Five Owls called Chloe walk into Cohen House

What better way to meet new people than starting with your fellow first-namers?

Maybe you heard about last summer’s “number neighbors” fad, in which people struck up conversations with strangers by texting a phone number one digit off from their own.

So, what about name neighbors?

Five Rice students — all named Chloe — met for lunch at Cohen House Nov. 26. Only two of them knew each other beforehand. The rest of the Chloes were strangers, who all happen to share a first name that became wildly popular starting in the year 2000. No surprise, then, that nine current Rice undergraduates (and a few grad students) bear the name.

Cohen House hosted a Chloe-only lunch Nov. 26. (Photos and video by Brandon Martin)

The lunch was Lovett College junior Chloe Oani’s idea. As Lovett’s president and one of her college’s peer academic advisors, Oani is naturally outgoing and enjoys engaging with strangers. But, she said, it’s often difficult to meet people outside your own college and major.

Oani is accustomed to defining herself in relation to other Chloes, because the popularity of her first name usually ensured there was another Chloe around somewhere. At Lovett her freshman year, she became “Young Chloe.” And when Lovett’s “Old Chloe” graduated, Oani said, “I just became Chloe.”

She wondered: Who was “just” Chloe?

“And then I found that there’s actually nine of us on campus,” she said, “and I’m like, ‘Wow, OK, I guess I just have to find my own sort of identifiers — which Chloe I am.’”

She emailed all eight of the fellow Chloes across campus, five of whom were available for lunch — not a bad turnout for the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. Oani mentioned her plans to Dean of Undergraduates Bridget Gorman and Director of Communications for Administration Susann Glenn, who was so taken with the idea she offered to cover the cost of a Cohen House lunch for the Chloes.

From left: Chloe Marcheli, Chloe Oani, Chloe Corbitt, Chloe Ditloff and Chloe Liebenthal.

And so the Chloes began filing in, with identifiers of their own: Chloes from South Florida and Southern California and South Carolina; Chloes named for beloved relatives and Chloes whose parents seemingly picked the name from the ether; Chloes majoring in Visual and Dramatic Arts and Chloes majoring in Sport Management.

“As a freshman I love meeting new people,” said Chloe Liebenthal, a McMurtry College Chloe, “so this is a great way to meet Chloes all over campus.”

Oani, ever the team leader, had come prepared with a list of questions for the other Chloes. Before long, however, they were all deep into discussions that ranged far beyond the one thing they all shared in common.

Her impromptu game of name neighbors had been a success: five strangers, strangers no more.

“Now that I know your face and know your name,” Oani said, a promise to her new friends, “I will yell it across the quad!”