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Repetitive Name

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https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/duran-duran-duran-duran_6266.png

Judge: State your first name, your last name, and your occupation.
Lizardman: Lizardman, Lizardman, and... Lizardman.
— Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law

Sometimes, a character either a) is so very funny, badass, awesome, or all three, they don't deserve Only One Name, or b) has a Meaningful Name to the Nth degree that no other name works. What do you do?

Make their last name, and first name, the same name.

There are four common variations on this:

  • Classic Classic: Their first, last, optional middle, and in some cases, job title are all the exact same word. Never is there a literal Odd Name Out, or even an intentional misspelling, unless it spans all the names. This would make it both an Alliterative Name and Rhyming Names.
  • Classic Classical: The name consists of a short first name and a last name that is like the first but longer (like "John Johnson"). This would also be an Alliterative Name.
  • Classic Original: The names aren't quite the exact same thing, but they are extremely close synonyms. Usually, this only works for people named after something, or products and inanimate objects. Often Truth in Television, due to Patronymic surnames (e.g. "John Jackson" or "Fernando Fernández").
  • Classic Kurashikku: Also often used for characters named after something, it's when the two names mean the same thing, in different languages. ("Giovanni Johansen", "Sylvester Woods"). Alternate Character Reading can allow a similar effect with a single language, turning the pair of names into heteronyms or homophones.

Compare Meaningful Name and Theme Naming. Can be confused with The Name Is Bond, James Bond. Imagine any one of these characters doing The Name Is Bond, James Bond. (It hurts, doesn't it?)

When not applied to names, this is covered by Shaped Like Itself. Not to be confused with the Department of Redundancy Department, which concerns repetitive dialogue. Compare "Double, Double" Title.

See also this list on The Other Wiki.

Example subpages:

Other examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Anime & Manga 
  • The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You: Momiji Momi and Yaku Yakusen.
  • The Big Bad of Animal Land is actually named Giller Giller Giller.
  • Lampshaded in Another by Mei Misaki when she explains that she was adopted by her aunt instead of her twin sister Misaki Fujioka to avoid having the name "Misaki Misaki".
  • In Bakuman。, Moritaka Mashiro's father, Masahiro Mashiro, is a Classic Classical example in which the given name is longer than the surname.
  • Miyako Miyazaki in Bamboo Blade, who is affectionately nicknamed "Miya-Miya" by her boyfriend.
  • Bleach has Quincy twin brothers named Loyd Lloyd and Royd Lloyd (pronounced as Eru no Roido Roido and Aru no Roido Roido in Japanese, respectivelynote ) and another Quincy called Mask de Masculine.
  • Mikoto "Mikorin" Mikoshiba from Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun.
  • Ming-Ming, Chiru-Chiru, Tam-Tam, and undoubtedly the fourth member of the Ming-Ming Band from the final season of Bakuten Shoot Beyblade.
  • Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo. Worst, he did The Name Is Bond, James Bond schtick.
  • Khamen Khamen from Braiger.
  • Sakura Sakurakōji, heroine and Faux Action Girl of Code:Breaker. Also her real mother, Sakurako Sakurakōji.
  • Carson D. Carson from Dirty Pair.
  • Tsukutsun Tsun in Doctor Slump. The rest of his family also have at least two 'tsu' syllables each.
  • Doraemon: Aside from Sewashi, the male Nobi family members have "Nobi" in their given names. There is Nobita, his father Nobisuke, his uncle Nobirou, and his grandfather Nobiru. In the future, Nobita also has a son named after his father.
  • The Dragon Ball USA dub changed Muten Roshi's title (meaning "invincible old master"; real name unknown) to Master Roshi, which would mean... "master old master."
  • Shayla Shayla from El-Hazard: The Magnificent World.
  • Excel in Excel♡Saga claims her full name in the anime is Excel Excel; it's hard to tell if she is being serious or engaging in hyperbole. The manga clearly defines this and those of other ACROSS members as codenames, and her real name is never revealed.
  • 90% of the cast in Eternal Alice have this going on, such as Arisu Arisugawa.
  • Haruha "Haruhara Haruko" Raharu of FLCL.
  • Fullmetal Alchemist:
    • The second anime series for Fullmetal Alchemist is entitled "Hagane no Renkinjutsushi, Fullmetal Alchemist". Translate the Japanese half into English, and you get "Fullmetal Alchemist, Fullmetal Alchemist". The English version changed the name to "Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood" Granted, a more literal translation of Hagane no Renkinjutsushi is "Alchemist of Steel" and "Fullmetal Alchemist" is a sort of Gratuitous English subtitle in the Japanese version.
    • Brotherhood give titles to the homonculi that are just adjective synonyms for the Seven Deadly Sins they're named for: "Lust the Lascivious", "Gluttony the Voracious", "Envy the Jealous", "Greed the Avaricious", "Wrath the Furious", "Sloth the Indolent" and "Pride the Arrogant".
    • Führer President King Bradley must be mentioned. (King is his first name.)
  • Saki Saki from Girlfriend, Girlfriend, though her given name and her family name are written with different kanji. This was invoked by her parents, since they thought it would be cute.
  • Haruka Haruno from Go! Princess Pretty Cure. Kirara lampshades this by nicknaming her "Haruharu".
  • JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
    • This is where the main Joestars' collective nickname "JoJo" comes from. In the cases of Johnathan, Joseph, and Johnny, both names start with the syllable "Jo". Giorno has a variant where the repeating sound is "Gio" (Giorno Giovanna).
    • The Kujo branch of the Joestars have names that become repetitive when read in Japanese order (Kujo Jotaro, Cujoh Jolyne).
    • Lisa Lisa and Magenta Magenta are more traditional variants.
  • Referenced in Kanon when a sobbing Ayu accidentally says that her last name is Ayu. Yuuichi then starts calling her Ayu Ayu. Including right after she later says her full name is Ayu Tsukimiya.
  • Naru Narusegawa of Love Hina. When calling her "Naru", it isn't clear if it's actually her first name or her last name shortened.
  • Miho Miho in Macross 7.
  • Kuran Kuran from Macross Frontier.
  • In Mobile Suit Gundam 00, the some of the Innovators names, like Regene Regetta and Revive Revival.
  • Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu from My Hero Academia, whose given and family names are made up of different kanji that all have the same pronunciation and that all refer to hardening and metal due to his quirk.
  • A whole lot of this is found in My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong, as I Expected:
    • Yukino Yukinoshita
    • Yui Yuigahama
    • Hayato Hayama
    • Saki Kawasaki (Better when said in Japanese order: Kawasaki Saki)
    • Tsurumi Rumi
  • Monster Musume: Rachnera Arachnera.
  • Naruto:
    • Hinata Hyuga has a given name (spelled in katakana) that's an Alternate Character Reading of her surname (spelled in kanji), both meaning "place in the sun".
    • Kotetsu Hagane has a similar example to Hinata's, except his names are written in katakana (given name) and hiragana (surname). Both kotetsu and hagane mean "steel" in Japanese.
  • Konoka Konoe of Negima! Magister Negi Magi (and her grandfather, Konoemon Konoe). Also the old teacher, Takamichi Takahata. At first, it can seem like Negi had mispronounced his last name.
  • The main character of Nono Nono is named Nonomiya Nono.
  • Osomatsu-kun: The Matsuno brothers have names that begin and end with "Matsu" (ex. Osomatsu Matsuno). Their parents, Matsuzou and Matsuyo, have both their given names and surnames begin with "Matsu" instead.
  • Otome Saotome in P2! — Let's Play Ping Pong!.
  • Yomiko means "Reading Child" in Japanese, and "Readman" speaks for itself. Thus is named the heroine of Read or Die.
  • The sequel series of Read or Die, R.O.D the TV, has a character named Alice Alice Arquet.
  • The heroine of Recovery of an MMO Junkie is named Moriko Morioka. Koiwai nicknames her Morimori because of this, which she finds somewhat embarrassing.
  • Sailor Moon has a set of villains named the Amazoness Quartet. Their names are VesVes, CereCere, JunJun, and PallaPalla.
  • Otome Saotome appears in Shimoneta.
  • Apricot Anzu in Sorcerer Hunters.
  • Collin Collins from Space Carrier Blue Noah/Thundersub.
  • Crossing over with Names to Run Away from Really Fast (or at least it would if she had a negative bone in her body), Torture Tortura from 'Tis Time for "Torture," Princess.
  • Kazuma Azuma from Yakitate!! Japan.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! GX lampshades this by forcing Judai to say three card names. They are: Gagagigo, Giga Gagagigo, and Gogiga Gagagigo. Even Judai can't say it due to the repetitive-ness. The real card game also has a fourth and fifth member of this family, but they aren't named anything nearly as clever. They're just called Gigobyte and Gagagigo the Risen.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL has monsters with these names as Yuma's deck theme, such as Gagaga Magician and Gogogo Golem. Lampshaded with some of the key cards being named variations on "Onomatopeia".
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V has Ayu Ayukawa.
  • Victor Nikiforov from Yuri!!! on Ice. 'Nikiforov' can be loosely translated from Russian to "victorious", making his name translate to Victor Victorious.

