History Main / SeparatedAtBirth

* [[spoiler:Mei Misaki and Misaki Fujioka]] from the anime ''Anime/{{Another}}''. [[spoiler:Mei was adopted by their aunt Yukiyo after she had a miscarriage that left her very emotionally unstable, but when they learn the family secret, they spend all their time together despite Yukiyo's objections, until Misaki's death of illness.]]

* The trope is played for horrible tragedy in the ''Anime/SaintSeiya'' {{filler}} Asgard Saga: [[spoiler:the Asgard Warriors, Mizar Syd and Mizar Bud, were twin brothers who had to be separated since Asgardian traditions look down on twins. The older twin Syd was raised by his noble family while the younger Bud was raised by a lumberjack; after finding out the truth on his own, Bud started to ''loathe'' Syd and specially after they were designated as the Mizar Saints, which meant Bud [[TheUnfavorite would forever be in Syd's shadow]]. But in reality, Syd always knew that Bud was his brother and longed to be properly reunited with him... but he died before being able to reconcile with him.]]

* Happened in Poland. One of twins was accidentally exchanged for another girl in hospital. It came out no sooner than about twenty years later, after a friend of one twin took the second for her. The whole trio has severe identity problems because of this.

* The film ''Film/BadCompany'' uses this for Creator/ChrisRock, as his character is 'recruited' by the [=CIA=] to replace his twin brother, who recently died during a crucial assignment; it is explained that their mother died giving birth to them and Rock's character had an ear infection as an infant that prompted the hospital to let his brother be adopted separately from him as they assumed he wouldn't survive.

* Happened in England in 2008. The twins had been adopted separately, met up, fell in love... [[{{Squick}} Got married, found out because of this, and separated.]]

A plot which sometimes rises from this is {{Twincest}}. This is also a good way to drop an EvilTwin on your doorstep, though that variant is a DeadHorseTrope by now. It's a common cause of RichSiblingPoorSibling.

* A particularly freakish example in ''[[Literature/AcornaSeries Acorna's Children: Second Wave]],'' in which we learn that [[spoiler:Khorii's twin Arriin was telekinetically kidnapped from their mother's womb]].
* [[spoiler:Tamar and Lucinda]] in ''[[Literature/{{Samaria}} The Alleluia Files]]''.
* {{Subverted|Trope}} in ''Literature/TheBigFour'', in which [[spoiler:Hercule Poirot pretends to have a twin brother called "Achille Poirot" and that they haven't seen each other in years, implying that they were separated at birth. This is later revealed a plan in order to fool the organization (and the reader) since he has no twin brother whatsoever and did this in order to pretend that he had died, while Achille Poirot, his twin brother, was alive. Clever little man eh?]]

* Sam and Caine in the ''Literature/{{Gone}}'' series. Take a long look at [[NameOfCain Caine's name]], and you have [[CainAndAbel the nature of their relationship.]]
* Cor (Shasta) and Corin from ''Literature/TheHorseAndHisBoy'' in ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfNarnia''.

* Creator/{{Laurel and Hardy}} in ''Our Relations'' where Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy meet Alf Laurel and Bert Hardy, their long lost and previously unknown identical twins. Since Stan and Ollie are respectable married men, and Alf and Bert are a couple of dimwitted sailors on shore leave, well, the jokes about mistaken identity practically write themselves.

* The cartoon version of ''WesternAnimation/DoubleDragon'' pulled this with Billy and Jimmy Lee, with Billy being raised by the benevolent "Eldest Dragon" to become the Dragon Master, while Jimmy was raised by the evil Shadow Master to become his second-in-command, the Shadow Boss. Eventually Jimmy does a HeelFaceTurn when the Shadow Master betrays him and teams up with his brother for the rest of the series.

* A tragic example is the episode [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happenstance_(CSI) "Happenstance"]] on ''Series/{{CSI}}'', where the victims were identical twins murdered on the same night and they had no knowledge of each other's existence. [[spoiler:Both were killed by the same person; the first to die was killed because the killer thought she was her sister.]]

