And now that Samantha is in the professional world — working in non-profit media relations — she said it’s usually a topic of which HR professionals are conscious. “They dance around the topic or try to allude to it, asking if we can choose another email for me tactfully. I usually tell the story of the name and the email issue as an icebreaker when I’m in meetings with new people to break the ice and make myself more approachable — and to make people laugh.”

“My favorite is when a company allows me to use ‘sam@’ because it’s just cooler. But you have to have a small company to be able to do that, so it doesn’t happen often. Mostly, it’s been just adding my middle initial, which can be a…