    Asian Animation 
  • BoBoiBoy: Yaya's full name (Yaya Yah) is the inversion of the "Classic Classical" variation (let's call it "Classic Class").
  • The Lookus English dub of Happy Heroes does this with a location, weirdly enough. The dub calls Planet Xing by the name of Planet Xing Xing, most likely due to the way that its name is written in Chinese (星星球, or "xing xingqiu"; "xing" means "star" while "xingqiu" means "planet").

    Comedy 
  • Comedian Ahmed Ahmed has a bit where he lampshades his repetitive Arabic name, saying that he has to get to the airport early "because it's not a good time to be named Ahmed, and my name's Ahmed Ahmed."
  • Stand-up comedian Bruce Bruce.
  • One of comedian Joel Hodgson's stand-up skits involved a two-headed ventriloquist dummy he named Danny O'Danny.

    Comic Books 
  • The synonym version applies to the title character of Arrowsmith, Fletcher Arrowsmith.
  • Auntie Agatha's Home for Wayward Rabbits, is threatened by (unseen) real estate tycoon J. Jackson Jackson. The J stands for Jackson! Julie finds him obnoxious enough as it is, but that name...
  • In Black Hammer, the Martians follow a naming scheme wherein the last name is the same as the first name, but with a z tacked on at the end. This results in characters with names like Mark Markz, Lok Lokz, Kev Kevz, and so on.
  • The DCU:
    • Brian Bryan from Azrael.
    • Brian O'Brien, Quality Comics' The Clock.
    • In the Doom Patrol Doom Force special that parodied X-Force, Scratch, the Wolverine Wannabe, has the full name "Morgan Morgan". This is probably meant as a joke on how at the time Wolverine's real name was thought to be "Logan" but it was never established whether that would be his first name or last.
    • Gregor Gregorovich of the Blue Trinity in The Flash comics.
    • General Glory's sidekick Ernie, a parody of Bucky and other Golden Age sidekicks who use their Real Name as an Alias, has the full name Ernest E. Ernest. We're not told what the E stands for...
    • Hawk, son of Tomahawk. This doesn't actually get addressed in-story, but since Tomahawk's real name is Tom Hawk, logically Hawk would be...
    • The Martian Manhunter's name (written J'onn J'onzz) looks like it should be one. It's pronounced "John (or ‘Jean’, like the French name) Jones" though.
    • Tommy Tompkins of the Newsboy Legion
    • Tad Ryerstad, alias Nite-Wing in Nightwing.
    • Shazam! gives us "Uncle Marvel," real name Dudley H. Dudley.
    • Thomas N. Thomas, the secret identity of the imaginatively named superhero TNT.
    • Zatanna Zatara.
  • Disney Ducks Comic Universe: In Brazil and Portugal, Scrooge McDuck is known as "Patinhas McPatinhas".
  • The title character of the Disney Adventures comic Gorilla Gorilla and his roommate/nemesis Lizard Lizard. Also, five alien-made clones of Lizard who call themselves Lizard Lizard Lizard Lizard Lizard; Gorilla, understandably, prefers to call them L-5.
  • Mad Scientist Simon von Simon (and his rival in mad science, Sigmund von Sigmund), from Little Gloomy.
  • The main character of German Animesque comic Losing Neverland is called Lawrence V Lawrence (Laurie for short).
  • Marvel Universe:
    • Mobius M. Mobius, a member of the Time Variance Authority in Fantastic Four.
    • The La Brea tar pits example is lampshaded by a couple of guards in Runaways.
    • Spider-Man:
      • J. Jonah Jameson. One Twisted Toyfare Theatre comic joked that the "J" also stands for "Jonah". In actual Marvel continuity, the "J" actually stands for "John".
      • J. Jonah Jameson's employee's nickname is Robbie Robertson, though to be clear, "Robbie" is a nickname. He's actually named Joseph.
    • Comic relief character Harold H. Harold from The Tomb of Dracula.
    • Me-Me◊, a member of the Morlocks from X-Men.
  • Equator Cold, the third album of Enki Bilal's Nikopol Trilogy, features a chess boxing champion named John Elvis Johnelvisson.
  • Les Nombrils has John John, a Satellite Love Interest to Jenny and Vicky. He's a cool biker who never takes off his helmet. The truth about his name is revealed at the end of book three: they're actually conjoined twins, with one body but two faces, both named John.
  • Richie Rich. As Real Life wants to have it, there is a comic artist named Richard "Richie" Rich too. (Not to be confused with the Earl of Warwick.)
  • Odious Kamodious the demon lord, from Jack Kirby's Satans Six.
  • Kate from Shutter's father and brother are both named Chris Kristopher.
  • Soulsearchers and Company has Peter P. Peterson, the team's accountant and wielder of a magic carpetbag.
  • Taka Takata is a comic from Joel Azara, telling the daily life of a low-rank Japanese military (the titular character) and caricaturing Japanese society.
  • In the first Wakfu Heroes graphic novel, Korvus Korbiau. Corvus is the genus to which ravens belong, and Korbiau is one vowel away from corbeau, which is the French word for raven.
  • The second World of Tanks miniseries by Garth Ennis features a Russian tank commander named Piotr Piotrwicz. His girlfriend/driver Ginger seems to only call him by the full name, and in turn he playfully expands her nickname to "Ginger Gingerova."

    Comic Strips 

    Fan Works 
  • In Blue Steel one of the reporters at a press conference is named Simon Simonson.
  • In the EarthBound (1994) romhack EquestriaBound, one of the default names for the third character in your party is Apple. Since that character is Apple Bloom, and the second part of her name is the part that is customized by the player, this causes a repetitive name.
  • In Finally Living a Slytherin first year who's being abused by his family is named Robert Jackson Robertson the Fifth.
  • Human After All contains a character named "Bjorn Bjornson".
  • Kyon: Big Damn Hero has taken this approach for Sasaki; the author had a moment of confusion as to whether "Sasaki" was meant to be the character's given name or surname, so it ended up as both.note 
  • Quizzical: Grand Chef Blitzen "Lightning" Éclair, as explained in Chapter 14 of Thweet Geniuth:
    "Perhaps it would help if you thought of how ridiculous it really is," said Quiz. "Consider – 'Blitzen' is Paarderdamen for 'lightning.' 'Éclair' is Fancy for 'lightning.'"
    "And his nickname's 'Lightning'?" exclaimed Scootaloo. "So the Grand Chef wants to be called 'Lightning, air-quotes Lightning, Lightning'? What a doofus!"
  • In Some Kind of Wonderful the last student to be sorted during Harry's final year at Hogwarts is named Zach Zachariah Zachmann.
  • Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers fanfic Under the Bridge introduces us to Captain Jürgen Jürgen Jürgen of the Albacore. You see, his father stuttered, and didn't want to correct his mistake. He's just called "Jürgen" throughout, so we don't find out until near the end that it's repetitive.
  • After the episode "Saloonatics" introduced his ambiguous ancestor Sherriff Thompson, some Eddsworld fans have headcanoned that Tom's full name is "Tom Thompson".

