Repetitive Name - Television Tropes & Idioms

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 a intentional misspelling, unless it spans all the 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").
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.

Compare Meaningful Name and Theme Naming. Can be confused with Bond, James Bond. Imagine any one of these characters doing 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.

Examples

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Anime & Manga

Lisa Lisa and Magenta Magenta from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure.
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 we never find out what her real name is.
Hinata Hyuga from Naruto is a strange anime example. Her first and last name mean the same thing and are just said differently.
Carson D. Carson from Dirty Pair.
Yomiko means "Reading Child" in Japanese, and "Readman" speaks for itself. Thus is named the heroine of Read or Die.
Bobobo Bo Bo Bobo. Worst, he did the Bond, James Bond schtick. That whole series hurts.
Konoka Konoe of Negima! (and her grandfather, Konoemon Konoe). Also the old teacher, Takamichi Takahata. At first it can seem like Negi had mispronounced his last name.
Ef a Tale of Memories give us Hirono Hiro and Miyako Miyamura.
Otome Saotome in P2! — Let's Play Ping Pong!.
90% of the cast in Kagihime Monogatari have this going on.
Naru Narusegawa of Love Hina. When calling her "Naru", you never know if it's actually her first name or her last name shortened.
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."
In Mobile Suit Gundam 00, the some of the Innovators names, like Regene Regette and Revive Revival.
Ming Ming from the final season of Beyblade.
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.
Khamen Khamen from Braiger.
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 literally translation of Hagane no Renkinjutsushi is "Alchemist of Steel" and "Fullmetal Alchemist" is a sort of Gratuitous English subtitle in the Japanese version.
- From Brotherhood you also get "Lust the Lascivious", "Gluttony the Voracious", "Envy the Jealous", "Greed the Avaricious", "Wrath the Furious", "Sloth the Indolent" and "Pride the Arrogant".
- Führer King Bradly must be mentioned. (King is his first name.)
Collin Collins from Space Carrier Blue Noah/Thundersub.
Kuran Kuran from Macross Frontier.
Kazuma Azuma from Yakitate!! Japan
Shayla Shayla from El-Hazard: The Magnificent World.
Yu-Gi-Oh! GX lampshades this by forcing Jaden to say three card names. They are: Gagagigo, Giga Gagagigo, and Gogiga Gagagigo. Even Jaden can't say it due to the repetitive-ness.
- The real card game also has a fourth member of this family, but it isn't named anything nearly as clever. It's just called Gigobyte.
Sakura Sakurakōji, heroine and Faux Action Girl of Code: Breaker. Also her real mother, Sakurako Sakurakōji
Haruha "Haruhara Haruko" Raharu.
Carson D. Carson, crook and erstwhile ally of the Dirty Pair from The Movie.

Comics

Mad Scientist Simon von Simon (and his rival in mad science, Sigmund von Sigmund), from Little Gloomy
Thomas N. Thomas, the secret identity of the imaginatively named superhero TNT in The DCU.
J. Jonah Jameson in Marvel Comics. One Twisted Toyfare Theater comic joked that the "J" also stands for "Jonah".
- In actual Marvel continuity, the "J" actually stands for "John".
  - And his employee, Robbie Robertson.
  - Which is a nickname, but still.
Flash enemy the Trickster is known as James Jesse, but he changed his name to this from the original (Giovanni Giuseppe) to make it sound less ethnic for his performing career.
Brian Bryan from Azrael.
Gregor Gregorovich of the Blue Trinity in Flash comics.
Brian O'Brien, Quality Comics' The Clock.
Tad Ryerstad, alias Nite-Wing, from The DCU.
Odious Kamodious the demon lord, from Jack Kirby's Satan's Six.
In Marvel Comics, Hawkeye and his brother Trickshot are Clinton and Barney Barton.
In the Doom Patrol Doom Force special that parodied X-Force, Scratch, the Wolverine parody, 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.
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.
In Brazil and Portugal, Scrooge McDuck is known as "Patinhas McPatinhas".
Hawk, son of Tomahawk in The DCU. This doesn't actually get addressed in-story, but since Tomahawk's real name is Tom Hawk, logically Hawk would be...
Richie Rich
Terry and the Pirates has Charles C. Charles, a.k.a. "Hotshot Charlie".
The La Brea tar pits example is lampshaded by a couple of guards in Runaways.
The Martian Manhunter's name sounds like "John Jones". It's actually written J'onn J'onzz.
Zatanna Zatara.
The main character of German Animesque comic Losing Neverland is called Lawrence V Lawrence (Laurie for short).

