| 1 | ---- |
| 2 | [[index]] |
| 3 | * ''OneSteveLimit/{{Arrowverse}}'' |
| 4 | * ''OneSteveLimit/DoctorWho'' |
| 5 | * ''OneSteveLimit/MarvelCinematicUniverse'' |
| 6 | [[/index]] |
| 7 | |
| 8 | ---- |
| 9 | * ''Series/TwentyFour'': |
| 10 | ** Avoided recycling names for a while, but eventually gave up. There were two characters of different genders who shared the same name: Lynne Kresge in season 2 (Michelle Forbes) and Lynn [=McGill=] in season 5 (Sean Astin). |
| 11 | ** There was also Mike Novick and Mike Doyle |
| 12 | ** The character of Kate Warner was a major character in season 2. The character of Kate Morgan was a major character in season 9. Interestingly both characters were blonde women who, despite being American, were played by Australian actresses who got second billing after Kiefer Sutherland, over other characters who'd been around longer. |
| 13 | * ''Series/ThirtyRock'': |
| 14 | ** The new castmember's name turns out to be Jack. Jack Donaghy immediately informs him that his name is now Danny. |
| 15 | ** When Jack informs former GE chairman and CEO Jack Welch that he goes by Jack as well, Welch responds "I don't think so" and calls him John for the rest of their conversation. |
| 16 | ** John is Jack's real name, which is Lutz's first name as well. Assuming the same is true for Danny, 30 Rock has three main characters named John, but none of them are called that. |
| 17 | * ''Series/TheAdventuresOfPeteAndPete'': The fact that the two lead characters are brothers named Pete Wrigley and Pete Wrigley is never a plot point or source of comedic confusion throughout the series, and neither Pete nor Pete have nicknames or any verbal disambiguation between them at all. This fits with the lightly surreal nature of the series, but is obviously unsustainable in real life: Contemporary Nickelodeon marketing material called them Older Pete and Younger Pete, while fandom (and later Nick products) went with Big Pete and Little Pete. |
| 18 | ** According to the pre-series shorts, the in-universe for the names is that their mother wanted them to have names that rhymed. Clearly she didn't think it through too carefully. |
| 19 | ** They did it once, and only once. In the episode "Crisis in the Love Zone," Little Pete gets a love letter to "Pete" from "E." He assumes it's for him, and from the (temporary) object of his affection, mail carrier Eunice Puell. It's actually for Big Pete, from Ellen. |
| 20 | * ''Series/TheAdventuresOfSuperman'': In one episode, Chuck Connors guest stars as a hillbilly named Sylvester J. Superman. So when the "Help! Superman! call goes out, Sylvester steps right up. |
| 21 | * ''Series/TheAmazingRace'': |
| 22 | ** Season 4 was particularly bad about it: three Steves, two Jons, and two Davids (though one of them went by Dave). |
| 23 | *** It also has two teams with similar names to a team from another season: Russell & Cindy (with Season 2's Cyndi & Russell) and Amanda & Chris (with Season 14's Amanda & Kris). |
| 24 | ** Played straight with host Phil Keoghan who has never shared his first name with a contestant. This is surprising since the show has been on the air since 2001. Two people named Phil have raced, but one was in the Canadian version (not hosted by Keoghan), and the other [[OnlyKnownByHisNickname went by "Chip"]]. |
| 25 | *** It was only until the fourth Asian season in 2010 where a contestant shares the same name (Alan from Alan & Wendy) with the main host of that series, Allan Wu. |
| 26 | ** There's been two couple teams who were both "Nic & Vic". Season 17's Nicholas and Victoria (Nick and Vicki) and Season 30's Nicole and Victor. |
| 27 | ** The Asian version's second season and the Philippine version's first season both had a team named Pamela & Vanessa. |
| 28 | * ''Series/AmericasNextTopModel'': |
| 29 | ** Mainstay judges Jay Manuel and J Alexander avoids this by respectively being referred to as [[StraightGay mister]] and [[CampGay miss]] before their first names. |
| 30 | ** Two pair of winners of the show ran through this. Cycle 11 winner Brittany "[[OnlyKnownByTheirNickname McKey]]" Sullivan and Cycle 16 winner Brittani Kline avert this, but Cycle 5 winner Nicole Linkletter and Cycle 13 winner Nicole Fox plays this straight. |
| 31 | ** Two runner-ups are named Laura. They are Laura Kirkpatrick from Cycle 13 and Laura [=LaFrate=] from Cycle 18. |
| 32 | ** Two Brittany Browns have joined the series. The first in Cycle 4 (and All-Stars), the second in Cycle 19. |
| 33 | *** The same case happened in Cycle 11 with [=ShauRon=], Brittany and winner [=McKey=]. In this case, two girls took nicknames. |
| 34 | ** Averted, but taken to the extreme in Cycles 18's Ashley, [=AzMarie=], and Kyle, two of whom took on nicknames. |
| 35 | *** In Cycle 20, Bianca "[[OnlyKnownByTheirNickname Kanani]]" Andaluz and Bianca Alexa avert this, but Chris Hernandez and Chris Schellenger plays this straight. |
| 36 | * ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'' averts this trope all over the place, for a variety of reasons: |
| 37 | ** The Bluth family follows the tradition of wealthy and narcissistic dynastic clans everywhere by having all the male members named after one another, drawing on a confusingly small pool of first names. Specifically, all the men in the family except the third and youngest son, Byron "Buster" Bluth, are either named George, Oscar, or Michael, or some combination thereof: George and Oscar are the twin brothers who founded the family empire; George Sr's sons are named George-Oscar[[note]]Who is invariably called [[OnlyKnownByTheirNickname GOB]], pronounced like the Biblical Job, to differentiate him from the other two Georges in the family[[/note]] and Michael; and Michael's son is named George-Michael. |
| 38 | ** Lucille Bluth's best friend/rival was named Lucille Austero, which was treated in-universe as nothing more than the sort of coincidence that frequently happens in real life. However, it did result in problems for Buster, who was the son of one Lucille and briefly dated the other. For example, he once bid on the wrong Lucille at a [[BachelorAuction bachelorette auction]], not to mention numerous [[FreudianSlip Freudian Slips]] when he mistook one for the other in conversation. The narrator handled this by referring to Lucille Austero either by her full name, or as Lucille Two. |
| 39 | *** Also 'Loose Seal!' |
| 40 | ** There's also an example in Season 1 that was probably entirely unintentional on the part of the writers, and unlike the other examples doesn't have a role in the plot: George Sr's (and later Tobias's) closest friend in jail is named Little Justice, while at the same time Michael dates a blind woman whose guide dog is named Justice. |
| 41 | * ''Series/BabylonFive'': |
| 42 | ** The eccentric Family Zathras that maintains the Great Machine on Epsilon III and helps the main cast in several episodes. After one character named Zathras goes back in time with Jeffrey Sinclair, Ivanova is baffled to meet another identical-looking Zathras (same actor, same makeup, same costume), who explains that each of their names is pronounced very slightly differently (so slightly, in fact, that the audience can't hear it). |
| 43 | ** David Martell, the lead of the movie ''[[Film/BabylonFiveTheLegendOfTheRangersToLiveAndDieInStarlight The Legend of the Rangers]]'', has the same first name as John Sheridan and Delenn's son. This confused some fans who thought he was meant to be the same character (especially since their son was previously established in the series finale to grow up to be a Ranger), but that would be impossible - in 2265, when the movie is set, David Sheridan is a toddler. There's also CIC tech David Corwin present throughout the series, but his first name isn't used onscreen. |
| 44 | * ''Series/BadGirls'': Had two main characters both named Julie, who were best friends and had gone to jail at the same time. Tina O'Kane briefly changed her name to Julie as well, but then later went back to her original name. |
| 45 | * ''Series/{{Ballykissangel}}'': An unusual example occurs in the BBC series, where a shady politician previously named Sean Dooley returns in the fifth season as [[RetCon Paul Dooley]], presumably so the viewers won't confuse him with the then-leading-man Sean ''Dillon''. |
| 46 | * ''Series/BandOfBrothers'': JustifiedTrope for being historically accurate, where we the main cast includes two Joes - Liebgott and Toye (there's also Joe Domingus, but he's a tertiary character) - and two Donalds (Malarkey and Hoobler). Additionally, there are several secondary characters named John ("Cowboy" Hall, Father Malone, Janovec and "Peewee" Martin). Since most characters are usually referred to by their last name anyway, this rarely becomes a problem. |
| 47 | * ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003'': This show gives us Billy Keikeya, Bill Adama (who we learn, conveniently after Billy's death, was also called Billy - but only in his youth, decades before Keikeya's birth), the one episode character William "Willie" King, and of course, Liam [[spoiler: Tigh]]. |
| 48 | ** The spinoff/prequel ''Series/{{Caprica}}'' took it further with another William that Bill Adama was named after, [[spoiler: his dead half-brother, Willie, who everyone assumed ''was'' the future Bill Adama when he was introduced. Ron Moore likes to screw with the audience]]. |
| 49 | * Averted with minor characters in ''Series/{{Blackadder}}'' which has a number of Bernards, this being Richard Curtis's favourite comedy name: ''The Black Adder'' and the Prince of Wales birthday skit both mention Bernard the Bear-Baiter. In ''Blackadder II'', Nursie's real name is Bernard (as is her future incarnation in ''Blackadder's Christmas Carol''). And ''Blackadder Goes Forth'' has Brigadier Bernard Proudfoot-Smith and "Some chap [Melchett] bumped into in the mess called Bernard". According to ''The True History of the Black Adder'', Curtis's college girlfriend left him for future MP Bernard Jenkin, leaving him with a strong desire to turn the name Bernard into a joke. |
| 50 | * ''Series/BlakesSeven'': the character Del Tarrant is introduced in the third series, after the first name "Del" was used for an important guest character in series B, and "Tarrant" was used for an antagonist in the first episode. This had led to jokes that "Del Tarrant" is the Federation's equivalent of "[[MrSmith John Smith]]" (which [[FreudianExcuse would explain]] [[AttentionWhore some things]] about Tarrant). Of course, in any Creator/TerryNation production, [[CreatorThumbprint you can't throw a rock without hitting a Tarrant]]. |
| 51 | * ''Series/TheBoys'': In season three Ashley gets an assistant called Ashley. |
| 52 | * The ''Franchise/{{Buffyverse}}'': |
| 53 | ** A slightly odd semi-aversion: Spike's original name was William, and Angel's original name was Liam (which is the Irish version of William). Plus, there's Willy, who runs the demon bar, and Willow, who is frequently called Will. The nickname for William, Billy, was used for at least three one-episode characters: Billy Palmer ("Nightmares") and Billy "Ford" Fordham ("Lie to Me") on ''Buffy'', and Billy Blim ("That Vision-Thing" and "Billy") on ''Angel''. |
| 54 | ** Also, Anne is Buffy's middle name which she occasionally goes by, the adopted name of Anne Steele, the name of Spike's mother, and one of Drusilla's sisters. |
| 55 | ** One episode of ''Angel'' had Knox, the vampire who turned Gunn's sister. Knox was also the name of a scientist who worked for Wolfram & Hart in season 5. |
| 56 | ** Both Oz and Holtz have the first name "Daniel" but both characters are almost always referred to by their last name. |
| 57 | ** Averted - there are three characters named "Nancy" over the course of the series. In season 3, the bizarro universe of "The Wish" has a White Hat called Nancy who fights vampires alongside Giles, Oz and Larry. Later in the same season, "Earshot" has a highly competitive student named Nancy who dislikes Buffy. In the season 7 episode "Beneath You", Anya grants a wish to another Nancy, turning her ex-boyfriend Ronnie into a giant carnivorous worm. (Ronnie could also be an example, as Faith mentions a pre-Sunnydale ex with this name, but ''technically'' it could be the same guy, wildly unlikely though that is). |
| 58 | ** Angel's friend Doyle shared a last name with one of the FBI agents that came to take Marcie Ross. |
| 59 | ** Connor's foster family is named Reily, pronounced the same as Riley Finn. |
| 60 | ** Fred and Wesley's fathers are both named "Roger". |
| 61 | ** ''Angel'' had three bad guys named Marcus: a vampire TortureTechnician, a warlock [[BodySurf who swaps bodies with young men]] and a minion of the Senior Partners. |
| 62 | ** In the first season of ''Buffy'', there's a vampire minion of the master named Colin (with one "l") who should not be confused with the Anointed One named Collin (with two "l"s). They both appear in "Never Kill a Boy on the First Date". |
| 63 | ** Eve is the name of a Potential Slayer and a Child of the Senior Partners. |
| 64 | * ''Series/BrooklynNineNine'' averted it for laughs when Terry's habit of referring to himself in third person (and complimenting himself on his body) made him accidentally guilty of sexual harassment when a woman named Terry was within earshot. |
