Patriot Names

If you have a famous patriotic name, what do you do when the most patriotic day of the year comes around?

If you are John Adams, you attend a neighborhood block party.

James Madison is heading to Fillmore for a family Fourth.

And if you are John Hancock, and somebody asks you to sign your John Hancock, you do what you do every other day--write your name, and wait for the jokes.

“I have to break out the driver’s license sometimes” to prove his identity to the incredulous, said the Ventura man.

The famous name was a burden in high school. At roll call, he would shrink in his seat, embarrassed by the heads turning when his name was called. Even today, when he goes out with his friend Bill Clinton the teasing can be merciless.

Still, like the other Ventura County folks who carry legendary monikers, Ventura’s John Hancock, 34, has learned to accept his name over the years. He even feels a psychological connection to his namesake. On this Fourth of July, as others, he will be one of the first on his block to unfurl the American flag.

“I’m proud to be John Hancock,” he said.

Holiday plans for most people are a challenge. Do you go to the barbecue? Watch the fireworks on the beach? Read the Declaration of Independence aloud to the family? Or simply sit at home and flip through the channels?

But when your name carries the extra weight of history, do you feel any extra pressure to live up to the responsibility?

Not if you are William Williams, 66, of Oxnard. He didn’t know he shared the name of a Connecticut signer of the Declaration of Independence until this week. The knowledge offered no epiphanies, nor did it alter his plans to celebrate Independence Day.

“It doesn’t mean anything to me,” he said. “There’s no surge of pride. My parents picked my name out of a hat. I guess I just got lucky.”

Others with their names inked across the bottom of the Declaration of Independence also live in Ventura County. And though a search for the likes of a present-day Button Gwinnett or Elbridge Gerry came up empty-handed, the county has its share of people carrying the name of the nation’s second president, who died on July 4, 1826.

Some of John Adams’ namesakes claim Founding Father heritage; one only learned of his connection to history when a reporter called him.

The first John Adams, 77, of Camarillo, is related to the president “somewhere along the line,” he said. The second John Adams, 74, also of Camarillo, is also related, he thinks, though he admits the name is common.

“Most families grow. They multiply quickly,” said John Adams No. 2. “If all the John Adamses came forward, you could fill the Rose Bowl.”

But the John Adamses of Ventura County--even those who could be long-long-long lost relatives--are planning a low-key Fourth of July.

One jetted off to Portland on Friday to see his granddaughter, and will return amid today’s fireworks. Another John Adams, 54, from Newbury Park, is visiting his in-laws in Orange County. Another Camarillo John Adams, 73,--call him No. 4--will hoist his American flag and join a neighborhood block party. And another Newbury Park John Adams, 60, will light some fireworks in the yard.

Sixty percent of the John Adamses surveyed have made the pilgrimage to John Adams’ house in Quincy, Mass.

One was allowed to sit on a chair--a “historical site” reserved only for the Adamses. Another swears that during the tour of the house, the guide looked to him to “see if [he] concurred.”

James Madison, 55, of Camarillo, who says he goes by David in his everyday life, was bestowed with his name by a mother who saw great things in the fourth president and Constitution framer.

“Kids used to say, ‘Hey, where’s Dolley?’ when I was growing up,” he said. These days people often know the name, but aren’t sure exactly how it fits into United States history.

“They know he had something to do with something, but people don’t seem to be as aware of history as they used to.”