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"Beetle's brother is named 'Chigger'? Really? As you may or may not know, Hi and Lois's Lois is Beetle's sister, so we have to wonder what her real name was — Ladybug? — before she got married and fled this sad, creepy family for good."

Sometimes, authors give their characters related names. While Theme Naming adds a sense of unity or cohesiveness to the work, it doesn't always make much sense in-universe. Family Theme Naming is when the names of related characters follow a pattern or fall into a category. Somewhere along the line, a character would have had to make the decision to name his or her children something that resulted in Theme Naming. This could result in similarly named siblings or span the entire family tree.

A subtrope of Theme Naming. Theme Twin Naming is a subtrope, and so is Alliterative Family, and commonly employs The Runt at the End as an exception. Related to Couple Theme Naming, where a pair of love interests are given a theme naming.


Examples

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    Anime & Manga 
  • Angel Beats!: Not only does Otonashi mean "empty sound", but both Yuzuru ("bound string") and his sister Hatsune ("the first cry") have names that relate to sounds as well.
  • Asteroid in Love:
    • The several females of the Suzuya household have plant-themed names: Moe (budding), her sister Megu (bud), and their mother Hana (flower).
    • The Sakurai siblings both contains the kanji "kage", which means "scenery."
  • Bleach is absolutely rife with this:
    • The Kurosaki siblings have names that are homonyms (same pronunciation, different kanji) for plants. Ichigo's name references a plant grown for its fruit, his sisters are named for plants that do bear edible fruit but which are valued more as ornamental plants than fruit-bearing plants. (Ichigo = "strawberry"; Karin = "flowering quince"; Yuzu = "citron"). Their mother Masaki's name is also based around flower blooms.
    • The Shiba siblings all have names composed of a classical element and a type of bird: Kaien = "sea swallow"; Kuukaku = "sky crane"; Ganju = "rock eagle".
    • The Kuchiki clan have color-related names. Ginrei = "silver," Soujun = "green/blue," Byakuya = "white."
    • The Ishidas use a samurai naming convention where the son "inherits" a character from his father's name. They also have names alluding to their Quincy heritage: Souken = "soul bow", Ryuuken = "dragon/imperial bow". Uryuu = "rain dragon" seems like the Odd Name Out but the "rain" character may allude to his signature attack, Licht Regen ("Rain of Light").
    • The Inoue siblings have a celestial theme. Orihime = "Vega," the heavenly weaver princess of the Tanabata legend, and Sora = "the sky."
    • The Kotetsu sisters (Isane and Kiyone) have sound-themed names.
  • Through Alternate Character Reading, the Sakuranomiya siblings in Blend-S all share the kanji 香: Aika, Kouichi, and Maika.
  • B't X have brothers Kotaro and Teppei embed with metals "steel" and "iron" within their given names respectively. In East Asian culture, steel comes before iron in when in alignment together, with Kotaro also baring the name "taro (first-born son)" in his name makes it a dead ringer that he is the first-born of the two.
  • Crayon Shin-chan: The Koyama sisters Masae, Misae and Musae plus their aunt Fusae.
  • In Digimon Adventure, brothers Yamato and Takeru are named after Japanese folk hero Yamato Takeru. For bonus points, the movie Our War Game shows that their grandmother lives in Shimane, the same place as Yamato Takeru.
  • Pretty much all the male Nobis in Doraemon are named after their last name.
    • Nobita, Nobisuke, the other Nobisuke, Nobirou, Nobiru...
    • However, the English dub kept Sewashi in line. Toby, Noby, (presumably) Toby Jr., Soby.
  • Dragon Ball:
    • Son Goku and his sons—Gohan and Goten. Further, the kanji for "ku" in Goku's name (空) means "sky" and the "ten" in Goten's name (天) means "heaven."
    • Later, Gohan ("rice") marries a girl named Videl and have a daughter named Pan ("bread"), another intentional pun on Akira Toriyama's part.
      • Videl herself is an anagram of "Devil," as her father is named Mr. Satan. Furthermore, according to Toriyama in the Super Exciting Guide: Character Volume, Mr. Satan is just a stage name; his real name is Mark. In Japanese, the name (Maaku) becomes an anagram for Akuma (Devil/demon), thus continuing the family's supernatural naming convention.
      • And Pan is actually a triple-themed name: the food puns for Gohan's side of the family, the powerful/mythical theme from Videl'snote , and the musical theme from Piccolo, who was Gohan's surrogate father for much of the series.
    • Goku's wife was named Chi-Chi (milk/breast) because her father is the "Ox King." Their family is a reference to cows.
    • Great Demon King Piccolo and all of his children (Tambourine, Drum, Cymbal, Piano, Piccolo Jr.) who are all named after musical instruments.
    • Bulma's family (Bulma/Bloomer, Dr. Brief, Panty, Tights, Trunks, Bra/Bulla/Bura) who are named after undergarments.
    • Kuririn later has a daughter named Marron. Both names are puns on chestnuts.
    • The Namekians (Dende, Nail, Cargo, Moori, Slug), who are all named after snails.
    • The Saiyans, who are all named after vegetables (Raditz, Kakarot, Broli, Paragus), with the royal family and planet all being named "Vegeta."
    • The Ginyu Force are all named after dairy products (Ginyu—Milk, Burter—Butter, Jeice—Cheese, Guldo—Yogurt, Recoome—Cream).
    • Majin Buu and his two masters (Bibidi and Babidi) are all named after the song Bippity Boppity Boo in Cinderella.
    • Freezer's family (his father King Cold, his brother Cooler, and his ancestor Chilled) are all given cold-themed names. The exception is Kuriza, Freezer's son in the parody Neko Majin Z ("Kuri" means chestnut, and refers to the pointed top of Kuriza's head).
    • Androids 17 and 18's real names before their Unwilling Roboticization were, respectively, Lapis and Lazuli, a reference to the blue semi-precious stone lapis lazuli. Both Androids are twin siblings.
    • Dr. Gero and his family (his wife Vomi, his son Gevo, and his grandson Dr. Hedo) are all named after Japanese words used to describe vomiting.
  • Invoked in The Elder Sister-like One. When Shub-Niggurath formed a contract with Yuu to become his older sister, she chose the human name Chiyo (meaning "a thousand nights") to complement his name (meaning "twilight").
  • From the Evillious Chronicles, most of the Beelzenian Royal Family's emperors all have names related to Roman gods—Janus, Jupiter, Juno, etc. In an even closer example of the trope, Emperor Jupiter Beelzenia named all of his children after months.
  • In Gamaran, the (probable) Big Bad Naosada Washizu, the Daimyo of Unabara, has about 30 sons. All of them have a name starting with Nao (Naoyoshi, Naoshizu, Naoie and so on).
  • The Tsukishima brothers from Haikyuu!! follow a light-based scheme: Akiteru (明光) means “bright light”, while Kei is another reading for the kanji 蛍 (hotaru), meaning “firefly”.
    • Taken up a notch when you combine the kanji to make 蛍光 (keikou; “fluorescence”). It fits well with their character designs (blond hair, light brown eyes).
  • Hunter × Hunter: The five Zoldyck children. From oldest to youngest: Illumi, Milluki, Killua, Alluka, and Kalluto.
  • Imaizumin-chi wa Douyara Gal no Tamariba ni Natteru Rashii: ~DEEP~: The brothers Keita and Keichiro.
  • Inuyasha:
    • The three named characters from the demon slayers' village — Sango, her younger brother Kohaku, and their pet Kirara — all have names referring to semi-precious stones (coral, amber and mica, respectively).
    • Additionally, Kikyou and her younger sister Kaede both have names that begin with K and refer to plants (bellflower and maple).
  • The Amanogawa family from Jinzō Konchū Kabuto Borg VxV follows a cosmic theme, with the surname itself meaning "Milky Way". While Ryūsei means "shooting star", Ginga's full name is pronounced the same as "Milky Way Galaxy" in Japanese. Their father, Taiki, only means "great brightness", but his villain alias as Big Bang does follow the pattern.
  • The protagonists of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure all have the nickname "JoJo" for varying reasons:
    • For the protagonists of Parts 1, 2, 7, and 9, who have Western names, it's the first syllable of their first and last names (Jonathan Joestar, Joseph Joestar, Johnny Joestar, Jodio Joestar).
    • For the protagonists of Parts 3 and 6, the first syllable of the given name and last of the family name, which makes them successive in Japanese name order (Jotaro Kujo, Jolyne Cujoh).
    • The protagonists of Parts 4 and 8 are both named Josuke Higashikata; the "JoJo" is in their given name because the kanji for the "-suke" can also be read as "Jo".
    • Giorno Giovanna of Part 5 is technically GioGio, though it's still pronounced "JoJo" by Italian pronunciation. He combines the alliteration with the name "Dio," in reference to his Extra Parent Conception.
    • Part 8 introduces a different theme with the Higashikata family. All the family members that are female introduced as female, anyway have names that are homonyms for card suits; Daiya = Diamond, Hato = Heart, Tsurugi = Spade, Mitsuba = Club. Furthermore, all the Stand users in the family except for Josuke have the word "King" in their Stands' names, reinforcing the playing card theme.
  • In a cross series example, Koromo Shiranui from Kaguya-sama: Love Is War and Frill Shiranui from Oshi no Ko are sisters who share a fashion theme.
  • Beyond the rampant use of Vehicular Theme Naming, Lyrical Nanoha has several examples:
  • Macross: Most members of the Jenius family seem to have names that either start with 'M' or are variants of Milia's name. The parents are Max and Milia; the daughters are Komilia, Miracle, Muse, Therese, Emilia, Miranda, and Mylene; and Delta reveals a granddaughter named Mirage. Even the adopted eighth daughter Moaramia follows the trend.
  • In Magi: Labyrinth of Magic, the Kou emperors named their children after their names. The first emperor Hakutoko's children have "Haku" (white) while second emperor Koutoku's children have "Kou" (red).
  • In Magic Knight Rayearth, Hikaru and Fuu invoke this with their siblings: Hikaru is the youngest of four, with her elder brothers Satoru, Masaru, and Kakeru; meanwhile, Fuu has an older sister named Kuu. Umi averts this, as she is an only child.
  • The Moriarty brothers in Moriarty the Patriot all share the middle name "James," in reference to the original James Moriarty from the original Sherlock Holmes canon, and his brothers who curiously share his name.
  • Naruto has plenty of examples:
    • The Hyuga Clan's main family members (or those who used to be members) all have names that relate to either light, fire, or the sun. There are Hinata (which is Hyuga pronounced differently, it means "place in the sun"), Hiashi ("daytime"), Hanabi ("fireworks"), Hizashi ("sunlight"), and Ko ("light"). The ending also has Naruto's and Hinata's daughter, Himawari, whose name means "sunflower".
    • The Inuzuka Clan's members are named after animal anatomy. There's Kiba, whose name means "fang". His sister's name, Hana, is Japanese for "nose",note  while their mother's, Tsume, is Japanese for "claw".
    • Senju members during the Warring Clans Era all had architecture-themed names ending in "-ma", possibly playing off their key role as one of the two main founding clans of the Konohagakure. There are Hashirama ("pillar"), Tobirama ("door"), Itama ("duckboard"), Kawarama ("roof tile"), and Butsuma ("Buddhist altar").
    • The Haruno family have subtler examples. There is Sakura, which is self-explanatory, but her parents' names are also related to plants in an indirect way. Kizashi is Japanese for "sprouting", while Mebuki is Japanese for "budding". Sakura later has a daughter named Sarada, whom the author confirmed is named after Hindu religious leader Sarada Devi, but it is likely that it is chosen because it can also mean "salad".
    • Rock Lee's son is named Metal Lee. His teacher, Might Guy, had a father named Might Duy.
    • Members of the original Otsutsuki Clan all have names derived from Japanese folklore. Names of the men additionally always end with "-shiki". There are Kaguya, Momoshiki, Kinshiki, Urashiki, and Isshiki. Kaguya had a son named Hagoromo, which refers to the robe the folkloric Kaguya used to travel to the moon.
    • Suigetsu ("water moon") Hozuki's brother was named Mangetsu ("full moon"). Their relative who became the Second Mizukage was named Gengetsu ("illusion moon"). Their names are allusions to the Japanese proverb kyouka suigetsu ("mirror flower, water moon"), which refers to things that seem real but are not, i.e. illusions.
  • One Piece:
    • In the Whole Cake Island arc, it is revealed that Sanji has three brothers and a sister. The four brothers are named Ichiji, Niji, Sanji and Yonji, the kanji for numbers 1-4. Their older sister Reiju is also named after a number, in her case it's 0. And in Japanese their father partially follows the naming as well, with the Japanese spelling used for Judge being Jajji, following the -ji suffix of his sons.
    • Thr Medaka Mermaid Quintuplets follow the same theme naming, except for the last sister having the Odd Name Out of "Yonka Two" instead of "Goka" (with "go" meaning five), as lampshaded by Usopp.
    • Big Mom's children have an Edible Theme Naming, with names such as Pudding, Cracker, Brûlée and Smoothie.
    • King Neptune of Fishman Island is named after the Roman god of the seas, and his wife Otohime after the goddess of the same name, daughter of the Japanese sea god Ryūjin. Also, their children's names all end in "-oshi": Fukaboshi, Ryuboshi, Manboshi and Shirahoshi. And on top of all that, Shirahoshi is the current incarnation of the ancient weapon Poseidon, named after the Greek equivalent of Neptune.
  • Osomatsu-kun and Osomatsu-san: All six of the Matsuno brothers' names end with "-matsu". Their parents also join in on the theme; their names are Matsuzo and Matsuyo.
  • Please Teacher!: The three Kazami women's names end with the syllable "-ho": protagonist Mizuho, her mother Hatsuho, and her sister Maho.
  • Pokémon: The Series:
    • Misty and her sisters Lily, Daisy, and Violet are named after flowers. This applies to their Japanese names as well.
    • Lampshaded by Bonnie in X and Y when Sanpei revealed his older brothers' names were Ippei and Nihei (playing off the Japanese words for "one", "two", and "three").
  • In Puella Magi Madoka Magica, the name of the character Kyoko means 'Apricot'. Her sister has, or more specifically "had", the name 'Momo' which means "Peach."
  • The main heroes in Sorcerer Hunters are named after cakes: Carrot, Marron, Gateau, Chocolate and Tira (Misu).
  • ST☆R: Strike it Rich: The Sena sisters have very similar first name: Riku and Riko.
  • The Story Between a Dumb Prefect and a High School Girl with an Inappropriate Skirt Length: The Kohinata family seem to all have names related to poetry or music: Poemu, Ririku (Lyric), and Raimu (Rhyme). The mom's name hasn't been revealed yet, though.
  • In Mission: Yozakura Family, all of the Yozakuras have a number in their name:
    1. Kyoichiro as in "One".
    2. Futaba as in "Two".
    3. Shinzo as in "Three".
    4. Shion as in "Four".
    5. Kengo as in "Five".
    6. Mutsumi as in "Six".
    7. Nanao as in "Seven".
  • In the Korean dub of Voltes V, the Gō brothers' names are changed to have names that begin with "Geon/Gun": Kenichi Gō becomes Geon-il Oh, Daijirou Gō becomes Gun-woong Oh and Hiyoshi Gō becomes Geon-sang Oh.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh!: Yugi Muto and his grandfather share names themed after gaming, “Yugi” being the Japanese word for “game” and his grandfather’s Japanese name, Sugoroku, being the name of s Japanese board game.