| 65 | * ''Series/{{Bunkd}}'' had two instances. Season one had a single episode guy named Noah who was Lou's temporary love interest. Another very different Noah becomes a main character starting in season four. |
| 66 | ** In "My Fairy Lady", due to her laziness and not caring to learn the names of the other counselors, Ava was excited to learn that there were three counselors named Jen, realizing she had a good chance of being right by calling a counselor Jen. |
| 67 | * ''Series/BurnNotice'' has broken this rule a few times with Tom Strickler and Tom Card, as well as Tyler Brennen and Tyler Gray. {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d when Michael talks to a "Samantha", Sam Axe assumes that he is talking to him. |
| 68 | * ''Series/CanadasWorstDriver'': There has only been one repeated name among worst drivers. Diane, in Season 6 and 8. Although Michael from Season 2 and Mike Butt from Season 5 may count. |
| 69 | * ''Series/{{Casualty}}'': Has had three main characters called Sam: Sam Colloby, Sam Bateman and Sam Nicholls, the first two male, the third female, though none of their tenures on the show have overlapped. |
| 70 | * ''Series/{{Charmed|1998}}'': |
| 71 | ** Actually had three Billys. The first was a one-episode character in season 1. The second was a character in Phoebe's favourite movie (who magically came to life, natch). The third (Billie this time) was a season regular in season 8. |
| 72 | ** The Halliwell line also has a number of recurring names. Melinda Warren was their ancestor and was what Piper named her daughter in the future. There was also another Prudence in the Halliwell line, whom Prue was evidently named after. Phoebe is said to have been named after Patty's favourite aunt. |
| 73 | ** "Jenny" was a [[ShooOutTheNewGuy quickly-forgotten]] character in season two and the fake identity that Piper used in season 8. |
| 74 | * ''Series/{{Cheers}}'' averted this for a joke in the episode where Sam's Corvette is stolen. After hearing a customer has also had a rare car stolen, Sam decides to form a support group for people who've had rare cars stolen. He gets to know them by what cars they've lost. When he has to address another member of the support group by name, he admits he's not good with names. It turns out the other support group member is also named Sam. |
| 75 | ** There were two recurring barflies named "Paul". The first, played by Paul Vaughn, was a loudmouth who enjoyed aggravating Cliff in the early seasons. The second was the always-left-out-of-the-action Paul Krapence (played by Paul Willson) who was around for the entire run of the series -- infrequently in the early years, but becoming more prominent in the final seasons. |
| 76 | * ''Series/ChouSeiShinGransazer'': Had two episodes in a row featuring a one-off VictimOfTheWeek both named Shinji. |
| 77 | * ''Series/{{Community}}'': |
| 78 | ** There are at least two students named Neil at Greendale, leading to one of them getting the EmbarrassingNickname "Fat Neil", which turns out to have been coined by Jeff when he was giving somebody directions and he needed to refer to a specific Neil since they were both nearby. Since the nickname has driven Neil to suicidal levels of depression, he is furious to learn this. |
| 79 | ** In one episode, there's an Asian girl named Annie Kim who steals Annie's idea for a Roleplay/{{Model UN|itedNations}}. Jeff congratulates Annie on having a "multicultural [[EvilTwin evil twin]]". |
| 80 | ** Joshua is either a gardener who makes racist commentaries or a spoiled-brat child who works for Chang. |
| 81 | * ''Series/CrazyExGirlfriend'': Josh Chan is a major character in the series, and has a close friend nicknamed "White Josh," because "he looks just like Josh except for he's white" (his name ''is'' also Josh, to be clear). Notably (both in and out of universe), he is reffered to as White Josh, rather than another identifier like "Gay Josh" or instead reffering to Josh Chan as "Asian Josh". |
| 82 | * Not only is it averted in ''Series/CrazyLikeAFox'', it's also the plot point of "Wanted — Dead and Alive," where a dying man asks for "Harry Fox" and the two leads need to figure out who he wanted. |
| 83 | * ''Series/CriminalMinds'': There is Aaron Hotchner and Erin Strauss, which is only confusing when you say their names out loud. This is {{lampshade|Hanging}}d in the season 8 finale: |
| 84 | -->'''[[spoiler:The Replicator]]:''' Does it ever get confusing, that whole Aaron/Erin thing? |
| 85 | ** An example with last names: profiler Tara Lewis is introduced in the same season that serial killer ''Peter'' Lewis, who is no relation of hers, escapes prison and becomes a major antagonist. |
| 86 | * ''Series/{{CSI}}'': |
| 87 | ** Has two Davids. Assistant coroner David Phillips is sometimes referred to as Super Dave, while the lab tech is only ever called by his surname, Hodges. |
| 88 | ** Doc Robbins' first name was also 'David' before they changed it to 'Al'. Probably aided by the fact that he is played by Robert "David" Hall, so it kinda goes along with Super Dave Phillips being played by David Berman and Archie Johnson who is played by Archie Kao. |
| 89 | ** Also CSI:NY's Lindsay Monroe and CSI:Las Vegas' Catherine Willows' daughter, Lindsey. |
| 90 | ** There are also CSI:Las Vegas' Jim Brass' step-daughter and CSI:NY's Jo Danville's adopted daughter, who are both named Ellie. |
| 91 | ** One episode used the aversion of this trope as an actual ''clue'', when several seemingly-unrelated crimes' victims or suspects happened to have pets named "Gareth". Turned out they all knew the same con artist, who'd named the pets after his brother. |
| 92 | ** Averted in the ''Series/{{CSINY}}'' episode "My name is Mac Taylor," where the killer deliberately targeted people with the name "Mac Taylor." (Yes, one was a young lady; in her case "Mac" was a nickname for Mackendra. Incidentally, she was played by Bruce Willis' daughter, Rumer.) [[spoiler:It turns out that the killer's girlfriend has been killed in a hit-and-run by a man with that name. The killer does approach Detective Mac Taylor early on in the episode, but doesn't attack him as he didn't drive the right car brand.]] |
| 93 | * ''Series/TheDailyShow'': For several years the correspondents included Creator/SteveCarell and Creator/StephenColbert. They even had a recurring debate skit called "Even Stevphen". At one point the show had several people named Jo(h)n - contributor Creator/JohnHodgman, correspondent Creator/JohnOliver, host Creator/JonStewart. There were also correspondents Creator/RobCorddry and Creator/RobRiggle. |
| 94 | ** Considering the preponderance of Jo(h)ns on the show it's approporiate that the Stewart-era version of the show's theme was done by Music/TheyMightBeGiants, led by John Flansburgh and John Linnell. |
| 95 | * ''Series/{{Dallas}}'': Had three characters named 'John Ross' - the family patriarch, his eldest son and that son's son. In the show only the youngest was ever called 'John Ross', while his father (John Ross II) always went by the name 'JR' and the grandfather (John Ross I) by the name 'Jock'. |
| 96 | * ''Series/DeadliestCatch'': Has the brothers Josh and Jake Harris of the ''Cornelia Marie'', as well as another Jake on the ''Northwestern''. Interestingly, both Jakes have similar foofy hair and cocky attitudes, and their captains ponder "switching Jakes" for a season. There's also a cameraman named Jake (or was it Josh?) who almost died of seasickness-induced dehydration while on the ''Cornelia Marie'' and is good-naturedly chided by the Harrises when he's forced to use a suppository. |
| 97 | * ''Series/DesperateHousewives'': Averted. There are two Juanitas (though one is named after the other), a Ben and Benji, and a Beth and Mary Beth, as well as forementioned Mary Beth and Mary Alice, and Karl and Carlos. |
| 98 | * ''Series/TheDeuce'': One of Vincent's bouncers is called Frankie, which is also the name of Vincent's brother. There's a discussion on what to call the bouncer to keep things clear, and they settle on "Black Frankie," since he's black. |
| 99 | * ''Series/{{Dexter}}'': In the fourth season, the title serial killer pretends to be someone named Kyle Butler to insinuate himself into the life of another serial killer, Trinity, as a consequence of which Trinity tracks down and kills a random, innocent Kyle Butler. It's complicated. |
| 100 | * ''Series/DowntonAbbey'': Thomas Branson and Thomas Barrow. Somehow they never manage to be called by the same name, though; throughout the series, they are each variously called by either their first name or their last name only, according to their position in the household at that time, and they were never both called by their first names at the same time. Of course, it also helps that when they do go by their first names, Branson is "Tom" (never "Thomas") and Barrow is "Thomas" (never "Tom"). |
| 101 | * ''Series/EarlyEdition'', Gary tries to propose a toast to a certain George Muzakis in order to find the guy and save him quickly, and a dozen or so with that name stand up because it's a family reunion. |
| 102 | * Subverted on ''Series/{{ER}}'', which had two characters named John in its first season--John Carter and John Taglieri--but avoided any confusion by using the nicknames for both men--John Carter was frequently referred to by his last name, while John Taglieri was called "Tag". Later, there were two characters named Abby, but as they appeared at different times (oddly, ''both'' were love interests to the aforementioned John Carter), there was no confusion. |
| 103 | * This happens with the Yellow Team on ''Series/{{Endurance}}'' combined with Main/SpellMyNameWithAnS: |
| 104 | ** The second and fourth Yellow Team girls were "Calley" and "Callie", respectively, and the third and sixth were "Bryanah" and "Briana", respectively, making the first and fifth Yellow Team girls the only ones with standalone names[[note]]Sabrina and Lilly, respectively[[/note]]. |
| 105 | * A meta example happens with ''Series/FastLayne'', as the two main female leads are named Sophie and Sofia. |
| 106 | * ''Series/TheFollowing'' has an episode in which one of the killers targets women named Claire Matthews, also the name of the cult leader's ex-wife. It's a subversion of this trope, although no one openly says, "That's odd, I've met several Claires but I'm the only Ryan in the world!" |
| 107 | * ''Series/{{Forever|2014}}'' generally plays it straight, but it's averted once as both the villain of the pilot and Detective Hanson have a wife named Karen. |
| 108 | * ''Series/FoylesWar'': Glaringly uses "Hauptmann" as the maiden name of two different German expatriate women married to upper-crust Englishmen. "Greenwood" also shows up as the surname of one character, the alias of another, and the name of a farm. |
| 109 | * ''Series/{{Frasier}}'': Mildly averted, where Daphne consistently addressed both Niles and Frasier as "Doctor Crane" for many seasons. It usually only caused confusion when the plot required it to. |
| 110 | ** Averted in one episode when Niles assumes that a party guest named Joaquin is the conductor of the Buenos Aires Philharmonic (purely because Niles' friend are socialites who like to rub shoulders with such people.) Unsurprisingly, he's not. Joaquin turns out to be a child that Niles' friends adopted while in Argentina. |
| 111 | * ''Series/{{Friends}}'': |
| 112 | ** In "TOW the Birthing Video", Phoebe borrows the titular video from a friend whose husband and daughter are both named "Cookie". After explaining this to Ross, Phoebe takes a second to wonder why she's friends with this couple. |
| 113 | ** On the Meta side of things the show starred both Creator/MatthewPerry and Creator/MattLeblanc. The latter was usually referred to by his last name on set to avoid confusion. |
| 114 | * ''Series/FullHouse'': |
| 115 | ** This was an AvertedTrope and played around with. Stephanie mentions that she is going to a different school than her friends, all of which were named Jennifer, and were differentiated by last initial. (Jennifer C. went to this school, Jennifer S. went to that school.) Little Michelle, who was so young at this point she was barely able to string a sentence together, turns to Stephanie and says, "Maybe you'll meet a new Jennifer." |
| 116 | ** Played with again, when Jesse talks about his first band. |
| 117 | --->'''Jesse:''' It was me, Little Ed, Big Ed, and uh, Regular-sized Ed. |
| 118 | --->'''Rebecca:''' They didn't have a lot of names back then. |
| 119 | * ''Series/FullerHouse'': Stephanie becomes a disc jockey, calling herself "DJ Tanner." Her older sister is named DJ. Invoked in this exchange: |
| 120 | -->'''DJ:''' You stole my name? Why couldn't you call yourself DJ Stephanie?\ |
| 121 | '''Stephanie:''': Because there's already a DJ Stephanie.\ |
| 122 | '''DJ:''' There's already a DJ Tanner! |
| 123 | ** Later, Stephanie names her daughter after her father and sister: Danielle Jo, another DJ Tanner. |
| 124 | * ''Series/GameOfThrones'': |
