Meeting new people: Social events for those named Chloe

SINGAPORE – It started with a question: Can people make friends outside of work, school and interest groups?

Looking to meet new people, two friends sent out an open invitation for a social gathering. Anyone can join, but they must meet one simple requirement: Their name must be Chloe.

The hosts – Chloe Tan and Chloe Chong, both in their 20s – wanted to see if a group of random individuals who share nothing but their first name can find common ground and connect.

Tan, who hosts events as part of her job at a tech founder network, said she wanted to try something new.

She found that events have a tendency to be “quite structured”, and participants usually have something in common.

“I wanted to remove hobbies and traits entirely and strip it down to the basics,” she said. “What is the one thing we can keep as a shared trait?”

Introverts welcome

The first event, held on Aug 15 at an outdoor space next to Temasek Shophouse, was attended by about 25 people.

It was planned without an agenda to allow people to “come as they are”, said Chong, who works in sales for a data company.

During the event, many of the participants shared that they usually shy away from socialising with strangers.

“Many of them told us that they are introverted, but this event was so fresh and (only those named Chloe) qualify for it, which encouraged them to join,” Tan said.

Chong added that the requirement meant that people were more likely to turn up alone.

“It lessened the participants’ fear of there being in-groups or the possibility of being outcast,” she said.

One attendee, also named Chloe Tan, echoed the sentiment.

The 22-year-old Singapore Management University student said participants at other events – such as ones held in school – usually have a purpose in mind.

“I feel like I still need to present myself in a certain way,” she said.

However, she joined the Chloe meetup without feeling any expectation of who she had to be, a sentiment she found other participants shared.

“The nature of the event is that you come as you are,” she said, adding that she has a new-found appreciation for her name, which she previously found “basic”.

Meeting people outside their usual circles

For Chloe Chan, a 20-year-old Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts student, the event was a chance to meet people from different backgrounds.

“I wanted to expand my social network and go out of my comfort zone,” said Chan. She attended the Aug 15 meetup, as well as the second one held on Sept 19.

While joining student clubs in school is an option, Chan wanted to make connections that did not revolve around a specific activity.

At the event, she met other Chloes in fields such as psychology, technology and social work.

“The more conversations you have with people who are doing completely different things, the more open-minded you become,” Chan said.

She has made plans to meet another attendee in London, where the person is pursuing law.

“I have to do an exchange in London next year for the degree I’m taking. We agreed that if I am ever there, I would hit her up,” Chan said.

‘They just need someone else to get started’

This is not the first organised meetup of people sharing the same name.

In the US, a series of events known as the Ryan Meetup went viral after three people named Ryan first met up in New York in 2023.

After the event gained traction, hundreds of people named Ryan began joining subsequent meetups.

It has since spawned a non-profit organisation, with the aim of breaking the world record for the largest gathering of people bearing the same first name. The current record is 2,325, set in 2017 in Bosnia and Herzegovina by attendees named Ivan.

Organisers Tan and Chong said they were not aware of the Ryan Meetup before they came up with the idea of a Chloe meetup.

Separate events – for women named Nicole – were also held here in August and September.

The dinner gatherings, held at a restaurant at the Esplanade, garnered over 100 sign-ups on event page Luma.

“Meetings like these give people in Singapore more opportunities to discover the joy of meeting new people, especially introverts who don’t go out of their way to make friends,” Chong said.

“I was quite flattered that somebody wanted to organise a similar event inspired by us,” Tan added.

“People do want to make friends, they just need someone else to get started.”