    Comic Books 
  • In an Archie Comics Christmas story, Betty and Veronica meet a poor little boy rummaging through garbage cans on Christmas Eve. The kid's name is Noel Holiday, and his brothers are named Washington, Lincoln, and Independence. The girls decide, weird names or no, that this family deserves a nice Christmas. So they buy food for dinner and presents for the kids, and knock on the door with a cheerful, "Merry Christmas!". And Mrs. Holiday asks the girls how they know her name.
  • In Silex and the City, the members of the principal nuclear family are Blog Dotcom (father), Spam Dotcom (mother), Web Dotcom (daughter) and Url Dotcom (son).
  • Wonder Woman: Etta Candy's family, excluding herself and her niece Suzie, all have names that play on the family name. Her mother is named Sugar Candy, her father is named Hard Candy, and her brother is named Mint Candy. In her parent's case, these might be nicknames; however, they're also the only names for them the readers are given.
  • Yorick, the protagonist of Y: The Last Man, and his sister, Hero, are both named after Shakespearean characters. Yorick is the dead court jester whose skull gets exhumed in Hamlet and Hero is Leonato's daughter from Much Ado About Nothing.

    Comic Strips 
  • Popeye has Olive Oyl and her family (Nana, Castor, Cole).

    Fan Works 
  • Abraxas (Hrodvitnon): Somewhat lampshaded. Ghidorah's three heads are considered brothers, and Vivienne Graham nicknamed them Ichi, Ni and Sannote . Later in the fic, Ghidorah plans to forcibly assimilate Vivienne and turn her into a fourth head, whom both Vivienne and Ghidorah's left head think will be called Shinote .
  • The Awakening of a Magus: The Rosewoods, appropriately, name boys after trees and girls after flowers. Which becomes a minor plot point when it turns out Lily is related to Pansy and Harry is entitled to some inheritance the Parkinsons have been trying to claim for decades.
  • Bequeathed from Pale Estates: Rhaegar Targaryen named his children Rhaenys, Aegon and Visenya after the conquerors. Similar to the originals Visenya (ironically the youngest rather than the eldest) survived her siblings.
  • Boldores And Boomsticks: Whisper's name starts with 'W' like the rest of her adopted siblings'.
  • Bridge to Terabithia 2: The Last Time: The LDD-fanfic ends with a Babies Ever After Epilogue, where Jess and Leslie becomes a married couple with two children, their daughter Riley and son Jake. This trope applies in a way that mother and daughter have rhyming Gender-Blender Name that was more common in males decades ago, but nowadays synonymous with females, while father and son have one-syllable names both sharing the same initials which are abbreviations of another name (Jasper, Jacob) but works fine on its own.
  • The Choices That Make Us: Petunia and Lily Evans' mother and grandfather also have flower names, causing Narcissa to point out to Pansy Pankinson that the Evans family could easily be a squib branch of her family, and that even if they aren't, imagining it's true might help her care less about blood purity.
  • "darkly, darkly, dawn glittered in the sky" features Sansa Stark (Game of Thrones) being reborn in 1960s Britain as the twin sister of Lily Evans (Harry Potter), born with the name 'Violet Hope Evans'. The focus on flower names is further reflected when the Evans family adopt various pets; Violet adopts two ravens that she and Lily name Buttercup and Marigold and later forms a bond with a direwolf she names Flora, and when the Evans family purchase owls for communicating while the twins are at Hogwarts the girls' owl is named Catnip while their parents and Petunia purchase another owl named Rue.
  • Denounce the Evils: The Miyamoto family has an Americian western motif: Jessica "Jessie" Miyamoto is named after Jesse-James, while her mother Jane Miyamoto is named after Calamity Jane.
  • The Desert Storm: In Zodiac, Obi-Wan discovers that he has a long-lost older sister named Obi-Vell.
  • A Diplomatic Visit: Ocellus, a canon character, is named for the simplistic eyes sported by some insects. Her parents, who made unnamed appearances in the show and are Named by the Adaptation in the second and third stories of this series, also sport names based on insect eyes.
  • Dungeon Keeper Ami: The seven sisters that make up the Sixth Full-Fairy Aerial Recon Force of the Shining Concord Empire, have Floral Theme Naming: Camilla, Melissa, Anise, Roselle, Cerasse, Dandel, and Tilia.
  • Fates Collide: Jaune Arc's siblings' names all start with "J". Jeanne, Jordy, Jasmine, June, Jazz, Jasper, and Jonquill.
  • The Flight of the Alicorn:
    • In the Blueblood family, all males are named after stars and all females are named after rare metals. Prince Blueblood's true name is Polaris, his brother is named Procyon, his young sisters are Ruthenium and Iridium, and his mother is Palladium. This tradition goes back to their ancestors among the pre-Equestrian unicorn royal family, such as Princess Platinum. Palladium was originally called Salvia Dream, but changed her name when she married into the family.
    • Rainbow Dash's family uses rainbow-themed names, as seen with her cousins Chroma Prism and Aurora Glow.
    • Gilda's full name is Girigilida Goldenwings, matching her uncle Korb Graywings.
  • Friendship is Witchcraft: Princess Celestia and her younger sister Princess Molestia. They're named after the sun and moon respectively.
  • Frozen Hearts (Sakume) combines this with Alphabetical Theme Naming, with all Hans' brothers' names starting on letter H.
  • Her Fractured Spirit: Like in Splatoon canon, there are the cousins Callie and Marie, whose names combine into "calamari". According to Callie, her mother decided it would be funny to name her daughter and future niece with related puns.
  • Johanna Mason: They Will Never See Me Cry: Johanna and her brother Joey both have jo names.
  • Just a Child: All of the Kamui children are named after different Ainu gods: Pauchi (god of insanity), Apasam (god of the threshold), Kim-un (god of bears and mountains), Yushkep (god of spiders), Kina-sut (god of snakes), and Kanna (god of lightning and thunder). This trend is both continued and Averted with the parents; the mother is named Tokapcup, the Kamui of the sun, while the father's name is Seiryu, a name that has no relation to any Ainu gods.
  • The Kedabory Verse:
    • In her Encanto fanfics, Dolores and Mariano have a set of triplets who have the same first initial as the older triplets; Padma and Pepa, Benito and Bruno, and Juana and Julieta.
    • Junior Officers has a family of loons whose names all begin with "lu"; Luisa, Luna, Lucas, and Luz.
    • In PreCure in a Nutshell, the Nijigaoka family, who in canon are named Mashiro, Mahiru, and Akira, are given the parody names of Marshmallow, Marshmommy, and Marshman.
    • In the Yo Kai Watch fanfic Strong and Steady, Kanchi/Eddie is given a cousin named Kagami/Maddie.
    • In the Punch-Out!! fanfic Shining and Sweet, Flameleader and her sisters all have names ending with the letter I: Jenni (short for Jennifer), Holli, and Staci.
  • Lifecycle of a Rose: Taiyang's brother-in-law Qrow jokingly questions his new niece Yang's name:
    Taiyang: “Hey guys, come meet Yang.”
    Qrow: “Yang? Seriously, Tai? You may as well have just named her Junior.”
    Taiyang:“Junior is a stupid name. Yang Xiao Long is a fighter's name.”
  • In Little Bird, Qrow's daughter is named Robin. Robin's friend Yahto later lampshades this by asking "Is everyone in your family named after birds?"
  • A Moon and World Apart:
    • As in canon, most Apple family members have their names derived from a variety of apple.
    • Rose Splendour, Braeburn's mother, has a name derived from two apple cultivars — Pacific Rose, and its ancestor Splendour/Splendor — from New Zealand, the same place where the Braeburn cultivar originated. Likewise, his father Dougherty is named for an Australian apple, whose Red variety (developed in New Zealand) is an ancestor of the Splendour.
  • Neither a Bird nor a Plane, it's Deku!: It's explained that all of the guys in the Midoriya family have the "久" (which can be read as either "ku" or "hisa") kanji in their given name. This is part of the reason why Izuku gets his name after being adopted by his parents, as when written in kanji it comes out to "出久" to share the theme with his adoptive father, Hisashi (久しい).
  • Oversaturated World: Apple Bloom's family has apple-type Floral Theme Naming: Her sister Applejack, and grandmother Granny Smith.
  • The Palaververse: Wedding March: Thorax and Pharynx are implied to be brothers, which is a fact of the source work, and both are named after anatomical areas around the chest.
  • Past Sins: Apple Bloom's family has apple-type Floral Theme Naming: Her sister Applejack, and grandmother Granny Smith.
  • Persona EG: Chrysalis' children are all named after insects or insect terms.
  • Pokémon Reset Bloodlines has several examples:
    • The Seven Brothers of Orre have an Alphabetical Theme Naming from A to G in their order of birth. Three of them are named after music themes (Accentus, a real life musical company, Capriccio, a lively musical set, Descant) while others have names related to dragons such as Balaur (a type of Romanian dragon) and Felgrand (a Yu-Gi-Oh! Dragon arcetype). Their mother is called Heratia, which includes "Hera" (associated with the dragon Ladon) and the father of one of them is called Tarasque (a type of French dragon).
    • Several more characters who are all but stated to be half-siblings (fathered by the G brother) also have a few specific themes:
      • Colors: There's Red, Yellow, Gray (short for Grayson), Vermell (which means Red in Catalan), Midori (Japanese for Green) and Rubrum (Latin for Red).
      • Ash trees: There's Ash himself of course, as well as Frax (for the Fraxinus order Ashes belong to), Velvet (For the Velvet Ash), Meliae (In mythology, Meliae are the Nymphs of Ash Trees) and Pendula (aka a cultivar of the European Ash tree).
      • Music-related terms or references: Shared with several of their paternal uncles, there's Cleff (as in the Trebel Cleff, a musical symbol), (Grayson) Bebop (a style of Jazz), Ringo S. Beddle (The Beatles by way of a Jojo-style name), Fender (a real life manufacturer of string instruments and amplifiers), the Lono twins (a Hawaiian deity whose purview includes music), Biwa (a Japanese lute) and Minuetto (Italian for Minuet, a style of french dance).
      • Several of the Expanded Universe oneshots have done this with the Blackthorn Dragon Clan, at least on the male side. Starting from the canonical example of Lance, later oneshots have featured his grandfather Javelin, his father Halberd, his uncles Sibat and Trishula and his granduncle Yari. All of these names are related to spear-like weapons.
  • Pony POV Series:
    • The Draconequi have this with both Names to Run Away from Really Fast (Havoc, Entropy, Discord, Strife, Anarchy, Pandemonium, Destruction, Rancor, and Fluttercruel/Cruelty (Discord's Child By Mind Rape with Fluttershy)), and the siblings all having at least one name starting with D (Discord, Darwinism, Disorder, Desire, Destruction, and Disruption).
    • From the 7 Dreams/Nightmares Gaiden, Sweetheart's siblings are named Peaches, Cream, and Cheese. She also has this with her children, Lion Heart, Pure Heart, Brave Heart, and Wild Heart.
    • Private Running Gag's family names are all puns on the word "Gag," like Couch Gag, Overly Long Gag, etc. The Loose Canon "Dark World Drabbles" story reveals his descendant a thousand years later continues this trend, being named Mythology Gag.
  • The Powerpuff Girls Re Imagined: Princess Morbucks' father is named King Morbucks.
  • Psychedelic Epiphany Series: Yearly Epiphany: Multiple families:
    • Treehugger, and her parents, Meadow Dan and Willow Song have Floral Theme Naming.
    • Epiphany, and their parents, Treehugger and Discord have Only One Name theme naming.
  • Quite a number of examples in Queens of Mewni:
    • Star Queens in the Butterfly line are named for stars, star related concepts, and the morning star, such as Estelaria, Asteria, Venus, Vesper (Venus as the evening star), and Star herself.
    • Day Queens tend to have sun or light related names, such as Hemera (a Greek goddess of light), Etheria (ethereal), Helia, Solaria, and Aurora.
    • Night Queens have names referencing the night, the moon, or other such celestial/heavenly bodies not related to the above, such as Urania, Cosmica, Crescenta, Febe (derived from Phoebe, a Titan of the moon), Skywynne, Galaxia, Celestia, Meteora, Hekatia (derived from Hecate), Eclipsa, Luna, Heaven, Hesperia (a dusk goddess), Sideria (luminous in Latin), Celena, Diana, Sky, Comet, and Moon.
    • There are exceptions, of course: Solena, the first Night Queen, has a sun related name, Polaria, a Night Queen, is named after the star Polaris, Festivia is named more after the concept of a festival than the above Night Queen theme (due to canonical limitations), and Soupina is named for...well, soup (blame her father for that one).
    • House Redbird members are named after birds, such as Falcon, Hawk, Condor, Swan, and Robin
    • House Waterson members have names based on the sea, water bodies, or other nautical terms, such as Thalassa, Nile, Adrian (Adriatic), Persian, Caspian, and Marine.
    • House Forest have names based on trees, such as Hawthorn, Rowan, Oliver, Elm, Juniper and Pine.
    • House Fields have names based off either Earth countries or cultures, such as Frank, Roman, Germain (German), Alemmania (Germany), Norse, Dorian (an ancestral Greek culture), and Jordan.
    • House Flower has two themes: girls are named for flowers themselves, such as Blossom, Jasmine and Rose (twice, in fact), while boys have names that end in '-ic', such as Rodric, Filbric, Eric, Edric, and Patric.
    • House Stone have names based on stones and other precious gems, such as Crystal, Jett, Quartz, Jasper, and Ruby.
    • House Cross also has two themes: men have names that end in '-nd', such as Osmond and Edmund, while women have names that end in '-ize' or '-ice', such as Carice.
    • House McKnight have names based on knights of legend, particularly Arthurian legend, such as Uther, Arthur, Lancel (Lancelot) and Percy.
  • Quizzical: The Greystone family has names related to stones, usually, like the Chisel line of males, and Quizzical's mother, Beryl Greystone.
  • RealityCheck's Nyxverse: Alicornundrum: Killdeer, a young royal griffin Nyx meets at the international summit, has a family tradition that gives the names of bird species to their griffin bodies and snake species names to their sentient snake tails, with Killdeer's snake tail being named Adder.
  • RWBY: Scars:
    • The fic continues the Food Theme Naming of CFVY by calling (Red) Velvet's mother "Panne".
    • Roman's wife and Neo's mother is named "Eon".
    • Pyrrha and her mother Thetis both have Greek mythology inspired names.
  • Sharing the Nation: Ember turns out to have been named after her grandfather, Emberstoke the Eternal.
  • Sorrowful and Immaculate Hearts: In Arm Candy,, Dick Grayson names a litter of puppies Harley, Selina, and Kay (short for "Kryptonite"), and then has to come up with alternate explanations for the names suitable for sharing with people who don't know his secret identity.
  • Stallions Of Harmony Verse: All Bluebloods are named after some sort of title. Examples include Prince, Duke, Tzar, Caesar and many so far not announced. One exception being King, which is a taboo.
  • Sugar Plums: The main ruling families of Kirigakure have this in some of the main houses. The Hozuki have Suigetsu (water moon) and Mangetsu (full moon) from canon, and also their father Chigetsu (Blood Moon). In the Kishi Hiroshi and his father Hiroto have the same kanji for their first names, and in the Sumire all named characters are named after flowers.
  • Sunsplit Saga: Brother and sister Sunburst, of Only One Name and Sunset Shimmer, are also Alliterative Family by sharing "Sun" at the beginnings of their names.
  • This Platinum Crown: The Terre Rare family continues the pattern of naming their daughters after metals begun with their ancestors in the ancient unicorn royalty. Members of the family include their founder Lady Arsenic, her children Bismuth, Neptunium, and Kamacite, and present representatives such as Antimony and Alpha Brass.
  • The Three Sisters: The changeling sisters Cocoon, Chrysalis and Pupa are all named after transitory stages in the lifecycle of insects.
  • Wishing Well: Baby Star Shadow named herself Sunsparkle to signify independence from her mother, Star Shadow.
  • Worlds Apart (MLP) has Raspberry and her brother Blueberry.
  • Yamujiburo:
    • Butch and Cassidy's children are named Bonnie and Cyde. They're all named after famous criminals.
    • Dawn and Zoey have a daughter named Aurora, which is related to Dawn's name.
  • Zany To The Max has this with the eight Warners: Yakko, Wakko, Pakko, Makko, Dot, Jot, Zak, and Ko. (Zak and Ko's names can be combined to fit the pattern.) In one episode, Yakko explains how this Theme Naming came to be.

    Film — Animation 
  • The Jolly family from Casper's Haunted Christmas, consisting of father Noel, his wife Carol and daughter Holly.
  • Leafie, a Hen into the Wild has Greenie and his mother Leafie. The English dub changed everyone's names. Greenie is renamed "Wily" and has a name similar to his deceased father, Wilson (Wanderer in the original).
  • Turning Red: In the Mandarin dubs for both the Mainland and Taiwan, Mei's given name is transcribed as 美玲 (Měilíng), a common feminine name which translates to "beautiful tinkling-of-jade". Her father's name transcribed as 錦/锦 (Jǐn), referring to a brocade or a tapestry, or when used as an adjective, "bright and beautiful" and Ming's name is transcribed as 明 ("bright" or "clear"). Therefore, in Mandarin, the meaning of Jin's name ties together the meanings of his daughter's and wife's names.