| 125 | ** Producers changed several characters' names when adapting from [[Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire the books]] in order to avoid name confusion: Lord Robert Arryn was changed to Robin Arryn (based on his nickname Sweetrobin from the books) because his name was the same as King Robert Baratheon, whom he was named after. Lady Asha Greyjoy was changed to Yara Greyjoy because her name was too similar to the wildling woman Osha, who was introduced before her. Hodor's real name was revealed to be Wylis instead of Walder because the most prominent Walders were Lord Walder Frey and some of his sons, whom Hodor is not connected to. |
| 126 | ** {{Averted|Trope}} with the White Walkers and their zombie minions, the wights, since "white" and "wight" are homophones. |
| 127 | ** Averted with the Freys. One of the two descendants Lord Walder Frey sends to arrange Edmure and Roslin's marriage is known as Black Walder to differentiate him. It's even worse in the books, where it's stated that there are dozens of Walder Freys in the House, due to the elder Frey's relatives trying to suck up to him. |
| 128 | *** Season 3 saw the introduction of Littlefinger's employee Olyvar, who shares his name with a Frey. Though casual viewers will likely forget that ''this'' Olyvar even existed anyway. |
| 129 | ** Lady Lyanna Mormont is a rare aversion for the TV show, which, as mentioned above, otherwise went out of its way to enforce a One Steve Limit onto the source material. The showrunners argued, with some validity, that while the long books could get away with multiple characters with the same first name, it would have been too confusing in the more condensed format of a TV series. Lyanna Mormont was a rare exception, because it's a plot point that she's a DeadGuyJunior, named after Lyanna Stark. |
| 130 | ** Jon Snow shares his first name with Lord Jon Arryn, Great and Small Jon Umber, and (phonetically, at least) Lord Yohn Royce. [[spoiler:His true name, Aegon Targaryen]], is shared not only with five historical kings, but also his deceased half-brother. The Targaryens have about ten names that they keep using over and over, and many of those names look/sound alike. This makes it difficult to figure out which Aeron, Aemon, or Aegon is being discussed in a specific moment. |
| 131 | ** Robb Stark, Robert Baratheon, and Robett Glover all have variations of the same name, despite the different spelling. |
| 132 | ** Arya Stark's direwolf is called Nymeria, which is also the name of one of the Sand Snakes in Season 5. Of course since the wolf flees into the wild in the second episode of the series, it's not that relevant. Even so, Nymeria Sand is only ever called "Nym" on screen. Hilariously [[spoiler: in the Season 7 episode where Nymeria the wolf makes a reappearance, Nymeria Sand is killed off to enforce the trope]]. Both Nymerias were named after the historical Princess Nymeria who founded House Martell as it exists today, and Nymeria Sand is a descendant of her. |
| 133 | ** The source material features several characters named Jeyne, and two were going to appear on the show. Sansa Stark's friend Jeyne Poole gets an EarlyBirdCameo in Season 1 and is referenced a couple of times, but her eventual storyline of being unwillingly married to Ramsay Bolton was [[CompositeCharacter given to Sansa instead]] when Season 5 came along. Jeyne Westerling was meant to appear as well, but the showrunners decided to change her backstory to being an exiled noblewoman from Volantis - which required renaming her to Talisa Maegyr. Talisa's actress Oona Chaplin was initially slated to be playing 'Jeyne', but book fans had no idea which one at first. |
| 134 | * Unlike ''Game of Thrones'', which made an effort to differentiate names for its major characters, the prequel ''Series/HouseOfTheDragon'' never bothered to change similar-sounding names from [[Literature/FireAndBlood its source material]]. |
| 135 | ** Two main characters in the series are Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen and her first cousin once removed, Princess Rhaenys Targaryen. Later, we're introduced to Princess Rhaena Targaryen, named after Rhaenys (who is her maternal grandmother). |
| 136 | ** In addition to Aegon I Targaryen (the Conqueror of Westeros), Aegon Targaryen (brother of Maester Aemon, who was the Mad King Aerys' father and direct predecessor), Aegon Targaryen (son of Rhaegar and Elia Martell) and Aegon Targaryen (son of Rhaegar and Lyanna Stark, and better known as Jon Snow) in the main series, we now have Aegon II Targaryen (son of Viserys I and Alicent Hightower) and Aegon Targaryen (son of Rhaenyra and Daemon). |
| 137 | ** There are characters named Daemon (Targaryen), Aemond (Targaryen), and Vaemond (Velaryon). And they have appeared in the same scene together. |
| 138 | ** Rhaenyra's father King Viserys I Targaryen and Prince Viserys Targaryen, Rhaenyra's son, who is named after the former. Not to be confused with Daenerys Targaryen's brother from ''[=GoT=]'', who actually styles himself as "King Viserys, the Third of His Name" if you paid attention, implying that there have been two King Viseryses before him in history.[[labelnote:From the books]]Viserys, son of Rhaenyra, indeed became Viserys II years after the Dance of the Dragons.[[/labelnote]] |
| 139 | ** There are Ser Joffrey Lonmouth and Prince Joffrey Velaryon. Fortunately, neither are despicable like ''[=GoT=]'''s Prince Joffrey Baratheon. |
| 140 | ** This is actually used as a [[SignificantNameOverlap major plot point]] towards the end of the first season: a [[KingOnHisDeathbed dying]] and delirious King Viserys, in his last words before passing, talks about the prophecy of the Song of Ice and Fire to his wife Queen Alicent while believing her to be his daughter Rhaenyra, whom he told about the prophecy years prior. Alicent doesn't know about the prophecy, and when Viserys talks about "uniting the realm" and "Aegon" - without mentioning ''The Conqueror'' - she thinks he means that their son Aegon, who's [[InadequateInheritor notoriously]] [[TheWrongfulHeirToTheThrone unfit to rule]], must be put on the throne instead of Rhaenyra (Rhaenyra is Viserys's eldest child and Alicent's stepdaughter, whereas Aegon is Alicent's son and Viserys's eldest ''male'' child). Though in the end that doesn't matter to Alicent's father Otto Hightower, the Hand of the King, who spent years planning a [[TheCoup coup]] to install his grandson on the throne as a PuppetKing with himself running the show; it just comes as another handy way of justifying the coup, in addition to [[HeirClubForMen Aegon being a man]]. |
| 141 | * ''Series/GeneralHospital'': |
| 142 | ** Subverted with the three characters named "Lucas" at one point. However, one was "Luke" Spencer, the other was his son "Lucky", and the third, his nephew, was the only one called Lucas. |
| 143 | ** It also had three guys from the same family named Michael: Michael "Mike" Corbin, his son Michael "Sonny" Corinthos, and his son, who actually goes by Michael (but would eventually change his last name to Quartermaine). |
| 144 | * ''Series/TheGifted2017'' averts the trope big-time: two of its ''lead'' characters are named Lorna (Dane) and Lauren. Not an exact match, but it's very rare to see this happen right at the center of a show. |
| 145 | * ''Series/GilmoreGirls'': Strictly speaking, there are three Lorelai Gilmores: Lorelai Gilmore the mother, Lorelai "Rory" Gilmore the daughter, and Lorelai "Trix" Gilmore, Rory's great-grandmother (and yes, [[KissingCousins her maiden name was Gilmore, too]]). Confusion is not really an issue despite the first two being the main characters, since Rory is almost exclusively [[OnlyKnownByTheirNickname referred to by nickname]] and Trix only appears in a few episodes. Often used as an episode title, where both mother and daughter are collectively referred to as "The Lorelais." |
| 146 | ** This is, however, lampshaded in season 5's "Tippecanoe and Taylor, Too," when it's revealed town selectman Taylor once rejected Lorelai (the mother) a parking space because she did not include her middle name on the form. Lorelai apparently forgets she isn't the only one, because she finds this ridiculous and asks Taylor how many other Lorelai Gilmores he knows. He immediately points out that Rory is also technically Lorelai Gilmore, leading Lorelai to awkardly rebutt that she bet he can't name a third--because he doesn't know her grandmother. [[note]]Ironically, Taylor is supposed to be seen as petty here, but the only thing distinguishing the three Lorelais are their middle names, meaning it would be important to include that on official documents.[[/note]] |
| 147 | * Averted in ''Series/TheGoodWife'' with the introduction of Carey Zepps, a lawyer working alongside Cary Agos, one of the main characters. Though not [[SpellMyNameWithAnS spelled the same,]] their names are pronounced the same. |
| 148 | * ''Goodnight Sweetheart'': Played with this a couple of times, as the main theme of the show was that Gary Sparrow tried at all costs to avoid his 1940s mistress, Phoebe, and his 1990s wife, Yvonne, discovering his time-travelling escapades. In one episode, the arrival of "Yvonne" is announced in the 1940s pub of which Phoebe is the landlady, but this turns out to be an aunt of Phoebe's. In another episode, Gary tracks down a 1990s "Phoebe Sparrow", but, as the lady in question is black, she cannot be the girl he fell in love with (and possibly married) in the 1940s. |
| 149 | * ''Series/GossipGirl'': Both Nate's grandfather and Serena's father have the first name William. (It's also the name of Nate's uncle and cousin, although the latter has the decency to go by Tripp. It's one of those families.) Can make reading about the series confusing if you're not paying attention, especially since they also have similar surnames (Vanderbilt and Van Der Woodsen). |
| 150 | * ''Series/TheGreatBritishBakeOff'': Averted in series 6. One of the competitors is a man named Paul who has white hair and a Van Dyke goatee, remarkably like a certain judge named Paul. Immediately lampshaded by Sue, and led to this RunningGag each episode thereafter: |
| 151 | -->'''Paul:''' Paul.\ |
| 152 | '''Paul:''' Paul. |
| 153 | * Explicitly discussed and averted on ''Series/GreysAnatomy'': |
| 154 | --> '''Cristina''': Bailey is a good name. But two Baileys, you don't think it's going to be confusing? |
| 155 | --> '''Meredith''': No, because if I say "Bailey peed on me," I think it's safe to assume I'm talking about my son. |
| 156 | --> '''Cristina''': Very good. |
| 157 | * ''Series/GrowingPains'': Used this to allow Mike's girlfriend Kate to read a love note his grandfather had written to his grandmother Kate. |
| 158 | * ''Series/HeadOfTheClass'': Played with this: an Arvin started an ARVIN CLUB, and even met an attractive girl named Inga Arvin. |
| 159 | * ''Series/{{Heartbeat}}'': When this show added PC Steve Crane to the regular cast, they apparently forgot that an earlier episode had established supporting character Jenny Latimer as having a brother called Steve. Steve Latimer ended up coming back for Jenny's wedding while Steve Crane was on the show. It's not all that noticeable until the closing sequence when they start appearing in the same scenes. |
| 160 | * ''Series/HellsKitchen'': |
| 161 | ** Season 8 had Lewis and Louis (pronounced "Louie"). Lewis subverted this trope by going by his last name, Curtis. Didn't matter much, as both were eliminated very early. |
| 162 | ** Season 16 had two women named Kimberly. One went by her last name, Ryan. |
| 163 | ** Season 18 had two men named Chris, with one going by his last name, Motto. |
| 164 | * ''Series/HomeImprovement'': |
| 165 | ** Mined this for a gag, when the ShowWithinAShow had three generations of Al Unsers as guests, in addition to Tim's assistant Al Borland. Things got confusing real quick when Tim tried to interview Al. (Which one? Exactly.) At the end of the episode, the three Al Unsers were back wearing T-shirts labeled "Big Al", "Little Al", and "Norm-Al"; and Tim pulled out an "Abnorm-Al" shirt for Borland - but Al (B.) opened his flannel shirt to reveal that he already had a "Speci-Al" T-shirt. |
| 166 | ** We also find out that Al had a brother named Cal, which is probably meant to poke at this trope. |
| 167 | ** Then we learn their mother's name...Alma. |
| 168 | * ''Series/HomicideLifeOnTheStreet'': Had two Mikes: Kellerman, and Gee's FBI agent son. The latter was introduced after the former had been written off, but they met in a two-part [[StoryArc arc]] and the reunion movie. |
| 169 | * ''Series/HotPotato'': The Bee Keepers team consisted of Tim 1, Tim 2 and Glen. |
| 170 | * ''Series/{{House}}'': Averted, where we have two secondary characters named Rachel: [[UglyGuyHotWife Taub's wife]] and Cuddy's baby daughter. |
| 171 | * ''Series/HouseOfCardsUS'' has two characters with the first name "Tom": Tom Yates, the close ally of the Underwoods, and Tom Hammerschmidt, Zoe Barnes's former boss at the ''Washington Herald''. In season 4, both begin to appear together in the same episodes. |
| 172 | * ''Series/ICarly'': |
| 173 | ** Two characters named Tasha have appeared on the show. The first in the season 1 episode "iNevel", and a recurring love interest for Gibby in Season 3, in the episode "iSpeed Date". Two Chuck's have appeared, with one being a delivery man and the other an evil little boy. Two Brads have appeared on the show. One was a big-shot producer of TVS ("iCarly Saves TV"), and the other brought the fudge ("iHire an Idiot", "iOMG"). |