Fan Works

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 called "Jürgen" throughout, so we don't find out until near the end that it's repetitive.
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.*
It's almost certainly meant to be a surname in the source material, as the kanji used to write it spell an extremely common surname.
One is led to wonder just how someone called Sasaki Sasaki can be certain that Kyon is still calling her by her first name.

Films — Animation

Rick Dicker in The Incredibles.
Kung Fu Panda:
- Master Shifu. Shifu is Chinese for Master.
- Chorh Gom Prison.
  - Tai Lung's name means Ultimate Dragon, and wanted to become the Dragon Warrior.

Films — Live-Action

Aaron A. Aaronson in Hot Fuzz, whose name mysteriousy refers to a joke one of the Andys made earlier in the movie.
Officer Dick Dicks in 2001: A Space Travesty.
In Whatever It Takes, 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.
Chazz Michael Michaels in Blades of Glory.
Dr. Henry Henry in Track 29.
Grant Grant in Slither.
Mario Mario in the Super Mario Bros. movie.
The Tim Robbins film Bob Roberts, when you remember that Bob is short for Robert.
Duran Duran in Barbarella. Also A Good Name for a Rock Band.
In The Wedding Singer, Julia was engaged to Glenn Guglia (pronounced "Gulia"). He doesn't see what's so funny.
Rockwell "Rocky" Rockman in The Devil's Brigade.
Freder Fredersen, the protagonist in Metropolis.
Solomon Solomon from Magnolia
Owen Owens from Toys.
One of the wishes in the 2000 version of Bedazzled features the reporter Bob Bob.
Gascoyne D'Ascoyne in Kind Hearts and Coronets, or Gascoyne Gascoyne as he was in the book. The title of the book and film is a quote from the poem "Lady Clara Vere de Vere" by Tennyson.
Kuman-Kuman from The Interpreter.
The not so obvious Stanley Yelnats in Holes. And not just him but his whole paternal line too.
Mary Merriman from Deadly Little Christmas.

Franco-Belgian Comics

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.