    Film — Live Action 
  • About Scout: Scout and her sister Tallulah, aka Lulu, were both named after Demi Moore's daughters.
  • Back to the Future: Biff Tannen and his progeny, Griff, and great-grandfather Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen. Expanded universe materials hint at a daughter named "Tiff(-any)", and two brothers named Riff and Cliff.
  • Colour of the Truth: The protagonist is a cop named "Cola" Chan, who looks up to his deceased father, "Seven-up" Chan.
  • A comparatively mild example can be found in Disney's Descendants, where the titular descendants of classic Disney villains and heros have names that sound vaguely like their parents' names (or whatever title they were known by in the original film). For example, we have: Mal, daughter of Maleficent; Evie, daughter of the Evil Queen; Jay, son of Jafar; Carlos, son of Cruella de Vil; Audrey, daughter of Aurora; Lonnie, daughter of Mulan, and so on.
  • In Fantastic Beasts, Credence gives a double example. He and his adopted sisters Charity and Modesty have virtue names. He's told his supposed birth name at the very end the second film, Aurelieus Dumbledore, which would fit with his "family's" theme (the letter "A") but the information comes from an unreliable source and it remains to be seen if it's true.
  • Kill Bill: The titular Bill and his brother Budd whose names both have four-letters, start with a "B" and end with a double letter.
  • The Legend of Frenchie King: the Sarrazin siblings have Biblical names; the 4 brothers are named after the authors of the Four Gospels, and their big sister Maria is presumably named after the Virgin Mary.
  • The heirs of the Gates family from National Treasure are all named after Founding Fathers of the American Revolution — Benjamin Franklin, Patrick (Henry) and Thomas (Jefferson) Gates, respectively. Ben's grandfather is named John Adams Gates in the credits.
  • The Odd Couple: The Pigeon sisters are named Gwendolyn and Cecily, after the heroines of The Importance of Being Earnest.
  • The Pontipee brothers in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers are all given Biblical names in alphabetical order (Adam, Benjamin, Caleb, Daniel, Ephraim, Gideon). Due to the lack of "F" names in the Bible, the sixth brother has to make do with "Frankincense," which he shortens to Frank. At the end of the movie, Milly decides to continue the tradition and names her and Adam's daughter "Hannah".
  • In Seven Ways from Sundown, Seven's full name is Seven Ways From Sundown Jones. He has brothers named One For The Money, Two For the Show, etc.
  • A Simple Favor has triplets Faith, Hope, and Charity. Emily is actually Hope, she's estranged from her sister Faith, and their sister Charity was stillborn.
  • Van Helsing: If you can legitimately consider a Vampire's Harem who made lots of monster babies a family; Dracula and his three vampire brides all have three-syllable names ending with the letter 'a'.

    Literature 
  • 1066 and All That:
    "Canute had two sons, Halfacanute and Partacanute, and two other offspring, Rathacanute and Hardlicanute, whom, however, he would never acknowledge, denying to the last he was their Fathacanute."
  • The members of the Holt family in The 39 Clues are named after famous people in American government: Three are named after presidents (Eisenhower, Madison and Reagan), the mother is named after a famous first lady (Mary-Todd is too uncommon a name to be a coincidence) and the son is named Hamilton.
  • In the Alcatraz Series, all the Smedrys have the names of prisons (Bastille, Leavenworth, Quentin, etc.). Subverted in that the prisons are really named after them; the secret cabal of librarians that runs the world is trying to discredit them by choosing traditional Smedry names as the names of prisons.
  • In Almost Perfect (2014), Bess sells five puppies from the same litter to Hannah, who gives at least three of them food-related names: Chicory, Licorice, and Crumpet.
  • Ana on the Edge: Two of Ana's friends are named Faith and Hope Park.
  • Andersonville: The Widow Tebbs, the town whore, named her children Coral, Laurel, Floral, and Zoral. Lucy speculates that the widow was trying to inject some beauty into her otherwise grim and depressing life.
  • In The Black Company novel The Silver Spike, we learn that Case's full name is Philodendron Case and that all of his seven sisters and four brothers are named after flowers:
    Case: A girl named Iris or Rose, what the hell, hey? But I got a brother named Violet and another brother named Petunia. What kind of people do that to their kids? Where the hell are the Butches and Spikes?
  • Books of the Raksura: The Raksura raise their children communally in "Courts" rather than form nuclear families, but "clutches" of biological siblings are usually named after nouns along a theme: Pearl and Jade, Chime and Knell, and so on. Sometimes these themes are generational, as with Moon and his long-dead father Night.
  • Most families in A Brother's Price tend towards giving their kids completely unrelated names, but the two sisters of the Tern family who we see are Raven and Hawk. (Note that Tern is also a bird name, so it seems like the family decided to go all-in on that.)
  • Brown Girl in the Ring: Gros-Jeanne, Mi-Jeanne and Ti-Jeanne - Big, Medium and Small Jeanne - Grandmother, mother and child.
  • Chrysanthemum is a picture book about a Funny Animal mouse child who learns to love her name again after being bullied for it. Near the end her teacher, whose given name is Delphinium, says she wants to name her child "Chrysanthemum" if it's a girl. This causes Chrysanthemum to overcome the bullies and enjoy school again. In the end, the teacher has a baby girl, and yes, she does name her Chrysanthemum.
  • In "De skandalösa" by Simona Ahrnstedt, Venus Dag och Natt comes from a family, where all the kids are named after Roman deities.
  • Spoofed with the Carter family in the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett. The daughters are named after virtues: Hope, Chastity, Prudence, and Charity. After that they got confused and thought that the sons should be named after vices: Anger, Jealousy, Bestiality, Covetousness and Deviousness. This being Discworld, they all have personalities which are the exact opposite of their names. For example, Hope suffers from depression and a sense of existential alienation and angst, Chastity is a uhh..."Seamstress" in Ankh-Morpork's seedier districts, while Anger is a calm and reasonable fellow and Bestiality is known for his kindness towards animals.
  • The titular Dollanganger family in V. C. Andrews' Dollanganger series all have names that start with "C": Christopher Sr. and Jr., Corrine, Cathy, and twins Carrie and Cory. While Cathy's sons Jory and Bart break this pattern (they were named after their fathers), her adopted daughter Cindy continues it.
  • The three Persian brothers in The Faerie Queene who heckle Redcrosse and Una during their journey are named Sans foy, Sans ioy, and Sans loy.
  • In the Firebird Trilogy, the royal Angelo family has traditionally been named after Netaian birds.
  • Fractured Stars: McCall and her older sister McKenzie were both born during their mom's Scottish historical romance novel phase.
  • The Great Brain: Brothers Sweyn, Tom and John all have the same middle name (Dennis) as do their father and all Fitzgerald men.
  • In Harry Potter, most families have some sort of theme to their names.
    • The Black family follows naming their children after stars (Sirius, Regulus Arcturus, Bellatrix, Andromeda, Draco, Scorpius, etc.). There are a few exceptions, notably Narcissa, but she passed it on to the Malfoy family through her son Draco and his son, Scorpius.
    • The Weasleys are a mix of Arthurian and more modern British royal names; Arthur is thus the patriarch, Ginny's name Ginevra is an Italian form of "Guinevere." It's implied that Percy's first name is not "Percival" (although there's a couple of them in the franchise) but it's still clearly a nod to it. Ron recalls "Rhongomyniad," the name of King Arthur's spear according to Geoffrey of Monmouth. Bill (William), Charlie (Charles), Fred (Frederick) and George are more modern British royals. Even though she's a Weasley by marriage and not blood, Mrs. Weasley's first name, Molly, is a variant of Mary, a name that's ubiquitous throughout the history of British royalty.
    • Sisters Lily and Petunia Evans have Floral Theme Naming. Harry names his daughter after Lily, keeping the tradition up.
    • There are a few instances of Alliterative Family. For the Dumbledore siblings Albus, Aberforth and Ariana. Every Ollivander mentioned on Pottermore also has a "G" name. (Mr. Ollivander is apparently Garrick.) Voldemort’s maternal family were Marvolo, Morfin, and Merope Gaunt. In a double example, there’s a set of twins in Harry’s year who are named Padma and Parvati Patil, which are also names of Hindu goddesses. Some more minor sibling characters who share the same first initial are Rabastan and Rodolphus Lestrange, Alecto and Amycus Carrow, and Luna’s sons Lorcan and Lysander Scamander.
    • Implied: While it's obviously a common surname, many fans think that Zacharias and Hepzibah Smith are related, in part for the Hufflepuff connection, but also because they both have uncommon Biblical names with the letter "z."
  • Honor Harrington: Albrecht Detweiler and his sons, whose names run alphabetically in order of seniority. Also a subverted case of Theme Twin Naming, since all of Albrecht's sons are clones of him.
  • The Hunger Games: Katniss and her sister Primrose, both named after plants.
  • In If I Fall, If I Die, the Turtle Brothers have biblical names like Gideon, Enoch, Hosea, and Jonah.
  • James Herriot's semi-autobiographical books feature two brothers named Siegfried and Tristan by a Wagner-loving father. The real-life brothers who inspired the characters are not an example of this trope, though.
  • In the book Just What Kind Of Mother Are You, Lisa's elder children are named Sally and James, and her youngest is named Sam, a portmanteau of the elder two's names.
  • Noble men and their sons in Procolon, setting for Thomas Hardy's Master Of Five Magics, tend to share nearly-identical names: Festil and Feston, Dartilac and Dartilon, etc. Aside from helping readers keep track of who's related to whom, it gives one such noble an excuse to recall the family origins of the protagonist - Alodar, son of Alodun - and taunt him about his father's loss of status for having annoyed the last king with Brutal Honesty.
