>Also on the aside, I found it amusing that throughout the 1980s and 1990s, I frequently got mailings and phone calls that were directed to senior citizens -- because of (an assumption about) my given name. Since I don't have a "Western" given name, the common assumption that I must be "issei" (first generation*) who probably arrived prior to the 1940s (this being that in many cases, generations born in the USA tend to have "western" given names). Technically I'm "sansei" (third generation*). Sine the 2010s, the situation has "flipped" -- now I'm old enough to join AARP and the mailings and phone calls I get are primarily directed at people in the 20s and 30s -- again based on assumptions based on my given name (based on a trend starting around the late 1970s where it became common for children with "ethnic" given names).

I haven't had the experience of getting targeted wrongly by ads, but I do know what you're talking about. Most of the Jewish kids in my generation had "American" names, many of which became somewhat associated with Jews because so many Jewish families used them. As a child, I only knew one other American-born Tamar, who was the daughter of friends of my parents and whose name I'm pretty sure inspired my own. All the other Tamars were Israelis. I know lots of younger American-born Tamars now.

Tamar