* In ''VisualNovel/ZeroTimeDilemma'', it's revealed that [[spoiler: Phi]] from the previous game, VisualNovel/VirtuesLastReward, is this with [[spoiler: Delta]], also known as [[BigBad Zero II]]. Specifically, they were separated when their parents sent them [[spoiler:back in time to 1904, and the German scientists researching the time machine at that point then sent Phi ahead by herself to 2008 as part of their experiments. However, since the time machine only transmits data and makes a copy at the other end, a Phi still remained in 1904, so at least one Phi got to grow up with her brother]].

* ''Series/PrincessSilver'': [[spoiler: Wu You and Fu Chou]] are fraternal twin brothers. They discover their relation years later, after they've become enemies.
%% ZCE * ''Series/SisterSister'' (with the Mowrys)
* The series ''Two'', where the main character's evil twin, separated at birth and non-existent in official documents, sets out to destroy the main character's life, at first killing his family, making him flee the authorities. A common element in this show was that the bad guy deliberately got caught on tape to frame his brother. Of course, neither of them appear at once in the same scene.
* This trope served as a plot on the soap opera ''One Life to Live'' in the mid-90s. Maggie Carpenter and her long-lost twin brother Ian were separated by their parents, who were each married to someone else; the twins had been the result of their adulterous affair. The father raised the daughter and the mother raised the son. The twins met as adults, but fortunately did not develop an attraction to each other.
* Australian TV classic ''Sons and Daughters'' was based on this very idea. Born twins -- separated at birth -- beginning a story of intrigue, romance and adventure! Twenty years after their secret birth, John and Angela meet. Fiery romantic emotions develop between them which finally unlock the secret of their birth. This starts a chain of events that shakes both the families to their foundations and dramatically changes the lives of everyone involved. It lasted for five and a half years on the Seven Network and inspired six international adaptations.
* A tragic example is the episode [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happenstance_(CSI) "Happenstance"]] on ''Series/{{CSI}}'', where the victims were identical twins murdered on the same night and they had no knowledge of each other's existence. [[spoiler:Both were killed by the same person; the first to die was killed because the killer thought she was her sister.]]
* In the re-imagined ''Series/{{Flash Gordon|2007}}'' series, [[spoiler:Aura and Terek]] are twins, but [[spoiler:Terek]] was supposed to have been killed for being a Deviant (a mutant). They almost have a {{Twincest}} moment, but Flash manages to stop them, revealing the truth. Later, it is revealed that the Deviant [=DNA=] came from the father, a Deviant-hater.

* On ''Series/OrphanBlack'', Sarah and Helena were separated to protect them from the people who designed their line of clones. Sarah was given to the government foster system, Helena to the church.
* In the Mexican children series ''Complices al Rescate'' plot is this. Silvana and Mariana were separated from birth, but are reunited eleven years later.
* This is Prince Charming's backstory in ''Series/OnceUponATime'': [[spoiler: he was one of twins born to a poor shepherding family, but his brother James was taken by the king and raised as his heir. James turns out to be a PrinceCharmless, and when he gets himself killed, the king turns to the BackupTwin, who agrees to protect his family. They don't actually meet until Season 5, when the main cast visit the underworld.]]
* After ''Series/{{Neighbours}}'' brought Dee Bliss BackFromTheDead (for real this time), it was retconned that Andrea Somers, the IdenticalStranger con-artist who impersonated her two years ago, had been her actual sister all along: Heather Schilling had given birth to twins, but one had been illegally adopted out and named Dione.
* An episode of ''Series/BeyondBeliefFactOrFiction'' had a segment titled "Positive [=I.D.=]," where a reporter is arrested for armed robbery after a surveillance tape showed him robbing a liquor store. When the guilty man is arrested, the reporter finds out that they are twins, and after their mother gave them up after birth, the reporter was adopted and raised in a happy, stable home, while his brother drifted from foster home to foster home, suffering abuse until he aged out of the system.
* ''Series/CriminalMinds'': "The Inspired" involves a pair of identical twins being reunited after one is mistaken for the other and was arrested for his crimes, though they were slightly older when their mother put one up for adoption. After Walter -- the twin she kept -- developed psychological problems, she decided she made a mistake; when Jessie -- the twin she gave up -- unsealed his adoption and made contact, she masterminded a plan to get Jessie to kill Walter so that she'd get to be the mother of a successful lawyer, not an insane cook. Then Walter turned into a serial killer and Jessie took it as inspiration, and the family dynamic continued breaking down from there.
* The twinned X5 SuperSoldiers in ''Series/DarkAngel'' were separated even before birth; cooked up as embryos in the same test tubes, they were implanted in different surrogate mothers and then raised in different units at Project Manticore. [[BackupTwin Alec]] never meets his brother Ben, who dies in Season 1 before Alec becomes a recurring character in Season 2. Both are Creator/JensenAckles. Max meets her sister Sam in the episode "She Aint' Heavy" (as in "she ain't heavy, she's my sister"). Both are Creator/JessicaAlba.

