Strange question of the day: What would be the ramifications of identical twins growing up with the wrong names?

None… They would just have switched name places.

My wife and I have identical twins and we wondered this before. We’re not even 100% sure we didn’t mix them up. :-) (99%)

Now that they each know their names, they keep their own track on it, thank gods.

Thanks. Interesting that you thought of that too.

I have twin grandchildren, Savannah and Kale. Not much chance of mixing those two up…although I guess people always ask my daughter if they’re identical twins.

How would anyone ever know, or figure it out? Each kid would live with the name they acquired.

Read the last line in the details @zenvelo!

It wouldn’t matter. They are already one person living in two bodies anyway.

Well, not exactly. If one committed a crime, the other wouldn’t be held responsible too.

No, but they would feel responsible.

@glacial Do you think that is universal for all identical twins? I imagine many seek to differentiate themselves.

Not for mine, I think.

@whitenoise What part? Not one soul in two bodies or not trying to have separate identities?

@janbb
About feeling responsible for their brother’s mischief.

They barely feel responsible for their own…

I remember reading that research actually shows that identical twins growing up seperately have more character traits in common than those sharing the same house.

The idea is that our urge to be an individual is so strong that we would stray away from our ‘natural’ selves to achieve a certain level of uniqueness.

@glacial how do you know one twin would feel responsible for something the other twin did?

When my daughter was about 8 she made an interesting comment. She said, “I don’t think Lexy (my sister) would like being a twin. She likes herself just the way she is.”

Are there any identical twins on Fluther?

@Dutchess_III I was “just going with it”. :)

It would not even be possible. Identical twims swap names too often for anyone, including themselves to know the difference.

My sister and I are 11 months apart in age and we acted like twins most of the time we were growing up.

I’m not talking about the twins swapping names. I’m thinking of the parents confusing the two and raising them with the “wrong” names unawares.

@Dutchess_III I did read the whole thing, but still ask that question. I don’t think it would ever happen unless somebody looked at the foot prints, but by then I’d figure they got the wrong name on the wrong foot print.

I actually wondered about this because I dated a woman who was an identical twin. She was the initiating of the two women, the one who did everything first, although they ended up doing nearly identical things, same schools, same career. Adrienne had told her cousin she was interested in me, who passed that on to me without specifying which cousin. I had been interested in Bernadette, and asked her out.

Adrienne was the first born (hence the “A” name) while Bernadette was the second (with the B name). But Bernadette did everything first, and I often wondered if they had gotten mixed up at birth.

Between my twin grandkids, Savannah does everything first, but there is no way you could know that at birth.

I have identical twins, and we did mix them up. We’re fairly sure we know who is who, but who knows? Nobody cares, and they know who they are now, which is the important part. It totally freaked out my mother in law.

In this society, it probably wouldn’t matter, but in a society that still gave strong consideration and benefits to the first born, it could be quite a mess.

How did you realize you mixed them up @snowberry?

@Dutchess_III We painted the toenails of one of them, and left the other baby’s toes alone. It worked quite well for a while, but then I got busy and forgot to do it. I thought I had it sorted out, so hubby was holding one baby while I was painting the toes of other. He looked down at his babe, and noticed a flake of red polish on the toe of his baby, while I was reddening the nails of mine. OOPS!

LOLL!

@snowberry Ha! I love that story.