  • Yumi and Yuuki from Maria Watches Over Us are siblings with similar names.
  • Meg Langslow Mysteries: In the Backstory of Lord of the Wings, John Adams Brimfield was named after Presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams and named his four sons after the four Whig presidents of the United States.
  • As mentioned below in the Real Life folder, Memoirs of a Geisha mentions how younger sisters of geisha typically took a character from their older sister's name into their own (such as Hatsumiyo, younger sister of Hatsumomo-not that it mattered because the nickname Pumpkin stuck too much)...which is why it was very notable that Sayuri is not an example-all potential names that derived from her older sister Mameha were deemed unlucky.
  • In the Vorkosigan Saga novel Mirror Dance, a biologically-engineered woman named Lilly Durona is created to be a brilliant medical researcher. When she escapes her creator, she starts a "family" consisting of dozens of clones of herself (including a number of gender-flipped versions of herself—after all, she is a genius at genetic manipulation). The female Duronas all have names like Rowan, Chrys (presumably short for Chrysanthamum), Poppy, and Rose. The male Duronas have names like Raven and Hawk.
    Birds and flowers, they were all birds and flowers in this concrete cage.
  • In Modern Villainess, following the customs of the old Japanese families, all the male members of the Keikain family (which are of kuge descent) contain the same kanji in their names; in this case "maro" (麿) is always the second kanji of their given names.
  • Moribito: The three princes of New Yogo are named Sagum, Chagum, and Tugum.
  • Moribito II: Guardian of the Darkness:
    • Jiguro Musa and his brothers, Kaguro and Yuguro, are three syllables with the last two ending in -guro.
    • Kaguro has a son named Kahm and a grandson named Kahmuro.
  • Jean McDevitt's 1940s juvenile novel Mr Apples Family has Mr. and Mrs. Apple naming their children Macintosh, Jonathan, Delicious, and Snow, all for varieties of apples. The baby ends up named Ann — "An Apple".
  • My Brother is a Superhero features a pair of sisters named Cara and Lara.
  • The Ordinary Princess: All seven royal daughters are named for jewels: Diamond, Opal, Emerald, Sapphire, Crystal, Pearl, and Amethyst.
  • Princesses of the Pizza Parlor: For those of the Rose Throne of Baragoccia, as said in Episode 3:
    Most women in my family had names that were a variation on rose
  • In Ricky Ricotta's Mighty Robot, Ricky himself is named after Ricky Ricardo from I Love Lucy. His cousin, aunt, and uncle are named Lucy, Ethel, and Fred, after the other central characters of the show.
  • In The Saxon Stories, Uthred's father, son, brother and one cousin (and presumably most of his paternal ancestors) are all named Uthred.
  • Serge Storms : In Mermaid Confidential, Vixen (aka Vix) and her brothers Prancer, Comet, and Cupid were named after Santa’s reindeer by their Christmas-obsessed parents. This resulted in Vix having a childhood full of teasing and beatings that led to her becoming a Christmas-hating, Ax-Crazy thief, murderer, and drug addict who will attack anyone who inquires about her name.
  • The Shadowhunter Chronicles: Andrew Blackthorn named all of his 7 children after Greco-Roman figures, because he loved ancient history and mythology. There is Helen, Mark Antony, Julian Atticus, Livia, Tiberius Nero, Drusilla, and Octavian. They mostly use nicknames. There was set to be an eighth Blackthorn named Ariadne but she was cut.
  • In The Shadow of Kyoshi, Huazo notes that her clan, the Saowon, often use names with the zo character—and that other noble families know not to infringe on that theme by using it in their own names. Fire Lord Zoryu has such a name, even though his mom came from a rival clan and actually displaced Huazo as the late Fire Lord's lover. Many Saowon saw this as a huge insult, though ostensibly it wasn't intended. Huazo is more annoyed that she was replaced by someone so naive.
    • Speaking of which, the late Fire Lord's name was Chaeryu, meaning that his two sons, Chaejin and Zoryu, each got part of his name.
  • The children's book series Sisters Eight by Lauren Baratz-Logsted has sisters named Annie, Durinda, Georgia ... and so on in alphabetical order, winding up with Zinnia.note 
  • The Larkin sisters of Jo Walton's Small Change trilogy are all named after William Shakespeare characters.
  • A Song of Ice and Fire:
    • The Targaryens have names which tend to incorporate "ae", "ys", or "on". From the present-day era, there are Aemon, Aerys, Rhaegar, Aegon, Rhaenys, Viserys, and of course, Daenerys. In the past, there were Jaehaerys, Rhaenyra, and Daeron, among others. The extinct, rebellious line of Blackfyres continued the theme, including figures named Daemon, Haegon, Aenys, and Maelys. Apparently, it's a tradition originating from Old Valyria; the Velaryons, one of the other significant survivors of Valyrians in Westeros, have members named Monterys, Daenaera, and Lucerys. Varys likewise continues the theme, as he came from Lys, whose population are mostly descended from Valyrians.
    • Some Lannister men have names which start with "Ty": Tytos, Tywin, Tyrion, Tygett, etc.
    • The Greyjoy men have names that end with "on": Theon, Balon, Aeron, Victarion, Euron, etc.
    • All the descendants of Lord Wyman Manderly (sons Wylis and Wendel, granddaughters Wynafryd and Wylla) have names that start with a "W".
    • A bit of the twist, since the names presumably have no connection in universe, but the supplemental materials mention several generations of Tully men named Grover, Elmo, Kermit, and Oscar.
  • In Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon, the Dead family have Biblical-themed names: Milkman Dead's sisters are Magdalene (called Lena) and First Corinthians, his aunt is Pilate (after Pontius Pilate), and his cousin is Hagar (Abraham's maidservant). And of course, there's Solomon, the ancestor of the Dead family.
  • The Stormlight Archive: The Kholin family has two:
    • Gavilar and his brother Dalinar are both three syllables, with the third ending in -ar. Gavilar continued this theme with his son Elhokar, but Dalinar went a different direction.
    • Dalinar's sons are Adolin and Renarin, three syllables with the third ending in -in. For bonus points, this fits with the family name as well. Furthermore, Kaladin (who is unofficially adopted by the family) shares the theme.
  • In Ann M. Martin's Ten Kids No Pets, each of the children's names follow letters of the alphabet. In fact, they're named in order of their birth order/order of names in the baby book (i.e., the 1st child is given the 1st name under A, the 2nd child is given the 2nd name listed under B, etc.). This has lead to most of them having extreme unusual names, such as Bainbridge (second child), Calandra, Dagwood, Eberhard, Faustine, Gardenia and Janthina with only eldest Abigail, eighth-born Hannah and ninth-born Ira having normal names. Several of them shorten their names to something more standard but Bainbridge doesn't have that luxury.
  • Nearly everyone in the Next family of the Thursday Next series is named after days of the week. There's the titular Thursday herself, her mother, Wednesday, and her son and daughter, Friday and Tuesday. Thursday's daughter, Jenny, is the only striking exception to the pattern. That's because she doesn't even exist, and is only a mindworm that Aornis placed on her. Uncle Mycroft and Aunt Polly Next are also exceptions, as are Thursday's brothers Joffy and Anton.
  • Tolkien's Legendarium:
    • The Hobbit has Dwalin and Balin (brothers), Fíli and Kíli (brothers), Óin and Glóin (brothers), Bifur, Bofur and Bombur (cousins), and Dori, Nori and Ori (brothers). There's also Thorin, son of Thrain, son of Thrór. He once had a brother named Frerin.
    • The Lord of the Rings:
      • Almost everyone knows that Aragorn is son of Arathorn, but in fact he is Aragorn son of Arathorn son of Arador son of Argonui son of Arathorn son of Arassull son of Arahad son of Aravorn son of Aragost son of Arahad son of Araglas son of Aragorn son of Aravir son of Aranuir son of Arahael son of Aranarth son of Aredui son of Araphant son of Araval son of Arvaleg son of Argeleb son of Araphor son of Arvaleg son of Argeleb. Which is when the tradition apparently started.
      • The royal family of Rohan seems to really like the letters "eo," with or without an accent mark. King Théoden's son was Théodred, while his sister, Théodwyn, married a distant cousin named Éomund and had two children, Éomer and Éowyn. The house was founded by Eorl, who had a grandson named Eofor. There are actually several interceding people with different names, and Éomer and Éowyn both broke the tradition with their respective kids, Elfwine and Elboron (though note the "E"/"El-" patterns). Théoden and Théodwyn's father was Thengel, so there's also a "Th-" thing going.
      • The house of the Stewards of Gondor are mostly named after heroes of the First Age (whose adventures you can read about in The Silmarillion). Denethor, his father Ecthelion, his wife Findulias, his son Boromir, and several historical Stewards follow this pattern. Faramir, just barely, does not—there had been a First Age elf named Faramir in earlier drafts of Tolkien's writings and his name was eventually revised into Gelmir.
    • In The Silmarillion, all the houses of Men all have names that start with the same letters, and many of the men of the House of Finwë have "Finwë" as an element in their father-names, denoting their royal status. This includes Fëanor (Curufinwë Fëanáro) and all seven of his sons: Nelyafinwë (Maedhros), Kanafinwë (Maglor), Turcafinwë (Celegorm), Morifinwë (Caranthir), Curufinwë Jr. (Curufin), Pityafinwë (Amrod), and Telufinwë (Amras). Fingolfin's father-name is Ñolofinwë.
  • In Tad Williams' The War of the Flowers, fairies all have theme names of one kind or another. The Flower Lords tend to name their children after flowers related to their family. Unfortunately for one kid, his parents named him Septimus. As in "seventh". Because he was the seventh child in the family. Core's family name is Apple, and she had the misfortune to come late in the game, after all the good names (Pip, Peel, Stem...) had all been taken.
  • Wings of Fire: The three SandWings fighting for their mother's throne are an Alliterative Family, but also have fire-based names: Burn, Blister, and Blaze.