Literature

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.
Catch-22 has a character called Major Major Major, who was instantly promoted to Major due to a computer error. Ex-P.F.C. Wintergreen ensures that Major Major Major Major can never be promoted or demoted because he thinks it's funny.
A Series of Unfortunate Events had Dr. Montgomery Montgomery, AKA Uncle Monty. (He studies pythons.)
Wallace Wallace from No More Dead Dogs by Gordon Korman.
Appropriately for a novel about nursery-rhyme crime, Jasper Fforde's The Big Over Easy has Detective Sergeant Mary Mary.
Jean Valjean from Les Misérables.
Detective Meyer Meyer from the Ed McBain's 87th Precinct series of novels.
Antoine San-Antonio of the eponymous San-Antonio series of French police novels by Frédéric Dard. Also, his love interest is named Marie-Marie.
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.
On the Discworld, it seems that some dwarfs are lacking imagination when naming their sons (or daughters). (This is justified, since dwarves on the Discworld are Literal-Minded in many other ways as well.) 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.
- Also 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.
- One book features a brief mention of a barbarian named something like Sven Svensonsonson.
- And Volf Volfssonssonssonsson in the Animated Adaptation of Soul Music.
- Glod is a common name for dwarves on the Discworld (there used to be just one of them, but then someone with a habit of bad spelling and/or Spoonerisms made a King Midas-like wish that everything he touched would be turned to "glod", so that poor dwarf got magically copied several thousand times...). Therefore, Glod Glodsson is also a common name.
  - It was an illiterate god trying to curse someone in the Ramtops. As a result, the people there tend to be rather short and...er...short-tempered.
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.
Chester W. Chester IV of Keith Laumer's SF novel The Great Time Machine Hoax (1964).
Joseph Joséphin, alias Rouletabille.
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.
Rickard Dickens in the gangster spoofs by Rolf and Alexandra Becker — better known as Dickie Dick Dickens.
Jameson Jameson from Richmal Crompton's Just William stories.
Carlington Carlington, the hero of Georgette Heyer's short story "Hazard."
The pawnshop owner's grandfather in the book Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life named Oswald Oswald. Jeremy even wanted him to ask about it.
Jeremy: Who names their kid Oswald Oswald?
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".
Kelly Kelly in the Young Bond novel Double or Die.
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.
Jack Jackson in The Pillars of the Earth, though he's eventually known as Jack Builder.
Robert Asprin couldn't resist naming a Mob boss from a Myth Adventures short story Don Don de Don Don.
Major Channing Channing (of the Chesterfield Channings) of The Parasol Protectorate.

Live-Action TV

Thing T. Thing of The Addams Family (the T stands for Thing).
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...
Jimmy James from NewsRadio, "the man so nice they named him twice." The head script writer has said the character was named after the Beastie Boys song.
Richard (Richie) Richard in Bottom.
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".
Heroes' Peter Petrelli.
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.
Black Adder has Lord Percy Percy.
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."
Arthur Arthur in Beverly Hills 90210. By his own account, he used to go by "Arthur Squared".
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.
WWE has a Diva whose on-air name is Kelly Kelly.
- Still a lot better than her real name Barbie Blank.
Family Matters 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."
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.
Chicago's Bozo's Circus has a clown named Oliver O. Olvier (played by Ray Rayner).
Eureka has a one-episode scientist named Carl Carlson.
Mary Cherry and her mother Cherry Cherry from Popular
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".
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.
The angels in Touched by an Angel have either this or Only One Name. Their lack of a last name is often the target of jokes.
Col. Walls: Your name is... Rafael Rafael?
Rafael: Yes. It is the name my Father gave me.
In one episode of Police Squad!, Drebin goes undercover, posing as a locksmith. When he lets himself into the mobster's office, the mobster demands ''Who are you? And how did you get in here?" Drebin answers "I'm a locksmith... and I'm a locksmith."
In the short before The Amazing Transparent Man, there is 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?"
Clark Clark from an episode of My Name Is Earl, and recurring character Ray Ray.

Music

Duran Duran
Talk Talk
Mr. Mister
The Automatic Automatic (not that anyone calls them that anyway)
The band was originally The Automatic. In America, there was already another band called The Automatic, so they changed their American name to The Automatic Automatic. To the rest of the world, they're still The Automatic. To America... they're still The Automatic
.]]
The The
Bruce Dickinson went by Bruce Bruce (inspired by Monty Python's sketch) before joining Iron Maiden.

Puppet Shows

Count von Count from Sesame Street. His name appears one... two! Two times! Ah ah ah ah ah! (dramatic thunder)

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".

Stand-Up Comedy

One of comedian Joel Hodgson's stand-up skits involved a two-headed ventriloquist dummy he named Danny O'Danny.
Stand-up comedian Bruce Bruce.
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."

Theater

The hero of Martin McDonagh's play The Pillowman's name is Katurian K Katurian. Guess what the middle initial stands for. His parents "were funny people." (Although if you read/see the play, you will find they are not very funny at all.)
Nicely Nicely Johnson of Guys and Dolls
A Swedish farce which spawned six movies had as its main character eternal law student Sten Stensson Stéen.
In Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya, Waffles' real name is Ilya Ilych Telegin. Someone accidentally calls him Ivan Ivanich, and he corrects them.