    Films — Animation 
  • The Boss Baby has Francis Francis and Lamb-Lamb. (Some in-universe justification - reduplication is common in baby talk.)
  • Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs has an anchorman named Patrick Patrickson, presumably Played for Laughs.
  • Germain St. Germain, the effective male lead of Heavy Metal 2000.
  • The Incredibles has the youngest child, John Jackson Parr, who goes by the nickname "Jack-Jack".
  • Kung Fu Panda:
    • Master Shifu. Shifu is Mandarin Chinese for "Master".note 
    • In the first movie, there is Chorh Gom Prison.note 
    • Tai Lung's name means Ultimate Dragon, and wanted to become the Dragon Warrior.
  • Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa had Moto Moto — in his own words, "So nice, you say it twice."
  • Auguste Gusteau from Ratatouille, his first and last name are anagrams of each other.
  • Toy Story 4 has Gabby Gabby.
  • In Turning Red, Mei is called "Mei-Mei" by her mother and female relatives.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • Officer Dick Dicks in 2001: A Space Travesty.
  • Durand Durand in Barbarella. (Note the - albeit voiceless - d which makes it easy to distinguish him from the pop band named after him.)
  • One of the wishes in Bedazzled (2000) features the reporter Bob Bob.
  • Bart Bartholomew in Beyond Sherwood Forest.
  • Chazz Michael Michaels in Blades of Glory.
  • The Tim Robbins film Bob Roberts, when you remember that Bob is short for Robert.
  • From Cannonball Run II:
    Cannelloni: When I passed the powers of the Don...to my son Don...making him...Don Don...
  • Yet another Jackie Chan example, City Hunter has the main villain Donald "Don Mac" MacDonald.
  • Mary Merriman from Deadly Little Christmas.
  • Rockwell "Rocky" Rockman in The Devil's Brigade.
  • "Bake" Baker of Follow the Fleet—probably a nickname, but the character is never called anything else.
  • Larry L. Lawrence, the hero of The Ghost Breakers.
  • The anaesthetist, Dr. Barney Barnes in Green for Danger.
  • In Guns, Girls and Gambling, the Elvis Impersonator who wins the contest (and steals the mask) is only ever referred to Elvis Elvis.
  • Wayne Wayne Wayne, Jr., one of the two protagonists of Happy, Texas.
  • The not so obvious Stanley Yelnats in Holes. And not just him but his whole paternal line too.
  • Aaron A. Aaronson in Hot Fuzz, whose name mysteriously refers to a joke one of the Andys made earlier in the movie.
  • Kuman-Kuman from The Interpreter.
  • Ruben Rubenbauer, the muscle in Judas Kiss.
  • Lipo-Lipo from Jungle 2 Jungle. The river guide even lampshades it with "So nice, they named it twice", a reference to Michael's home city of New York.
    Mimi-Siku: In Lipo-Lipo, we eat with hands.
    Michael: In New York, New York, we eat with forks.
  • Ascoyne D'Ascoyne in Kind Hearts and Coronets. (In the novel it's based on, Israel Rank: The Autobiography of a Criminal, the corresponding character is the even more repetitive Gascoyne Gascoyne.)
  • King Kong, from the movie of the same name, when you consider that "kong" is the Danish word for king.
  • Solomon Solomon from Magnolia.
  • Freder Fredersen, the protagonist in Metropolis.
  • Sheriff Ole Olsen in One Foot in Hell.
  • Egomaniac Hunter Brian O'Brien in Sands of the Kalahari.
  • Peter P. Peters (stage name Petrov) of Shall We Dance? (1937).
  • Grant Grant in Slither.
  • Super Mario Bros. (1993) interpreted "Mario Brothers" literally and made their last name Mario. There's even a scene where Mario has to explain to somebody that Mario is both of his names. Many years later, this would officially become canon.
  • The kooky 1970 Olivia Newton-John vehicle Toomorrow (featuring the prefab band she was in at the time, also called Toomorrow) has as part of the secondary cast a student leader who's called "Matt" and "Matthew" by the other students and "Mr. Matthew" by the college administrators. As The Agony Booth pointed out, a background radio report mentioning him late in the film seems to confirm the inescapable conclusion that the character's name is indeed Matthew Matthew.
  • Owen Owens from Toys.
  • Dr. Henry Henry in Track 29.
  • In The Wedding Singer, Julia was engaged to Glenn Guglia (pronounced "Gulia"), causing her to break down in sobs when she tries out her married name for the first time. He doesn't see the problem.
  • In Whatever It Takes (2000), Ryan is mostly known by his friends as "Brian Ryan" after they misheard his first name as "Brian" and assumed someone calling him "Ryan" was using his last name.
  • Karol Karol from White.

    Literature 

In General:

  • One French kid's novel has a character named Germain Germain Germain.
  • And a Spanish kid's novel has a Mauricius Mauricius. Lampshaded by the main character, who refers to him as "Mauricius squared".

By Author:

  • Rickard Dickens in the gangster spoofs by Rolf and Alexandra Becker — better known as Dickie Dick Dickens.

By Work:

  • Detective Meyer Meyer from Ed McBain's 87th Precinct series of novels.
  • Lawrence Block's The Burglar Who Traded Ted Williams has Bernie's business landlord's brother-in-law, Martin Gilmartin.
  • Narrator Santiago de Santiago in A Case For Casanova.
  • Catch-22 has a character called Major Major Major, who was promoted to Major. Ex-P.F.C. Wintergreen ensures that Major Major Major Major can never be promoted or demoted because he thinks it's funny.
  • Rose Rose in John Irving's The Cider House Rules.
  • The protagonist in Anthony Boucher's The Compleat Werewolf is called Wolfe Wolf. His more irreverent students nicknamed him "Woof-Woof".
  • William Williams in The Century Trilogy, resulting in his nickname of "Billy Twice".
  • Discworld:
    • It seems that some dwarfs are lacking imagination when naming their sons or daughters. We have Albrecht Albrechtson (The Fifth Elephant), Bashfull Bashfullsson (Thud!), Gimlet Gimlet (Feet of Clay), Glod Glodsson (Soul Music), and the "Low King", Rhys Rhysson (The Fifth Elephant, Thud!). This could be explained by them being named for their father, with the problem that they also use Norse naming conventions, i.e. [father's name]son for last names. The dwarfs do mix it up a bit for variety, as with Snorri Snorriscousin.
    • Two counterparts of CMOT Dibbler, Dib Diblossonson and Swallow-Me-Own-Blowdart Dhlang-Dhlang.
    • The Discworld counterpart of "Crocodile" Dundee in The Last Continent is a humanoid crocodile. So, naturally, he's Crocodile Crocodile.
    • Volf Volfssonssonssonsson is the name of a Hubland barbarian in Soul Music.
    • Glod is a common name for dwarves on the Discworld (there used to be just one of them, but on two separate occasions [one based on King Midas, the other on Rumpelstiltskin], a case of bad spelling resulted in things being turned to "Glod" rather than gold, so that poor dwarf got magically copied several thousand times...). Therefore, Glod Glodsson is also a common name.
      • On top of that, dwarf patronymics stack, so that after a few generations you get Glod Glodssonssonssonsson.
    • Monstrous Regiment gives us Sergeant Jack Jackrum.
    • The Discworld Atlas describes the correct form of address for Nothingfjord chieftains, in which you basically have to list all their ancestors. The example given starts "Eric the Wise, son of Eric Ericsson", and goes on for 22 lines, mostly of Erics. One of them is Eric the Eric.
  • In Erich Kästner's Das doppelte Lottchen, Lotte and Luise the two separated twins first meet in a fictional place called Seebühl am Bühlsee (roughly "Lakehill on Lake Hill").
  • Donald D. DonaldmcDonald from Brian Doyle's Easy Avenue:
    And I always wanted to ask him what his initial D. stood for, but I never did.
  • The title character in Paul R. Beath's Febold Feboldson Tall Tales From The Great Plains.
  • The pawnshop owner's grandfather in the book Jeremy Fink And The Meaning Of Life is named Oswald Oswald. Jeremy even wanted him to ask about it.
    Jeremy: Who names their kid Oswald Oswald?
  • Golem Golem, the Killer Robot turned Robot Buddy of Feliks, Net & Nika series. He was called Golem, but he calls himself Golem Golem because his body was called Golem when it was being built and his program ("mind") was called Golem during programming. Other characters find it odd but finally decide to go along with it and call him Golem Golem.
  • Morton "Suds" Morton in Jerry Spinelli's Fourth Grade Rats.
  • In "Granita", Umberto Eco parodies Lolita with his Umberto Umberto. The whole short story is living this trope, half of the examples found here being used.
  • Chester W. Chester IV of Keith Laumer's SF novel The Great Time Machine Hoax (1964).
  • Remus Lupin from Harry Potter is a Classic Kurashikku example: "Remus" comes from the Remus of Roman mythology, who was Raised by Wolves, and "Lupin" comes from the Latin "lupus," meaning "wolf." But his father, Lyall Lupin, is even worse because "Lyall" is derived from a Norse name meaning "wolf." Therefore, Remus is Werewolf McWerewolf, son of Werewolf McWerewolf.
  • Carlington Carlington, the hero of Georgette Heyer's short story "Hazard". Though this may be a case of an omitted comma, since he's given a different first name later in the story.
  • Kantos Kan and Tars Tarkas in the John Carter of Mars books.
  • Jameson Jameson from Richmal Crompton's Just William stories.
  • Humbert Humbert in Lolita. Given the author's hobbies, it's a pun at taxonomy's use of repetitive genus/species names, which are called tautonyms.
  • Midnight Robber: Tan-tan, the protagonist.
  • Jean Valjean from Les Misérables.
  • The Lunar Chronicles has a short story where an android poising as a human takes the name Hoshi Star. "Hoshi" means "star" in Japanese. Notably, her boss looks somewhat askance when he reads it.
  • Robert Asprin couldn't resist naming a Mob boss from a Myth Adventures short story Don Don de Don Don.
  • Corvus Crow from Nevermoor, as "Corvus" is the Latin word for "crow."
  • Wallace Wallace from No More Dead Dogs by Gordon Korman.
  • Nursery Crime: Appropriately for a novel about nursery-rhyme crime, Jasper Fforde's The Big Over Easy has Detective Sergeant Mary Mary.
  • Oddly Enough: In "What's the Worst That Could Happen?", the narrator's name is Murphy Murphy. His first name has been passed down through his mother's family, to be given to the firstborn son in every generation, and he lampshades that given this, she really should have thought better than to marry a man with "Murphy" as his last name. His sister, as he notes, agrees.
  • The Parasol Protectorate: Major Channing Channing (of the Chesterfield Channings).
  • Jack Jackson in The Pillars of the Earth, though he's eventually known as Jack Builder.
  • Jay-Jay, the protagonist of the novel The Prince Of Central Park. The exposition explains that his deceased mother's two heroes were the Pope and President Kennedy (the book is set in the 1970s), so she named her son John John after the pair of them.
  • The Purple Cloud has Clodagh's nephew, Peter Peters.
  • "Quijote" by Salman Rushdie seems to be quite fond of the trope. Main example is the protagonist Ismael Smile (the author explains that "Smile" is the Americanized version of "Ismael").
  • Rant by Chuck Palahniuk has Echo Lawrence, whose father was named Larry. She points this out and seems annoyed at the constant jokes, but her nickname takes on an interesting light.
  • Rivers of London: Broken Homes has a minor character, an instructor at Hendon police college, who glories in the name of Douglas Douglas.
  • Joseph Joséphin, alias Rouletabille.
  • Antoine San-Antonio of the eponymous San Antonio series of French police novels by Frédéric Dard. Also, his love interest is named Marie-Marie.
  • A Series of Unfortunate Events had Dr. Montgomery Montgomery, AKA Uncle Monty. (He studies pythons.)
  • Seriously Norman focuses on the Normann family: Son Norman Normann and parents Norma Normann and Orman Normann.
  • Brian McBrian in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series.
  • A Song of Ice and Fire has a minor character called Benfrey Frey.
  • Star Wars Expanded Universe: Servants of the Empire presents the audience with one Leo Leonis, father of Zare, whose name is guaranteed to make any astronomy enthusiasts who see it giggle.
  • Discussed in Sword Art Online, when Yuuki and Asuna are jokingly talking about getting married. Yuuki says that Asuna would have to join her family, as otherwise her name would be Yuuki Yuuki.
  • In Kathy Reichs's Temperance Brennan novels, Tempe's ex-brother-in-law is named Howard Howard. Apparently, he was abandoned on the steps of a church with a note that said "The baby's name is 'Howard'." The nuns weren't sure if this referred to his first or last name, so...
  • Warrior Cats: Two characters with names like this are Twigbranch and Blazefire. Twigbranch's name, at least, was chosen for a reason: "Twig" came from her being "as tiny as a twig" when they found her as a kit, while "branch" was chosen as the suffix of her warrior name to represent how much she's grown up.
  • Heathcliff Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights. Found wandering in the streets as a child by Mr. Earnshaw, who adopted him, but for some reason didn't give the boy his own name. It was at first an instance of Only One Name, but later it became both his first name and his surname.
  • German SF Xperten - Das Paranetz has Muriel D. Muriel. (His father got annoyed about people asking whether Muriel was his first or second name, so he avoided it for his son.)
  • Kelly Kelly in the Young Bond novel Double or Die, the younger sister of Bond's friend Red Kelly.
  • Young Indiana Jones and the Gypsy Revenge by Les Martin features a character named Thornton N. Thornton VI. Indy considers it to say all you need to know about the Thorntons that they not only gave someone the same first name as last name, but then kept on doing it for six generations.

    Live-Action TV 

Networks:

  • Mouse Mouse, the puppet co-moderator from Nickelodeon.