    Live-Action TV 
  • 7th Heaven: Reverend Camden and his wife Annie give all their children Biblical names: Matthew, Mary, Lucy, Simon, Ruth (always called Ruthie though), Samuel and David. Plus if viewers knew of the Virgin Mary's mother Saint Anne (from the New Testament Apocrypha anyway), Annie counts as well.
  • Short-lived Fox series Babes had three sisters named Darlene, Marlene, and Charlene.
  • The Bob Newhart Show: Howard Borden is the odd one out in his family — he has two (unseen) brothers: Gordon Borden the game warden and Norman Borden the Mormon doorman.
  • Charmed: Women of the Halliwell family seem to all have names starting with P: The main characters Piper, Phoebe, Prue, and later Paige; their late mother Patty, and their grandmother Penny. Phoebe (in the comics) has three daughters whom she names PJ (full name Prudence Johanna), Parker, and Peyton. Piper's sons are themed in that, since they retain their mother's surname of Halliwell, they both take their first names from Leo's family - Wyatt was Leo's surname, Chris the name of Leo's father.
  • El corazón nunca se equivoca: Aristóteles and Arquímedes are two brothers named after Greek historical figures.
  • Desperate Housewives: All the Scavo kids have names beginning with P.
  • Due South: Harding Welsh and his brother, Wilson, named after US presidents.
  • Eerie, Indiana: In the episode "Who's Who", Marshall and Simon happen upon a girl named Sara Bob. Her brothers are Lou Bob, Moe Bob, and Bob Bob. Her father is called Dad Bob.
  • In the MTV series Finding Carter, the titular heroine and her siblings all have names of U.S. presidents. Her twin sister Taylor, brother Grant, and Carter was born Lynden. Even after her kidnapping her new mother kept with the theme by renaming her Carter.
  • Friends: Joey's seven sisters (mostly) have similar names. There's Mary-Angela, Mary-Therese, Gina, Tina, Dina, and the two odd ones out, Veronica and Cookie.
  • Game of Thrones:
    • House Baratheon's names have a tendency to start with either R or S.
    • Names of male members of House Greyjoy end with "-on": Balon, Euron, Aeron, Maron, Theon.
    • House Lannister: Tyrion, Tywin, Tytos.
    • Starks are often named Brandon, after the legendary founder of the house.
    • House Targaryen uses Valyrian names, like: Aegon, Aemon, Aerys, Daenerys, Rhaenyra, Rhaenys, Rhaegar, Viserys, Visenya etc.
  • Glee: Burt named his son Kurt.
  • Home Improvement: Al has a brother named Cal. And his mother is Alma.
  • How I Met Your Mother:
    • The Ericksen family. The males have names that start with Mar (Marvin Sr., Marvin Jr., Marcus, Marshall and Marvin W.), while females end with a Y (Judy, Ashley, Lily and Daisy).
    • Barney's father Jerome and his new family; his wife Cheryl, daughter Carly and son Jerome Jr.
  • Keeping Up Appearances has Hyacinth Bucket and her three sisters Daisy, Rose and Violet.
  • In the Leave It to Beaver Reunion Show, Eddie Haskell's son is named Freddie. In the Revival series Still the Beaver, it's changed to Eddie Haskell Jr.
  • Nicky, Ricky, Dicky, and Dawn: For the eponymous boys, their names contain "icky."
  • Petticoat Junction: Kate Bradley's daughters all have names starting with a B, followed by "Jo" (Billie Jo, Bobbie Jo and Betty Jo). Betty Jo eventually keeps with the latter convention by naming her daughter Kathy Jo.
  • As of Power Rangers Samurai, Skull from the original show has a son named Spike. To be fair, "Skull" is a nickname, and... well, we're hoping "Spike" is too and he didn't actually name his son that.
  • Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: In a fairly low-key example (since all the names in question are also pretty common), all the named members of the Sisko family have Biblical names. Series lead Benjamin has a father named Joseph and a (birth) mother named Sarah, as well as a half-sister called Judith (who is mentioned but doesn't appear in the show). His son Jake is sort of an edge case, as it's not established whether it's short for anything, but the tie-in books establish his full name as Jacob Isaac Sisko, which definitely counts. The novels keep up the pattern by naming Ben's brothers (also mentioned but not seen in the show) Aaron and Samuel, and his second child (who isn't born yet at the end of the series and whose gender and name are never discussed) as Rebecca, named for his stepmother (whom he thought was his birth mother for most of his life), although the hypothetical eighth season in the documentary What We Left Behind makes the baby a boy named Joseph, after his grandfather (which is also in keeping with the theme). Humans in Star Trek are consistently non-religious, but this may reflect the show's focus on alien religions, since a major premise/story arc is Sisko's gradual acceptance of his status as a major religious figure on Bajor.
  • Star Trek: Picard:
    • Romulan siblings Narek and Narissa share "Nar" in their names.
    • Arcana, Sutra, Saga, Codex and Rune note  continue the trend of Soong-type androids having Punny Names on the theme of knowledge, such as Data and Lore. invokedWord of God says that the androids created by Altan Soong and Bruce Maddox, such as Dahj and Soji, have flower names, while those created by the other synths are named in honour of their progenitor, Data.
  • The Wordsworth family in the CBeebies series Storymakers all have the surnames of English poets as first names: Milton, Shelley, Byron, Rosetti, Blake and Webster. Their surname is, of course, a reference to William Wordsworth.
  • Thunderbirds: Jeff Tracy named all his sons after Mercury Program astronauts.
  • Two and a Half Men: Kandi's parents are named Andi and Mandi. Lampshaded by Charlie:
    Wait a second. It's Mandi, Andi, and Kandi?
  • Wonderfalls: The Tylers are named Darren, Karen, Sharon, Aaron and Jaye.