| 174 | ** Then in "[[{{Crossover}} iParty With]] Series/{{Victorious}}", they break the Trope Name, by having Carly's (and Tori's) boyfriend named Steven, just like Carly's father. |
| 175 | ** Jake Krandel's girlfriend is named Stephanie Jeffers, and Mrs. Benson's cousin has a baby named Stephanie. |
| 176 | ** There's an unseen student named Melanie Katz, and Sam's twin sister, Melanie. Carly also adapts the persona of "Melanie Higgles" for an iCarly segment. |
| 177 | ** In "iSpace Out", one of the iCarly callers is named Dana. In "iRescue Carly", Sam has a friend named Dana who got out of jail. |
| 178 | ** "iCarly Saves TV" features a musician named Harper. Carly's new best friend in ''Series/ICarly2021'' is also named Harper. Both are even portrayed by black actors (though the former is male while the latter is female.) |
| 179 | * ''Series/IZombie'' has an episode where the victim shared a name with another person at the same college. This was - of course - an important plot point by the end. |
| 180 | * ''Series/{{Jeopardy}}'': |
| 181 | ** In the 1996 Tournament of Champions, Michael Dupee and Michael Daunt were two of the finalists. Dupee went by "Mike" to differentiate himself. |
| 182 | ** Similarly, the 2008 Teen Tournament somehow ended up with two Rachels in the finals. One of them decided to go by [[GenderBlenderName "Steve"]]. |
| 183 | ** The 1995 Tournament of Champions had finalists David Siegel and Isaac Segal, both last names pronounced the same way. Interestingly, David Siegel was Isaac's immediate predecessor as champion, as Creator/AlexTrebek lampshaded in his second game. |
| 184 | * ''Series/{{Jeremiah}}'': Multiple common names are reused in the show. |
| 185 | ** Michael is the name of both Jeremiah‘s brother (who is dead but appears in multiple flashbacks) and the VillainOfTheWeek in "And the Ground, Sown with Salt". |
| 186 | ** William is the name of unrelated characters in two consecutive episodes: a witness to a mass murder in "To Sail Beyond the Stars" and an expectant father in "The Bag". |
| 187 | ** Simon is the name of both the Thunder Mountain Scout who causes Jeremiah and Kurdy to go to the base in the pilot and Jeremiah's MysteriousProtector for season one, although the latter man is known as Ezekiel until flashbacks from "Rites of Passage" reveal his real name. He started calling himself Ezekiel after reading ''The Book of Ezekiel'' in ''Literature/TheBible'' during a traumatic time. |
| 188 | * ''Series/JoanOfArcadia'': Rather oddly averted, where we get the next best thing to TheOtherDarrin with the DeadpanSnarker bookstore owner Sammy. In season two we get a different actor with the same name, job, and personality, yet he's established as a different person who took over the position from the first Sammy. Joan even notes how coincidental it is. |
| 189 | * ''Series/{{Justified}}'': While the names of main characters, like Boyd and Raylan haven't been used more than once, several minor character names have been recycled. |
| 190 | ** The most prominent has to be Nicholas and its variants. We've had asshole police officer Nick Moony, paranoid conspiracy theorist and former pimp Nicky Kush, and Detroit mob bagman Nicky Augustine. Kush and Augustine even briefly meet face to face when Augustine accompanies Boyd to interrogate Kush. |
| 191 | ** James 'Jimmy' Earl Dean and James "Jimmy" Tolan are henchmen for the Bennett and Crowder families. Dean is reprehensible child molester and Tolan is a competent and loyal [[TheDragon Dragon]], but they both are deceptively fresh faced. |
| 192 | * ''Series/IClaudius'' has both Agrippina the Elder (Cladius' sister-in-law and Caligula's mother) and her daughter Aggripina the Younger (famously mother of Emperor Nero) as major characters. Agrippina the Younger is always called "Aggripinilla" (Little Agripinna) as a result, even though most people with passing knowledge of Roman history would identify an "Agrippina" as the Younger, who was famously assassinated by her own son. |
| 193 | * ''Series/KamenRiderDecade'': Had to pull this thanks to the dimension-hopping. ''Decade'''s female lead is named Natsumi, but so is a character from the ''Series/KamenRiderBlade'' movie ''Missing Ace''; when the latter turns up, she's portrayed as an AlternateUniverse version named Haruka, which introduces a TemporalThemeNaming aspect (Haru = Spring, Natsu = Summer) which is continued in [[Series/KamenRiderDouble the next series]] with female lead Akiko (Aki = Fall[=/=]Autumn). |
| 194 | * ''Series/KamenRiderDenO'': This show, which uses TimeTravel as a central conceit, ran headlong into this with its first [[TheMovie movie]], where the 10-year-old version of [[TheHero Ryotaro]] joins up with the group. To avoid confusion, the group refers to the younger as Kotaro (as in, "Little Ryotaro"). |
| 195 | ** Things got even more confusing with the third movie, which introduced Ryotaro's [[KidFromTheFuture Grandkid from the Future]], who was actually named Kotaro. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, but Ryotaro's original actor Takeru Satoh left the franchise after this movie and was replaced by the child actor who played Young Ryotaro, with the HandWave that he got [[FountainOfYouth de-aged]]. |
| 196 | * ''Series/KenanAndKel'': Natural born Kenan involves the duo heading to the records department for Kenan's birth records, to prove whether or not he's adopted. However, he gets the wrong record by mistake - he gets the birth record of Kevin Rockmore, who was born to parents George and Margaret Rockmore in the same hospital and on the same day as Kenan, who was born to parents Roger and Sheryl Rockmore. They then think that Kenan had been switched at birth. [[spoiler:In the end, Kevin and his parents are revealed to be Asian and of no relation to the African-American Kenan.]] |
| 197 | * ''Series/TheKidsInTheHall'': |
| 198 | ** Had a song/sketch titled "These Are the Daves I Know" in which the singer names a dozen or so people in his life who answer to David or Dave. |
| 199 | ** The "Thirty Helens Agree" sketches, featuring 30 Helens standing in a field. |
| 200 | ** Cathy and Kathie, the secretaries. |
| 201 | ** The two Geralds, rival businessmen. |
| 202 | * ''Series/KimsConvenience'' had an episode where Mr. and Mrs. Kim make friends with another couple with the last name Kim. They are even referred to as "the other Mr. Kim". |
| 203 | * ''Series/TheKingOfQueens'': In the episode "Better Camera", Arthur shows guest star Creator/LouFerrigno a screenplay he wrote. Lou is confused by the fact that several characters are named Mike. Arthur explains it by asking if Lou has ever met someone else named Lou and then claims his screenplay is [[TruthInTelevision "true to life".]] |
| 204 | * ''Series/LadyDynamite'': Maria Bamford's agent, realtor, and life coach are all named Karen Grisham. |
| 205 | * ''Series/TheLastKingdom'': There are four Uhtreds, two Ragnars, and two Oddas, all fathers and sons. When necessary, they are distinguished as "the Elder" and "the Younger". In Uhtred's family the eldest son and heir is always called Uhtred, so the protagonist was originally called Osbert but is renamed when his brother dies. |
| 206 | * ''Series/LawAndOrder'' and its various spinoffs: There have been a number of characters, both major and minor, named Serena and Alexandra. |
| 207 | ** There have also been at least two regular and one major recurring character who are named Michael and go by Mike (Logan, Cutter, and Dodds). |
| 208 | ** Played with in an early SVU episode involving the short-lived character of Ken Briscoe, nephew of original series character Lennie Briscoe[[note]]the character was actually played by Jerry Orbach's son Chris[[/note]]. Though they have different first names, Lennie insists they call each other "Briscoe" at work, much to his partner's amusement. |
| 209 | * ''Lead Balloon'': In one episode, self-centred misanthrope Rick Spleen gets a part as Eddie in a series called "All About Eddie"; one of his friends asks if he's sure that he is the Eddie the series is all about. |
| 210 | -->'''Rick:''' No. That'd-- why would there be two people called Eddie? That'd be stupid. |
| 211 | -->(scene change) |
| 212 | -->'''Rick:''' ''(on phone to director)'' So yeah, are there two people called Eddie, or...? |
| 213 | * ''Series/TheLeagueOfGentlemen'': Papa Lazarou calls everyone he encounters Dave, and claims most of them to be his wife. |
| 214 | * ''Series/LizzieMcGuire'': One episode had Matt annoyed that there was another Matt in his class, so he changed his name temporarily to "M-Dogg", most likely a ShoutOut to pro-wrestler M-Dogg Matt Cross. |
| 215 | * ''Series/TheLordOfTheRingsTheRingsOfPower'': There are two Durins in present, King Durin III and his son, prince Durin IV. And before them, there were other two Durins. |
| 216 | * ''Series/{{Lost}}'': |
| 217 | ** In addition to Steve who survived the crash, there was another Steve on board who was killed. The show reuses names frequently: there have been several Brians, Toms, Anns, Richards, Adams, and other common names, which makes the already {{Epileptic Tree|s}} theories worse (see below): |
| 218 | ** Not to mention the constant, in-universe confusion between two characters named Scott and Steve. When one died, it actually increased the confusion, as the deceased had to be identified by name. It's made even worse by the actor playing Steve playing Scott's body, and the actor playing Scott continuing to appear on the show afterward as a nameless extra. Or maybe I switched those. |
| 219 | ** 'David' also crops up frequently, being the first name of Libby's deceased husband, Charlotte's father, Jack's [[spoiler: son (in the flash-sideways)]] and is particularly meaningful to Hurley, as his father and [[spoiler:imaginary friend]] share the name. Oh, and it's also Desmond's middle name. {{Showrunner}} Damon Lindelof has mentioned that it's probably a subconscious Freudian issue of his, as his own father is named David. |
| 220 | ** Then we have Charlie Pace, Charlie Hume ([[spoiler:Desmond and Penny's son]]), Charles Widmore, and Charlotte Lewis |
| 221 | * ''Series/MadMen'': Aversion in season 5: protagonist Don Draper hires a black receptionist named Dawn. [[DeadpanSnarker Roger Sterling]] calls her "darkest before the Don." |
| 222 | * ''Series/MajorCrimes'': Captain Raydor discovers a little too late that she has the same first name as [[FosterKid Rusty's]] mother. When she tells him that he can call her Sharon instead of Captain Raydor, he at first thinks it's some sort of cruel joke, and then gets mad because if she didn't even know that she had the same name as his mother, then she's obviously not [[MissingMom looking for her]] like she promised him she was. |
| 223 | * ''Series/MarriedWithChildren'': One episode had Al stuck at a gas station with three attendants all named Habib. |
| 224 | * ''Series/TheMaryTylerMooreShow'': Mary has a coworker named Murray, whose wife is named Marie. |
| 225 | * ''{{Series/Mash}}'': Had John [=McIntyre=], known as Trapper John, and John Black, known as Ugly John. Also, in the book, the movie, and the beginning of the series, Father Mulcahy's very-rarely mentioned first name is John. None of these three characters are ever addressed simply as John, though: Trapper John is "Trap" or "Trapper", "Ugly John" is "Ugly John" and Father Mulchay is usually called Father. By Season 2, it was established that John was Father Mulcahy's ''middle'' name and that his first name was Francis, so on the rare occasion someone calls him by name, the name used is Francis. |
| 226 | ** ''M*A*S*H'' had a few problems remembering minor characters' names over [[LongRunners its 11-year run]] -- Col. Blake's wife, Lorraine, was called "Mildred" at least once, which probably influenced the decision to make that Col. Potter's wife's name. |
| 227 | ** Both Trapper and Frank Burns had wives named Louise. |
| 228 | ** Then there's the plethora of background nurses given one of two generic surnames: "Able" and "Baker". |
| 229 | ** Played with in the episode where Hawkeye is mistakenly getting mail belonging to a different Capt. Benjamin Pierce. |
| 230 | * ''Series/MenBehavingBadly'': In one episode, Gary, Tony, Dorothy and Debs stay on a campsite and meet someone else called Tony. They refer to him as "Tony Too". |
| 231 | * ''Series/{{Merlin|2008}}'': |
| 232 | ** There have been two Tristans, the first a MonsterOfTheWeek and the second one half of the famous Tristan and Isolde pairing. Since the characters appeared four seasons apart, there's virtually no chance of getting them muddled up. |
| 233 | ** Morgana's mother was named Vivian. In Season 2, a Lady Vivian turns up as a one-episode character. |
| 234 | * The ''Series/MidnightCaller'' episode "Do You Believe in Miracles?" has two characters named Bob Johnson. They go by Big Bob and Little Bob. |
| 235 | * ''Series/MisterRogersNeighborhood'': A plot line in the ''Neighborhood of Make-Believe'' segment: Lady Elaine Fairchild once travelled in outer space to Planet Purple, whose [[PlanetOfSteves entire population are named "Paul" or "Pauline"]], and are [[SendInTheClones identical in all other aspects as well]]. |
