The congratulations trickled in from around the globe as Michael Phelps' gold medal count rose in Beijing.
By the time the swimmer collected his eighth gold medal, the most at a single Olympics, Michael Phelps had fielded about a dozen friend requests on his MySpace page.
To which he replied, "I'm not him."
Even though he is.
He is Michael Phelps, all right -- a 6-foot-3, 270-pound offensive lineman at Oxnard High who shares first and last names with the Olympic legend, if little else.
"There's been a lot of confusion," the 16-year-old Phelps acknowledged. "People are like, 'Are you related to him?' "
Well, yes.
His father is also Michael Phelps.
So Olympian Michael Phelps' boast that he would become the first Michael Phelps and not the second Mark Spitz rings a little hollow.
And Michael Phelps -- all of them -- aren't alone.
Counter workers at a Denver fast food restaurant did a double take this year when two other athletes plopped down credit cards to pay for their meals.
Their names: Brittany Spears and Whitney Houston.
"They were like, 'Can I see your ID?' " recalled Spears, a former Pasadena High basketball star who is heading into her sophomore season at Colorado. Houston is a junior guard from Memphis, Tenn.
"They just laughed. They couldn't believe it."
Then there's Evan Longoria.
The folks at Wikipedia went to the trouble of inserting a line near the top of his web page stating, "Not to be confused with Eva Longoria."
As if there was any chance of that.
The latter is a winsome actress who rose to fame in 2004 for her role in "Desperate Housewives." The former was a mostly anonymous shortstop from Long Beach State until rising to prominence this season as a rookie with the formerly desperate Tampa Bay Rays.
Having a celebrity namesake can lead to some comical moments -- and plenty of annoying questions.
How're the kids? How's Kevin?
Spears -- Brittany, not Britney -- usually plays along when people teasingly inquire about the life of the pop diva once married to Kevin Federline.
The kids are fine, thanks. Kevin's good.
What's even more irritating, Phelps the football player said, is that "everybody thinks they're so clever or the first one" to make a joke.
