Steven O. Smith, then a professor of structural biology at Yale University, slid the envelope open, and out fell a check for $32,000. He sighed. The money, he knew, didn’t belong to him.
The year was 1988, and this had become a common issue in the Yale mailroom, as the university’s faculty then contained three different professors named Stephen (or Steven) Smith — the aforementioned professor of biology (now at Stony Brook University), Stephen J. Smith of the neurobiology department (now at Stanford), and Steven B. Smith, the longtime former Master of Branford College and Alfred Cowles Professor of Political Science. The $32,000 check, however, wasn’t even meant for a Yale professor, but rather for another Steven Smith, this one in consulting.
“I used to get mail for Steven [S.] Smith, the congressional scholar at Wash. U. [Washington University in St. Louis], and it would be these arcane articles on congressional voting behavior,” Steven B. told The Politic with a chuckle. “Or sometimes I’d get a package with my name on it with some serious scientific equipment.”
From birth, it seems, the Steve Smiths of the world were destined to confusion. Anyone who has attended grade school can relate to the frustration of having three Sams or four Ashleys in the same small class. For Steven D. Smith, Professor of Law at the University of San Diego, the problem was made even harder by the addition of another student with the same last name. “Don’t know what happened to that guy in the end,” Steven D. told The Politic. “But this has been an amusement, I would say.”
Stephen M. Smith, Professor of Psychology at Texas A&M University, has likewise had several awkward experiences. There is another Stephen Smith on the faculty (Stephen B., who works in the meat sciences department), making the mailroom confusion unfortunately common. On top of that, Stephen M. said, he often receives calls meant for Steven W. Smith, who serves as the bankruptcy judge for that district of Texas.
Perhaps it is fitting, then, that his most ridiculous mix-up also occurred in a courtroom. As an expert on memory, Steven M. is often brought to trials to testify on eyewitness memory. Alas, even in the narrow field of eyewitness memory, there is enough room for multiple Steves. A prosecuting attorney mistook him two years ago for another Steven M. Smith, of St. Mary’s University, also an expert in the field, who has run experiments exploring how factors such as race and the choice of suspects in the lineup can affect the accuracy of eyewitness memory. Compounding the confusion, St. Mary’s Steven M. focuses on the same field as Stephen M. Smith, now at the University of North Georgia. This Stephen M. (the North Georgia professor, for those of you keeping score at home) did his post-doctoral research with the same man who published a thesis with the Ph.D. supervisor of St. Mary’s Steven.
Alas, the abundance of Steve Smiths in academia — and particularly in the social sciences — seems to stem more from the commonness of the name than from any divine edict. None of the Smiths contacted for this article seemed to think that the name had any influence in their choice of profession.
“I think it’s a generational thing: a popular name for people of my age,” Steven B., the Yale political scientist, said. “I’m not prepared to draw any correlation, much less causation, between my name and what I do for a living.”
Indeed, Steve Smiths abound outside of academia as well. Listeners of ESPN are familiar with the Stephen A. Smith’s flamboyant style, while fantasy football players perpetually fear mistakenly selecting the former USC wideout for the multiple-time Pro Bowler. And of course, there is Steve Smith, the drummer for the rock band Journey.
“I’d rather be the drummer,” quipped Steven B. to The Politic, “Instead I’m just another political science professor.”
Even in the political arena, Steve Smiths are common. There are currently three state representatives — in Massachusetts, Minnesota, and Wisconsin — who all share the name. Meanwhile, Steven Wayne Smith served from 2002 to 2006 as a member of the Texas Supreme Court and Steven Francis Smith was the Australian Minister for Defence and the MP for Perth until 2013. There are so many Smiths, in fact, it seems few glass ceilings remain. How long will it be until we have a Steven Smith as president?