This is what happens when you break it.
Principal Skinner: Bart, I'm flabbergasted. Surely you knew, as you were writing your own name in forty-foot-high letters on the field, that you would be caught!
Bart: Maybe it was one of the other Barts, sir—
Principal Skinner: THERE ARE NO OTHER BARTS!
Bart: Maybe it was one of the other Barts, sir—
Principal Skinner: THERE ARE NO OTHER BARTS!
A pretty rigid rule that no two characters in a work of fiction (novel, movie, play, TV series, comic book, etc.) should share the same first name, or even similar-sounding names. If there's a Laura in the story, there will not be a Lyra; if there's an Ed, there will not be a Ted (this is sometimes discarded if the characters happen to be twins). If you wake up one morning and suddenly discover that you don't know any two people with the same first name and that your phone number begins with 555, you can safely assume you've fallen into a work of fiction.
The rationale behind this is that the audience, actors reading a script and even the writer will get confused by multiple characters with indistinguishable names: "Wait, was it good-guy Steve or bad-guy Steve who launched the missile?" It's even common for scripts to avoid names of similar length and/or first letter, sometimes Alliterative Name(s) are used to reduce character's initials to a singular letter.
A strong dramatic reason to duplicate names can override the rule, as, for example, in the Jack Nicholson movie The Two Jakes, but it's so rarely done that audiences will pick up on it almost instantly. Unintentional duplication of first or last names also sometimes occurs when characters from previously distinct works of fiction meet one another, or when fiction is in any way using individuals from Real Life, or in sprawling, shared-continuity settings like the DC Comics or Marvel Comics universes.
It's probably more feasible to list the exceptions rather than examples. Usually when there are exceptions, there will be a storyline involving the characters being confused for each other. One possible way to avoid the issue, however, is for the characters with the same name to use different derivatives. Two Elizabeths may go by Liz and Betty, two Theodores might be Ted and Theo, etc.
One could only wish this were Truth in Television, but as teachers know all too well, names go through cycles and depending on the era, a single class might have three Jasons, Michaels, Jennifers or Claras. Hence, this trope is generally considered an Acceptable Break from Reality.
It is an Enforced Element, however, within screen and stage acting. After a large number of mistaken identity incidents that caused actors to lose out on jobs to other actors with the same name or even where actors' careers were unjustifiably ruined because of a similarity,note most theatrical unions require or at least very strongly recommend that members joining who have a name of a pre-existing member change it to something else. For instance, "Stewart Granger", born James Stewart, who changed his name to avoid confusion with the James Stewart, or Michael J. Fox, who joined the union when veteran character actor Michael Fox was still active — Michael J added the "J" (which stands for nothing outside of a tribute to Michael J. Pollard, his real middle name is "Andrew") to differentiate.
This is also a problem in dubbing with "dubbed names". For example, Gomez Addams in Latin America is "Homero", just like Homer the Spider. Or a mobster named Bruno showing up in a Batman (who is known as "Bruno Díaz" instead of "Bruce Wayne") comic.
The antithesis is Planet of Steves, wherein everybody is Steve.
Compare One-Mario Limit, where the "Steve" is too famous for anyone else to use a similar name. Contrast Inexplicably Identical Individuals, where there is a whole bunch of interchangeable characters that look the same and may share the same name—or have very similar names.
Also contrast Same Surname Means Related, which removes the possibility that "Steve" and "Tom, Dick and Harry" having the same last name is just happenstance (even if/when they share one of the most common last names in whichever part of the world their franchise was produced). While on topic, characters from a same family will obviously share the same surname so it's not an aversion of this trope. However, related characters sharing a same first name do count: In Real Life, the practice of a child being named after a parent is not unheard of, and while you may often see a character with "Junior" in their name, or a Preppy Name such as "Charles Reginald III", you will rarely encounter said character's parents.
For moments where there's a one person limit for roles see Cast Speciation.
See also Significant Name Overlap, We Named the Monkey "Jack", Identically Named Group, and Dead Guy Junior, for other ways characters can share names.
No Straight Examples, Please!:
- Anime & Manga
- Comic Books
- Fan Works
- Films — Live-Action
- Literature
- Live-Action TV
- Myths & Religion
- Video Games
- Webcomics
- Web Videos
- Western Animation
Other non-straight examples:
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Advertising
- There was a time when the Yellow Pages ran a series of commercials showing a Visual Pun of a listing and then the listing. (A football player pounces on a fish being reeled in = Fishing Tackle, A group of men display their ability to perform a death scene for a director = Die Casting.) One such commercial shows a convention of men, all of whom introduce themselves as "Herb". What is the listing? Herbs (silent "h").
Audio Plays
- Parodied by The Firesign Theatre on their album Boom Dot Bust, which takes place in a town called Billville, where everybody's name is Bill.
- The Firesign Theatre are themselves an example—there are only four of them, and two are named Phil. They once made fun of this by referring to themselves as "Phil, Phil, Phil, and Phil."
Comedy
- The title of the John Mulaney special "Baby J" comes from a bit where, as a teenager, Mulaney was stopped by the police while smoking weed with two friends. After both friends, truthfully, tell the cops their name is John, the cop patting Mulaney down says, "Your name better fucking not be John."
Mulaney:...They call me Baby J out on these streets?
Comic Strips
- Peanuts: Patty was a regular character since the very first strip, but she eventually stopped appearing and was replaced with Peppermint Patty, who is much better-remembered.
- Retail:
- Cooper exploits this trope when Stuart comes to fire both him and Val for violating the 'no workplace romance' policy by having a friend of his pose as a man also named Cooper and made it look like Val was dating him, making Josh (who reported them) look like a fool for the mistaken identity.
- There were two Fionas in the comic: a girl who got lost in Grumbel's, and Marla's daughter. The former might very well have influenced the name of the latter, as it was watching the first Fiona while waiting for her mother that made Marla decide she wanted children.
Fairy Tales
- The general lack of names in fairy tales makes this problem rare, but when Joseph Jacobs collected Kate Crackernuts, both of the princesses were named Kate. He changed one to Anne to avoid confusion when he published it.
- In Grimms' Fairy Tales, Snow White from Snow White (princess pursued by her evil step-mother, helped by seven dwarfs) is not to be confused with Snow White from Snow-White and Rose-Red (helps a bear who turns out to be a prince, gets into trouble with an evil dwarf). Note that in the original German this problem does not exist as the former ("Sneewittchen") uses a Low German name, while the latter ("Schneeweißchen und Rosenrot") a High German one. Played with in Bill Willingam's comic Fables, where both Snow Whites were merged into a single character; this is also the case in the Dark Parables games.
Films — Animation
- Cars does this with background characters, such as "My Name is Not Chuck"/Chuck Armstrong (a background racecar sponsoring Mood Springs)/Chuck Manifold, Frank the combine/Frank Pinkerton, Hank "Halloween" Murphy/Murphy (an orange SUV), Timothy Twostroke/Timothy Timezone, Todd the Pizza Planet Truck/Todd Marcus (a background racecar sponsoring No Stall), Rusty Rust-Eze/Rusty Cornfuel (a background racecar sponsoring Tow Cap), Dusty Dust-Eze/Dusty Crophopper, Miles "Meat Truck" Malone/Miles Axlerod, Cruz Besouro (Carla Veloso's crew chief)/Cruz Ramirez, Clutch Foster/Craig Faster (both are named after Pixar staff member Craig Foster), etc.
- Horton Hears a Who! (2008):
- Morton mentions that the Kangaroo has sent Vlad after Horton. Horton inquires as to whether he means Vlad the Vulture, or Vlad the bunny who gives out cookies. (It's the vulture.)
- For that matter, Horton and Morton are a subversion right there.
- During production of Ralph Bakshi's adaptation of The Lord of the Rings, producer Saul Zaentz decided one antagonist being named Sauron and the other Saruman was too confusing, so he had Saruman's name changed to Aruman. Screenwriter Peter S. Beagle opposed the decision and kept changing it back, though, leading to recording of both versions of the name ending up in the final film.
- Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf: The World Guardians: The character Woldy from this movie breaches the otherwise largely-adhered-to One-Steve Limit in the Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf universe, as there was another Woldy in the television show season Mighty Little Defenders. This is in their English names; it's played straight in the original Chinese, where they are named Fēng Tàiláng (风太狼) and Lǎo Láng (老狼) respectively.
- Averted in Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World: after her romance with John Smith, Pocahontas begins a new relationship with John Rolfe. Justified since these characters are all based on historical people (even if the John Smith part is probably just a legend).
- Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse: After Miles tries to escape from the Spider Society, Miguel calls everyone who's available and orders them to "stop Spider-Man". In an example of Didn't Think This Through, every single Spider-Man starts pointing at each other as they become confused by the order, until a frustrated Miguel clarifies that he's talking about Miles specifically.
Franchises
- MonsterVerse:
- The first two movies in the franchise have two Williams between them, who both return in separate later instalments. Navy commander Admiral William Stenz in Godzilla (2014), and elder Monarch operative William "Bill" Randa in Kong: Skull Island.
- Godzilla (2014) had a female Martinez aboard a U.S. Navy battleship. Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) has a male named Anthony Martinez serving in Monarch's military branch.
- In the King of the Monsters novelization, there's another Rick besides Dr. Stanton working for Monarch, located at the outpost containing Scylla.
- And as of Godzilla vs. Kong, Dr. Chen from Godzilla: King of the Monsters (whose actress was slated to return for the film, only for all her scenes to be cut) is no longer the only Ilene who's a relevant character.
- The first Walter in the franchise, Riccio, was a mythographer madman in the graphic novel The Birth of Kong, who was crushed by Kong. The second, Simmons, was an industrialist Corrupt Corporate Executive in Godzilla vs. Kong who tried to kill Godzilla.
- As of Skull Island (2023), the MonsterVerse has had three Sam's...
- ...and two tentacled, part-squid sea monsters that are called the Kraken. The first Kraken (later renamed In-Universe Na Kika) was featured in the Godzilla: King of the Monsters novelization and Godzilla: Dominion, and it was a largely cuttlefish-like creature which was benign so long as it wasn't under King Ghidorah's control. The second Kraken in the Skull Island series was a decidedly different creature: it looked like a mix between a squid and a crustacean, it had venomouys and bio-electric tentacles, and it was extremely aggressive and vicious to the point of murderous sadism all on its own.
- Monarch: Legacy of Monsters introduces the second Tim in the MonsterVerse, the first having been a minor scientist who was shot dead in the opening of King of the Monsters. Both Tim's are Monarch operatives, but whereas the Legacy of Monsters Tim is a somewhat portly "office drone" in Monarch, the Tim in King of the Monsters is a much scrawnier man and a live Titan-monitoring scientist.
- Transformers:
- In the live-action films, a character named "Brawl" is erroneously referred to as "Devastator". This is fine and dandy, but he is called "Brawl" in his toys and licensed media. Then, Revenge of the Fallen introduces the Constructicons, a bunch of Transformers that combine to create a colossal Decepticon... by the name of "Devastator".
- In Transformers: Cybertron, one of the Mini-Cons is named Thunderblast, which just so happens to be the name of a Decepticon in the same series.
- The upper ranks of the Decepticons in media derived from Transformers: Generation 1 tend to include separate characters named Soundwave and Shockwave at the same time.
- In the scope of the entire franchise, some names get used a lot. Most media will include most or all of the following: Optimus Prime, Megatron, Starscream and Bumblebee. Additionally, there was a point in the mid-2000s when around five toys were named "Prowl", and they represented anywhere between two to four different characters. This rarely happens with major characters, though, unless it's just to hold onto a trademark. Sometimes this gets complicated, though, as writers have a weird habit of retconning characters who share the same name as being the same person.
- The Japanese dub of Transformers: Animated renames Bulkhead to Ironhide in an attempt to tie it in better with the Transformers (Film Series). This worked out OK at first — the characters do look vaguely similar, even if they have different alt modes. But then the series introduced an actual Ironhide, who had to, in turn, be renamed Armorhide.
- Discussed jokingly in The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye. Several extremely minor characters have been forced to suffer with ignominious names because "all the best names are taken," including unfortunates reduced to using handles such as Ramp, Blip, and Skip. There was even an agreeable and nice Autobot cat who originally went by Prowl until the more famous (and much more ruthless Jerkass) police car Prowl became more well known. The nicer but overshadowed Prowl then had to go by Dent instead out of pragmatism; police car Prowl made a lot of enemies even among his own team, and Dent didn't want the bad karma.
Music
- Eminem:
- The second verse of "Guilty Conscience" introduces an early-twenties guy named Stan who considers raping an underage girl at a party (with Dr. Dre holding him back and Shady egging him on). Eminem later wrote his iconic song "Stan" about a different Stan who is also his stan. He has stated that he just never thought about that when writing and never intended the two characters to be the same, but they could be, if you want.
- "Guilty Conscience" also mentions a Renée, who is presumably the aunt of Eddie (the robber in the first verse). Renée also turns up on "Get You Mad" as someone whose house Slim Shady throws live grenades at.
- "Kim" contains a passage where Slim/Marshall reminds Kim of the time she threw up at "Brian's party". An unreleased song for the same album, "Jimmy, Brian and Mike" (eventually released in 2022), describes a house party Slim attends with a Brian who takes a shit in a clothes hamper, then gets thrown out by Slim for being too drunk and ruining his shoe (and told to drive off). It's not clear if these are the same Brian, but probably not. Another Brian shows up in "The Kids" as the Eric Cartman Expy who heckles Slim. Another (?) Brian turns up in the Ken Kaniff skit at the end of "Underground" on Relapse as the guy speaking before Ken interrupts the addiction counselling session with his tap dancing.
- In Eminem's "blonde" albums, he refers to a character named "Eric". Little Eric jumps off the terrace in "Who Knew"; Little Eric looks just like Eminem in "White America" (so he survived?); and then in "My 1st Single" Eric gets high on generic sleep medication and wakes up naked in bed next to his best friend Derek, which probably is not the child Eric referred to in the other lines. Eric Cartman and Eric Harris also make appearances as characters in Eminem's songs.
- Several Relapse-era songs mention a Victim of the Week named Dakota, and one references Dakota Fanning. It's a topic of debate as to whether the Dakota of "Music Box" is Ms. Fanning.
- The song "Headlights" features fun.'s Nate Ruess on the hook, but also involves lyrics about Nate Mathers, Eminem's little brother.
- The Mike Doughty song "27 Jennifers
" plays with this trope:
- I went to school with twenty-seven Jennifers
Sixteen Jenns, ten Jennies and then there was her.
- This is almost certainly based on a real phenomenon—witness this college newspaper comic from 1990...
- Paul and Storm have some songs supposedly by a barbershop quartet entirely made up of guys named "Barry". The fake band is called "The BarryTones".
- Bruce McCullough from The Kids in the Hall had a song called "Daves I Know", each verse being about a different Dave (or David) from his life.
- The Rodney Carrington song "Fred's Riding Fred" parodies this, as the narrator is drunk (or stoned in some recordings) and can't remember the names of anyone in the story, so he names them all Fred. This includes the protagonist, the horse and the protagonist's girlfriend.
- Discussed by The Men That Will Not Be Blamed for Nothing. "Steph(v)enson" is about George and Robert Stephenson, the father and son who co-invented the first commercial steam locomotive; not to be confused with Robert Stevenson, a lighthouse engineer who also worked on trains; not to be confused with Robert Louis Stevenson, author of Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde and Treasure Island.
- Parodied in Louis Jordan's "Five Guys Named Moe".
One guy, Big Moe
Two guys, Little-bitty Moe
Three guys, Four-eyed Moe
Four guys, No Moe
Five guys, Eat Moe
Five little guys named Moe - Lampshaded in the music video for Stevie Ray Vaughan's cover of "Superstition". At the very end of the video, an offscreen voice calls for a cat that's been running wild throughout the video to "come to Stevie", which one would reasonably assume means Vaughan. The camera then follows the cat as it hops into the arms of... Stevie Wonder, the original songwriter for "Superstition".
Podcasts
- The Adventure Zone:
- Averted by Brian and his pet spider Bryan.