| 236 | * ''Series/ModernFamily'' has two secondary characters named Pam, which becomes more confusing since they're both primarily connected to Cameron's story-lines and are deliberately named to echo him: one Pam is his sister, the other is the lesbian mom to a boy at Lily's school who is basically Cam's DistaffCounterpart. Although apparently "Pam" stands for different things in both cases. When Cam calls his sister by her full first name (seemingly in all seriousness), it's [[EmbarrassingFirstName Pameron]]. [[OnlySaneMan Mitchell]] is the only one who seems to think it's weird. |
| 237 | * ''Series/{{Monk}}'' had an episode where two women with the name Julie Teeger were murdered. (It turns out not to be a coincidence.) Given that Natalie Teeger's daughter is also named Julie, this case is especially troubling for her. Fittingly, the episode is titled "Mr. Monk and the Three Julies". |
| 238 | ** One episode has a pair of garbage workers named Ronnie and Morris. A season later, a duo of department store employees also share the name Ronnie and Morris. The garbage workers reappeared in another episode two seasons later. |
| 239 | * ''Series/TheMonkees'': Ran into this when they had the cast use their real names on the show and two of them, Micky Dolenz and [[Creator/MichaelNesmith Mike Nesmith]], had variations of the same first name. Ironically, neither actually has the first name Michael. Their real names are George Michael Dolenz and Robert Michael Nesmith. |
| 240 | * ''Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus'': |
| 241 | ** InvertedTrope in the Bruces sketch. The faculty of the Philosophy Department of the University of Woolamaloo are all named Bruce, and when a new instructor named Michael joins, they call him Bruce to avoid confusion. |
| 242 | ** It's also important to note they had two guys named Terry. |
| 243 | ** Several of the sketches in the series had characters named Arthur. |
| 244 | ** Not only did Erics feature in many sketches, but the Fish License sketch featured Eric Praline talking to Eric the Postal Clerk about a license for his pet halibut, Eric, in addition to the license he has for his cat, Eric, his dog, Eric, and his fruit-bat, Eric. When Eric refuses to give Eric a license for Eric, Eric asks for a license for Eric the half a bee, whom Eric asks Eric the orchestra leader to sing about. |
| 245 | * ''Moving Wallpaper'': Accidentally averted in this show about TV writers. In the first series the writing staff included an assistant named Kelly, who Carl, one of the writers, was in love with. In the second series the star actress of the show they're working on is Creator/KellyBrook. This even confused some TV reviewers, with one summarizing an episode as "Carl pines for Kelly Brook". |
| 246 | * ''Franchise/TheMuppets'': |
| 247 | ** There are two Nigels in the Muppet cast, although they've never appeared together: a Fraggle-like character who was the host of the "Sex and Violence" pilot, and subsequently the conductor on ''Series/TheMuppetShow'', and a furry green character with a long nose, who was the producer of ''Series/MuppetsTonight''. |
| 248 | ** ''The Muppet Show'''s second jugband, Lubbock Lou and his Jughuggers, has two members named Lou, the eponymopus Lubbock Lou and their only female member, who is just named Lou. |
| 249 | ** In the Music/HarryBelafonte episode of ''The Muppet Show'', Harry admits to Scooter during the pre-show segment that he's feeling a bit down because people have apparently been referring to him as "Crazy Harry". Scooter tells him that Crazy Harry is actually the show's resident MadBomber, only to [[ExplainExplainOhCrap realize]] that said Muppet is in the room with them right now. |
| 250 | * ''Series/{{NCIS}}'': |
| 251 | ** Gibbs at first makes this an InvokedTrope in "Jurisdiction" by refusing to call visiting CGIS agent Abigail Borin 'Abby', out of respect for Abby Sciuto. However, in a later episode, "Ships in the Night", he congratulates a joint effort by the pair by saying "Abbs-es - that is good work." |
| 252 | ** One episode averts this trope for comic effect, with a DEA drug dog called Tony, leaving the DEA agent waiting for Tony to finish going over the boat so that Tony can go over the boat. |
| 253 | ** Also averted with Tony and his dad, who both have the first name Anthony. |
| 254 | ** Tony again: in one episode, Anthony was the name of the victim's husband. |
| 255 | -->'''Tony:''' Married her high school sweetheart, Anthony. Nice name. |
| 256 | ** One episode had two Leroy Jethros in it, as Gibbs was named after a childhood friend of his father. Strangely, there is another Jethro in the show's extended universe: Albert Jethro Chegwidden from the parent series, ''Series/{{JAG}}''. |
| 257 | * ''Series/NCISNewOrleans'' averted this in a one-off gag in [=S2E4=], with Pride telling [=LaSalle=] that their latest lead is a pair of 19-year-old college dropouts named Steve Wilensky and Steve Dunn. Near the end of the scene, one of the agents addresses "Steve" and they reply in unison. |
| 258 | * ''Series/TheNewAdventuresOfOldChristine'': The premise is an aversion of this trope. In addition to Old Christine and New Christine, there's also Richard and his son, Ritchie. [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness In the pilot]], Ritchie is also referred to as Little Richard and Richard Jr. to distinguish between himself and his father, and New Christine offers to let Old Christine call her Christine 2 or Chrissy so there would be less confusion. Old Christine's maiden and married surnames sound very similar, which is pointed out in the episode when she decides to change her surname to the hyphenated hybrid "Kimball-Campbell." And there is an episode when she tries to get back together with an ex-boyfriend Burton only to discover he has a new girlfriend, Christine, who Old Christine dubs "Pretty Christine." |
| 259 | * As it turns out ''Series/NewGirl'' has this with two of it's main characters. Winston Bishop and [[spoiler:Winston Schmidt]] which is why LastNameBasis is used for the later. |
| 260 | * ''Series/{{Newhart}}'': "I'm Larry, this is my brother Darryl, and this is my other brother Darryl." |
| 261 | * ''Series/TheNewStatesman'': One episode features a [[Creator/StephenFry crony]] of Alan's named Piers, the same as his regular-cast sidekick/flunky. "Ah. It appears we have two Piers." "[[{{Pun}} Like Brighton.]]" "Shut up, Piers!" |
| 262 | * ''Series/NorthernExposure'': There are two different guest characters named Amy who are both GoodWithNumbers: Chris's AnimalLover GirlOfTheWeek in Season 4 (a mathematician student out to make new discoveries about pi) and an [=IRS=] agent who audits and befriends Ruth-Anne in Season 5. |
| 263 | * ''Series/{{NTSFSDSUV}}'': Features a computer technician named Sam and a robot named S.A.M. as regular characters, although the robot is always referred to as "Ess Ay Em." One of the roboticists who created S.A.M. is Aaron Samson, who also insists on being called "Sam", and shares a scene with Sam and S.A.M. in one episode. |
| 264 | * ''Series/NYC22'': Aversion used for a throwaway gag in the pilot. Rookie officer Tonya Sanchez has trouble finding her locker because there are at least two other Officer Sanchezes in her precinct. Played straight among the main cast, however. |
| 265 | * ''Series/NYPDBlue'': |
| 266 | ** Two of Andy's four partners in the show share the first name "John" (Detectives Kelly and Clark, Jr.), as does the eventual police administrative aide John Irvin. Downplayed somewhat in that Kelly left the precinct before the other two arrived and both detective characters are often referred to by their surnames. |
| 267 | ** Two main characters have the first name "Laura" - A.D.A. Laura Michaels Kelly (present only in the first season) and Detective Laura Murphy (the last main character introduced in the show who appears solely in the final season). |
| 268 | * ''Series/TheOfficeUS'': |
| 269 | ** Erin's first name is actually Kelly, the same as Kelly Kapoor, who initially attempts to use it to her advantage in flirting with Charles Miner. Erin quickly volunteers to go by her middle name and the matter is never brought up again. |
| 270 | ** We also have Robert California, the company's new CEO, and Robert Lipton, Angela's senator husband. Not to mention the company's founders Robert Dunder and Robert Mifflin. Also Robert (Bob) Vance, Vance Refrigeration. |
| 271 | *** ''State'' Senator. |
| 272 | ** Angela and Pam give birth to sons about a month apart, and both are named "Philip". |
| 273 | ** The British show had characters named Dawn and Donna. |
| 274 | * There were two characters in ''Series/OnTheHouse'' called "Stanley" - a builder from Series 1, and recurring antagonist Dr. Stanley from Series 2. |
| 275 | * ''Series/OnceUponATime'' has Ruby's boyfriend Peter and Literature/PeterPan although we later learn the latter's true name is [[spoiler:Malcolm]]. The second one is always called Pan anyway. |
| 276 | * Averted on ''Series/OneLifeToLive'', which had two characters named "Margaret" at the same time. Any confusion was avoided by having each character use a different derivative--one was called "Maggie", another "Marty" (though her lover preferred to use her full name when addressing her). |
| 277 | * ''Series/OnlyMurdersInTheBuilding'' skirts the issue by using different diminutives for father-son pair Theodore Dimas and Theodore Dimas Jr. The father goes by Teddy while the son prefers Theo. |
| 278 | * ''Series/OrphanBlack'' has protagonist Sarah Manning. Her clone Alison has another casual acquaintance named Sarah, and uses the coincidence of names to smoke out the conspiracy that's monitoring them. |
| 279 | * Forms the premise of the sitcom ''The Other One''. When Catherine Walcott's father dies, she finds he had a mistress -- and his daughter by that mistress is also called Catherine Walcott. [[TheGloriousWarOfSisterlyRivalry In most other respects, they're polar opposites.]] |
| 280 | * Scrupulously observed in ''Series/OurMissBrooks''. We have the main characters Constance (Connie) Brooks, Phillip Boynton, Harriet Conklin, Osgood Conklin, Margaret Davis, and Walter Denton. Recurring characters include [[LastNameBasis Mr. Stone]], Angela Devon, Daisy Enright, [[OnlyKnownByTheirNickname Fabian (Stretch) Snodgrass and Winston (Bones) Snodgrass]]. The last T.V. season featured recurring characters Oliver Munsey Wynonna Nestor, Ruth Nestor, Benny Romero and Gene Talbot. Notice ''not one name is ever repeated''. |
| 281 | * ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'': Averted in "The Light Brigade" which features Major John Skokes and the Chief Weapons Officer, whose name is John. |
| 282 | * ''Series/ParksAndRecreation'': |
| 283 | ** Ron has ex-wives called Tammy One and Tammy Two, and his mother's named is Tamara (Tammy for short). |
| 284 | ** In the seventh season premiere, it's revealed that Jim O'Heir's character now carries the name Terry. (He was originally known as Jerry and later Larry. His real name is Gary.) This was because the department he went to work for already had someone named Larry and his request to go by his real name was dismissed. |
| 285 | ** Ron Swanson's Eagleton counterpart and SitcomArchNemesis is named Ron Dunn. |
| 286 | * ''Series/PeepShow'': |
| 287 | ** Averted. There are three Simons, Sarah Corrigan's Ex, Dobby's Ex and Simon is also the real name of Super Hans. |
| 288 | * ''Series/PersonOfInterest'': |
| 289 | ** Unusual considering they had a relationship: Root's birth name is Samantha Groves, and she was known in her hometown as Sam. Shaw was originally identified in press releases as Samantha Shaw, and later Sam Shaw, but the name was never spoken on-screen and starting with "Razgovor" she was named Sameen. It's not much remarked upon, possibly because neither is called by their first name much anyway. |
| 290 | ** The Machine gives Greer's first name as John, same as Reese, although it's noted to be an alias and his MI-6 file in a later episode gives his first initial as M. |
| 291 | * ''Popular'': Two characters had the name Mike: One had it as his real name, while preferring to use his nickname "Sugar Daddy", while the other had it as his nickname, with his real name Michael. |
| 292 | * ''Franchise/PowerRangers'': |
| 293 | ** AvertedTrope. A reunion special in ''Series/PowerRangersWildForce'' featured General Venjix of the Machine Empire, and then almost a decade later ''Series/PowerRangersRPM'' featured the Venjix computer Virus. No relation outside of EpilepticTrees. |
| 294 | *** Played with, courtesy writer Amit Bhaumik. His plan for the unadapted ''Series/TokumeiSentaiGoBusters'', ''[[WhatCouldHaveBeen Power Rangers Cyber Corps]]'', would have made the two Venjixes (Vengi?) one and the same, the ''RPM'' iteration having arrived in that parallel world via dimension hopping through the Morphing Grid. |
