An Abundance of Rachel-Bloggers

Angel likes to point out that lots of marriage books seem to be written by men named Gary. For example, there's Sacred Marriage by Gary Thomas (a very excellent book--I'd recommend it to anyone!). And then there's the well-known 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman, along with other marriage-related books by him. I actually think it's Gary Chapman's proliferation of marriage books that contributes to the illusion that men named Gary write a lot of books on marriage, because just that one guy wrote quite a few of them! There's also Growing Kids God's Way, which isn't specifically about marriage, but teaches about parenting in a way that is healthy for your marriage--and that class is written by Gary Ezzo. Weird.

Anyways, that's somewhat beside the point, because what I've been reflecting on, is the sheer number of Rachels who blog! Now, because it would be nearly impossible to take a name count of all bloggers and find out the most highly represented name, I have absolutely no numerical evidence for which name is most commonly found in blogging. However, I have noticed a large quantity of Rachel blogs.

 In case you are ever confused by the sheer number of Rachels out there, I'm the one who always agrees to strange and sundry photoshoots that my siblings dream up. I don't mind the camera, even if I do look a little silly sometimes. Why am I in the grass again??

I believe there are two reasons for this.

1) My name is Rachel, so the name stands out to me a little more when I notice another blogger named Rachel.

2) Rachel has historically been a very common name. I've met countless other Rachels in real life and we often have to distinguish between each other through last names or initials. In one of my college classes, there was a grand total of five students. Two of us were named Rachel. That's a bit excessive, I think.

Now, I'm sure you don't just want to take me at my word that there's many other bloggers out there who share my name, so I thought I'd list a few to beef up my argument.

First of all, there's Rachael at Held By His Hand--it's the same name, even if spelled a little differently, and I have to like her, because she thinks both I and Tim Hawkins are hilarious, which shows she has great taste in humor!

There's another Rachael with that spelling at All Things Beautiful. Rachaels like these are probably the reason my name is almost always misspelled by strangers and occasionally family members who forget the proper spelling...but that's okay, I can still love Rachaels of other spellings. 

Moving on, there's the beautiful Rachel Sayumi and Rachel Emmilee too!

There's Rachel at Life in the Moment, and fashion blogger Rachel the Hat (there's an interesting story about how she got her nickname, by the way).

There's the Rachel with the postcards too, and don't forget Rachel at Happily Ever After.

That's all I can think of at the moment, though I know I'm missing quite a few! If you are or know another Rachel-blogger and comment with the link, I'll add it to my list!

So, what do ya'll think? Do you notice quite a few bloggers who share your name, or are you blessed with a rarer name?

And here's a funny story that Rachels as well as others might appreciate: Angel thought for the longest time that the meaning of the name Rachel was "beautiful and lovely in form." I guess he got that from a description of the Biblical Rachel, but it's not actually the meaning of the name. Regardless, as you can imagine, I felt no pressing desire to enlighten him as to the actual meaning. I'd take "beautiful and lovely in form," wouldn't you?