By Series:

  • Thing T. Thing of The Addams Family (the T stands for Thing).
  • Arrested Development: Bob Loblaw, who was briefly the Bluth's lawyers. His name is clearly an allusion to Blah, Blah, Blah, and is known to write on his "Bob Loblaw Law Blog".
  • Arthur Arthur in Beverly Hills, 90210. By his own account, he used to go by "Arthur Squared".
  • Paul Lynde's first appearance on Bewitched, before becoming the regular Uncle Arthur, was as Samantha's driving instructor Harold Harold.
  • Blackadder has Lord Percy Percy.
  • Bones: When Booth asks his psychiatrist why he always introduces himself as "Gordon, Gordon Wyatt", Dr. Wyatt asks if maybe it hadn't occurred to him that his parents named him "Gordon Gordon".
  • Richard (Richie) Richard in Bottom.
  • Chicago's Bozo's Circus has a clown named Oliver O. Oliver (played by Ray Rayner).
  • The short-lived TNT series Bull (2000) has a family of this: Main character Robert Roberts III is nicknamed "Ditto"; his grandfather, Robert Roberts, Sr., is known as "The Kaiser"; and his father, Robert Roberts, Jr., runs the day to day operations of the trading firm Ditto and his pals broke away from (which The Kaiser owns).
  • Shirley on Community names her youngest child Ben before she realizes that Ben Bennett is something of an unfortunate name.
  • One of the constables in Coppers End was Dinkie Dinkworth.
  • Doctor Who:
    • One instance of Clara is called Oswin Oswald.
    • "The Crimson Horror" has Thomas Thomas, who happens to be a pun on a certain commercial GPS brand.
    • More than once, the Doctor has been challenged with "Give your name and rank" (or similar) and responded with "The Doctor, The Doctor".
  • Donkey Hodie features a character named Duck Duck.
  • Eureka has a one-episode scientist named Carl Carlson.
  • Steve Stevens, the father on Even Stevens.
  • Family Matters:
    • The show has Waldo Geraldo Faldo.
    • There is also an episode where Carl Winslow's immediate superior Lt. Murtaugh reveals that he changed his first name to match his current rank, making him Lieutenant Lieutenant Murtaugh — although his friends call him Lou.
      "What was your name before you changed it?" "Sergeant."
  • In Friends, Rachel apparently has a chiropractor named "Dr. Bobby Bobby" (she insists it's actually Robert Bobby). This is heavily mocked by Ross and her father.
  • One of the regulars in The Gong Show was Gene Gene the Dance Machine (real name Eugene "Gene" Patton).
  • The Goodies: The Reverend Llewellyn Llewellyn Llewellyn Llewellyn (Jon Pertwee) in "Wacky Wales".
  • Ben Bennett in Greek is marginal, but is good enough for his whole name to be his KT nickname.
  • On Here's Humphrey, Humphrey B. Bear's full name is Humphrey Bear Bear. The character was originally called Bear Bear before a viewer competition to find him a first name.
  • Heroes' Peter Petrelli.
  • The famous wise neighbor from Home Improvement, Wilson. Last name? Wilson. Oh, so then what's his first name? It's Wilson. Oh yes, Wilson W. Wilson. Guess what the "W" stands for.
  • Horrible Histories has “your host, a talking rat” named Rattus Rattus, the scientific name of black rats.
  • I Dream of Jeannie: When she takes a job in the real world, Jeannie says her last name is Jeannie too. Hilarity Ensues when the CIA attempts to track her, leading to several ultra-serious discussions about the non-existence of a Miss Jeannie Jeannie anywhere on record.
  • I Love Lucy has Ricardo Ricardo, better known as Ricky. His full name, with Spanish tradition of mother's surname last, would be Ricardo Alberto Fernando Ricardo y de Acha.
  • The Key & Peele sketches about the East/West Bowl feature players named Jammie Jammie-Jammie, EEEEE EEEEEEEEE (pronounced "dolphin noise, longer dolphin noise"), Ladadadaladadadadada Dala-Dadaladaladalada, Javaris Jamar Javarison-Lamar, Dahistorious Lamystorious, Quatro Quatro, Creme de la Creme, and Xmus Jaxon Flaxon Waxon.
  • The Dennis Potter mini-series Lipstick On Your Collar featured Private Francis Francis. His superior officer reminds him that his Repetitive Name does not exempt him from Last-Name Basis:
    Major Church: Well, Francis, get this clear. When we call you "Francis," we mean "Francis," not "Francis."
  • Lost minor character Dr. Arzt. (Type 4 - Arzt=German for "doctor")
  • The titular character in Marvin Marvin tells his teacher that his name really is "Marvin Marvin", much to the teacher's disbelief.
