[dofly]

In my experience, searching for any English/American (or Russian) name turns up at least a dozen people with the same first and last names. If a name is extra generic like John Smith, I don't even bother searching because the task is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Although, people with an Anglo name do usually have middle names :) Maybe everyone should take up a generic name to disappear on the internet?

[Fnoord]

Yes, but you should not assume that the person who searches won't specify additional terms. For example "first_name last_name" yields different results than "first_name second_name third_name fourth_name last_name" or "first_name last_name city". It all depends on how eager the person is to find information about you, and how clever they are with search engine usage. You cannot test all the parameters!

[ghaff]

I’m pretty much unique in spite of not having an obviously unusual name. Sufficiently mixed countries I guess.

The thing that seems vaguely scary is having a fairly unusual name that’s shared by someone notorious who is plausibly you. I knew someone who shared a name with someone else who lived in NYC and was the object of considerable local hatred. The gut I knew literally got death threats on his phone.

[sarreph]

Take it from an English / American that there are plenty of names of ours that, while reasonably rare, have only one person for hits. :)