Video Games

Escape from Monkey Island introduced us to the politician Charles L. Charles. Actually LeChuck in disguise.
- Tales of Monkey Island reveals that Stan's full name is Stan S. Stanman.
Mask DeMasque from the Ace Attorney series. His original Japanese name, Kamen Mask, also counts.
- The Japanese version of Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney features characters named Takita Kitaki and Namina Minami.
- Detective Dick Gumshoe also falls under this.
James James, father of Jan James, from I Love Bees.
Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus' Quirky Miniboss Squad all have colour-based names and titles — three of them have the same colour mentioned twice. To whit, "Azur the Cerulean" (or "Blue the Blue"), "Rosso the Crimson" ("Red the Red") and "Nero the Sable" ("Black the Black").
- The Japanese-only story line added one more to the list - "Argento the Silver" ("Silver the Silver")
Non-character example: In Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, Link learns a number of magic spells. Easily the oddest one is the Spell Spell. Its function has nothing to do with spelling, either.
The Pokémon Darkrai's name comes from the English word dark and the Japanese word for dark, kurai.
- In the Japanese versions of Pokémon Black and White, Klink, Klang, and Klinklang were named Giaru, Gigiaru, and Gigigiaru. People would jokingly refer to the third form as Gigigigigigigigigiaru (the number of "gi"s varied, of course).
Red Dead Redemption has Bill Williamson. Since Bill is short for William his name is actually William Williamson.
The Super Mario Bros. fandom generally embraces Mario Mario as the main character's full name, despite this being officially Jossed by Shigeru Miyamoto.
- Mainly because they're known as the Mario BROTHERS. This would imply Luigi's last name is Mario. Meaning Mario only goes by his surname. Makes you feel for Luigi even more.
Celestial 'Celes' Stella, the older sister of the Stella we see in Kara no Shoujo. Both names are clearly linked to the heavens and stars. Too Good For This Sinful Earth, perhaps?
Dick Richardson of Fallout 2; Given that Dick is short for Richard.
Suzu Suzuki and Sae Saionji of Katawa Shoujo.

Web Comics

Leo Leonardo (the 3rd) from VG Cats.
A case of a Repetitive Code Name: the word "Sciuridae", the family name for squirrels, means "shade-tail". Grace Sciuridae, of El Goonish Shive, once carried the code name Shade Tail. Good reason, too.
- And now there is a slightly straighter example with Arthur J Arthur.
Achewood: Todd Todd Todd Todd Todd T. Squirrel. Though for convenience's sake, one "Todd" will suffice.
Polk Polkster from PolkOut.
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.
Dennis Dennis III from Awesome Storm Justice 41
Mayor Mayor from Scary Go Round, the first Mayor being his occupation, the second one his surname.
The original Sporkman had Steve "The Steve" Stevenson.

Web Original

The Evil League of Evil from Dr. Horrible\'s Sing-Along Blog
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.
Title character from The Remarkable Journey Of Higgins Von Higgings.
Morgan M Morgansen
Brett Bretterson is So-and-So's imaginary boyfriend in Teen Girl Squad.

