As an Aaron, these are a few Aarons I look up to personally, or whose work has brought joy to millions of other people.

1. Aaron Swartz, who tried his best to move things forward.
2. Aaron Hamlin, who works to make the world a bit more rational.
3. Aaron Z Lewis, a college friend and… artistic techno-philosopher? There’s not a good term for exactly what he does, but his mind is a fascinating place.
4. Aaron Ehasz, lead writer on the greatest animated series of all time.
5. Aaron of the Elite Four, one of the most talented Bug trainers in the history of Pokemon.
6. Aaron Funk, a cat lover who created one of the best breakcore albums.
7. Aaron Sorkin, who made a few good television shows.
8. Aaron Aaronsohn, who fought locusts in Palestine and used carrier pigeons to spy on the Ottoman Empire.
9. The Biblical Aaron. Like me, he worked in communications! While his children didn’t do so well, his name still lives on in the rest of us Aarons.
10. The Aaron behind Aaron’s, a billion-dollar business whose founder was… well, not an Aaron. Thus, whichever Aaron inspired the name of his store must have been a pretty cool guy. Or else the founder just wanted his company at the front of the phone book.

Honorable Mentions

Best person with the last name “Aaron”: Hank Aaron, who has the lowest Erdos-Bacon number of any non-mathematician and is, for this reason, arguably the greatest all-around person who ever lived. (More evidence: Muhammad Ali, known as “The Greatest”, once said that Hank Aaron was the only person he idolized more than himself.)

Best person with the middle name “Aaron”: Dustin Aaron Moskovitz, who took the position from Elvis Aaron Presley.

Best Erin: Brockovich.