* The plot of ''Theatre/BloodBrothers''. The boys meet as children and become friends into adulthood... it doesn't end well.

* In the Creator/PopCapGames title ''[=AstroPop=]'', [[spoiler:Vector and Sprocket]] turn out to be fraternal twins.
* {{Ninja}} Jago and FairCop Black Orchid aren't necessarily twins, but find out they're long siblings orphaned and separated shortly after Jago's birth at the end of the first ''VideoGame/{{Killer Instinct}}'' game.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Valis}} II'', Queen Valia reveals on her deathbed that Yuko and Valna were her twin daughters, with Yuko sent to Reality to avoid a SuccessionCrisis.

* In ''VisualNovel/TheElementalists'': Eli and his twin Atlas were separated when they were still babies. Eli was sent to a reality where (apparently) there is no magic while Atlas remained in his home reality. The reason they were separated is so they weren't murdered by [[SerialKiller Raife Highmore]] who only targeted twins who were born the same day.

* Elan of ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'' and his EvilTwin, Nale.
* Walky and Sal, in ''Webcomic/ItsWalky'', though it's hard to see why they didn't [[HalfIdenticalTwins figure it out sooner]]. In this case, Sal was switched with another child (Beef) to generate the impression she was more important and needed hiding when the more important one was actually Walky. Sal herself, and for a long time the reader, is fooled too. Tragically, their reunion ultimately triggers Beef's FaceHeelTurn.
* ''Webcomic/TheInexplicableAdventuresOfBob:'' Although artificial creature Molly and her [[CloningBlues identical "sister'']] Golly were born in different places a few months apart, most aspects of this trope still apply. They had radically different upbringings giving them very different personalities, they only met after they were both fully-grown, Golly was initially mistaken for Molly, and each regards the other as an object lesson in what they might have become under other circumstances (the story title is "There But For the Grace," as in, ''"There but for the grace of God go I."'')
* ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'': [[spoiler: John and Jade are the twin ectobiological children of Nanna Egbert and Grandpa Harley, while Dave and Rose are the twin ectobiological children of Dave's Bro and Ms. Lalonde. All eight of these people were born at the same time.]] [[MindScrew God bless]] TimeTravel.

* ''Webcomic/AddictiveScience'': Celia, manic transformation trigger-happy mad scientist; and Catherine, timid demon. Though they are a little hard to tell apart in [[http://addictivescience.katbox.net/comic/game-show/ dragon form]].

* Prince Adam and Princess Adora, the secret identities of He-Man and She-Ra in ''WesternAnimation/HeManAndTheMastersOfTheUniverse1983'' and its SpinOff ''WesternAnimation/SheRaPrincessOfPower'', were separated at birth, unintentionally. Hordak, the BigBad of the She-Ra series, intended to abduct ''both'' of the infant twins but had only managed to pick up Adora before he was interrupted by the palace guards, taking the little girl away and raising her as a TykeBomb. Sorceress had to give everyone in the kingdom (except the royal family, of course) LaserGuidedAmnesia to cover the incident up, and Adam/He-Man himself had to help Adora/She-Ra recover her identity in the She-Ra pilot.
* The cartoon version of ''WesternAnimation/DoubleDragon'' pulled this with Billy and Jimmy Lee, with Billy being raised by the benevolent "Eldest Dragon" to become the Dragon Master, while Jimmy was raised by the evil Shadow Master to become his second-in-command, the Shadow Boss. Eventually Jimmy does a HeelFaceTurn when the Shadow Master betrays him and teams up with his brother for the rest of the series.
* [[spoiler: Savage Opress and Darth Maul]] from ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars''.

