It's a weird time to be named Alice Huang. Just ask these women.

Former Megaspeed exec Alice Huang is in the news. Three women with the same name told Business Insider what the last week has been like. Alice Huang; Matthew Hargus; Alice Huang When Nvidia's Jensen Huang became embroiled in a scandal involving a woman named Alice Huang, an Austin job seeker with the same name saw an opening.She changed her LinkedIn headline to "NOT A SPY" and posted that, unlike the other Alice Huang, who US intelligence officials reportedly believe was passing information to Beijing, her most dangerous secret was how many Chrome tabs she had open.The joke took off. The post not only drew more than 800,000 impressions but also led to a handful of job solicitations via private messages, as viewed by Business Insider. One said they were looking for a chief of staff. Another said they were "connecting for the name" but saw opportunities to work together.Huang, 41, happens to be looking for a chief of staff or operations role and is taking the messages seriously. "If they like my sense of humor, I know they're the right kind of people for me," she said.Her last name is widespread across the US. In the 2020 Census, Huang was the 314th most common surname, with 98,330 Huangs covering the country. Case in point: Both Jensen and Alice in the Nvidia scandal share the same last name, though they are not related.Alice is also a popular name, ranking as the 249th most common first name in the 2020 Census. There are at least dozens of Alice Huangs across the country. A LinkedIn search shows professionals with the name working in healthcare, nonprofits, and banking.Now, all these women are tied together by a scandal. Their name twin has been barred from re-entry into Singapore, and Attorney General Todd Blanche said the government is investigating but has yet to conclude whether she is a spy. China has repeatedly denied those claims.Another Alice Huang, this one age 33 from the Bay Area, said she'd already picked out her Halloween costume for next year. She'd be the Megaspeed exec, her husband would be a GPU, and her 1-year-old daughter would be a leather-jacketed Jensen."It's just in my mind," she said. "I'm going to get started tonight." The Alice Huang branding playAlice Huang's private Pilates class began with a joke. "Oh, you've been in the news!" one of the Redondo Beach-based instructor's longtime clients said to her. They laughed about it, commiserated about the Nvidia CEO's downfall, and then got on with the class.So, the 51-year-old decided to post about it on Instagram. She knows that Pilates fosters a stronger mind-body connection and helps people feel calmer. Maybe the Nvidia scandal wouldn't have happened if its founder did more Pilates, she reasoned.A small connection to a newsmaking scandal — even just a name in common — can be big for personal branding. A 24-year-old from Singapore, also named Jensen Huang, told Business Insider that posting about the scandal drove traffic to his startup's website and converted subscribers.The Austin-based Huang said that, after posting on LinkedIn, her phone began buzzing incessantly. She asked ChatGPT to do the math; it estimated she got 300 connection requests an hour. "I was shocked to see it blow up like that," she said.As for the Huang in the Bay Area, she used the scandal to help fundraise. Huang is involved in Cornell's Bay Area alumni network, and posted on LinkedIn to help raise money for local nonprofits. She opened the post with: "It's Alice Huang here. No, not that one."One alum sent an Amazon package to her house as part of the fundraising drive. It included a gift note: "Stay away from Jensen!"The friends, family, and old coworkers reaching outWhen not raising money, the Bay Area Huang works in the semiconductor industry. The Nvidia scandal hit close to home, she said, and it's all her colleagues can talk about — so, they approach her cubicle and make jokes about it."They're engineers," she said. "People are very shy. They're just like: 'We talked about you. Did you know?'"Once your name is in the news, suddenly everyone wants to talk to you. The Texas-based Huang had people from her life in Australia, where she lived more than 10 years ago, reach out to her.Friends and family keep telling the SoCal-based Huang about her name twin. An old friend from London reached out, and colleagues she hadn't seen in years started texting her. "It's a little bit chaotic," she said.She's not too worried about confusion between the Huangs. Alice Huang is a popular Taiwanese name, she said, and her parents named her after one of the country's mountains."I don't know if, next time at the airport, I'm going to be stopped," Huang said. "But there are many, many, many Alice Huangs in the country and the world, so hopefully that won't be an issue." The latest on Jensen Huang's ouster from Nvidia and what it means for the company's future Read next Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know Henry Chandonnet is a senior reporter on the Business News desk. He writes about tech culture, from Silicon Valley's startup class to the everyday AI user. He also closely covers Big Tech and the workplace. Henry previously wrote for Fast Company, where he covered trending tech news. He's written for The Daily Beast, People Magazine, and Vulture.Email Henry at hchandonnet@insider.com, reach him on Signal at henrychand.30, or follow him on X @HenryChandonnet. Sarah E. Needleman covers leadership and the workplace for Business Insider.Previously, she was a reporter for The Wall Street Journal for more than two decades, covering technology companies, entrepreneurship, and recruiting.In 2022, Sarah received an honorable mention with WSJ colleagues for their coverage of workplace misconduct at Activision Blizzard from the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing.Sarah graduated from Rutgers University in 1997 with a bachelor's degree in journalism. She lives with her husband, daughter, and fur child (an Australian labradoodle) in northern New Jersey. Jensen Scandal Taiwan