  • The Middle has Sue Sue Heck. Her first name was accidentally written twice on her birth certificate. Her parents have been meaning to get that changed. When they finally get around to it in "The Name", the government worker at the courthouse thinks her name is interesting. Sue, delighted that someone has finally found something about her unique and special, decides not to have it changed after all.
  • One of the competitors in Monty Python's Flying Circus' "Upper-Class Twit of the Year" sketch is named Vivian Smith-Smythe-Smith.
  • Mr. Young has Derby. In the finale, his last name is revealed to be Von Derbitsford.
  • Clark Clark from an episode of My Name Is Earl, and recurring character Ray Ray.
  • Mystery Science Theater 3000
    • The short before The Amazing Transparent Man has talk of a young couple looking forward to their marriage, commenting that the girlfriend can't wait to be Mrs. Joe. Mike responds with, "So his name is Joe Joe?"
    • Mike notices a "Leon Leon" in the opening credits of The Deadly Mantis. Crow is appalled at how lazy and uncreative his parents must have been,
    • During Devil Fish, a computer voice talks about a Dr. Davis, and (for some reason) repeats the "Davis" part twice. Crow thinks this means the character in question is named "Davis Davis Davis", and makes the same "unoriginal parents" joke as above,
  • NewsRadio:
    • Jimmy James. "The man so nice they named him twice." The head scriptwriter has said the character was named after the Beastie Boys song.
    • Later in the series, we are introduced to his nemesis, Johnny Johnson.
  • Nichols has Clueless Deputy Mitch Mitchell.
  • NTSF:SD:SUV:: featured Trent Hauser's rival Van van Damme as the villain of one episode. Like a lot of weird things in this show, the fact that his first name is "Van" isn't commented on.
  • Pizza has Habib Halal Habib.
  • Police Squad!: variation — Detective Drebin (who is acting undercover as a crooked locksmith) lets himself into a mob boss' office...
    Mob Boss: Who are you? And how did you get in here?
    Drebin: I'm a locksmith — and I'm a locksmith.
  • Mary Cherry and her mother Cherry Cherry from Popular.
  • On one episode of Private Benjamin (1981), Judy gets a visit from her grandfather, Benjamin Benjamin.
  • Charlotte "Chuck" Charles from Pushing Daisies. Her father was named Charles Charles.
    • For this reason, some fans believe/hope the Piemaker's full name is Edward "Ned" Edwards.
    • There's also Sister Mary Mary from "Bad Habits" and Dick Dicker from "Window Dressed to Kill".
  • On The Red Green Show, Winston often quotes a self-help guru named Anthony Anthony.
  • Saturday Night Live had Roseanne Roseannadanna, a recurring character on "Weekend Update" played by Gilda Radner.
  • Humorously invoked in Scrubs. One of Dr. Kelso's signature quirks is that he insists on addressing Chris Turk as "Turkleton", apparently believing that "Turk" is short for something. At Turk and Carla's wedding, Turk finally tells him that it's just "Turk"; a drunken Kelso indignantly replies that he knows that, but apparently believes that "Turk" is his first name.
    Turk: ...You think my name is "Turk Turkleton"?
  • Joe Flaherty's Guy Caballero from SCTV. Guy is pronounced like the English word for a man. And what does Caballero mean in Spanish?... Man (okay, gentleman, but you know where we're going).
  • Count von Count from Sesame Street. His name appears one... two! Two times! Ah ah ah ah ah! (Dramatic Thunder)
  • In one Seinfeld episode, Jerry hosts a distance runner from Trinidad and Tobago, coming to New York to run the New York Marathon. The runner is named Jean Paul Jean-Paul.
  • Shake it Up: Deuce's real name is Martin Martinez, explaining the nickname.
  • Sledge Hammer!: Dori Doreau.
  • Subverted in Summer Heights High. Mr. G's full name is Greg Gregson, but it is later revealed that his real first name is Helen.
  • The Terror has Commander James Fitzjames, RN (who was also a real-life example). It's a rather cruel Punny Name his biological father stuck him with as a joke about his illegitimacy.
  • In one episode of Three's Company, Jack works for an encyclopedia salesman named "Morris Morris". (Janet: "Sounds like he should be selling ditto machines!") When he introduces himself to Chrissy, she responds with "Hello Hello."
  • The angels in Touched by an Angel have either this or Only One Name. Their lack of a surname is often the target of jokes.
    Col. Walls: Your name is... Rafael Rafael?
    Rafael: Yes. It is the name my father gave me.
  • Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt has idiotic Cult leader Richard Wayne Gary Wayne.
  • Wilson Wilson from the British drama Utopia.
  • Waterloo Road has Barry Barry (which is ironic because who named their son twice).