* In WesternAnimation/ThePrincessTwinsOfLegendale, Princess Eve is separated from her twin sister, Dawn, by Queen Dume, who keeps her as a slave for several years. The twins are later reunited once Dume captures Dawn and throws them into the same prison cell.
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Mysticons}}'', Arkayna’s twin sister, [[spoiler: Zarya]], was kidnapped soon after her birth in order to prevent a dangerous prophecy from being fulfilled.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* The original [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Marvel#Original_Fawcett_origin Fawcett background]] had this history for [[Comicbook/{{Shazam}} Billy]] and Mary Batson. DC changed it.

* ''[[https://www.fimfiction.net/story/367008/yes-my-lady Yes, My Lady]]'', a crossover of ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' and ''Manga/BlackButler'', includes a subplot involving a pair of twin sisters who were conceived via a one-night-stand and separated at birth, with one raised by the father and his new wife and the other being raised by the mother. The father was later incapacitated; luckily, he'd arranged a living will that returned custody of his daughter to her birth mother should something happen to him (though neither sister was given the full story at the time, and they still don't know as of its end). [[spoiler:The sisters are Apple Bloom and Diamond Tiara, and their birth parents are Applejack and Filthy Rich, making this also a case of RelatedInTheAdaptation (for Diamond and the Apple family, and Apple Bloom and the Rich family) and FamilyRelationshipSwitcheroo (for Apple Bloom and Applejack, since the latter raised Apple Bloom as her sister).]]

* Through various circumstances, [[WesternAnimation/Ducktales2017 Huey, Dewey, and Louie]] in ''[[https://www.archiveofourown.org/works/26364385/chapters/64213435 Scattered to the Winds]]'' are split up and taken in by three separate guardians before they even hatch after Donald and Scrooge are accidentally blasted off into space alongside Della: Huey is taken in by Launchpad (who, being TheDitz, forgot that there were two other eggs) and taken to Cape Suzette so that the latter can find work with Don Karnage, and is eventually adopted by Meg. Dewey is taken in by Gyro Gearloose, who desperately works to find the other children. And Louie is taken in by Goldie O'Gilt, who did it in a fit on conciousness after being guilt-tripped by a portrait of Scrooge.

[[folder:Film]]
* Creator/{{Laurel and Hardy}} in ''Our Relations'' where Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy meet Alf Laurel and Bert Hardy, their long lost and previously unknown identical twins. Since Stan and Ollie are respectable married men, and Alf and Bert are a couple of dimwitted sailors on shore leave, well, the jokes about mistaken identity practically write themselves.

* Luke and Leia in ''Franchise/StarWars'' were separated at birth to [[ChangelingFantasy hide them from their father]].
* The film ''Bad Company'' uses this for Creator/ChrisRock, as his character is 'recruited' by the [=CIA=] to replace his twin brother, who recently died during a crucial assignment; it is explained that their mother died giving birth to them and Rock's character had an ear infection as an infant that prompted the hospital to let his brother be adopted separately from him as they assumed he wouldn't survive.
* This trope was subverted in ''Film/Twins1988'' with Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger and Creator/DannyDeVito as the twins, who cannot be mistaken for each other.
* In the Creator/ShawBrothers film, ''Film/BrothersFive'', the titular brothers are separated when they're babies when a villainous clan massacres their family, and they end up being raised by different martial arts families, each skilled in their own unique kung-fu styles and capable ass-kickers and fighters on their own. Upon reaching adulthood the brothers are united by a swordswoman, who then forms a powerful army of six to take revenge on their family's killers.
* Creator/JeanClaudeVanDamme loves this trope.
** In ''Film/DoubleImpact'', he played two separated twins in Hong Kong, but one of them grew up to be a martial arts master and the other a street thug.
** In ''Film/MaximumRisk'', one of the twins dies before the start of the movie but not before finding out all about his long-lost brother, and forcing the brother to pose as him to uncover who killed him.
** In ''Film/{{Replicant}}'' as well, but here the twin is actually the clone of a serial killer. Still the plot of the movie pretty much sets him up as a separated at birth, good, twin to the originals evil twin (complete with TwinTelepathy).

