobe Bryant showed up and became famous. Now I hear “Kobe!” everywhere I go, and it’s giving me whiplash. I keep thinking people are talking about me, or calling for me, and it’s just people throwing trash into a basket from across the room.

It’s a damn shame what happened to Kobe, but I’m a bit relieved that almost no one seems to be calling out his name anymore. Although I constantly need to spell out my name every time I give it to people, because they always write it as “Kobe” now. I used to get “Colby” or “Cody” all the time. Now it’s just “Kobe.”