    Music 
  • Alessandro Alessandroni was a longtime fixture on the Italian film music scene as a composer and performer, though his big legacies these days are as the whistler on various Ennio Morricone scores, and as the male scatting voice on the original version of "Mahna Mahna".
  • Belgian rock band Allez Allez.
  • The Automatic Automatic note 
  • Motown session drummer Benny Benjamin.
  • Bruce Dickinson went by Bruce Bruce (inspired by Monty Python's sketch) before joining Iron Maiden.
  • Chaos Chaos, the sister-duo band known for its appearances in Rick and Morty.
  • Duran Duran
    • Not to be confused with the breakcore producer Duran Duran Duran.
  • Evelyn Evelyn (Neil Gaiman once wrote an article called "Afterword Afterword: Evelyn Evelyn")
  • Everything Everything, who incidentally have songs titled "Suffragette Suffragette" and "Cough Cough".
  • There's a Latin band called The Los Hermanos Brothers, which of course translates to "The The Brothers Brothers."
  • INXS' bass player is Garry Gary Beers. (However, his real middle name is William.)
  • Australian band Jackson Jackson.
  • One of the founding members of The Kinks is named Dave Davies.
  • Former KISS guitarist Vinnie Vincent.
  • New York indie band Liquid Liquid.
  • x3 bonus to Man Man, whose lead singer is called Honus Honus, and whose website is ManManBandBand.com.
  • Mother Mother
  • Mr. Mister
  • My Morning Jacket lead singer Jim James.
  • The Dutch hip-hop band Osdorp Posse has a song called "Sam Sam", in which many of the lines are words that repeat themselves and are homonyms.
  • Ozzy Osbourne
  • Phillip Phillips.
  • In the late 1990s, there was a short-lived Country Music duo called Regina Regina, which consisted of two women named Regina. (Their last names were Nicks and Leigh.)
  • The front singer of the Belgian rock band The Scabs is named Willy Willy.
  • Billy Idol's long-time guitarist/songwriting partner, Steve Stevens.
  • Talk Talk
  • The The
  • Tony! Toni! Toné! – Repetitive in pronunciation, though obviously not in spelling.
  • Honorable mention to Was (Not Was).
  • Xiu Xiu. (Probably not related at all to the female Chinese Pentathlon athlete.)

    Pinballs 

    Podcasts 

    Print Media 
  • MAD #70's "Museum of Madison Avenue" has a pedestal honoring Charles Charles (Chuck Chuck to his friends), whose pioneering contribution to the advertising industry was discovering the importance of repetition.