* A few Creator/ShawBrothers kung fu films does this as well, where the main characters are survivors of a past family massacre, separated as babies, and as adults will reunite to seek bloody vengeance.
** ''Film/BrothersFive'': The five titular brothers are from a righteous family who lose their parents to an evil warlord. Separated and raised in different parts of the city, they are eventually reunited when a swordswoman seeking to overthrow said warlord seeks all five of the brothers and convince them to work together. They recognize each other as siblings thanks to [[EveryScarHasAStory a single scar that runs through the back of their hands]], which they received as babies.
** ''Film/ShaolinPrince'' tells the story of two princes who got separated at birth when an usurper of the throne massacres the palace and kills the Emperor. The titular character ends up being raised in the Shaolin Temple, where he discover his true lineage after a chance encounter with his brother, adopted by another royal family.
* ''Film/StartTheRevolutionWithoutMe'' has a similar situation as ''Big Business'': two sets of identical twins (one noble, and one peasant) are born at the same time and placed on the same bed. Since nobody could figure out which set of twins belonged to which set of parents they decided to re-combine the pairs since that guaranteed they'd be "half right".

* [[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096863/ My Twentieth Century]]

* In ''Tom & Thomas'', [[spoiler: the boys were left on a hospital doorstep, but before the staff knew they were there, Tom was taken away by a woman and ended up in an orphanage. Thomas was taken in by the staff and was later adopted by a kind father (played by Creator/SeanBean), who, at the end, adopted Tom, as well.]]
* Late in ''Film/TheLossOfSexualInnocence'', two orphan twin girls cared for by Italian nuns are separated when one of them is adopted by an English family, so that one grows up Italian and the other English. As adult women (played by the beautiful Saffron Burrows), they meet face to face by chance and stand transfixed for a while, staring at each other in wonder. But then they go their separate ways without even having spoken to each other.

* ''{{Film/Enemy}}'': {{Discussed|Trope}} as one possibility for Adam and Anthony's being doubles. Both Adam and Anthony's mother deny it, however (they also possess the same scar, something identical twins would not have, unless {{synchronization}} is in play).

* In the German novel ''Das doppelte Lottchen'' (translated as ''Literature/LottieAndLisa'') by Erich Kästner, the twins were separated when they were still very little and they don't remember each other.

* Twin sisters Cam and Alex from ''Literature/TWitches'' were separated at birth and adopted by different families. They met each other when they were 14, and [[PubertySuperpower found out they were witches]].
* {{Subverted|Trope}} in ''Literature/TheBigFour'', in which [[spoiler:Hercule Poirot pretends to have a twin brother called "Achille Poirot" and that they haven't seen each other in years, implying that they were separated at birth. This is later revealed a plan in order to fool the organization (and the reader) since he has no twin brother whatsoever and did this in order to pretend that he had died, while Achille Poirot, his twin brother, was alive. Clever little man eh?]]
* Lisa Scottoline's Bennie and Alice in ''Mistaken Identity, Dead Ringer'' and ''Think Twice.''
* A particularly freakish example in ''[[Literature/AcornaSeries Acorna's Children: Second Wave]],'' in which we learn that [[spoiler:Khorii's twin Arriin was telekinetically kidnapped from their mother's womb]].
* An example of this occurs with a pair of twins in the ''Literature/InDeath'' series. The two boys met in the army, went through everything together: spec ops, evil paramilitary organizations, serial killing... you know, brother stuff.

* The Creator/LoisDuncan book ''Stranger with My Face'' is based entirely on this trope. The main character was adopted at birth, but her parents decided not to take her twin sister because ''they could sense her evil''. The other twin grows up to come and ruin the heroine's life, using, of all things, astral projection. This becomes rather perplexing when the main character and her family are described. They're all blond, pale, and white, while she's half Native American.

* [[spoiler:Tamar and Lucinda]] in ''[[Literature/{{Samaria}} The Alleluia Files]]''.

* In Elise Title's ''The Face in the Mirror'' model Joanna Clark was taken from her birth mother by the obstetrician, whose own wife was childless and upset about it. Then she was drafted by the government to impersonate her research scientist twin, who'd mysteriously disappeared...
* The title character of the ''Literature/SabinaKane'' series was told by her vampire grandmother that her mage father's family wanted nothing to do with her. She discovers partway through the first book that not only is that not true, but that she has a twin sister who is the incumbent leader of the mages' ruling body, the Hekate Council.