| 295 | ** It should stand as a credit to the writers of ''Power Rangers'' that this hasn't happened more. After 21 seasons and over 100 Rangers plus supporting characters, the only major repeats are [[Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers Katherine]] [[Series/PowerRangersZeo "Kat"]] [[Series/PowerRangersTurbo Hillard]] and [[Series/PowerRangersSPD Kat Manx]] (incidentally both {{Cat Girl}}s, though Hillard only for a while), [[Series/PowerRangersLostGalaxy Mike Corbett]] and [[Series/PowerRangersSamurai Mike from Samurai]], and with last names [[Series/PowerRangersWildForce Danny Delgado]] and [[Series/PowerRangersSPD Elizabeth "Z" Delgado]], [[Series/PowerRangersTurbo Cassie]] [[Series/PowerRangersInSpace Chen]] and [[Series/PowerRangersLostGalaxy Kai Chen]], and [[Series/PowerRangersNinjaStorm Cam Watanabe]] and [[Series/PowerRangersSamurai Mia Watanabe]]. Expanding to names that are merely similar, we have [[Series/PowerRangersTimeForce Katie]] to the two Kats above, [[Series/PowerRangersInSpace Zhane]] and [[Series/PowerRangersNinjaStorm Shane]], [[Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers Jason]] and [[Series/PowerRangersSamurai Jayden]] (possibly intentional, given the latter series' {{Call Back}}s to the former), and [[Series/PowerRangersWildForce Taylor]] and [[Series/PowerRangersDinoCharge Tyler]]. |
| 296 | ** "[[Series/PowerRangersWildForce Forever Red]]", the aforementioned reunion special, must have been fun to film, considering they had ''four'' Jasons: three actors ([[Series/PowerRangersTimeForce Jason Faunt]], [[Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers Jason]] [[Series/PowerRangersZeo David]] [[Series/PowerRangersTurbo Frank]], and [[ThoseTwoGuys Jason Narvy]]) along with [[Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers Jason Lee Scott, the character]], played by Austin St. John, [[TheDanza born Jason Geiger]]. |
| 297 | ** In ''Series/PowerRangersMegaforce'', Yellow and Pink are called Gia and Emma respectively. The previous season had Yellow and Pink being called Emily and Mia repectively. So not only did they have similar names, they also swapped their colours. 6 episodes in and some fans are still confusing them. |
| 298 | ** Enforced in ''Series/PowerRangersDinoCharge'', as casting sheets listed two characters as Lucas and Ryan, but were later changed to Tyler and Riley to avoid conflicting with [[Series/PowerRangersTimeForce previous]] [[Series/PowerRangersLightspeedRescue Rangers]] by those names. However, the sheets also listed the SixthRanger as Ivan, which was used by the NonSerialMovie villan [[Film/MightyMorphinPowerRangersTheMovie Ivan Ooze]]. |
| 299 | ** Kendall Morgan is also extremely close to ''Lost Galaxy'''s Kendrix Morgan. Both are scientists, Kendall wears glasses just like Kendrix and her color purple is very close to the color pink which was Kendrx's Ranger color. |
| 300 | ** Hayley Foster, the White Ranger from ''Series/PowerRangersNinjaSteel'' shares her forename with Hayley Ziktor, the MissionControl character from ''Series/PowerRangersDinoThunder''. |
| 301 | ** The first Power Rangers character with the name Emily was Jason Scott's love interest in ''Zeo''. The name was used again for the Yellow Ranger in ''Samurai''. |
| 302 | ** The names "Eric" and "Merrick" would likely bring to mind the respective Sixth Rangers of ''Series/PowerRangersTimeForce'' and ''Series/PowerRangersWildForce''. However, these names were originally used for a pair of monster brothers in season three of ''Mighty Morphin''. Eric was also the name of the Red Dino Thunder Ranger's twin brother. |
| 303 | ** The names of the [[Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers Blue Mighty Morphin Ranger]], Billy and [[Series/PowerRangersOperationOverdrive the Black Overdrive Ranger]], Will are diminutives of the name William. |
| 304 | ** A surname example: ''Series/PowerRangersLightspeedRescue'' had an episode featuring a {{Jerkass}} general with the last name of [=McKnight=]. The Red Dino Thunder Ranger was named Conner [=McKnight=]. |
| 305 | ** Their aliases aren't immune either. "Green Samurai Ranger" can refer to either [[Series/PowerRangersNinjaStorm Cam]] or [[Series/PowerRangersSamurai Mike]]. Ninja Rangers is the name of both a SuperMode from ''Series/{{Mighty Morphin|Power Rangers}}'' and the sum of the two main teams from ''[[Series/PowerRangersNinjaStorm Ninja Storm]]''. ''[[Series/PowerRangersTurbo Turbo]]'' and ''[[Series/PowerRangersWildForce Wild Force]]'' both have (unrelated) [[PsychoRangers evil Ranger teams]] named Shadow Rangers... which is also the name DaChief takes on ''[[Series/PowerRangersSPD S.P.D.]]'' |
| 306 | * ''Series/{{Primeval}}'': Has two Toms. One is a main character who is blond, stocky and in the SAS; the other is one of ThoseTwoGuys ginger, lanky, and a geeky conspiracy theory nut. They both die in the first series. |
| 307 | * ''Series/RaisingDad'': Acknowledged this in an episode once as Sarah had an Evan, Erin and Aaron at the house for dinner and Emily stammered on the names a couple of times. |
| 308 | * ''Series/{{Raven}}'' averts this twice: |
| 309 | ** There were two different contestants who went by "Sonro" in different series: one in the spinoff ''Raven: The Secret Temple'' and one in series 12. |
| 310 | ** As series 11-12 have a new character going by "Raven" and guiding the warriors, the previous Raven is now called "Raven of Old". |
| 311 | * ''Series/RedDwarf'': |
| 312 | ** Aversion: an uncommonly large number of guest characters have the first name Frank. There's Frank Hollister (the captain of Red Dwarf), Frank Todhunter (the second officer), Frank Rimmer (Rimmer's older brother), Rimmer's uncle Frank (mentioned only), Frank Saunders (in the novel ''Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers'', Saunders was the hologram before [=McIntyre=]'s death), the guy called Frank who found baby Lister under the Aigburth Arms pool table, and in one episode Kryten mentions that he named the washing machine Frank because "he works better with an identity". |
| 313 | ** "Lemons" does this as well. [[spoiler:Turns out there were a lot of people named Jesus in AD 23, and the one the Dwarfers assist is just an ordinary guy.]] |
| 314 | * ''Remember WENN'': In-universe example: Betty has to give feedback to a writer who has named both the hero and villain of her script "John." This is especially confusing because it's on radio. |
| 315 | * ''Series/{{Revolution}}'': Averted Trope. There's Jacob the bounty hunter ("[[Recap/RevolutionS1E2ChainedHeat Chained Heat]]") and Jacob Renn the Monroe militia guy. There's Joseph Deckert the Monroe militia captain ("[[Recap/RevolutionS1E12Ghosts Ghosts]]") and Joseph Wheatley the Monroe militia mole ("[[Recap/RevolutionS1E9Kashmir Kashmir]]"). There's Pete Bowers the Monroe militia major ("[[Recap/RevolutionS1E16TheLoveBoat The Love Boat]]") and Peter the young man ("[[Recap/RevolutionS1E7TheChildrensCrusade The Children's Crusade]]"). There's Richard Lucas the Georgian Navy officer and Richards the Monroe militia private ("[[Recap/RevolutionS1E3NoQuarter No Quarter]]"). There's Rose the housekeeper of the Nevilles and Fabers ("[[Recap/RevolutionS1E8TiesThatBind Ties That Bind]]"), and Rose/Rosie the rebel ("[[Recap/RevolutionS1E13TheSongRemainsTheSame The Song Remains the Same]]"). There's Steve the insurance adjuster boss ("[[Recap/RevolutionS1E5SoulTrain Soul Train]]") and Steve the bounty hunter ("[[Recap/RevolutionS1E15Home Home]]"). There's Trevor the rapist outlaw ("[[Recap/RevolutionS1E1Pilot Pilot]]") and Trevor the rebel ("[[Recap/RevolutionS1E3NoQuarter No Quarter]]"). There's Beth Robinson-Bromley a name in a file and Beth the wife of Jane Warren ("[[Recap/RevolutionS1E14TheNightTheLightsWentOutInGeorgia The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia]]"). There's John Sanborn the scientist ("[[Recap/RevolutionS1E18Clue Clue]]") and John Faber the Monroe militia colonel. There's Amy Tipton a name in a file and Amy Wilkes the Plains Nation girl ("[[Recap/RevolutionS1E17TheLongestDay The Longest Day]]"). There's George the rebel and George Maya a name in a file. There's Doug Meerdinx and Doug Sloan who are both names in a file. There's Billy Frank a name in a file and Billy Underwood the bully. There's Sean the Pittman's friend ("[[Recap/RevolutionS1E6SexAndDrugs Sex and Drugs]]"), Sean Bozeman a name in a file, and Sean Miller the newspaper producer. There's David Kipling the former Monroe militia major ("[[Recap/RevolutionS1E10NobodysFaultButMine Nobody's Fault But Mine]]"), David Moxness a name in a file, and David Stockton a name in a file. |
| 316 | * ''Series/RizzoliAndIsles'': |
| 317 | ** Jane's father and brother are both named Frank, though her brother goes by Frankie. |
| 318 | ** Also, when Jane's other brother, Tommy, has a baby, they name him Tommy Junior ([[OnlyKnownByInitials T.J.]] for short). |
| 319 | * ''Series/{{Rome}}'': The creators of this TV series did their best to neaten up everyone's names (since RealLife AncientRome averted this trope horribly), but they were still left with siblings Octavian and Octavia, and Vorenus's two daughters Vorena and Vorena. |
| 320 | * ''Series/RoomAtTheBottom1967'': In addition to Lord Percy, there was also a OneShotCharacter, Uncle Percy, who appeared in one of Lord Percy's three episodes. |
| 321 | * ''Series/{{Roseanne}}'': An early episode revealed that DJ's real name was "David Jacob." Later, a completely different David eventually joined the show (and eventually became DJ's brother-in-law, no less). |
| 322 | * ''Series/{{Sadakatsiz}}'': Asya's father's mistress is called Asya as well. Asya's father named her exactly that because he never let go of his love for that woman. |
| 323 | * ''Series/{{Sanctuary}}'': This Canadian sci-fi show likes to re-use names. There are two Edwards; two families with the similar last name Meyers and Myers; Joe and Josephine, who are both [=HAPs=]; another Joe, Joseph, and Josie; a Lilian and a Lillian. Even the names of two of the main characters, Helen and Henry, are oddly alike. |
| 324 | * ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' has sometimes defied this. Notably Creator/ChrisFarley started on the show at the same time as Creator/ChrisRock and in his last season starred alongside Creator/ChrisElliott. There was a similar overlap later on between Creator/ChrisKattan and Creator/ChrisParnell. |
| 325 | * ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'': |
| 326 | ** One episode has a character called Murray. To prove a point he yells out his name and a crowd of old men poke their heads out the door. |
| 327 | ** J.D.'s brother is named Dan, and one of J.D.'s exes is named Danni, who dated another guy named Danny at one point. This confused J.D. when he thought Danni was calling out her own name in bed. |
| 328 | ** One of JD's interns in nicknamed Cabbage (his real name is Jason Cabbagio) and another has Cabbage as his last name. The real Cabbage is nicknamed Wolfman to avoid confusion and because he looks like a werewolf. |
| 329 | ** JD and Dr. Cox both have girlfriends named Julie, though not at the same time. |
| 330 | * ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'': |
| 331 | ** Jerry attempts to find a conversation starter for when he meets Creator/JerryLewis. George says he doesn't need a conversation starter because they have the same name. He claims to have used having the same name to start a conversation with George Peppard. [[note]] Never mind that George Peppard had been dead for years by this episode. [[/note]] |
| 332 | ** A fictionalized version of RealLife New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner became a recurring character on the show after George Costanza got a job working for him at the end of Season 5. Steinbrenner is [[LastNameBasis usually referred to by his surname]], though he always addresses Costanza as "George." |
| 333 | * ''Series/SesameStreet'' has two Muppets named Elmo. The oldest one, Elmo Mondiporg, was renamed [[http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Maurice_Monster Maurice Monster]], possibly to avoid confusion with the other Elmo. Both Elmos appeared in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0VJtXB4i5A "Me, Claudius"]], claiming to be Claudius. To add to the confusion, Elmo Mondiporg also portrayed a creature named [[http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/The_Wonderful_World_of_T-Shirts Kermit the Gorf]]. |
| 334 | * ''Series/{{Skins}}'': Averted in several instances. In addition to Jim Stonem (Tony and Effy's father),the second generation had both James Cook and James Fitch, twins Katie and Emily's younger brother. Of course, one of the writers is Jamie Brittain, although there is no obvious AuthorAvatar. Also, in the first series, Cassie's fellow patient at the therapeutic treatment centre ("Water Bottle Girl") is sometimes credited as Katie. The sixth series had two Al's-Alo and Alex (they're even referred to as Al 1 and Al 2 occasionally in Skins Lock-in). Alex shares his name with a hanger-on "conceptual artist" who appears in Cook's series 4 episode. The show has featured Franky's two dads, Geoff and Jeff. There have been Elizabeth Jenkins (Sid's mum), Pandora's Aunt Elizabeth, and Elizabeth "Effy" Stonem. "Beth", the ManicPixieDreamGirl in Tony's series 2 episode may be another if she is an actual person, although many fans see her as Tony's subconscious manifestation of Effy. All the men in Sid's extended family, with the exception of Sid and his father, Mark, have names which are variations of "Alexander". She may be a Shelley, but one of the chav girls who beat Sid up in his series 1 episode is called "Shell", as is Michelle. Thomas Tomoni shares a name with the tutor Tom. Averted by Skins: Fire, where a different character named Freddie goes by without comment. |