Western Animation

On The Simpsons, Lenny and Carl's full names are Lenford Leonard and Carlton Carlson.
- Also to a lesser extent: Joey Jo-Jo Junior Shabadoo.
Leonardo Leonardo from Clerks: The Animated Series. And to a lesser extent his ancestor Bernardo Leonardo.
- And on that note: King Leonardo, Leonardo Lion, the title character of King Leonardo and His Short Subjects. "Leonardo" means "brave lion".
Señor Senior, Sr. from Kim Possible. And his son whose name is...well, you can guess, right?
In Goof Troop, Goofy got the surname "Goof". And Pete's full name was Peter Pete. His son PJ is Peter Pete Junior.
Futurama
- Bender Bending Rodriguez. That's a result of Trope Is My Middle Name; also it's also a subversion because Rodriguez has nothing to do with bending.
- Presidential candidates John Jackson and Jack Johnson are Classic Original and Original Classic of the same name, respectively.
Sheep in the Big City has a character named Texan Texas Tex (the most Texan Texan in all of Vermont).
Big Billy, aka William W. Williams of The Powerpuff Girls.
Professor Willard W. Willard from the classic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Dr. Quentin Q. Quinn from Sealab 2021.
In one of the Rankin Bass stop-motion specials from the 70's, Santa Clause IS Comin' to Town, there's Burgermeister Meisterburger.
South Park's own Tweek Tweak.
- Not to mention the Woodland Critters, including Beary the Bear, Rabbity the Rabbit, Squirrely the Squirrel, Chickadeey that Chickadee, etc.
Luke St. Luke from The Haunted World of El Superbeasto.
Although it's never stated within the show, Gargoyles creator Greg Weisman has established that the recurring policeman character Morgan's canonical full name is actually Morgan Morgan.
On Phineas and Ferb, Carl's full name is Carl Karl, according to the credits of more recent episodes. Originally he was credited as "Karl," while "Carl" was seen the first time his name was spelled in the show proper, making this a sort of gag/Author's Saving Throw.
Jeong Jeong from Avatar: The Last Airbender, though it's not a first-name-last-name thing. He just has two identical names.
Cosmo Cosma from The Fairly OddParents.
South Park doctor Dr. Doctor.
The Dating Guy provides us with Anderson Anderson. Apparently, his parents thought it was funny.
Pinky and the Brain has Mr. Sultana Sultana, who lives next door to Acme Labs.
What? No Woody Woodpecker yet?
Germain St. Germain, the effective male lead of Heavy Metal 2000