* In ''Literature/TheGirlFromTheMiraclesDistrict'', it eventually turns out that [[spoiler:Nikita and Ture]] are twins, whose parents separated them when they went opposite ways.
* In ''Literature/{{Spectrum}}'', the main character believes it's the case when a girl he had only recently seen die a horrible death is discovered alive and well on another planet. However, he's wrong: these are copies of the same girl as a technical failure of the interplanetary transportation got her replicated seven times.
* ''Literature/TheSchoolForGoodAndEvil'' has [[spoiler: Agatha and Sophie, separated at birth because the mother only wanted the one who looked just like the father, and abandoned the "ugly" Agatha to the midwife]]. This came as a bit of a surprise to readers who had previously [[spoiler: shipped the two]].

* This trope was subverted in ''Film/{{Twins}}'' with Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger and Creator/DannyDeVito as the twins, who cannot be mistaken for each other.

* Subverted in ''The Big Four'' by Creator/AgathaChristie, where [[spoiler:Hercule Poirot pretends to have a twin brother called "Achille Poirot" and that they haven't seem each other in years, implying that they were separated at birth. This is later revealed a plan in order to fool the organization(and the reader) since he has no twin brother whatsoever, and did this in order to pretend that he had died, while Achille Poirot, his twin brother, was alive. Clever little man eh?]]

* ''Series/PrincessSilver'': [[spoiler: Wu You and Fu Chou]] are non-identical twins. They discover they're brothers years later, after they've become enemies.
* ''Series/SisterSister'' (with the Mowrys)

** Also overlaps with Rich Sibling, Poor Sibling--the triplets, as well as three sets of twins, were deliberately placed with families of differing socioeconomic classes although matched on some other characteristics (for example, each of the triplets was placed in a family in which he would have an older sister).

** Also overlaps with Rich Sibling, Poor Sibling--the triplets, as well as three sets of twins, were separated and specifically placed with families of differing socioeconomic classes although matched on some other characteristics (for example, each of the triplets had an older sister).

A plot in which two siblings (usually identical twins) who were separated at birth now meet up as youngsters or adults. Usually the twins are mistaken for one another by family/friends and HilarityEnsues. Often the two characters were previously unhappy with their lots in life, [[PrinceAndPauper but after having walked a mile in somebody else's shoes, they gain a new appreciation for what they have]]. Notice that Separated at Birth doesn't have to apply ''literally''--their parents might have divorced, and each parent took one kid and neither kid was told of the other's existence, but before that they were one family for some time. But Separated At Birth, especially if combined with DeathByChildbirth, can make for so much ''drama.''

* Revealed to be the origin of [[spoiler: Maddie Pryor a.k.a. Rachel Grey]] in ''Fanfic/ChildOfTheStorm'', where she's [[spoiler: Jean Grey's twin sister]], stolen mere hours after birth. As it is, very few people initially knew and she thought that she was an ArtificialHuman, created to be a LivingWeapon and was more or less at peace with the idea (though not without a few doubts) because she'd been indoctrinated from birth. Unsurprisingly, she has a significant breakdown after the truth comes out.

* ''[[https://www.fimfiction.net/story/367008/yes-my-lady Yes, My Lady]]'', a crossover of ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' and ''Manga/BlackButler'', includes a subplot involving a pair of twin sisters who were conceived via a one-night-stand and separated at birth, with one raised by the father and his new wife and the other being raised by the mother. The father was later incapacitated; luckily, he'd arranged a living will that returned custody of his daughter to her birth mother should something happen to him (though neither sister was given the full story at the time, and they still don't know as of its end. [[spoiler:The sisters are Apple Bloom and Diamond Tiara, and their birth parents are Applejack and Filthy Rich, making this also a case of RelatedInTheAdaptation (for Diamond and the Apple family, and Apple Bloom and the Rich family) and FamilyRelationshipSwitcheroo (for Apple Bloom and Applejack, since the latter raised Apple Bloom as her sister).]]

* Played for laughs in ''Split Heirs''. Not only are robust 14 year old shepherd boy Dunwin and brilliant young wizard Wulfrith impossible to tell apart despite the latter being sold off at age 2, but the royal-reared sister the two triplets were in fact separated from as newborns could pass for either of them with little effort when she wears male attire[[note]]which she does 24[=/=]7[[/note]].