- There have also been four Jerrys over the course of the show. A gerblin in Here There Be Gerblins, two Hammerhead ruffians named "Regular Jerreeeeee" and "Lil' Jerry" in Petals to the Metal, and a bank guard in The Eleventh Hour. Guest host Stuart Wellington added a fifth one in tribute to the Hammerheads with Goldcliff's Councillor Jerry, who also had the Hammerheads' distinctive "Joe Pesci" accent.
- Finally, there are two bugbears named Jamie Green. One is Klarg's mother and Lucas' gardener, and the other is a reporter on the IPRE's homeworld.
- Averted as well in the ongoing series of The Aliens That Came From A Completely Different Planet To Earth within The John Dredge Nothing To Do With Anything Show: It features both Jeff and Jim, who are constantly getting mixed up by the other characters—occasionally even they themselves can't get their names right.
Jeff: A flying saucer, Jeff?
Jim: I'm Jim, you're Jeff.
Jeff: Sorry, that's the trouble with having two characters with similar names, Jeff.
Jim: Jim. - MarsCorp has Dave Price and David Knight in its main cast. In this case it's a side-effect of Write What You Know crossed with The Danza: the characters are named after their actors, who also co-wrote season one. So far none of the characters have remarked on it (in reality, why would they?).
- MarsCorp also has Jonathan Kingsley and John Smith.
- Played with in the Cool Kids Table game Here We Gooooo! when it comes to the Yoshi. Alan's character has an Overly Long Name, so they call him Yoshi for short. But to keep things from getting confusing when Yoshi is introduced in a kingdom full of Yoshis, they refer to Mario's Yoshi as the "OG Yoshi".
- My Dad Wrote a Porno has, in the titular erotic literature, three characters named James: James Spooner, Sir James Godwin, and Jim Sterling. In addition, two of the hosts are named Jamie and James.
- In episode three of Mystery Show, Starlee assumes that Bob Bland and Bob Six are the same person. They're not.
- Also subverted in episode six with Starlee's client Jonathan and John, an author that she meets during her investigation.
- Since two of the three regulars on the OSW Review podcast are named Steve, they go by the nicknames V1 and Mr. OOC.
- Averted in Welcome to Night Vale:
- All of the angels who stay with Old Woman Josie are named Erika. With a "k".
- There's also two Laurens: Lauren Mallard (Night Vale Community Radio manager and StrexCorp shill) and Lauren James (Night Vale Weekly Gazette writer).
- And two Janices: Cecil's niece Janice and Janice Rio from down the street.
- For the record, there is only one Steve: Cecil's Sitcom Arch-Nemesis and Janice's stepfather Steve Carlsberg.
- The Magnus Archives technically has three recurring characters named Michael: Michael Crew, avatar of the Vast, Michael Shelley, Gertrude Robinson's former assistant, and "Michael", the Distortion avatar that killed Michael Shelley and now inhabits his body. There's also a Mikaele Salesa — it's pronounced very differently, but jumps out at you when you see it written down.
Pro Wrestling
- AWA had FOUR Richards or similar names hold the AWA World Heavyweight Title during the promotion's existence (Dick the Bruiser [William Richard Afflis], the Destroyer [Dick Beyer], Mighty Igor Vodic [Dick Garza], and Rick Martel [Richard Vigneault].)
- New Japan Pro-Wrestling on a few occasions employed both Masa Saito and Hiro Saito, who despite a close physical resemblance are not related.
- WCW had a good number of Scotts at one point (Hall, Steiner, Norton, Riggs, Armstrong, Putski, Dickinson [a referee], Hudson [a TV announcer]), and then it was revealed that Raven was also a Scott when his mother showed up for a storylinenote . In addition, Raven's Flock included Riggs and Sick Boy (real name Scott Vick). The nWo had Hall, Norton, and Steiner all in the group, and when it splintered into the Wolfpac and Hollywood factions, all three Scotts were in nWo Hollywood. Scott Steiner was widely referred to on a Full-Name Basis during this time, since he was a) not the only Scott and b) not the only Steiner (see below).
- Early in his career, Kevin Sullivan arrived in the Gulf Coast Wrestling territory in Alabama. Wrestler Eddie Sullivan (real name Ruben Huizar) was already established there, so the promoters renamed Kevin "Johnny West."
- WCW had an infestation of men named Rick during the 90s. In 1997 alone their roster included at least 12 wrestlers using Rick or Ricky as their first name (Ric Flair, Rick Fuller, Rick Martel, Ricky Morton, Rick Rude, Rick Steiner, Ricky Santana, Rick Grange, Rick King, Ricky McDaniel, Rick Thames, Rick Thorn note ). As an aside, Rick Steiner's real first name is Robert (as everyone watching Summerslam 1993 discovered when his sister accidentally called him "Rob"), which makes you wonder why he didn't use that name in WCW to avoid confusion with the more famous Ric Flair or Rick Rudenote . This list does not include Ricks that had already retired (i.e. Ricky Steamboat) or had yet to debut (i.e. Rick Cornell aka Reno of the Natural Born Thrillers) in 97. WCW always seemed to have a swarm of jobbers named Rick. Between 1991 and 1996 they had 24 men, not counting the big names, known as Ricknote and they had a combined record of 1-125 note .
- Interestingly, WCW's title scene actually adhered to this rule during its existence. From January 1991 through March 26, 2001, of the 19 different men who held the WCW World Heavyweight Title, none of them had the same first name as any of the others. This ended when Chris Jericho won the title on October 21, 2001, during the InVasion/Alliance storyline, since Chris Benoit had won it on January 16, 2000note . Literalized, since Sting was one of the guys who held the title and his real first name is in fact Steve.
- Averted by the WCW tag team Kronik, since both guys (Brian Adams and Bryan Clarke) were named Bryan and nobody seemed to question it.
- During the 1980s, WWE called Kamala, normally known as "the Ugandan Giant", "the Ugandan Headhunter" due to the fact that André the Giant, who Kamala feuded with both in WWE and elsewhere, was in the promotion at the time. It also doubled as a Name to Run Away From Really Fast.
- WWE changed Buzz Sawyer's Red Baron from "Mad Dog" to "Bulldog" during his brief run in 1984 because Mad Dog Vachon was in the promotion at the time.
- Bruiser Brody used the name King Kong Brody in territories where Dick the Bruiser was established.
- 2 Cold Scorpio had to use the name Black Wazma in Mexico because another wrestler named Scorpio was already established there at the time.
- Ricky Morton averted this when he and Ricky Fuji teamed up in Japan as The New Rock N Roll Express.
- The WWE World Heavyweight Championship has been held by three Michaels (Shawn Michaels [Michael Shawn Hickenbottom], Mankind [Mick Foley] and The Miz [Michael Mizanin]). There have also been FOUR Roberts or similar names (Bob Backlund, Sgt. Slaughter [Robert Remus], Rob Van Dam [Rob Szatkowski], and Bobby Lashley [real first name Franklin]). There have also been two Randys (Randy "Macho Man" Savage [Randal Mario Poffo] and Randy Orton), two Stevens/Stephens ("Stone Cold" Steve Austin [Steven Williams, born Anderson] and Sheamus [Stephen Farrelly]), two Pauls (Triple H [Paul Michael Levesque] and The Big Show [Paul Wight]), and three Johns (John "Bradshaw" Layfield [John Charles Layfield], John Cena and Dean Ambrose [Jonathan Good]).
- There have occasionally been wrestlers in WWE with the same first names though they are normally called by their last names by announcers. Chris Jericho and Chris Benoit, as well as the similar sounding Christian. WWE renamed Christopher Pavone "Caylen Croft" because his previous ring name of Chris Cage was too close to Christian's previous name of Christian Cage. There was even a storyline started when Lilian Garcia goofed and announced Benoit as "Jericho" (something Jim Ross would do often on commentary). There was also the time when Mark Henry and Mark Jindrak were on the roster at the same time. There was also John Cena, John "Bradshaw" Layfield, John Laurinaitis, John Morrison, and Johnny Curtis. There are also Paul Wight and Paul Levesque, but don't call them that.