Real Life

The famous 17th century astronomer Galileo Galilei. This was, in fact, fairly popular in Italy in the past, especially during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Any Italian history book is a trove of repetitive names, though none quite as famous as Galileo.
Due to Patronymics, you will sometimes run into people with the same first name and patronymic, and when you're in a country that doesn't commonly use last names this becomes very confusing. Like a Pavel Pavlovich (literally Pavel son of Pavel) whose dad was also a Pavel Pavlovich.
- You can also get people who have the same first name, patronymic, and last name. Pavel Pavlovich Pavlov.
Sporty siblings Gary, Phil (football) and Tracy (netball) Neville's father was a rugby player named Neville Neville. (Sing it to the tune of David Bowie's "Rebel Rebel".)
RFK assassin Sirhan B. Sirhan.
Magnus Magnusson, the original host of the BBC quiz Mastermind. Although he was Icelandic, this isn't a direct patronym, the Magnus in Magnusson was his grandfather.
Longtime strongman champion Magnus ver Magnusson, also Icelandic.
Professional road cyclist Robbie McEwen named his son Ewan.
Mime Marcel Marceau.
American Civil War soldier John St. John. Not to be confused with Jon St John, who also counts.
Aharon Aharonson, botanist and World War I spy.
Two Czech examples: Pavel Pavel (an engineer and a researcher — experimented with the Easter Island statues) and Jindrich Jindrich (a musician and a composer).
In scientific circles, this is known as a tautonym when it applies to taxonomic classifications, where the genus and species of an animal have the same name. For example, Rattus rattus is the rat, Bison bison is the bison, while Puffinus puffinus is... the Manx Shearwater. Minus ten points if you said Puffin.
- Wikipedia has an incomplete -but not small- list of tautonyms.
- One that deserves special mention is the Western Lowland Gorilla - Gorilla gorilla gorilla!
- There are also Classic kurashikku examples:
  - Diceros bicornis, the rhinoceros, is "two horns" in both Greek and Latin.
  - Xiphias gladius, the swordfish, is "sword" in both Greek and Latin.
  - Ursus arctos, the brown bear, is "bear" in, yes, Latin and Greek. However the Latin name comes first in this case, whereas the Greek name comes first in the other two.
Guy Fawkes (he of Gunpowder Plot fame) used "John Johnson" as an alias. It wasn't very effective...
20th-century philosopher John McTaggart Ellis McTaggart, author of The Nature of Existence.
There's also sci-fi writer Thomas T. Thomas.
Writers William Carlos Williams
Writer Jerome K. Jerome.
William Williams, signer of the Declaration of Independence.
U2's set designer is another Willam Williams.
Former UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali.
Holling Clancy Holling.
Ford Madox Ford (born Ford Madox Hueffer).
Cool Runnings actor Doug E. Doug, which is a stage name.
Not Cao Cao, legendary warlord of the Three Kingdoms Period and major character of Romance of the Three Kingdoms (and its various adaptations). Though the name seems repetitive when transliterated, in Chinese it is in fact composed of two different, though nearly homophonous, characters: 曹操. For that matter, homonymic names are common in Chinese culture.
Jack Johnson, singer.
Jack Johnson, boxer.
Author of the novel Flatland, Edwin Abbott Abbott. He originally published it under the pseudonym "A. Square" (a double pun; once on his own name and once on the characters of Flatland, whose lower-middle class were literal squares).
- The original additions simply refer to the author is "A Square", without the period, "A" being the indefinite article and not an initial. The narrator is literally a square.
Space Shuttle astronaut Richard Richards.
- The mind boggles at the unfortunate nicknames that could spawn...
Erik Erikson, the psychologist famous for coining the term "identity crisis", was born with the name Erik Salomonson. However, his father was only so in the legal sense, as his mother (also Jewish) had an extramarital affair with a Danish man (possibly) named Erik. Hence...
- Not to be confused with conservative political commentator Erick Erickson.
Afghan Presidential candidate Dr. Abdullah Abdullah.
Comic artist and Venture Brothers storyboarder Stephen DeStefano.
Welsh band "The Automatic" are known as The Automatic Automatic in America due to a pre-existing act by the name of Automatic. American fans of the Welsh band commonly refer to them by their original name.
The word "ben" is Hebrew for son, so the name Benson translates into "son son".
- Before anyone says, "That's funny, but Benson is an English name," Benson means "Ben's Son", i.e. "Son of Benjamin". Benjamin is of course Hebrew for "Son of my right hand" (no, not like that, get your mind out of the gutter), from "ben" (son) and "yamin" (right). So, by an amusing accident, English isolated the part of the name that means "son" as the nickname for Benjamin...and thus "Benson" is, in a round about way, "Son-son" (son of son).
Benjamin Netanyahu's late brother was named Yonatan Netanyahu. Considering that "Yonatan" is a contraction of "Yehonatan" and "Netanyahu" is a reversal of the same name with a slightly different transliteration, his name was basically Jonathan Nathanjo — or Jonathan Nathaniel.