* ''Literature/TheSchoolForGoodAndEvil'' has [[spoiler: Agatha and Sophie,separated at birth because the mother only wanted the one who looked just like the father, and abandoned the "ugly" Agatha to the midwife]]. This came as a bit of a surprise to readers who had previously [[spoiler: shipped the two]].

* Australian TV classic ''Sons and Daughters'' was based on this very idea. Born twins - separated at birth - beginning a story of intrigue, romance and adventure! Twenty years after their secret birth, John and Angela meet. Fiery romantic emotions develop between them which finally unlock the secret of their birth. This starts a chain of events that shakes both the families to their foundations and dramatically changes the lives of everyone involved. It lasted for five and a half years on the Seven Network and inspired six international adaptations.

* ''Series/CriminalMinds'': "The Inspired" involves a pair of identical twins being reunited after one is mistaken for the other and was arrested for his crimes, though they were slightly older when their mother put one up for adoption. After Walter--the twin she kept--developed psychological problems, she decided she made a mistake; when Jessie--the twin she gave up--unsealed his adoption and made contact, she masterminded a plan to get Jessie to kill Walter so that she'd get to be the mother of a successful lawyer, not an insane cook. Then Walter turned into a serial killer and Jessie took it as inspiration, and the family dynamic continued breaking down from there.

** This trope was given a passing mention with "Bleeding Gums" Murphy; when asked about his family, he mentions a little brother who became a doctor and "used to laugh at the most inappropriate times". Dr. Hibbert, meanwhile, makes reference to an older brother who's "a jazz musician or some such". The director of the Shelbyville orphanage also mentions he has a long lost brother - he is identical in looks to Dr Hibbert, but Homer is too interested in his own long lost brother Herb to point that out. In neither case are the siblings implied to be twins, however.

* The 2018 film [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Identical_Strangers Three Identical Strangers]] explores the story of Bobby Shafran, Eddy Galland, and David Kellman - identical triplets separated at birth. Overlaps with [[AngstySurvivingTwin angsty surviving triplets]], as Eddy committed suicide in 1995.

* This trope forms the basis for ''Theatre/TheComedyOfErrors'', which was itself cribbed from Creator/{{Plautus}}'s ''Menaechmi'', making it OlderThanFeudalism.

* In ''VisualNovel/ZeroTimeDilemma'', it's revealed that [[spoiler: Phi]] from the previous game, VisualNovel/VirtuesLastReward, is this with [[spoiler: Delta]], also known as [[BigBad Zero II]]. Specifically, they were separated when their parents sent them [[spoiler: back in time, leaving them stranded in 1904 for Delta and 2008 for Phi.]]

* The twinned X5 SuperSoldiers in ''Series/DarkAngel'' were separated even before birth; cooked up as embryos in the same test tubes, they were implanted in different surrogate mothers and then raised in different units at Project Manticore. [[BackupTwin Alec]] never meets his brother Ben, who dies in Season 1 before Alec becomes a recurring character in Season 2. Max meets her sister Sam in the episode "She Aint' Heavy" (as in "she ain't heavy, she's my sister").

* The series ''Two'', where the main characters evil twin, separated at birth and non-existent in official documents, sets out to destroy the main character's life, at first killing his family, making him flee the authorities. A common element in this show was that the bad guy deliberately got caught on tape to frame his brother. Of course, neither of them appear at once in the same scene.

* In ''VisualNovel/{{Ever 17}}'' fraternal twins [[spoiler:Kid and Sara]] were anonymously placed in an orphanage by their mother, who was on the run from an [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Evil Corporation]] and hoped to keep them safe. Unfortunately the corporation managed to track them down and kidnap them both, ending up separating the two twins to really [[KickTheDog put the boot in.]]

* In VisualNovel/ZeroTimeDilemma, it's revealed that [[spoiler: Phi]] from the previous game, VisualNovel/VirtuesLastReward, is this with [[spoiler: Delta]], also known as [[BigBad Zero II]]. Specifically, they were separated when their parents sent them [[spoiler: back in time, leaving them stranded in 1904 for Delta and 2008 for Phi.]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Mysticons}}'', Zarya was taken from her mom and twin sister in order to prevent a prophecy. She eventually meets Arkayna, who is her sister, and learn about their relationship.