| 335 | * ''Series/{{Smallville}}'' had Catherine Grant, a blind date of Clark's who became a TV hostess, and then a Cat Grant, a news anchor who worked with Clark and [[LampshadeHanging noted that she wasn't that TV hostess with the similar name]]. This is an example of {{Decomposite Character}}, as both adapt Cat Grant from the comic books in different ways. |
| 336 | * ''Series/SoYouThinkYouCanDance Australia'': Semi-aversion in the current series, which has, in the top twenty competitors, Jess, Jessie, and Jessica. |
| 337 | * ''Series/{{Soap}}'': The final season featured the revolutionary El Puerco, whose [[LaResistance group of guerrilla fighters]] is almost completely wiped out, leaving only Juan, Juan, and Juan. After the requisite name confusion jokes, they started to become known as Juan One, Juan Two, and Juan Three, though this was hardly necessary as Juan Two and Juan Three [[ChuckCunninghamSyndrome disappeared without an explanation]] shortly afterwards. |
| 338 | * ''Series/TheSopranos'': Since this is a show with a lot of Italian mobsters with a very strong mindset on family bloodlines, there's numerous repeating names. For example, there's ''three'' major characters on the show who have the first name "Anthony", the main character (referred to as Tony), the main character's son (referred to as A.J.), and the main character's cousin (referred to as Tony B, while the main Tony is Tony S). Many character have nicknames to help distinguish them. |
| 339 | * ''Series/StargateSG1'': Had the nametags of many random extras reading "Davis". Major Davis was a recurring character who worked for the government, but the EngagingChevrons guy had his nametag say Davis for ''ages'' before his name was revealed as Walter Harriman. Confusing. |
| 340 | ** It's also kind of funny that of all the names they could have picked, the showrunners added a "Cam" (Cameron Mitchell) to a team that already had a "Sam" (Samantha Carter). If Daniel Jackson ever went by Dan (he didn't) it would have been a pretty weird set of teammates in later seasons: Sam, Cam and Dan .. and [[OddNameOut Teal'c.]] |
| 341 | * ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'': Had an odd AvertedTrope. One episode featured two people with the ''exact same name''... Claudius Marcus. |
| 342 | * ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': Played with via nicknames. Though not an actual name, Picard always called his first officer "Number One". This lead to an amusing moment in season 2 episode "Peak Performance" when he gave a command while Riker was temporarily commanding his own ship and Data was Picard's first officer but both were in earshot and both responded simultaneously. The same joke is made again in season 7's "Disaster" after he is trapped with a group of children in a turbolift and dubs the eldest "Number One" during the crisis. |
| 343 | * ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' had a few characters from the Q Continuum drop by. Usually more than one at a time. All of them named Q. Somehow this didn't get confusing.[[note]]It's unclear whether this holds true within the Continuum, or if they have some form of self-indentification between themselves and it's only in respect to mortals that they all go by Q.[[/note]] |
| 344 | * ''Series/StElsewhere'': |
| 345 | ** Peter White is a main character for the first three seasons. In the Season One finale "Addiction", Jack and Nina Morrison name their newborn son Peter after Jack's great-uncle. In "AIDS & Comfort", their shared name causes momentary confusion when Dr. Caldwell tells Jack to take good care of Pete in White's presence. |
| 346 | ** Season Two introduces both Dr. Robert "Bobby" Caldwell and Roberta "Bobby" Sloan, who is very briefly married to Dr. Ehrlich. |
| 347 | * ''Series/StrangerThings'' has two main characters named Will and Billy, though due to the CastHerd they rarely interact. |
| 348 | * ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'': |
| 349 | ** The trope is inverted, where there was a prominent, long-time recurring character named Bobby Singer. In the episode "The French Mistake" the main characters are catapulted in an alternative version of reality where they need to pretend to be the actors (Jared & Jensen) who are playing them (the characters Sam & Dean). Upon discovering the fictionalized (and actual) TV show Supernatural is [[{{Tuckerization}} produced by Robert Singer]]:[[note]]Though in Real Life, Bobby got his name without Singer's knowledge.[[/note]] |
| 350 | -->'''Sam''': So the character in the show, Bobby Singer... |
| 351 | -->'''Dean''': [[SelfDeprecation What kind of a douche-bag]] names [[{{Tuckerization}} a character after himself]]? |
| 352 | -->'''Sam''': Oh, that's not right. |
| 353 | ** There are also at least two people named Jimmy, Anna (and one Annie), Victor and Mary. There is also an angel named Samandriel, which is close to Sam (who is named after [[DeadGuyJunior his maternal grandfather,]] [[BackFromTheDead Samuel]]), and there's that time [[Recap/SupernaturalS06E18Frontierland Sam met Samuel Colt face-to-face]]. |
| 354 | ** The angels technically all have a unique name each, but there ''are'' three angels bearing a variation of the name "Anna": Anna Milton, Hannah, and Anael. |
| 355 | ** Two male angels are named Benjamin. Two female angels are also named Hester and Esther. |
| 356 | ** Rachel is both Sam's prom date and the name of an angel. |
| 357 | ** Amelia is both Sam's love interest in season 8 and also Jimmy Novak's wife and Claire's mother. This isn't too confusing since they're relevant in completely different parts of the story, though. |
| 358 | ** Although they appeared far enough apart as to not be confusing, Sam and Dean have worked with two different female secondary characters named Charlie. |
| 359 | ** There have been two notable Kate's in the show who had two episode appearances each: poetically, one got turned into a vampire and the other into a werewolf. |
| 360 | ** Played with in episode 11x07: Donna's ex-husband and her new love interest are both cops named Doug. The similarities trouble her at first. |
| 361 | ** Maggie (no surname given) is an Apocalypse World refugee who was a recurring character in the later seasons. There were five other one-off characters by that name, including an early member of Ghostfacers, a witch played by Creator/CharismaCarpenter and the girl who played the role of Sam in the ''Supernatural'' musical in the episode "Fan Fiction". Also, ''Series/TheWinchesters'' establishes that Mary Winchester canonically has a cousin named Maggie. |
| 362 | ** Jessica, Sam's girlfriend who is killed at the start of the series, shares her name with a reaper who shows up in season 13. |
| 363 | * ''Series/{{Survivor}}'': [[note]]Excludes cases where there was no potential for name confusion, so cases like John Cody and John Broward "Brad" Culpepper in ''Survivor: Blood vs. Water'' are ignored.[[/note]] |
| 364 | ** ''Survivor: Africa'' had two Kims. |
| 365 | ** ''Survivor: Marquesas'' had a Rob and a Robert. The former went by "Boston Rob" and the latter was referred to as "The General". |
| 366 | ** ''Survivor: Pearl Islands'' had two Ryans, who went by "Ryno" and "Skinny Ryan". |
| 367 | ** ''Survivor: All-Stars'' had two Robs and two Jennas. The Rob from ''Marquesas'' once again went by "Boston Rob", and the Rob from ''The Amazon'' went by "Rob C.", "[[LastNameBasis Cesternino]]", or [[FullNameBasis his full name]]. One of the Jennas [[NonGameplayElimination quit]] early enough that it never became an issue for them. |
| 368 | ** ''Survivor: Vanuatu'' had two Johns, one of which went by "JP". |
| 369 | ** ''Survivor: Micronesia'' had a Jon and a Jonathan, though Jon went by the nickname "Jonny Fairplay". |
| 370 | ** ''Survivor: Samoa'' had two Russells, Russell Hantz and Russell Swan. Hantz lasted longer in the game and was known as "Evil Russell" by the fanbase because of his puppet-master style of play. Ater Swan was evacuated from the game, fewer people bothered to make the distinction between them. The finale made it even less of an issue; there was so much talk about how Hantz ended up losing that whenever someone said the name "Russell" it was generally assumed they were talking about Hantz. |
| 371 | ** ''Survivor: Nicaragua'' had two Kellys, one of which was nicknamed "Purple Kelly" by the cast. It also had two Jimmys; one was sometimes called "J.T.", and the other, [[UsefulNotes/NationalFootballLeague NFL]] coach Jimmy Johnson, was called "Coach". Interestingly, the Jimmys' nicknames also result in a One Steve Limit with two prior seasons, as ''Survivor: Tocantins'' also had a pair of castaways nicknamed Coach and J.T., and those two returned for ''Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains'', the season immediately preceding ''Nicaragua''. |
| 372 | ** ''Survivor: Blood vs. Water'' had two Lauras. For the first time, two castaways with the same name received votes at the same Tribal Council; everyone wrote down "Laura B." or "Laura M." to avoid ambiguity. |
| 373 | ** ''Survivor: San Juan del Sur'' had a John and a Jon. To add to the confusion, this was a pairs season, and both played with their girlfriends whose first name also started with a J (Julie for the former, Jaclyn for the latter). |
| 374 | ** So far, the show's pool of winners had two Natalies, ''Samoa'' winner Natalie White and ''San Juan Del Sur'' winner Natalie Anderson. |
| 375 | ** Host Jeff Probst himself has dealt with this three times (so far) with contestants Jeff Varner (''The Australian Outback'' and two return appearances), Jeff Wilson (''Palau'') and Jeff Kent (''Philippines''). |
| 376 | * ''Series/SwitchedAtBirth'': Averted during Bay's search for her biological father - she finds three Angelo Sorrentos in Kansas City. [[spoiler: The one she thinks is the right one is gay. [[Series/BabyDaddy Admittedly the main character on another ABC Family series]] was fathered by a gay man, but...]] |
| 377 | * ''Series/TerminatorTheSarahConnorChronicles'': Has both John Connor, humanity's future savior, and John Henry, a rudimentary AI controlling a Terminator endoskeleton. However, John Henry is always referred to by his full name, limiting any possible confusion. |
| 378 | * ''Series/ThisIsWonderland'': Has two unrelated characters with the last name "Davis". Anthony is a successful and handsome defense attorney. Rosemary is a hideous and monumentally stupid crackhead. |
| 379 | * ''Series/TimeSlip'': In order to preserve the surprise, and also maintain the OneSteveLimit, Liz's counterpart in the various potential 1990 time zones has changed her name to Beth. Simon is less lucky, and is known in the future as [[YouAreNumberSix 2957]]. |
| 380 | * ''Series/TotalDivas'' plays with this - as Wrestling/EvaMarie is the only cast member to go by her stage name rather than real name on-screen. This is because her real name is Natalie, and there is another cast member called Wrestling/NatalyaNeidhart, who is always nicknamed Nattie. There are three Johns in the cast - but one is a Jonathan and the other two have different spellings to help differentiate them (John Cena and Jon Fatu respectively). Averted with the name Josie, which is the name of Brie's pet dog and Eva Marie's mother. |
| 381 | * ''Series/TouchingEvil'': In the original UK version, the main character's name is David Creegan, and the first episode of the second series features a character named David Laney. In the US remake, Laney's first name was changed to Stephen. |
| 382 | * ''Series/ATouchOfFrost'': In addition to regular character Detective Sergeant George Toolan, the episode "True Confessions" features a solicitor also named George. In the episode "Not With Kindness", a suspect called George Compton appears. |
| 383 | * ''Series/TheTudors'': As historical fiction about a real family, they're stuck with some repeated names; for example, Henry VII's six wives had three names between them, and an amazing number of important men are named Thomas. To obey the OneSteveLimit, the show tends to use nicknames for the women (the various Catherines are "Catherine", "Kitty", and "Kate") and surnames or titles for the Thomases (Wolsey, More, Cromwell, Cranmer, etc.). |
| 384 | * ''Series/TwinPeaks'' repeatedly averts this. The idea of doubles is key to the story, and, indeed, the title of the show. |
| 385 | ** Laura Palmer's boyfriend Bobby and his best friend Mike share names with the show's BigBad BOB and his one-armed former accomplice, MIKE. When Cooper first hears of the latter in a dream, he has to clarify the difference. The first episode briefly featured a third Bob, an incidental character who worked at the hotel. And a fourth Bob is mentioned but never shown: a comatose veterinarian named Bob Lydecker, who - in what is more than a coincidence - is best friends with MIKE's host body, Philip Michael Gerard. |