    Pro Wrestling 
  • ECW wrestler Dudley Dudley
  • Seen in IWA Puerto Rico, Andy Anderson
  • Rad Radford of the World Wrestling Federation and then National Wrestling Alliance member ECCW
  • Tony Anthony, better known as T.L. Hopper and Uncle Cletus in the late-'90s WWF. His complete first name, however, is Darrell, and not Anthony.
  • The "Big Japan CZW Crisis Big Born Cage of Death Death Match". Apparently needed two deaths to describe it and is but one example of how Big Japan looks at a dangerous gimmick match and decides it's not dangerous enough.
  • Ken Kennedy... KEEEEEEEENNNNNEEEEEDDY!
  • One half of Ring of Honor's American Wolves, Eddie Edwards.
  • Dragon Dragon of CHIKARA and Wrestling Is. Also, one of his red barons, "Mighty Mighty Monster Monster Medieval Medieval".
  • Kelly Kelly which is a lot better than her real name Barbie Blank.
  • Minoru Tanaka's Tag Team with Fergal Devitt, Prince Prince.
  • One half of Better Than You, Jayme Jameson
  • The Marvelous pro wrestling Power Stable Mabutachi 2 Manjimanji.
  • Rex King of the Southern Rockers,note  "rex" being Latin for "king". This was by coincidence rather than design; he named himself after the original Moondogs tag team, who in turn had chosen common dogs' names.

    Radio 
  • Adventures in Odyssey has a character named Digger Digwell. On top of it, he often introduces himself to characters in the Imagination Station as "Digger, Digger Digwell", prompting many of the characters to address him as "Digger Digger Digwell".
  • In The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1978), Arthur Dent introduces himself to Slartibartfast as "Dent. Arthur Dent." which Slartibartfast takes to mean his name is "Dentarthurdent".
  • Ann Arbor, Michigan radio station WWWW, which brands as "W4 Country". Surprisingly, given the Unfortunate Implications of the call letters, a couple of radio stations in the Colorado Springs, Colorado area have used KKKK in the recent past, though not currently.

    Tabletop Games 
  • Magic: The Gathering's Arabian Nights expansion has the card Kird Ape. "Qird" is Arabic for ape.
  • Warhammer 40,000 has Corvus Corax, Primarch of the Raven Guard. Corvus is Latin for raven. Corax is Greek for raven. As a bonus, Corvus corax is also the scientific name for common raven. Real creative, GW.

    Theatre 
  • Among the D'Ysquith line in A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder are Lords Asquith D'Ysquith, Senior and Junior.
  • Nicely-Nicely Johnson of Guys and Dolls.
  • In Kiss The Boys Goodbye by Clare Boothe, one character is a Hollywood director named Lloyd Lloyd.
  • As in the Literature section, Jean Valjean from Les Misérables.
  • Durak McMackMack from Of Dice And Men. He ultimately traces his line back to his ancestor, Mack the Mack.
  • The hero of Martin McDonagh's play The Pillowman is named Katurian K. Katurian. Guess what the middle initial stands for. His parents "were funny people". Given the context and the dual definition of "funny", he probably meant they were strange rather than amusing.
  • A Swedish farce which spawned six movies had as its main character eternal law student Sten Stensson Stéen.
  • The hero of Robert Bolt's play for children The Thwarting of Baron Bolligrew is the portly knight Oblong Fitz-Oblong.
  • In Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya, Waffles' real name is Ilya Ilych Telegin. Someone accidentally calls him Ivan Ivanich, and he corrects them.
  • Caldwell B. Cladwell, the villain in Urinetown.
  • Val du Val from Little Me.

    Video Games 

    Visual Novels 

    Web Animation 

    Webcomics 
  • Achewood: Todd Todd Todd Todd Todd T. Squirrel. Though for convenience's sake, one "Todd" will suffice.
  • Dennis Dennis III from Awesome Storm Justice 41
  • El Goonish Shive:
    • A case of a Repetitive Code Name: the word "Sciuridae", the family name for squirrels, means "shade-tail". Grace Sciuridae, once carried the code name Shade Tail. Good reason, too.
    • Later they introduced Arthur J Arthur.
      Interviewer: I must say, Arthur... or do you prefer Arthur?
      Arthur: ...
  • In League of Super Redundant Heroes, one of the Power Group superheroes is Phantom Ghost.
  • Johnny Jhonny from Paranatural. Jhonny pronounced "JUH-HAW-NEE".
  • Polk Polkster from Polk Out.
  • The titular character of Rodney R Rodney. Not only are his first and last names both "Rodney", it's also implied that his middle initial also stands for Rodney, meaning his name repeats three times.
  • Mayor Mayor from Scary Go Round, the first Mayor being his occupation, the second one his surname.
  • Van Von Hunter changed his name from Vaughn to Von Hunter, so his real name is Van Vaughn, or possibly (as his sidekick decided) Van Von Vaughn.
  • The original Sporkman had Steve "The Steve" Stevenson.
  • In Station Square, one of the Princessguard knights is named Riley O'Reilly.
  • Wayne W. Wayne from Two Guys and Guy.
  • Leo Leonardo (the 3rd) from VG Cats.

    Web Original 
  • Fuwa Fuwa Foof: As confirmed in the opening content for a fan comic creator Kyra Kupetsky approved of, Fair Play, Foof's full name really is Fuwa Fuwa Foof (as in the show's title), meaning that she has the same first name and middle name.
  • James "Jim" James, father of Jan(issary) James, from the Halo 2 ARG I Love Bees.
  • Looming Gaia: Since the most common first names in the Evangeline Kingdom are Evan and Angeline, and the royal family's last name is Evangeline, the kingdom has had several kings and queens named Evan Evangeline and Angeline Evangeline.
  • Moon Moon, a memetic mentally challenged wolf.
  • Nico Nico Douga, the (rough) Japanese Youtube equivalent.
  • The title character from The Redundant Man Who Was Redundant is called Steven Stevenson II. He works in the Department Of Redundant Acronyms with his secretary, Dora.

    Web Videos 

    Western Animation 

 
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Big City Greens

"Unless your parents possess some kind of...anger induced super-strength." Spoke too soon, Cricket!

Example of:
Tempting Fate

Alternative Title(s): Name Name

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Big City Greens

"Unless your parents possess some kind of...anger induced super-strength." Spoke too soon, Cricket!

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