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 as it is about the road less traveled, living in the world, not just on it, connecting with people he would never otherwise connect with, visiting places he would never otherwise visit and experiencing things he would never otherwise experience.

“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…” The name ‘Seth Cohen’ is apparently quite common, a fact that Seth realized a couple of months ago. “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 favorite person in the world, have an amazing birthday.’ I was flattered, but I thought there is no way I am this woman’s most favorite person.”

So Seth snooped around and figured out 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 Seth 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 (SCs) 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.”

Seth admitted that other SCs had popped up all through his life, but he never paid close attention earlier. “I had never met any of them (until now) but they are all over the place,” he said. “For example, my old lawyer used to represent two of us and would call me all the time rambling on about things I had no idea about, when I would remain silent he would eventually stop and say, ‘I did it again, didn’t I?’”

According to Seth, the project is helping him understand people better. “I make assumptions about the Seth Cohens before we meet based on their Facebook profile or their work history on Linkedin,” he admitted. “I put them in boxes and assume they’re going to be this way or that way based on age or work, and each time they are not at all what I expected them to be.”

Almost all the SCs that Seth meets are quite enthusiastic and appreciative of the project. SC #8, for instance, said: “I was very impressed with what he was doing. I thought that it was a really creative way of reaching out and getting to know people and learning about yourself as a reflection of the people you meet.”

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. “I had a choice of getting angry at the world and my career or doing something extraordinary,” he said. Ultimately, he believes that he’s just connecting with fellow human beings, and the name is just an excuse to do that.

“I think the deeper, more mysterious thing at work is that we all have things in common that we just don’t know because we don’t ask,” he explained. “We don’t get a chance to sit down for a couple of hours. In our normal lives, we don’t really have that opportunity. That’s the deeper thing here and I don’t think it has anything to do with the name.”

Photos: Seth Cohen Project/Facebook

Thanks for getting in touch, Seth, and good luck on your journey!