Society Gists

New York resident, Seth Cohen is on an epic quest to track down and meet every single one of his namesakes in the world. The project, he says, isn’t so much about meeting his namesakes but connecting with people he would never otherwise do and also visiting places he never could have imagined.

“I am on a mission to meet every Seth Cohen in the world, live life to its fullest and inspire others to do the same,” the globetrotter wrote on his website. “I don’t know what I will find, but I’m excited to find out…”

Seth’s latest obsession started a few weeks ago. And since then he has pursued the project vigorously, hoping to find happiness at the end.

“My last birthday was in September,” he explained. “Everyone started posting on my Facebook wall, and this one woman that I barely knew said, ‘Seth, my favourite person in the world, have an amazing birthday.’ I was flattered, but I thought there is no way I am this woman’s most favourite person.”

He found out shortly that the woman and four other friends were connected with Seth Cohens on Facebook that weren’t him. He was so intrigued by this that he spent weeks trying to find out just how many Seth Cohens were out there. He spent time combing Google, social media websites, and online White Pages, and the results were mind-boggling – he found that there are at least 300 other Seth Cohens in the United States alone!

That’s when he decided to launch the ‘Seth Cohen Project’ with a goal to meet as many people with that name as possible. He started by contacting several Seth Cohens via social media and met the first one in November, in Bedford, Massachusetts. Since then, he has met 10 more SCs, and has written about every one of them on his blog.

While Seth is not directly related to any of the other SCs, he did point out an interesting aspect of the name ‘Cohen’.

“According to tradition, all Cohens (including all the various spellings) are direct descendents of Aaron, brother of Moses, the first High Priest of the Temple of Jerusalem. So, in very basic terms, there is a chance I am relatively closely related to any given Seth Cohen. This is not the main thrust of my project, just a fun side note.”

As interesting and unique as the project is, Seth said that he isn’t sure where it will lead him. Finances aren’t an immediate concern, but he expects that he will have to do some fundraising in the future to cover airfare, hotel stays and meals.