- At one point in WWE there was a Jacqueline, generally called Jackie by everyone, and Miss Jackie Gayda. As Jacqueline went by the name "Miss Jackie Moore" in TNA there is often confusion whenever reporters recap old events and forget that Miss Jackie wasn't her name in WWE. According to Ivory (Word of Saint Paula?) they avoided this problem backstage by simply calling them Black Jackie and White Jackie.
- WWE tends to change wrestlers' names to avoid this trope altogether. A notable example is Steven Regal becoming William Regal since they already had 3 Steves: "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, "The Lethal Weapon" Steve Blackman, and Steven Richards. And Steve Williams becoming Steve Austin was another example, to distinguish him from "Dr. Death" Steve Williams.
- At one point in the late 80s the WWF had Jims coming out the ying yang. Jim 'The Anvil' Neidhart, Jim Powers, Jim Brunzell, Jimmy Snuka, Jimmy Hart, Hillbilly Jim, "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan, The Ultimate Warrior (born James Hellwig)...
- Understandable, since "Jim" was an extremely common name for Baby Boomer boys, who would have been in the prime of their wrestling careers at the time.
- Were he not 20 years too late, the above line could have been "Jims coming out the Wang Yang".
- That just sounded... wrong.
- Garrison Cade competed as Lance Cadenote once Lance Storm retired.
- At one point in the late 80s the WWF had Jims coming out the ying yang. Jim 'The Anvil' Neidhart, Jim Powers, Jim Brunzell, Jimmy Snuka, Jimmy Hart, Hillbilly Jim, "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan, The Ultimate Warrior (born James Hellwig)...
- "Stone Cold" Steve Austin got his name because of this trope. He began competing in WCCW under his real name Steve Williams, but when it was bought out and merged with another territory, they already had "Dr. Death" Steve Williams. Since Doc was the senior of the two, it was Austin who had to change his name. Dutch Mantell tossed off Steve Austin (claiming it had nothing to do with The Six Million Dollar Man). Austin hated the name, but it stuck, and he eventually became the biggest draw in the history or wrestling.
- Chris Jericho once remarked that after he joined WWF from WCW he had to change his finishing move name from the Lion Tamer to the Walls of Jericho as Ken Shamrock already had his special Lions Den Match, humorously remarking that Vince McMahon had said "there are too many lions!"
- ECW had THREE NWA ECW Heavyweight Champions/ECW World Heavyweight Champions with the real first name of Terry (Terry Funk, Sabu [Terry Brunk] and Rhino [Terry Gerin].) There were also two Jameses (Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka [James Reiher] and the Sandman [Jim Fullington]), two Johns or similar names (Johnny Hot Body [Johnny Weiss] and Mikey Whipwreck [Jonathan Watson]), two Scotts (Raven [Scott Levy] and Bam Bam Bigelow [Scott Charles Bigelow]), and two Peters (Taz [Peter Senerchia] and Justin Credible [Petey Polaco]).
- Starting in February 1999, WWE has had at different times several women on its roster with "Mary" or related names in their real names, including Stephanie Marie McMahon, Ivory (Lisa Mary Moretti), Stacy Marie Keibler, Victoria (Lisa Marie Varon), Ashley Marie Massaro, Eve Marie Torres, Dawn Marie (Dawnmarie Psaltis), Amy Marie Weber, Savannah (Angela Marie Fong) and Maria Kanellis.
- Zig Zagged to all hell and back by Ken Kennedy. He started wrestling under his real name Ken Anderson. Then when he joined the WWE he changed his name to Ken Kennedy to avoid comparison to the fictional Anderson Wrestling Family. Then it was revealed in-story that his name is Kennedy because he's the bastard son of Vincent Kennedy McMahon. Then it was revealed that he was making that up. Then he got fired and went to TNA as Ken Anderson.
- TNA has a preponderance of men named Robert. Rob Van Dam, Bobby Roode, Robbie E, and Rob Terry. From 2002–2017, TNA was also a subsidiary of Panda Energy, owned by Robert Carter. Technically, there was also Bobby Lashley.
- TNA once booked a tag match with the Harris twins against Brian Lee and Chris Harris. Everyone's legal last name is Harris, though subverted as Lee is a first cousin of the Harris twins, Chris isn't related.
- Alicia Fox used the names Victoria and Tori in Ohio Valley and WWE's version of FCW (her real name is Victoria, of which Tori is a nickname) so of course when she was called up they already had a Victoria and a Torrie Wilson, whose real name was Victoria Anne Wilson (and the latter two at one point were both members of a heel trio called Vince's Devils). It'll give you a bit of a chuckle to hear she was put into a storyline with another Victoria—Vickie Guerrero. WWE's previous Tori was known as Terri Power as an indy wrestler, but changed her name to avoid confusion with Terri Runnels. However she was in the company when Victoria entered in 2000 and Torrie Wilson in 2001 meaning they had 3 women with the same name.
- Brooke/Miss Tessmacher fell victim to this after the signing of Brooke Hogan to TNA. This was also used when Brooke Hogan departed as she had been in a romance angle with Bully Ray. After Brooke's absence he still kept talking about her and eventually introduced his "girlfriend Brooke" on TV...to reveal that it was Tessmacher now.
- When Shawn Daivari was in WWE's developmental league Ohio Valley Wrestling, they changed his name to Khosrow, most likely as a tribute to The Iron Sheik, whose real name is Hossein Khosrow Ali Vaziri, although the name "Khosrow" never made it to WWE TV, and also to presumably avoid anyone possibly confusing Daivari with Shawn Michaels. Similarly, when WWE brought in the tag team the Heartbreakers (Antonio Thomas and Romeo Roselli), they renamed them the Heart Throbs because Shawn Michaels' Red Baron is "The Heartbreak Kid."
- CHIKARA spoofed this in a way with the tag team Lancelot (or Lance-A-Lot) made up of two masked guys each named "Lance Steel".
- In LLF, had both Dark Angel and American Angel. And both were unmasked to reveal they were Sarah Stock and Sara Del Rey. (Which wasn't too surprising if you knew them already, especially not the latter)
- While Nikki Matthews was a last minute addition to SHIMMER, they found time to change her billing to Nicole, as they already had a Nikki Roxx. Nikki The New York Knockout is just NY Knockout likely for the same reason. Then they picked up Nikki Storm. Then Nicole Savoy. (Amusingly, their first champion also used to be known as Nikki until this trope came into play)
- Colt Cabana was renamed Scotty Goldman because of Carlito's Talk Show with Fists "Carlito's Cabana." Averted in Jersey All Pro Wrestling with him and Chris Cabana, though given the later was a member of the Christopher Street Connection it was less likely anyone would be confusing them.
- Pro Wrestling RESPECT, which did developmental shows for ROH and SHIMMER academy trainess before moving over to Chikara, had several ninja jobbers for them to beat up that came in several variations (Red Ninja, Ninja Cheetah, etc), one of them just being plain The Ninja, accept The Ninja had a tag team partner also just called The Ninja.
- Total Divas uses this. Most of the women are referred to by their real names—except Eva Marie, whose real name is Natalie. She's called Eva presumably to avoid confusion with Natalya—who is called Nattie by everyone. However otherwise averted with the boyfriends as three women are involved with men named John. Nikki is with John Cena, Trinity is with Jon Fatu (though his ring name is Jimmy Uso) and Eva Marie is with Jonathan Coyle. And that's not including Nikki and Brie's father Jonathan Garcia and brother JJ (Jonathan Jr.) Garcia. Additionally Josie is the name of both Eva Marie's mother and Brie's pet dog.
- Male cheerleader stable Spirit Squad had members whose real names are Nick Nemeth and Nick Mitchell. As the former went by Nicky, the latter went by Mitch, a shortened version of his surname.
- Previously averted in WWE by Luke Harper and Luke Gallows. As of 2018, WWE dropped Harper and Erick Rowan's first names when they became The Bludgeon Brothers. And Harper, by then known in AEW as Mr. Brodie Lee, sadly passed away in 2020.
- Pro Wrestling NOAH had Takeshi Rikio and Takeshi Morishima, who spent their early years as a tag team.