| 386 | ** Gerard isn't the only Philip around: there's also FBI Agent [[Music/DavidBowie Phil Jeffries]]. |
| 387 | ** There are also two Chets: FBI Agent Chet Desmond and Chet, the beleaguered hero of ShowWithinAShow ''Invitation To Love''. |
| 388 | ** Call girl Jade from "The Return" also shares her name with a character from ''Invitation to Love''. |
| 389 | ** There's also Sheriff Harry Truman and Harold Smith, as well as Andrew Packard and Officer Andy Brennan. |
| 390 | ** "The Return" features Dougie Jones, who shares a name with the (now long dead) Dougie Milford, publisher of the local newspaper, and - though this may not entirely qualify - the Douglas Fir trees that Coop was obsessing over in the first season premiere. |
| 391 | ** Dougie's son, who is consistently referred to as "Sonny Jim", shares (presumably) a first name with both James Hurley and a mortician named Jim who appears briefly in the pilot. |
| 392 | ** The second season had a foppish salesman named Richard Tremayne. "The Return" had psychotic lowlife Richard [[spoiler: Horne]], who is probably not the Richard the Fireman was referring to when he mentioned "Richard and Linda"... |
| 393 | ** Jacques Renault, Jack Wheeler, a cantankerous extra wearing a "Goodbye! My Name Is Jack" name tag in "The Missing Pieces", the casino/brothel One-Eyed Jack's, very possibly Radio KPJK... |
| 394 | ** A real piece of fridge brilliance: in the season 2 finale, Cooper ventures into the Black Lodge in search of his girlfriend Annie, who appears to have merged with his memories of his lost love Caroline. In the finale of "The Return", [[spoiler: he ventures to what may or may not be the real Odessa, Texas, and meets a woman who may or may not be Laura Palmer -- as far as she apparently knows, her name is Carrie]]. |
| 395 | * A peculiar example in a ''Series/TwoAndAHalfMen'' episode. Charlie is telling his psychiatrist, Dr. Freeman, about his new girlfriend Linda. Linda's name is emphasized--Charlie calling it beautiful and Dr. Freeman snarkily agreeing with him--but the fact that Dr. Freeman's name is also Linda is completely passed over. |
| 396 | * ''Series/VeronicasCloset'': In one episode, Leo dates a woman named Peri, which makes things a bit awkward between Leo and his friend Perry. In order to alleviate the tension, Leo attempts to get Perry to go by his EmbarrassingFirstName "Laird". When the situation is finally explained to Peri, she offers to go by her middle name "Yerma". [[YourMom Unfortunately, this is not less awkward.]] |
| 397 | * The aversion of this trope is the central plot point of the 2009 Colombian SoapOpera ''Victorinos'', in which the lives of three men named [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Victorino]] end up crashing into each other thanks to a few cases of mistaken identity (and one of them is a cop, one is a criminal kingpin, and the third is a normal guy). |
| 398 | * ''Series/TheWalkingDead'': |
| 399 | ** Shortly after [[spoiler: Bob Stookey]]'s death, Rick's group encounters a minor villain who shares his first name. |
| 400 | ** In the comics, one of the Saviors is named Tara. Her TV counterpart was [[AdaptationNameChange renamed]] [[SdrawkcabName Arat]] to avoid confusion with CanonForeigner Tara Chambler. |
| 401 | * ''Series/TheWarAtHome'': On the first day of the school year, Larry decides to reinvent himself to become more popular, and so starts going by the name of Gideon. At the end of [[StatusQuoIsGod the episode]] he goes back to being Larry, because it turns out there's an Israeli transfer student named Gideon. The real Gideon apparently thought Larry was mocking him, and kicked his ass for it. |
| 402 | * ''Series/TheWestWing'': |
| 403 | ** Both Josh's therapist and the psychologist they send him from ATVA are called Stanley. |
| 404 | ** Additionally, the speechwriting interns assigned to Will Bailey are named Lauren, Lauren, Lauren, and Cassie. He eventually [[YouAreNumberSix gives them Washington Redskins jerseys]] just so he can get them straight. |
| 405 | ** C.J.'s press room seems to be full of people named Chris, at least one of whom is a woman. Also, in "Debate Camp" during the flashback to when she's new on the job and is memorizing who sits where, the list includes "... Julie, Julie, Julia..." |
| 406 | ** Creator/AaronSorkin likes to reuse names, which can result in jarring examples of this; for example, there's a season two episode with a character named "Bruno" and a character named "Gianelli"-- Bruno Gianelli is the campaign manager in season 3. And how many people do you know with the last name "Tascano"? Charlie knows at least two. |
| 407 | *** A senator named Stackhouse is mentioned in a season-one episode in a list of names of politicians who are liable to accuse the White House of being soft on drugs even though they themselves have used their influence to smooth over drug arrests for family members. In the fourth season, we're introduced to Stackhouse as [[SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism an idealistic and conscientious statesman who would never do a thing like that]] (and whose pet project is needle exchange programs to protect heroin addicts from AIDS, not something a politician is likely to support if he cherishes a reputation for being hard on drugs). Presumably Sorkin had forgotten Stackhouse was no longer a blank slate. |
| 408 | *** Stackhouse also appears in the 2nd season episode "The Stackhouse Filibuster," as a Senator with an autistic grandson who filibusters an important piece of legislation re: children's health in order to secure funding for autism research. |
| 409 | ** Santos' assistant Ronna is first named in an amusing scene lampshading the similarity with Donna's name, and the confusion that can result from OneSteveLimit violations when you introduce yourself with just "hi, Ronna". Of course, Donna had been on the show since the beginning, so no viewers were confused. |
| 410 | *** of course that did not stop it from confusing the two characters when they first met and continuously assumed that when one said their name they were attempting to correct the former in their own name. |
| 411 | ** Early on in the series, Kathryn Joosten was asked what her character's first name should be ( as she was always on a LastNameBasis with the cast); she settled on Margaret. This was vetoed, as there already was a fairly significant character named Margaret (Leo's secretary), so she was given the name Dolores. |
| 412 | * ''Series/WhatILikeAboutYou'': SubvertedTrope at the end of season 3: Holly goes to visit Henry and finds that he has a new girlfriend, also named Holly. She actually thinks it's kinda cute. [[DramaticIrony We know this, but Vince does not.]] |
| 413 | * Considering that ''Series/WhenCallsTheHeart'' is set in the early 20th century, when names were usually simple and often biblical, it seems a little unusual that there are no two people in town with the same name. |
| 414 | * ''Series/WhodunnitUk'': Used as a RedHerring in "All Part of the Service" where the suspects include a woman named Leslie and and another named Lesley. |
| 415 | * ''Series/WhoseLineIsItAnyway'': Usually (unintentionally) played straight...but averted by the fact that there are ''four Steves.'' (In order: Creator/StephenFry, Steve Steen, Steve Frost, and Creator/StephenColbert.) Also, there have been three Kathys, although none have appeared at the same time. |
| 416 | * ''Series/WinBenSteinsMoney'' had one episode where three Bens competed (their podium names were Ben #1-3; Stein was "Big Ben" during his round). |
| 417 | * ''Series/WinningTime'' averted this big-time, with [[UsefulNotes/NationalBasketballAssociation Los Angeles Lakers]] owner Jerry Buss and former Lakers playing great and then-current team executive Jerry West as key characters. In Episode 3, a college head coach, UNLV's Jerry Tarkanian, enters the mix. Interestingly, all three have different legal first names—Gerald Buss, Jerome West, Jerry Tarkanian. |
| 418 | * ''Series/TheWire'': |
| 419 | ** Simultaneously included no less than ''five'' recurring characters named Michael/Mike, who had no direct connection to one another and never met: Michael Lee the teenager, Mike Fletcher the ''Baltimore Sun'' reporter, Michael Santangelo the Western District cop, Michael Steintorf the mayor's chief of staff, and Jimmy [=McNulty=]'s son Michael. If you want to count very minor characters, there was also a drug dealer named "White Mike" who showed up briefly in season 2, and Omar calls out to a "Mike" in season one when he's dealing drugs off his own corner. |
| 420 | ** "The Greek's" was the name of a restaurant/game arcade in season one, and "The Greek" was the BigBad of seasons two and five. As far as we know, there is no connection between the two at all. |
| 421 | ** Averted with regularity on this show. Dennis "Cutty" Wise and Dennis Mello; Roland "Wee-Bey" Brice and Roland Pryzbylewski; William "Bunk" Moreland and William Rawls; Tommy Carcetti, Thomas "Herc" Hauk and Thomas "Horseface" Pakusa; Johnny Weeks and Johnny "Fifty" Spamanto; Ray Cole and Raymond Foerster. |
| 422 | * ''Series/XenaWarriorPrincess'': The Amazons were founded by a girl named Cyane. Perhaps named in honor of her, there were three Amazon Queens named Cyane. ''Series/YoungHercules'', which is in the same continuity, introduced another Amazon Queen named Cyane. |
| 423 | * ''Series/TheXFactor'': Series 7 had Louis Walsh, judge in every series so far, and Music/LouisTomlinson, solo singer-songwriter and member of BoyBand Music/OneDirection. Both names are pronounced the same way (lew-y), so it can get confusing for new fans of the band following their worldwide breakthrough who are unfamiliar with the show and watch their X Factor performances for the first time on Website/YouTube when the boy band member Louis starts talking about how the judge Louis would dance like a grand-dad and then starts demonstrating. The fact that every X-Factor fan calls both Louis's by their first name just makes it worse. Things got even more confusing as of the 2018 season, when Walsh finally left the judging panel, and Tomlinson joined it, meaning saying "Louis the judge" doesn't clear up who you're talking about anymore. |
| 424 | * ''Series/TheXFiles'' seems to avert this trope a couple of times: |
| 425 | ** There were two brothers in The X-Files with the same name, though not in the same episode. |
| 426 | *** Mulder's father was called 'Bill', as is Scully's older brother. Later [[spoiler: Scully and Mulder's child is named William, after Mulder's father]]. |
| 427 | *** Even more extreme than that - Scully's brother Bill is named after their father: both of the main characters' fathers are named William. Thus bringing the grand total of Williams in the series ''just in Mulder and Scully's immediate families'' to [[spoiler: four]]. |
| 428 | *** It should also be noted that Agent Diana Fowley has an unusually similar first name to Dana Scully, in TV terms. |
| 429 | ** Exploited in one episode ("F. Emasculata"). A pharmaceuticals company sends a contagion to a prisoner to study the effects of the contagion on a small group of people. [[spoiler: It turns out they chose him because he had the exact same name as the explorer who discovered the contagion. If the scandal came up, they could just claim it was the fault of the post office.]] |
| 430 | ** Dana Scully's older sister was named Melissa, which was also the name of a young woman married to the polygamous leader of a doomsday cult and the mother of a CreepyChild with a possessed doll. |
| 431 | * ''Series/YoSoyBettyLaFea'': In this Colombian soap that spawned ''Series/UglyBetty'', the heroine Beatriz (called "Betty" by her family) discovers early on that the relative who owns the company she now works at is named "María ''Beatriz''". The latter wonders how they'll be able to tell each other apart, despite her being a fashion-conscious plastic surgery addict, and Betty being a woman with poor fashion sense who's [[BeautifulAllAlong convinced she's ugly]]. |
| 432 | * ''Series/YearsAndYears'': Played with and the aversion lampshaded for humourous effect. Stephen's father ran away from his mother to be with another woman, with whom he had another son he called... Steven! |
| 433 | * ''Series/YesPrimeMinister'': Played for laughs. In the first episode Hacker mentions giving a Peerage to a Ron Jones, then when someone mentions the members of his Union were pleased Hacker realises they gave it to the wrong Ron Jones, he had intended it to be given to a backbencher. He then wants them given a peerage but is told they can't send 2 Ron Jones to the House of Lords or it will look like a job lot. Humphrey then suggests he make Ron Jones Governor of the BBC when Hacker says they don't even own a TV set. |
| 434 | * ''Series/TheYoungAndTheRestless'': American soap operas religiously adhere to the One Steve Rule, because they want viewers and writers to be on a first-name basis with all their characters. Y&R oddly broke the rule in 1989 with the addition of attorney John Silva, who shared his first name with business executive John Abbott. The two even shared dialog from time to time. |
| 435 | * ''Series/YoungSheldon'': Missy has two friends named Heather. |
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