    Podcasts 
  • In Strange Woods: Shane "Woodsley" O'Connor has four brothers named Shannon, Seamus, Sean, and Shanley.

    Radio 

    Video Games 
  • Animal Crossing:
    • Pelly and Phyllis' Spanish names are "Sol" (sun) and "Estrella" (star).
    • The Able Sisters: Mable, Sable and Label. Also, their Spanish names are Pili, Mili and Tili respectively
  • In Banjo-Kazooie, Boggy the polar bear has three children named Groggy, Soggy, and Moggy. All of the moles have names that are euphemisms for very thick glasses, which all of them wear (except Bozzeye, who is instead named for his weird eyes.)
  • BoxxyQuest: The Gathering Storm: Til and her sister Irci, both Punny Names. In many internet circles, “TIL” is an acronym that means “today I learned.” Similarly, Irci is a Significant Anagram. “IIRC,” means “if I recall correctly.”
  • Crypt Of The Necrodancer has the female members of the main character's family all named after terms used in music. The main protagonist is named Cadence, and her mother is named Melody, and HER mother is named Aria. Outside of this, the Palette Swap for player 2 is named Choral. Since the whole game revolves around music, this makes sense.
  • Cute Knight: With Floral Theme Naming: The magic instructor is named Orchid. Her daughter's name is Rose.
  • Deltarune: The Holidays are a family of reindeer monsters, who fittingly embody a Christmas motif in nearly every aspect of their life. This includes their names, with Noelle Holiday, her older sister December "Dess" Holiday, and her father Rudolph "Rudy" Holiday. Even family friends get themed nicknames: Kris is called "Krismas" by Noelle and Rudy.
  • The Denpa Men: By way of Rock Theme Naming: The hero's family are all named after precious stones: Wife Crystal, son Jasper, and daughter Amber.
  • Devil May Cry: The entire Sparda family - Sparda, Eva, Vergil, Dante, and Nero - have Italian names. Taken one step further, the sons and grandson of Sparda are all named after famous Roman figures.
  • Fatal Frame has the Hinasaki family have names beginning with the letter M. First was Mikoto, who named her daughter Miyuki, whose children are called Mafuyu and Miku, and then came Miu in the fifth game.
  • Fire Emblem:
    • In Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade, the ladies of House Caelin all have "lyn" somewhere in their names. There's Lord Hausen's late wife Lyndis, their daughter Madelyn, and Madelyn's daughter, the game's Tritagonist, also named Lyndis, although she often goes by just Lyn for short.
    • Also, Hector's daughter in Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade is named Lilina, which means that if you paired Hector and Lyndis, the naming theme continues. Subverted if you pair Lyndis with Rath, because Rath's daughter in Binding Blade is named Sue.
  • Virtually every character in Harvest Town that have siblings are bound to share a similar-sounding name. We have Lee Yau and his brother Lee Yeung, Ella Cole and her sister Elly Cole, sisters May and Fay, and Sherry Allen and her kid brother Jerry.
  • In Honk, the protagonist is a clown named Lola. Her brothers are named Roflo and Lmaouie. All of these are based on Internet abbreviations for laughter.
  • The names for the royal family of the Zora in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild are derived from the Japanese version of solfege: Do-Re (Dorephan), Mi-Fa (Mipha), So-Ra (Zora), Shi-Do (Shido/Sidon).
  • The LISA series has the Hernandez brothers, who all work with transportation: Fardy, Shardy, Tardy and Lardy. All of them look exactly identical save for their hair.
  • Persona 5:
    • Mother and scientist Wakaba Isshiki, and her daughter and your eventual Mission Control, Futaba Sakura. Both have the kanji for "leaf" (葉 - "ba") in their names; the mother's name means "young leaf," while the daughter's means "two leaves." There's also some amusing tech theme to their names: "Futaba" refers to the forum board "Futaba Channel," or 2ch, while "Wakaba" is the name of the software that runs it.
    • Sisters Kasumi and Sumire Yoshizawa from Royal also count, as both their names contain "Sumi" written in hiragana.
  • Pokémon:
    • The Weekly siblings are all named after the days of the week: Monica, Tuscany, Wesley, Arthur, Frieda, Santos, and Sunny. They each only appear on one day of the week, and except for Arthur all share their initial with the day of the week they are associated with.
    • Professor Oak has his grandchildren Daisy and Green Oak. Daisies and oaks are both plants, while plants are frequently green. While Green's name is Lost in Translation as "Blue Oak" internationally, the blue oak is a type of oak tree found in North America.
    • Then there's (ex-)Chairman Rose, his brother Peony, and Peony's daughter Peonia.
  • PsyCard: Bees and Wasp are siblings, both named for members of the Apocrita family of insects.
  • Resident Evil Village: In a similar vein to Van Helsing, all four members of the vampiric House Dimitrescu (Lady Dimitrescu and her three 'daughters') have names ending with 'a'.
  • Ring Fit Adventure: In World 12, there's Daddalus and Kiddalus, a father-son inventor duo with "-ddalus" as the end of their name.
  • Shantae and the Seven Sirens: Brothers Armor Baron and Ammo Baron, with Arms and Armor Theme Naming.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog has a small family all named after dairy products: Cream the Rabbit; her mother, Vanilla, and her Chao, Cheese. Other Chao associated with Cream were named Chocola (Cheese's twin brother, only seen in Sonic Heroes) and Milk (who is named by Cream in the DS version of Sonic Colors).
  • Cousins Callie and Marie from Splatoon have names that combine into "calamari". Splatoon 2 lampshades this by having Marie realize during one Mission Control conversation that their names are a pun when put together and wonder how she never figured that out sooner. Callie and Marie's names are puns or otherwise aquamarine-themed in all other languages as well.
  • In Stacking, all the members of the Blackmore family except Charlie have names beginning with A. Charlie's middle name is Alistair.
  • Tekken: Male members of the Mishima family contain the kanji for 8 (八) in their names; Jinpachi (仁), Heihachi (平) and Kazuya (一).
  • A Very Long Rope to the Top of the Sky: Overlaps with Floral Theme Naming, Rose named her kids with plant-related names: Mint, and Ivy.
  • In Xenoblade Chronicles X, Tatsu is revealed in a sidequest to have five siblings: Satsu, Jitsu, Gotsu, Yoyotsu, and Mumutsu.
  • Yo-kai Watch 2 reveals the grandfathers of Nate and Katie. Nathan "Nate" Adams (Keita Amano) has a grandfather named Nathaniel Adams (Keizo Amano). Katie Forester (Fumika "Fumi" Kodama) has a grandfather named Kenny Forester (Fumiaki Kodama). There is a heavy Strong Family Resemblance between Katie and Kenny, while Nate is an outright Identical Grandson.

    Web Animation 
  • Homestar Runner has the Brothers Strong: Strong Bad, Strong Mad, and Strong Sad, all of which have rhyming names.
  • The Pepper girls from Mystery Skulls Animated are named Paprika, Cayenne and Belle, all relating back to food, which fits as their parents are both chefs. Their brother's name breaks the pattern but he presumably was already named Lewis when they adopted him.
  • PUNCH PUNCH FOREVER!: The Matsumoto women have Repetitive Names, being Gogo (youngest), Nono (oldest), and Mama (mother).
  • RWBY:
    • Qrow and Raven Branwen are named after corvids. Their surname is also corvid-themed, being Welsh for "white/blessed crow/raven".
    • The Schnee siblings and their mother are named Willow, Winter, Weiss, and Whitley, giving them themes connected to both snow (their surname) and a word beginning with "W" that is connected to the colour white ("snow willow", "winter snow", "white snow", and "snow-white glade")
    • Jaune and his seven sisters are all named after colors of the rainbow. "Jaune" is the French word for "yellow", and one of his older sisters is called Saphron, an alternate spelling of "saffron", which is a shade of orange. While all of his sisters and their respective colour connections have been displayed in a photograph (which includes a set of twins associated with the colour indigo), their names have yet to be revealed. The rainbow theme is connected to their family surname Arc, which comes from arc-en-ciel, French for "rainbow".