- Dragon Gate:
- Since its inception, DG has employed both Masaaki Mochizuki and Susumu Mochizuki. They were even in a popular stable together, M2K, named for the two Mochizukis and Yasushi Kanda. Eventually, Susumu lost the rights to the name in a match with Masaaki, and took the name Susumu Yokosuka after his beloved hometown.
- Over 20 years after the original M2K unit was founded, Masaaki, Susumu, and Kanda reunited and formed M3K with Masaaki’s son Mochizuki, Jr.
- Susumu would later found a stable called the Jimmyz, almost all of whom changed their name to Jimmy - Jimmy Susumu, Jimmy Kagetora, Ryo "Jimmy" Saito, Jimmy K-Ness J.K.S., and Jimmy Kanda among them.
- Ryo Saito is one of three Saitos in DG, the others being K-Ness (Makoto Saito) and Super Shisa (Yoshiyuki Saito, who had previously wrestled under the name SAITO). Presumably Ryo’s nickname SaiRyo originated backstage to differentiate him from the more senior Saitos.
- In 2016, some new trainees debuted, including Hyou Watanabe and Shun Watanabe. Shun quickly donned a mask and adopted the name Shun Skywalker to avoid confusion; Hyou later dropped the last name and stylized his name as HYO.
- Averted with Ring of Honor, who had two Adams (3x champ Adam Cole and midcarder Adam Page), and three Jays (Jay Lethal, Jay Briscoe, and Jay White). Played straight when both Adam Cole and Adam Page joined the Bullet Club and Page changed his name to Hangman Page following a gimmick change where he started stringing up opponents with a noose.
- Possibly played straight during "All Ego" Ethan Page's brief run in the promotion, concurrent with Adam Page's ongoing run. While announcers acknowledged that he went by Ethan Page elsewhere, they stated that he changed his name in ROH to Ethan Gabriel Owens. As noted below, Ethan Page later kept his name despite again coming into a company where Hangman Page was well established when he was signed to AEW in 2021.
- Enforced when it comes to the McMahons. Gregory Helms was told that he could not go by Shane due to Shane McMahon, and when asked why they were fine with three Chris's on the roster,note he was told it was because "There's no Chris McMahon". Likely the same is true for Linda Miles going by Shaniqua and Stephanie Garcia-Colace going by Nikki Bella.
- Milena Roucka went by the name Rosa Mendes likely to avoid confusion with Melina Perez. In fact, there was a long standing rumor that Melina was romantically involved with Batista while still with her long-time boyfriend John Morrison. In reality, it was Mendes who dated Batista at that time.
- Cross-gender example: Male wrestler "Smooth Sailin'" Ashley Remington" (aka Dalton Castle) had stopped appearing in CHIKARA by the time Ashley Vox arrived.
- WCW had male wrestler Shannon Moore and female valet/wrestler Daffney Unger, whose real name is Shannon Spruill, on the roster at the same time.
- Averted during the 2004 "Million Dollar" edition of Tough Enough, which featured eventual winner Daniel Puder and third-placer Daniel Rodimer. This season also featured the aforementioned Nick Mitchell, who became Mitch to avoid confusion with fellow Spirit Squad member Nicky (aka Dolph Ziggler).
- Averted big-time with All Elite Wrestling, which has largely avoided changing anyone’s name on signing with the company for any reason even if it conflicts with someone else on the roster. Various instances include:
- Brian Cage, Christian Cage, "Hangman" Adam Page, Ethan Page, and Diamond Dallas Page
- Adam Cole and Adam Page. And now Adam Copeland.
- Cole is part of a stealth aversion—his real name is Austin Jenkins, and AEW also has Austin Sopp, performing as Austin Gunn.
- Colt Cabana and Colten Gunn.
- Christian Cage, Chris Jericho, and Christopher Daniels
- Brian Cage, Brian Pillman Jr., and Bryan Danielson
- Maxwell Jacob Friedman and Max Caster
- Matt Jackson, Matt Sydal, Matt Hardy, and Matt Menard. Menard briefly went by Matt Lee after debuting in the company; he and his partner Jeff (later Angelo) Parker started using their real legal names when someone noticed there was a more famous team named Matt and Jeff inbound.
- Shawn Spears and Shawn Dean
- Jon Moxley and John Silver
- Mark Henry, "Smart" Mark Sterling, and Marq Quen. AEW also had Marko Stunt before his May 2022 release.
- Anthony Bowens, Anthony Ogogo, Antony "Tony" Khan, and Noah Anthony "Tony" Schiavone
- Brody King and Mr. Brodie Lee Jr.
- Lee Johnson and Lee Moriarty
- Rush (of La Faccion Ingobernable) and Lio Rush.
- Evolve/WWN had both Jason Cade and Jason Kincaid at one time, which wasn’t fun for commentators when they were in the same match.
- All Japan Pro Wrestling is home to both Yuma Aoyagi and Yuma Anzai. When Naruki Doi joined the company as a freelancer, he allied himself with the Saito brothers Jun and Rei, calling himself Mr. Saito because Saito is also his mother’s maiden name. This trio was once joined by the above-mentioned Ryo Saito of Dragon Gate as a mystery partner, wearing matching leather pants and studded wristbands and everything. The same show also saw the first in-ring encounter between Seiki and Yuki Yoshioka, who despite a bit of a resemblance are not related.
Radio
- Parodied in the BBC comedy Deep Trouble, which in its second series had an Alison and an Alice. But since the show is set on a submarine, everyone is usually referred to by rank and surname anyway (and Alice Barry in fact insists on being called Barry).
- BBC comedy The Burkiss Way once featured a group of servants who were all called Rose, male and female alike, since they could only afford one name between them.
- Truth in Television, or rather Truth In Radio for that matter. 96 Trent FM (now known as Trent FM) had Matt Wilkinson presenting afternoons and Matt Wilkins appearing at various times of the day. Hilarity Ensues. Confusion reigns. So Matt Wilkins became Matt Marsden, on Trent FM at least. Now he's at Key 103 under his original name.
- The Archers: Edward "Eddie" Grundy, and his second son, Edward "Ed" Grundy.
- Round the Horne had Kenneth Horne and Kenneth Williams.
- Old Harry's Game had a demon called Gary in series 1, and a dimwitted teenager called Gary in the first episode of series 6.
- New Dynamic English is rather realistic. It has at least two Johns (John Wilson and John Orwell) and three Karens (Karen Wilson, a Karen from a Daily Dialogue and a Karen from Man on the Street).
- The Goon Show had Count Jim Moriarty, Jim Spriggs and Little Jim as regular or semi-regular characters. In 'The Starlings' there's another: Bluebottle gives his full name as Jim 'Bluebottle' Tigernuts.
Roleplay
- Behind The Veil has some of the more common names repeated, but the one that takes the cake is the tale of the two Jons: Both are Bone Gnawers, Theurges, at the same sept.
- Dawn of a New Age: Oldport Blues, owning to the large cast, has a few repeat names across the main and secondary characters:
- Two of the supporting characters are called Edward- one goes by Ed, whilst the other goes by Eddie (or his surname, Longhorn).
- Tracy is the name of both Ivy's mother and Jenna's little sister.
- Ciro and Luna both have a father called Robert.
- The government agent keeping an eye on the kids is called Sarah, the same as Vivian's mother.
- One of the supporting characters, Jae, shares a name with Hyeon's out-of-town cousin. This one is somewhat ironic, as the first Jae has a rivalry going on with Hyeon.
- JoJo's OC Tournament: Enforced Out-of-Universe by the rules as early as Worldwind Tour but overall zig-zagged, as upon submitting a character app aspiring players are asked to check if no one else submitted characters or Stands with the same name beforehand: should that happen, the hosts will open negotiations amongst them so one of the players may change theirs to avoid confusion. If a character name or Stand name in an app has been used already in past Editions, the aspiring player will also be notified, but only in the first case will be asked to change it; in the second case, players can acknowledge it but ultimately affirm they want to continue using that name for their character's Stand. Shared first names and similar sounding names are fine, though, and may even have a lampshade thrown onto them.