New York, New York. "The city so nice they named it twice."
This was an old stereotype of people from the Scandinavian countries (where patronymic surnames are common), especially when they emigrated to America. This inspired the rhyme "Yon Yonson" (John Johnson).
"My Morning Jacket" lead singer Jim James.
- I don't think that really counts, though: it's not his real name.
One of the founding members of The Kinks is named Dave Davies.
Griffith Park and Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles are named for one Griffith J. Griffith.
San San Te. Different parts of the same page suggest that the second "San" may be part of his last name, or it may be a middle name/part of his first name.
There is an area in Arizona known as Table Mesa.
Simone Simons, lead singer of Epica.
- And Simone Simon, the French actress best known in the United States for Cat People.
Loch Lochy
Mansa Musa, 14th century emperor of Ghana and Mali.
Alexander Alexandrov, writer of the Hymn of the Soviet Union.
Sir Isaac Isaacs, who was both the first Australian-born and first Jewish Governor-General of Australia.
The Mexican wave (as often seen in sport stadions) is called La Ola (Spanish for The Wave) by the Germans. Often you can hear German people talk about "die La Ola-Welle" - "The The Wave-wave"!
In a similar vein, the La Brea Tar Pits. "La" = "The" and "Brea" = "Tar". The The Tar Tar Pits.
Ramiro "Pedro" Gonzales-Gonzales, a popular contestant on Groucho Marx's You Bet Your Life who went on to become a character actor.
Groucho: If we got together as an act, what would it be called?
Pedro: "Gonzalez-Gonzalez and Marx".
Groucho: Do you believe that? Two men in the act, and I get third billing!
Garet Garrett. Born Edward Peter Garrett, officially changed his name to qualify for this trope. It was originally his pen name.
Scandinavian languages has rather few "usable" first names for men, so people with names like "Sven Svensson" (Swedish), "Lars Larsen" (Danish), "Halvor Halvorsen" (Norwegian) or "Sigurbjorn Sigurbjornsson" (Icelandic) are not too uncommon.
Author, baron, freiherr, politician etc. Yrjö Yrjö-Koskinen
In many German dynasties and noble families it was customary to designate the different branches of one house by their residence. If the family name already was taken from a place-name, this could lead to cases as the counts of Salm-Salm (as opposed to their relatives, the counts of Salm-Kyrburg) and the margraves of Baden-Baden (as opposed to those of Baden-Durlach) in the 18th century.
The now largely forgotten German writer Ida Marie Luise Sophie Friederike Gustava Countess Hahn (1805-1880) called herself Countess Hahn-Hahn since her wedding to a distant relative, Friedrich Wilhelm Adolf Count Hahn-Basedow.
The Austrian satirist Alexander Friedrich Roda (1872-1945), who later emigrated to the US, changed his name to Alexander Roda Roda in 1908.
Also from Austria, Field Marshal Josef Wenzel Graf Radetzky von Radetz (1766-1858).
"Sahara" translates to "Desert," so people unwittingly refer to the Sahara as "the Desert Desert."
Chris Christie, the current governor of New Jersey.
The large Sheftall family of Georgia were influential in founding the city of Savannah and started one of the oldest Jewish communities there. One of them was Sheftall Sheftall. At some point they must have just run out of names.
This can happen with foreign foods that are amended with the native name for the food, such as "shrimp scampi."
American country singer (of Swedish descent) Kris Kristofferson.
Courtney Taylor-Taylor of The Dandy Warhols, though it's a stage name, and his birth name is simply Courtney Taylor. According to him, it started as an in-joke: He had called a friend, and someone else picked up, so he had them write down a message - because he had to repeat his last name to the person on the other end, they wrote his name down as "Courtney Taylor-Taylor".
Similarly, Jeffrey Hammond-Hammond, former Jethro Tull bassist. His actual name was Jeffrey Hammond, yet he added the second "Hammond" after his mother's maiden name.
Character actor Edward Edwards.
Arthur MacArthur (I to III), a succession of military officers during the American imperialist era.
Happens a lot in Jewish names: Naftali Tzvi (Deer Deer), Dov Ber (Bear Bear), Aryeh Leib (Lion Lion) and Ze'ev Wolf (Wolf Wolf). Naftali Tzvi Hirsch is Deer Deer Deer.
Lauren Bush (niece of one president of the US and granddaughter of another) married David Lauren to become Lauren Bush Lauren.
Short-lived actor/murderer Milos Milos (real name Miloš Milošević)
In baseball, the Philadelphia Phillies land this twice. Not just because of their current name, but also because in 1883 they replaced (and took all their players and staff from) the Worcester Worcesters.
Evans Evans was a '60s character actress who appeared in several TV shows and the film Bonnie and Clyde.
American Idol contestant Phillip Phillips.
Actress Sasha Alexander. In Russian, "Sasha" is a diminutive of Alexander (or Alexandra).

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