    Web Comics 
  • Bad Moon Rising has the Lees: Polyphemus, Hyacinth, Hebe, and Persephone.
  • Beyond the End has brothers, Cain and Abel.
  • In Bob and George, we are assured that his robot is named Rock in anticipation of naming another one Roll.
  • Cirque Royale has a subtle one with the Cashworthy family who are all named after signs in the zodiac. Leo and Aries are obvious, but Diana represents the virgin goddess Artemis with Virgo, and their mother Gemma is Gemini.
  • In Dicebox, one mother was amused by the description of her son moving about in her belly 'like a basilisk' and decided to name him thus. Griffen and Chimera (who goes by Phyllis) followed.
  • The kids in Homestuck always have similar names to their predecessors, such as John Egbert being the grandson of Jane Egbert and in the pre-scratch universe, vice versa.
  • The Jones family from Irregular Webcomic! are named after states. Here's the explanation and the paternal ancestry. Additional Word of God is that if Monty were to have a son, he'd be named Idaho.
  • Muted: All of the women in the main branch of the Severin have names starting with the letter A (Alette, Abrielle, Athalie and Avaline). And the twin girls from other branches also all share the first letters of their names (Camille and Chloe, Sylvia and Sophia).
  • Octopus Pie has siblings Eve Ning and Mor Ning, and their mother Dawn Ning. Eve and Mor are short for Everest and Rushmore, which are supposedly their parents' favorite mountains.
  • In The Order of the Stick, the kobold in the first Linear Guild is named Yikyik. The second one is his son Yokyok. There is no known connection between them and the third kobold Yukyuk, so it's more like a regular Theme Naming, and the fact that Yokyok is the son of Yikyik is just there to throw in a Shout-Out to The Princess Bride (this guy even looks like Inigo Montoya).
  • The Williams siblings in Sandra and Woo are named Cloud and Yuna because their parents are big fans of Final Fantasy.
  • Sleepless Domain: All of the known members of Rue's family are named after different types of herbs or grass. Aside from Rue herself, her younger brother is named Dill, her father is Reed, and, tying it together, their surname is Bahia.
  • Sword Princess Amaltea. Princesses Amaltea and Dorotea are daughters to Queen Galatea.
  • Til Debt Do Us Part: Yejun's younger half-siblings are named Yehun and Yena.
  • Transmission: It turns out that Tim has three sisters and they're all named after places where they were born, he was born in a Tim Hortons in the capital of British Columbia (along with his twin Victoria).

    Web Original 
  • Buster Girls: The members of the Kawaguchi family all intentionally only have three-letter names (Eri, Sho, Rin and Ryo).
  • Critical Role:
    • From Campaign 2, Caduceus Clay's family members all have first names that start with the letter C. His parents' names are Cornelius and Constance, his aunt's name is Corrin, and his siblings' names are Calliope, Colton, and Clarabelle.
    • From Campaign 3, Fresh Cut Grass's creator named all of her creations after her favorite smells. There are many of them, but the ones F.C.G. lists are Oatmeal, Apple Pie, and Pussy.
  • Gameboys: Cairo and his siblings, London & Paris, are named after places their parents wished to travel to.
  • Looming Gaia: Ginger and her kids Tomato and Cinnamon are all named after something edible and red, to match with how they all have ginger hair.
  • Nightmare Time: Linda Monroe's four sons follow a river theme. Jordan is named after the Jordan river in the middle east, Seaton and Trent are named after the River Seaton and River Trent, both in England. And River is named, well, River. Fitting for the president of the Hatchetfield Boating society.
  • In Noob, the player whose online Saphir ("sapphire" in French) turns out to have a sister in Season 5. The sister in question uses Rubis ("ruby" in French) as her alias.
  • This happens frequently in Pretty Dudes:
    • The Gomez brothers' first names are the last names of influential Black Americans - (Duke) Ellington, (George Washington) Carver, and (Thurgood) Marshall.
    • Similarly, the Diolosa brothers are named after two rich American families - Rockefeller and Vanderbilt.
    • Alexander and his brothers all have first and last names that start with the same letter - Archer "Archie" Carson, Aaron Christopher, Aiden Connor, and Alexander Cole Erzähler.
    • Interestingly, the only other important set of siblings on the show, sister and brother December and Boaz, have no theme to their names and are also the only set of onscreen siblings to not be the same gender.
  • ProtonJon reveals in a livestream that his sister's name is Jen.
  • Team Four Star:
    • All but one of the Cell Jrs in Dragon Ball Z Abridged are named after Cell's various voice actors (Norio, Dameon, Travis, Curtis, Dale and Jonathan, and Vegeta Jr Jr).
    • The main characters of their Dragon Ball Xenoverse and Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 playthroughs, Dumplin and Puddin respectively, are portrayed as father and daughter and both are named for sweets. The Xeno 2 playthrough would later have Puddin's child Frogurt, which actually combines two family theme names: the sweets theme of their mother Puddin, and the cold reference from their father Cooler.

    Western Animation 
  • The Dalmatian family in 101 Dalmatian Street all have names starting with "D".
  • Abby Hatcher gives us Chef Jeff and his mother, Chef Beth. For the Fuzzlies, Princess Flug has a cousin named Flugtilda, Grumbles has four cousins named Mumbles, Fumbles, Zumbles and Humbles, and an aunt named Tumbles, while his grandmother is named Grandma Grumbles.
  • Amphibia: Maddie's younger sisters; Rosemary, Lavender, and Ginger, are all named after spices.
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender:
    • Every pair of siblings in the main cast shares a syllable in their names: Zuko and Azula, Sokka and Katara, Ozai and Iroh.
    • It's not just Zuko and Azula, most of the direct family Fire Nation Royal family have names containing a Z. Zuko and his sister Azula, their father Ozai, grandfather Azulon, great-grandfather Sozin, and Zuko's daughter Izumi. It goes back a long time as well as the Fire Lord of Avatar Kyoshi’s day (about 400 years previously) was named Zoryu. The only blood members of their family who don't are Uncle Iroh and Zuko's grandson Iroh though Zuko's granddaughter's name is unknown.
      • It's implied that Zoryu was the first one in the family with this naming trend (see the Shadow of Kyoshi entry under literature). All named previous Fire Lords instead had names with a "Y": Yosor, Gonryu, and Chaeryu. Zoryu's name contains a Z and a Y, so he could be seen as a transition from the old theme to the new one.
    • Every member of Sokka and Katara's family (as well as most of the Southern Tribe) have a "K" in their names: Katara, Sokka, Hakoda, Kya, and Kanna.
    • A lot of airbenders have some sort of -ang- sound in their names: Aang, Kelsang, and Yangchen.
  • Ben 10: Cousins Ben and Gwen Tennyson, along with Gwen's older brother Ken. This seems restricted to their generation, though. There's also Kevin and Devlin from the Original Series.
  • Big City Greens:
    • Most members of the Green family have a short i in their names (Cricket, Tilly, Bill, Alice, Bixby, Archibald). This even extends to some of the animals (Phoenix, Melissa, Miss Brenda).
    • The Remingtons' names all begin with the letter R (Remy, Rashida, Russell).
  • In the Biker Mice from Mars Clip Show episode "Mad Scientist Wanted", the parts of the episode that aren't recycled footage from earlier episodes feature a family of alien business executives with names having to do with large units of time. The brother and sister are named Eon and Era respectively, while their father and boss is named Mr. Century. Mention is also made of a cousin named Span.
  • In the Blaze and the Monster Machines episode "The Pickle Family Campout", Pickle has three cousins named Ben, Ken and Sven, and four sisters named Lilly, Milly, Tilly and Frilly.
  • Bolek & Lolek: The titular brothers have rhyming names.
  • Captain Planet and the Planeteers:
    • Dr. Blight's family all have names that start with "B". Her first name is Barbara, her grandmother is Betty, her sister is Bambi, and her daughter is Betsi.
    • Looten Plunder (Loot and Plunder) has a nephew named Robin Plunder (Rob and Plunder). His future descendant has the unsubtle name Pillage Plunder.
  • The Dragon Prince: All of the Sky Dragons have at least one "a" and "z" in their name: Avizandum, Zubeia, and Azymondias.
  • DuckTales:
    • In DuckTales (1987), Donald's nephews are named Huey, Louie and Dewey. Also their female counterparts, April, May and June.
    • DuckTales (2017):
      • We once again have Huey, Dewey, and Louie, whose mother and uncle, Della and Donald also qualify.
      • The members of the Sabrewing family are all named after shades of purple, with Violet and her fathers Indigo and Tyrian. Lena, having been adopted into the family part way through season 2, is the Odd Name Out, though she and Violet share a secondary light theme with each other (Lena is the short form of "Helena" which means light, while Violet's middle name "Apollonia" references Apollo the sun god).
  • The Hive: Punny Names in this case — Buzzbee, big sister Rubee, and Babee.
  • The Sequel Series Inspector Gadget (2015) created a nephew to Dr. Claw called Talon.
  • In Kim Possible, Kim, Bonnie, Shego, and Ron's families fit this trope
    • Jim, Kim, and Tim Possible from the Possible Family. They also have an uncle Slim who appears in one episode.
    • Ron and Han from the Stoppable Family.
    • Shego, Hego, Mego, and the Wego Twins from the Go family (though these seem to be superhero/villain codenames rather than personal names).
    • Bonnie, Connie, and Lonnie from the Rockwaller family.
  • The Looney Tunes Show: As a Running Gag in "Mr. Wiener", a character lists off the names of his great-grandfather, grandfather and father:
    • Yosemite Sam's family are named after national parks: his great-grandfather is Rocky Mountain Sam, his grandfather is Death Valley Sam, and and his father is Grand Canyon Sam.
    • Daffy Duck's family are all named for synonyms for stupid that start with "D": his great-grandfather is Dipsy Duck, his grandfather is Doofus Duck and his father is Dummy Duck; he also has a cousin named Dimwit Duck.
      Tina: Do any of the guys in your family have normal names? Like David, or Doug?
    • Subverted with Porky Pig. Daffy list off Porky's ancestors and assigns each of them a given name synonymous with fat: he calls his great grandfather Pudgy Pig, his Grandfather Plumpy Pig and his father Plus-size Pig. Apparently, he was just making this up.
      Porky: M-m-my dad's name is Alan.
  • The Loud House:
    • The Loud family members' names all start with L (except the mother Rita) and have four letters (except Lincoln, who is often shortened to "Linc").
    • The Casagrande kids' names are all variants of their father, Carlos (Carlota, Carlos Jr., Carlino, and Carlitos).
  • Miraculous Ladybug:
    • The Kubdel family all have "al" somewhere in their name (father Alim, daughter Alix, and son Jalil).
    • The Couffaines' first names all end in "-ka" (mother Anarka, daughter Juleka, and son Luka). This is to further the pun in their surname: combined with the "a" from their given names, it sounds like "acouphéne" (French for "tinnitus").
    • Adrien's mother Emilie is revealed to have a twin sister named Amelie.
    • Alya's family are named after famous jazz musicians: her mother Marlena (Marlena Shaw), her father Otis (Otis Redding), and her sisters Ella (Ella Fitzgerald) and Etta (Etta James), while Alya is named after Aaliyah.
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
    • Generally speaking, this is something of a recurring pattern among earth pony families:
      • The Apple family, as to be expected, are all named after types of apples and food made from apples — Applejack herself, Big Macintosh, Granny Smith, Goldie Delicious, Applesauce, Apple Rose, Apple Strudel, etc. The known members of the Pear family — Grand Pear and Pear Butter — follow a similar theme.
      • There's also Pinkie Pie's sisters: Marble Pie and Limestone Pie. With Pinkie, their initials spell out MLP. In general, their family also follows a rock theme, with their fourth sister Maud Pie note , and their parents Igneous Rock and Cloudy Quartz.
      • A family of acorn growers in My Little Pony: Best Gift Ever follows a nut-based naming theme — the parents are named Oak Nut and Butternut, and their son is named Pistachio.
      • The married owners of the Sugarcube Corner bakery are named Cup Cake and Carrot Cake. When they have kids in the second season, they name them Pound Cake and Pumpkin Cake. Interestingly, Cupcake reveals her name before marrying was Chiffon Swirl, so she apparently invoked it for herself when marrying Carrot Cake.
      • Diamond Tiara's family has its own theme: her father's named Filthy Rich, her great-grandfather was Stinkin' Rich, and her mother is named Spoiled Rich. The only exceptions so far are herself and the butler Randolph. In "Viva Las Pegasus", Fluttershy disguises herself as a member of this family named Impossibly Rich, who may or may not exist.
    • Twilight's family shows this as well, following a light theme: Twilight Sparkle is the most obvious, but there's also Shining Armor, Twilight Velvet, and Night Light. Shining aside, they also seem to follow a nocturnal naming scheme.
  • In The Octonauts, the Sea Otter family are all named after small things found in the ocean: Shellington, Pearl, and Periwinklenote .
  • The Powerpuff Girls:
    • The Powerpuff Girls all have cutesy names that have double consonants and begin with B. Also, two of them are named after flowers. Lampshaded in The Movie: the Professor names Blossom because she instantly "opens up" to him, Bubbles because of her bubbly personality, and Buttercup "because it's also a "B" name."
    • The girls even created a (temporary) fourth Powerpuff and named her to fit the pattern, Bunny.
    • There's also their Evil Triplet Spear Counterparts Brick, Butch, and Boomer.
    • The Powerpunk Girls are Alternate Universe Evil Counterparts to the Powerpuff Girls. Their names are Berserk, Brat, and Brute.
    • The 2016 reboot introduces the original, and actual fourth Powerpuff Girl, Bliss.
    • When a squirrel fed Chemical X joins the team, the Girls provide her with an appropriate "B" name, Bullet.
  • Rubble & Crew: Rubble's family is all named after things relating to construction/machinery: Grandpa Gravel, Auntie Crane, Mix, Motor, Charger, and Wheeler.
  • Rugrats:
    • Grandpa Lou's sons' names are Stu and Drew.
    • In "Family Reunion", The Pickles family visit Stu's cousin, Hugh, who has a wife named Dottie. Tommy's cousins are also named Timmy-Ray, Tony, and Tammy-Faye.
    • The DeVille twins' names are Phil and Lil.
  • In Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated, The Blake sisters: Daisy, Dawn, Dorothy, Dalilah and Daphne.
  • The Simpsons:
    • Ned Flanders's wife was named Maude, and their kids are Rod and Todd, all of which (most likely intentionally) rhyme with "God."
    • All of the men in the Simpson family have "J" as their middle initial: Abraham Jebediah Simpson, Homer Jay Simpson, and Bartholomew Jojo Simpson.
  • SpongeBob SquarePants: Sandy's nieces in "Sandy's Nutty Nieces" are named after types of nuts (Hazelnut, Pistachio, Macadamia).
  • Star vs. the Forces of Evil:
    • The female members of House of Butterfly are named after celestial bodies or phenomena. There's Star, Moon, Comet, Skywynne, Solaria, Celena, Eclipsa, and Miss Heinous, whose true name is Meteora. An odd name out is Festivia, because she is not actually a Butterfly.
    • Ludo's family has names that rhyme with "udo", like his father Lord Brudo. Exceptions are his mother Lady Avaris and his brother Dennis.
  • On Timothy Goes to School, Doris's older brothers have the rhyming names of Boris, Horace and Morris. She also has an Uncle Norris.
  • Transformers: After Orion Pax and Ariel were destroyed, they were rebuilt into Optimus Prime and Elita One, both of which translate into pretty much the same thing.
  • What's New, Scooby-Doo?: The Dimwiddle siblings' names are Andy, Mandy and Randy.
  • Work It Out Wombats! has the Fishmans, whose names each start with the letter F (Fergus, Felicia, Flip, Frannie, and Finn), and the crab family, whose names all start with either K or C (Kat, Kit, Carly, Cece, and Clyde).