- v3 of Open Blue featured a Colonel Jackson and a Sergeant Jackson. One commanded a brigade of troops from the five major countries of The Federation, and the other commanded a The Squad of Praetorian Guard from a single country. The two were as familially related as their job descriptions are similar.
- Survival of the Fittest has had duplicates of several (first) names, including that of the winner of version 1. The nature of the RP, of course, renders this trope essentially unenforceable.
- Perhaps the biggest example of this is the name James, which is given to two characters in V1 and SIX characters in V3.
- V4 currently has three Aarons and three Sarahs.
- The above doesn't even come close to the duplicate name insanity that is v4. Not even counting the terrorists and just the students that appear on the island, there are 2 Peters, 5 Alexs, 3 Johns, 2 Tims, 3 Maxs, 4 Davids, 4 Roberts, 3 James/Jimmys, 2 Steves, 3 Chrises, 3 Simons, 2 Trents, 2 Daniels, 3 Williams, 2 Mikes, 2 Rolands, 2 Frankies, 3 Sarahs, 2 Jennifers, 2 Tiffanys, 3 Janets, 2 Alices, 2 Marias, 3 Jackies, 2 Charlottes and 3 Lilys. And that's not even getting into names that sound the same, but are just spelled differently, or names that sound extremely similar (Gary and Garry, Nick, Nick and Nik, Eve, Evie and Eva, Raine, Rena and Raina, Remi and Remy, and Allen and Alan). Not to mention Erik Laurin and Eric Lorenz, whose first and last names are very similar to one another.
Tabletop Games
- There is some confusion with this in BattleTech due to the tendency to reuse names, particularly in ruling lines—there are several Hohiro Kuritas of varying temperament, for instance. These characters are usually separated by decades and as such it is usually easy to tell which is being discussed based on timeline context. Where things get a little bit confusing is when different characters with the same name start appearing in the same timeline and social circles, most notably the presence of both Morgan Kell and Morgan Hasek-Davion in Victor Steiner-Davion's retinue. To further complicate the matter, both Morgans are related to Victor—Hasek-Davion is a cousin on his father's side and Kell is a first cousin twice removed on his mother's side. Resolved somewhat by the assassination of Morgan Hasek-Davion during the Task Force Serpent mission.
- Chronicles of Darkness: The setting frequently uses the same term for completely different things, since the various communities of supernatural entities aren't exactly comparing notes on nomenclature. Among other things, the term "Beast" might refer to a vampire's Enemy Within, a Changeling Seeming, and an entire species of nightmares made into flesh.
- Often averted in Warhammer 40,000.
- Because the epic, millennia-spanning scale of the lore, this is sometimes because characters appearing later in the timeline are named in honor of earlier ones, such as the famous Commissar Sebastian Yarrick, whose parents named him after legendary crusader and church reformer Sebastian Thor, though there are also a few who are contemporaries in the very same story, such as Big Bad Horus Lupercal and his idealistic subordinate "Little" Horus Aximand in the Horus Heresy prequel novels.
- One of the more drastic aversions in the setting is the name Lucius, which belongs to at least five characters (including three Space Marines) and a planet, with no known relation between any of them.
- Despite the wide variety of names available to orks, they still managed to get two bosses named Gorgutz: Gorgutz Ghostkilla Deffscreama Bloodspilla Deffkilla Gunsmasha Daemonkilla 'ead'unter in Dawn of War, and another Gorgutz with no qualifiers in the Blood and Thunder comic who serves as the Villain Protagonist's Bad Boss until he takes an exploding gargant to the face.
- In the Mystara setting for Dungeons & Dragons, Stephan and Stefan are in fact the most common names for noblemen. There is an amazingly high number of them around.
- Steve Jackson Games and Games Workshop were respectively founded and co-founded by two different Steve Jacksons. The Steve Jackson from Steve Jackson Games even wrote several books in a series primarily written by the other Steve Jackson, and there's little to no indication within them that the author is a different person.
- The original Faerunian pantheon from the Forgotten Realms included both a goddess of joy named Lliira and a goddess of illusion (currently deceased) named Leira. The similarity of their names was Lampshaded by an ugly rumor that circulated in the immediate aftermath of the Avatar Crisis, alleging that Lliira's avatar had intentionally hunted down and killed Leira's, specifically because their names were too much alike.
- Sentinels of the Multiverse:
- The heroine Fanatic is also known as Helena; the villain-turned-hero La Capitán/La Comodora is named Maria Helena...Teresa Fafila Servanda Jimena Mansuara Paterna Domenga Gelvira Placia Sendina Belita Eufemia Columba Gontina Aldonza Mafalda Cristina Tegrida de Falcon. Even given that most of her names are taken from Spanish, it's honestly impressive that she only really overlaps with another character once.
- The hero Randall Butler/Benchmark shares a first name with Randy "Rotmouth" Burke, the low-life who would eventually become Plague Rat. It probably helps that, within the fictional comics, by the time the former debuted, the latter had been a feral rat creature answering to the name of "oh God it's got my arm" for a while.
- The Parsons line has a tradition of naming the heir to the Legacy identity Paul, meaning that both the standard Finest Legacy and the promo Greatest Legacy are named Paul Parsons (VII and VIII respectively). Paul VIII's firstborn is spared this only by having been born a daughter instead, so she was named Pauline instead. (The Parsons family is typically loyal, steadfast, noble, diligent and compassionate, but it's just a wee bit short on imagination.) Naturally, she prefers to go by her middle name, Felicia.
Theatre
- In William Shakespeare's plays:
- Similar to the Bible example above is The Comedy of Errors, which involves two sets of identically named identical twins separated at birth and maintaining the same bourgeois-and-servant relationship. Hilarity Ensues.
- As You Like It, for no particular reason (i.e. makes no particular mention of it in the story, unlike Comedy of Errors), has two characters named Oliver (Orlando's eldest brother and the country priest) and two characters named Jaques (Orlando's middle brother and the melancholy wit in Duke Senior's retinue).
- The Two Gentlemen of Verona: Sir Eglamour, the Milanese friend of Silvia, has the same name as the suitor of Julia who's mentioned briefly in act 1.
- The history plays have a lot of duplicate names, because real history is like that. Shakespeare did try to reduce their number, though; for example, Lord Richard Grey and Sir Richard Ratcliffe—both characters in Richard III—are referred to by their last names only.
- Lampshaded in Richard III where Queen Margaret starts riffing on the remarkable bodycount of the past few plays in Act IV, Scene iv: "I had an Edward, till a Richard kill'd him; I had a Henry, till a Richard kill'd him: Thou hadst an Edward, till a Richard kill'd him; Thou hadst a Richard, till a Richard kill'd him..." and it goes on from there. There's a special kind of pride that comes from hearing that scene and actually knowing who all the Henries, Richards, and Edwards were.
- Henry IV Part 1 is basically about a war between King Henry and Prince Henry versus Henry Percy and his son Henry Percy. They get the last name / title / nickname treatment in the script, though.
- And in The Taming of the Shrew we have Gremio and Grumio. Good luck remembering which is which.
- A Midsummer Night's Dream gives us Puck, known by the euphemism "Robin Goodfellow", but in addition to him, we have Robin Starveling, the tailor.
- Julius Caesar had both Cinna the conspirator and Cinna the poet. Unfortunately for Cinna the poet. As well as five Marks: Antony, Lepidus, Cicero, Brutus, and Corvinus. There's also Marcus Brutus and Decius Brutus (they were related, although the play doesn't mention this): the former is usually called just "Brutus" while the latter is usually called by his full name.
- In the Stage Version of Bugsy Malone Joe is a recurring name.
- RENT has two (minor) Steves: one of them is a member of the Life Support group (so we know that he is named after a friend of Larson's who died of AIDS), and the other is one of the (unseen) people Joanne is talking to on the phone in "We're Okay". It's also not entirely impossible that these are the same person, but it's not relevant or interesting or significant in any way if they are.
- Notably averted in 1776, in which the two main characters are both named John (Adams and Dickinson). In point of fact, there are no less than four Johns in the show (Adams (MA), Dickinson (PA), Hancock (MA), and Witherspoon (CT)). There's also the Georges (Reed (DE) and Washington (VA)) and Thomases (Jefferson (VA) and McKean (DE)). However, since they usually address each other as "Mr. Lastname", it doesn't really matter.
- Similarly, the cast of Hamilton is composed of historical figures, so we have Philip Hamilton, named for his grandfather Philip Schuyler; James Madison and James Reynolds; George Washington, King George III, and George Eacker; as well as John Laurens and John Adams (although the latter doesn't actually appear in the musical).
- Similarly, The Crucible is based on historical fact and so features a number of characters with the same name—in this case, also John: Proctor, Hale, and Hathorne. However, like in 1776, this never becomes an issue because most of the men are referred to by surname. The only man referred to as John is Proctor.
- Also in the play are Thomas Danforth and Thomas Putnam.
- Enforced in the case of the Putnams' daughter, since the Putnam girl who was an accuser in the Salem Witch Trials was named Ann, a name she shared with her mother (officially, they were Ann Putnam Jr. and Ann Putnam Sr.). The play changes the daughter's name to Ruth to prevent audiences from confusing the two.
- Similarly, "Susanna Walcott" was actually named Mary Walcott in real life, with her name changed in the play presumably to avoid confusion with Mary Warren.
- A Man For All Seasons has an unusually large fraction of (real-life) male characters named Thomas: main character Thomas More; Cardinal Thomas Wolsey; chief minister Thomas Cromwell; Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk; and Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury.
- The Amish in Plain and Fancy have four Jacob Yoders and two Abner Zooks. Fortunately, only one Jacob Yoder appears in the show, though Fat Jacob Yoder and Hairy Jacob Yoder are mentioned.
- Completely averted in Yeast Nation, in which every character is named Jan. Every single one. (Of course, it's written by the same guys what did Urinetown, so...)
- The play Society Shell features four upper class women all named Mary. They are mostly on a full name basis amongst themselves.
- In Donzietti's opera Anna Bolena ("Anne Boleyn"), the historical Henry Percy has his first name changed to Riccardo to avoid confusion with King Enrico/Henry VIII.
- Completely averted in Six, where no less than three of the protagonists bear the given name of "Katherine" (of Aragon, Howard and Parr) and two others have the similar "Anne" (Boleyn) and "Anna" (of Cleves). This is justified, due to being based on the real wives of Henry VIII, who, much like the above example, also had a historical namesake in Henry Percy, who was briefly mentioned.
- Christopher Fry’s “Curtmantle” has characters meant to be Geoffrey of Brittany and Geoffrey Longsword. He dodges this by renaming Longsword “Roger” after another of King Henry’s bastards.
- Westeros: An American Musical: The Compressed Adaptation gets the play rid of several pairs of characters sharing a name from the original story. However, focusing the play on the King's Landing events while having a couple songs about the Night's Watch results in the play having both several mentions of Jon Arryn and on-stage appearances of Jon Snow.
Toys
- The powers that be at Mattel must have a short memory due to how many Barbie characters share names, even within their debuts coming less of a decade amongst each other:
- "Chelsea" is the name of a one of cousin Jazzie's friends (although spelled "Chelsie"), a My Scene character and Barbie's second-youngest sister (after years of being named "Kelly").
- Speaking of "Kelly", this is also the name of foreign markets for "Stacie", the second-oldest Barbie sister.
- "Whitney" are names of a short-lived mid-80s brunette friend of Barbie and a (usually) redheaded friend of Stacie's in the 90s.
- "Todd" has been a twin twice: a redheaded one from the 60s and a brunette one from the 90s. In spite of their similar identifies, they are said to not be the same character.note
- There have been plenty of friends named "Stacie" over the years and with varying spellings, but the most popular has been the Barbie sister introduced in 1991.
- Averted with Allan. While he went from a redhead in the 60s to a brunette in the 90s and beyond and the second "l" was dropped from his name, they are canonically the same doll (and married to Midge).
- Noticeably averted in BIONICLE where most of the names are made up words. Several locations are named after legendary beings, examples being Mata Nui, Artakha, and Karzahni, the latter having a sentient plant named after him.
- Also, some of the names sound similar: Krekka, Krahka, Krika, Krakua; Onewa, Onua
- Makuta subverts this. Originally introduced as "Makuta," he was referred to as "the Makuta" just as often. As it turns out, "Makuta" is the name of an entire species, with the original "Makuta" just preferring to use the title instead of his actual name, akin to a group of dukes where one likes to call himself Duke (though admittedly, Teridax is rather epic itself).
- Care Bears features two bears whose names are the same, albeit in different languages. "Amigo Bear" shares his name with the earlier character "Friend Bear". In Spanish they are called "Amigosito" and "Amigosita", which are the same name except masculine and feminine respectively.
- My Little Pony suffered from this during the middle of its G1 run. There were two "Twilight"s, two "Sniffles", two "Snookums", three "Sea Breeze"s, and many ponies with the name "Cuddles". The G3 line reused many names from G1, and the G2 line reused certain names too (for example "Prince Firefly" shares the name with the female G1 pegasi "Firefly"). My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic took a few characters in the toy lines and reused their names, though changing the designs for several. The most absurd case is probably all the different Twilight's. There are now approximately seven different ponies named Twilight, if you count the ones where it's followed by a second word—the two G1 Twilight's, G3's Twilight Twinkle and Twilight Pink, and G4's Twilight Sparkle, Twilight Sky, and Twilight Velvet (two of whom are related). When someone on a collector's site asks for artwork of "Twilight" to set as their forum signature, the artist can and will get very confused.
- Squishmallows: Sometimes characters will have names that are only slightly different from those of other characters, like Jingle (a Christmas tree) and Jingles (a cat). There are also cases where multiple Squishmallows share a name.
- Tamagotchi:
- There are two Tamagotchis named Masktchi, a Waddling Head one from the original 1996 virtual pet and a more humanoid one that debuted later. The former is usually referred to in modern materials as "Maskutchi".
- Cosmotchi from the Tamagotchi P's isn't the only Tamagotchi with that name. Way back in 1997, Tamagotchi Video Adventures featured a different Cosmotchi as a main character.
- Before the introduction of the more popular Kuromametchi in 2006, there was actually another Kuromametchi who appeared in the 1998 Licensed Game Hoshi de Hakken! Tamagotchi. The Hoshi de Hakken! Kuromametchi looks a bit like Mickey Mouse due to his black suit with mouse-like ears.
- ToyBiz's Silver Surfer toyline from the 90's renamed changed Nova's name to "Super Nova" to differentiate him from Frankie Raye, who was using the Nova name at that time.
Visual Novels
- Subverted in Double Homework. Morgan reveals in the penultimate chapter that her real name is... Amy. Not only that, she’s named after Amy (an incognito princess), as the two girls were born on the same day.
- When They Cry:
- Higurashi: When They Cry has Jirou Tomitake and Daiki Tomita—both of whom are almost always addressed or referred to by their surnames. Incidentally, they both happen to look similar, though Tomita is just a minor character. Plus, Tomitake's name is implied to be an alias, anyway.
- In Umineko: When They Cry, the Ushiromiya family's human butler Genji's family name ("Ronoue") is pronounced almost exactly the same as the name of Beatrice's demon butler ("Ronove"). This is implied to be because Ronove is one of Sayo Yasuda's many Imaginary Friends, and she based Ronove off of Genji. To further reinforce this, a flashback in the EP8 manga reveals that young Genji looked very much like Ronove.
- SHUFFLE! has two Rins: the male lead and one of the love interests (in her case it's short for Nerine). Sometimes you can tell which character is being addressed by the honorifics used. For instance, when Sia uses the affectionate term "Rin-chan", she means Nerine; she likes Rin but doesn't know him as well, so he's usually "Rin-kun" unless she's being very serious.
- An important plot point in Tsukihime. The main character and the Big Bad are both called Shiki Tohno — the main character is adopted, in fact, and it seems the main reason he was adopted was because the head of the family thought that it was amusing that he had the same name as his son.
- The two names are spelled differently in kanji though, so after The Reveal there's no confusion whatsoever to the readers. It had previously been assumed that he just wrote his name in katakana as kid out of laziness. English fans of the series write out SHIKI in all caps to differentiate.