    Real Life 
  • One old German noble family, Reuß Junior Line, names every male family offspring "Heinrich". Every single one, even siblings, get this exact same name, even to present day.note 
  • Faith, Hope, and Charity Cardwell, according to the Guinness Book of Records, are the longest-lived set of triplets.
  • George Foreman's sons are named George Jr., George III, George IV, George V, and George VI. Two of his daughters are named Freeda George and Georgetta.
    "I called them all George because I was worried that when I was older I might suffer from memory loss. I would have called my five girls George, too, but my wife said she thought that was overkill. When one of them is naughty, I shout 'George!' and that one knows who I mean. The only time it is awkward for me is when a teacher calls up and say we have a problem with George, and I have to ask them which one."
  • Five of the six children of King Æthelwulf ("Noble Wolf") of Wessex shared the Æthel- prefix: Æthelstan ("Noble Stone"), Æthelswith ("Noble Strength"), Æthelbald ("Noble and Bold"), Æthelberht ("Noble and Bright") and Æthelred ("Noble Counsel"). The Odd Name Out? Alfred the Great.
  • Paul Anka's five daughters all have names starting and ending with the letter A: Amelia; Anthea, Alicia, Amanda, and Alexandra.
  • Cardi B’s first name is Belcalis but her Stage Name comes from Bacardi, as in the brand of rum, because her sister’s name is Hennessy like the brand of cognac. She used Bacardi at one point but her social media accounts kept getting deleted because of trademark issues so she just swapped the syllables.
  • Super Fun Night actress Rebel Wilson and her siblings Anarchy, Riot, and Liberty. (Actually Annachi and Ryot.)
  • Actress Poppy Montgomery and her four sisters are all named for flowers - Daisy, Marigold, Rosie, and Lily. Subverted with their only brother, Jethro.
  • Meryl Streep is one of a long line of women whose first name is/was Mary. It goes back as least as far as her grandmother. Her eldest daughter’s first name is also Mary. You may know her as Mamie Gummer.
  • Venezuelan terrorist Carlos the Jackal's real name is Ilich Ramírez Sánchez. His siblings are Vladimir and Lenin. His mother objected to his Marxist father's choice of names.
  • Family of sorts: it's not unusual for minor league affiliates to share the same name or a thematically similar one to the parent team.
    • Basketball: The NBA G League has many examples.
      • First, it has teams sharing the Bulls, Celtics, Clippers, Kings, Knicks, Lakers, Magic, Nets, Raptors, Spurs, and Warriors names.
      • Thematically similar names are Hawks – Skyhawks, Hornets – Swarm, Nuggets – Gold, Pelicans – Squadron*, and Timberwolves – Wolves.
      • Past examples also exist. 76ers - 87ers was an example before the latter team changed its name to Blue Coats in 2018. Another former example is Hawks – BayHawks; the Hawks bought a G League team in Erie, Pennsylvania in 2017 with plans to move that team to the Atlanta area; the move went down in 2019, at which time the G League team became Skyhawks. Finally, Pistons – Drive; the Pistons ended their affiliation in advance of the 2021–22 season, buying the Suns' G League affiliate and moving that team to Detroit as the Motor City Cruise. As for the Drive, they became the Denver Nuggets' affiliate and changed their name to Gold.
    • Hockey: Kings - Monarchs/Reign, Sharks - Barracuda, Ducks - Gulls, plus shared Senators, Bruins, Stars, Wild and Penguins.
    • Baseball: Just about every team has an eponym - plus some theme named, such as Padres - Missions.
    • Utah: After the New Orleans Jazz moved to Salt Lake City in 1979, several Utah sports teams took to adding Z's to their names: the Starzz (WNBA), the Freezz (indoor soccer), the Buzz and Owlz (minor league baseball), etc. Since averted, however. The Starzz moved to San Antonio, becoming the Silver Stars and later the Stars; they're now the Las Vegas Aces. The Freezz folded along with their league in 2001. The Buzz were sued by Georgia Tech, which uses an anthropomorphic yellow jacket named Buzz as one of its mascots; the SLC team changed its name to Stingers and later to Bees. The Owlz still operate under that name, but moved from Orem to Windsor, Colorado (near Fort Collins) in 2020; they took the 2021 season off and will resume play in 2022 as the Northern Colorado Owlz.
  • WNBA teams often have names that are somehow related to the men's team they share a city with. In addition to the Starzz mentioned above, there's also the Washington Mystics (the Wizards), the Minnesota Lynx (the Timberwolves), the defunct Charlotte Sting (the Hornets), the Phoenix Mercury (the Suns) and several others. This is much more likely if the teams have the same owners.
  • Jean-Baptiste Berthier was an ambitious man who named his sons after famous emperors: Louis-Alexandre, Charles, Louis-César, another Louis-César because the first died young, Louis-Léopold and Alexandre-Joseph. Louis-Alexandre became Marshal of France under Napoléon Bonaparte, and his brothers became generals.
  • A fairly common pattern in Chinese culture is to name a set of siblings or cousins with characters that, when put together, form a proverb or saying. Since Chinese given names are generally either one or two characters long and many Chinese proverbs are only four characters, it isn't too hard to do this even with the two-child (formerly one-child) policy.
  • Common for geiko and maiko in Kyoto, where "families" (more like an adopted family rather than a family linked by blood) are linked by common characters. For example, the Daimonji Okiya family has Katsuya, Katsune, and Katsuna. When a geiko takes on a "younger sister", she will almost always pass on a part of her name to her "younger sister", hence forever creating a bond between them. Some okiya have more than one naming line, showing who is connected to whom, and sometimes, a new name line can be created. For example, Sayaka passed on the "Sa" to her younger sister, Satsuki. Satsuki then passed on the "Tsuki" to her younger sister, Mitsuki, thereby creating a new naming line.
  • Deborah Ann Woll has named her three dogs after science fiction characters: Banner, Ripley, and McFly.
  • The Duggar family of 19 Kids and Counting has nineteen kids with names that all start with J (after the father, Jim Bob). One of the 19 kids, Joshua, has a slightly different take on this trope; he and his wife have given their seven kids names that start with M (after his mother Michelle).
  • Another family featured in American reality TV, the Derrico family of Doubling Down with the Derricos, uses the exact same theme as the elder Duggars. All 14 kids have names starting with D, after the father Deon.
  • Jessica Alba’s parents gave her and her brother Joshua names that began with the same letter. She’s passed down the tradition to her own children: Honor, Haven, and Hayes.
  • Daisy Ridley and her sisters Poppy and Kika-Rose all have flowery names.
  • Chester Zoo's "Hi Way family" of Asian elephants are given names which follow the ______ Hi Way pattern. The first part is an Indian name such as Hari, or Anjan, or Nandita, or Indali, with the Hi Way part being their "surname". The latter is also a nod to Thi Hi Way (1982 - 2020), from whom all elephants born at Chester Zoo since 2009 are descended. However, when they are mentioned in media, the Hi Way part is often dropped.
  • Bruce Willis and Demi Moore have three daughters with alphabetically-ordered names: Rumer, Scout, and Tallulah.
  • Joseph and Magda Goebbels saw fit to give all six of their children names beginning with the letter H (Helga, Hilde, Helmut, Holde, Hedda, and Heide). Coincidentally, their older half-brother Harald (from their mother's previous marriage) fit the theme.

 
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Daffy's family

Daffy's relatives' names are all synonyms for "stupid" that start with "D".

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