- Then there is Shiki's alter ego Shiki Nanaya, named for his biological clan.
- Interestingly, the author also used this exact name confusion thing in The Garden of Sinners. It's even the same name: Shiki (Ryougi). Again, they're spelled differently in kanji and in fact both of them are different from both of the spellings in Tsukihime. Furthermore, this Shiki has three personalities, one of them being named SHIKI. The reason why Shiki Tohno and SHIKI Tohno share their first name with Shiki Ryougi (and SHIKI Ryougi) is because the author reused Ryougi's gimmick for Tsukihime when it initially seemed that Kara no Kyoukai wasn't getting published.
- So all in all, there are six different characters that bear the name Shiki in the Nasuverse.
- Averted in Snatcher, which has Junker chief Benson Cunningham and Junker engineer Harry Benson as part of its supporting cast. This becomes a plot point when Gillian discovers evidence that someone named "Benson" may have been snatched.
- In Ever17: no two characters actually share the same name, but the names that the player initially knows them as can sometimes be one of several characters. "You" could be either Youbiseiharukana Tanaka or Youbiseiakikana Tanaka, "Kid" could refer to Ryogo Kaburaki or Hokuto.
- One example actually does exist, though it is a minor one. Takeshi Kurenari is the name of the main character, and shares his given name with the father of another character (Coco Yagami), although Takeshi Yagami is only mentioned in dialogue and never appears onscreen.
- In Yearning: A Gay Story, there's a pair of girlfriends who are both named Liz and use their last name initials to differentiate their names (Liz B. and Liz G.). When Dan asks why they don't just call one of themselves "Elizabeth" to avoid confusion, they retort that he can call himself Elizabeth because it's his middle name too.
- In Kanon, it's later revealed in Makoto's route that she's actually a fox that Yuuichi looked after seven years ago, and thus she doesn't have a real name or even a human identity. The name "Makoto Sawatari" was the name of an older girl Yuuchi told Makoto he had a crush on at the time, and she took that name for herself as one of the few things she could remember after she became human at the price of her memories. The real Makoto Sawatari makes a notable appearance in the 2006 anime, where she looks like an older Makoto.
- A variant happens in Highway Blossoms. Marina and Mariah's names are merely similar, but after Amber starts calling the Marina "Mare," she later learns that Joe uses the same nickname for Mariah.
Web Animation
- Camp Camp: The aspiring astronaut solely known as "Space Kid" claims his name is Neil Armstrong Jr. (named after his "great-grandfather" Neil Armstrong), which would mean he shares his first name with main character Neil. The second season finale reveals this really is his name, and the original Neil is not happy to find this out.
- DC Super Hero Girls features a large cast so this occurs. One noticeable example is Batgirl and Cheetah. They're both named "Barbara" and are referred to as such, but not in the same episode.
- DSBT InsaniT: Weird Girl suggests Koden calls her 'WG', but he says he can't do that because he already knows a WG (Waterfall Girl).
- Etra chan saw it!:
- Both Tsutsuji and Yuzuriha assume that Hiiragi is cheating on them. When Hiiragi returns home and finds both women in his apartment, neither he nor Yuzuriha recognize each other and dispel the suspicion. Yuzuriha's boyfriend, who is a completely different character from Hiiragi, merely shares the same name as Tsutsuji's husband.
- Yuzuriha stalks Akamatsu and his wife, Karin, because she believes her boyfriend is inside the house. When the police apprehend her, she didn't recognize Akamatsu as her boyfriend, who is also named Akamatsu. Rather horrifying, the police report that the Akamatsu who "dumped" Yuzuriha never dated her. She has been delusional this whole time, rambling about this "Akamatsu" who may never exist, especially in the end, where she identifies Hiiragi for Akamatsu.
- Azami thinks Karin won a vacation to Hawaii and tries to tag along with her, prompting Karin to tell her that the person who won the prize happens to have the same name as hers, but she dismisses it as a lie and continues to pester her about the non-existent vacation.
- Both Tsutsuji and Yuzuriha
- The Most Popular Girls in School: There's a Jenna Darabond and a Jenna Dapananian, both being important characters. There's also a Trisha Cappelletti and Trisha 2 - both also major characters.
- Homestar Runner:
- In the action film spoof Dangeresque 1: Dangeresque Too?, hard-boiled detective Dangeresque (played by Strong Bad) is assigned a partner also named Dangeresque (played by Homestar); the latter is usually called "Dangeresque Too".
- There's also Science Fiction Greg and D&D Greg from the Teen Girl Squad 'toons. The TGS spin-off "4 Gregs" introduced Open Source Greg, Japanese Culture Greg, and minor character Regular Greg.
- One of the scenes in the Animutation "Irrational Exuberance" riffs on this, saying "There can be only one" Dave Thomas and then using "Worthington's Law: more money = better than)" to eliminate the less successful of the two.
- Red vs. Blue has two Franks (Franklin Delano Donut and Frank DuFresne), but like the rest of the cast, both are always referred to by their nicknames Donut and Doc respectively. There's also three Leonard Churches (Doctor Leonard Church, Alpha, and Epsilon) and three Allisons (the original, the original Agent Texas, and the Epsilon-created Agent Texas). None of the three Allisons co-existed (and the original is barely even referenced), and the Churches are generally called "the Director"/"Director Church"/"Doctor Church", Church/Alpha, and Church/Epsilon. Still, it gets confusing when it comes to fan theories. "And then Church did this." "Wait, do you mean Alpha-Church or Epsilon-Church?"
- Averted and lampshaded on Extra Credits, with the three Dans. There's Dan Floyd, the narrator, Other Dan, who helps with editing and behind the scenes work, and Dan #3, the new artist. Confusion starts almost immediately.
- Averted in brewstew, where the narrator describes two Zacharys and two Davids that he knows. There's Zachary, the kid everyone hates because he's a snitch, has ADHD, and won't stop TALKING ABOUT MONSTER TRUCKS! And then there's Zachary, the kid across the narrator's street who is not quite like everyone else because he likes Beetleborgs rather than Power Rangers. The first Zachary has glasses while the other does not. Then, there's David, Tyler's best friend during cub scouts, who got last place in the Pinewood Derby and got sold off into child slavery in Nigeria. And then there's his cousin, David, who created the "Shitmas Tree".
- This trope is the reason for some squick within the Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse fandom. Midge was reintroduced and she falls for a new character named Ryan. The problem is Midge was previously seen in the toyline with a son named "Ryan" (with her husband, Alan). This made some fans grossed out because it seemed like maybe they were the same character with Ryan's backstory being revamped. However, they're too different in design to be the same Ryan.
- Kanon's RomCom Mangas: Hakuba Nakata thinks Alice has a crush on someone else with the same name as him, named Sho Hakuba, who's also his best friend. As it turns out, she really likes him instead of Sho. After receiving Alice's confession, many girls attempt to confess to Hakuba as well, with one of them explaining they were only approaching Sho to get closer to the former while viewing the latter unworthy to date. Later on, Sho explains to Hakuba that he doesn't want to date any girl and have a crush on him as well.
- Sgt Ducky: Downplayed when Ducky and his roommates noticed there are two horses in the yard, and made an in-joke out of naming them "Sean" and "Shaun", then holding casual conversation as if they could tell the difference between the two through spoken word alone.
Web Original
- Averted in the "Humans Are Space Orcs" Tumblr blog, due to the Token Human being designated "Human Steve." This led to a joke that "Steve" must be a remarkably common name among sapient races, with the crewmember who is just named "Steve" being a cross between a spider and a starfish. Regular and Abnormal Steve are female and male yeti's, respectively. Extra-Regular Steve is the ship's cat, Tall Steve is an AI on a microchip (and is, somehow, The Casanova), and Evil Steve is the captain (it detests this nickname, however).
- Jon Bois of Secret Base has several aversions: "Lonnie Smith" from Pretty Good also features music from one Dr. Lonnie Smith, "History of the Seattle Mariners" from Dorktown briefly shows the career of every MLB player named Randy. But the greatest aversion from Jon is The Bob Emergency, which exclusively goes through the careers of athletes named Bob, even uncovering one obscure fighter who averts it on his own with the name Bob Bob.