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Kevin: Ken? Your brother's name is Ken? Ken and Gwen Tennyson? What are your folks' name, Sven and Jen? I'm talking to you, Ben. — Ben 10 Alien Force
When twins appear in fiction, it's very likely that their names will somehow sound alike or rhyme, actually be anagrams of each other (such as Amy and May), be alliterative, or be thematically similar in some way. Commonly there is only a one letter difference between the names.
If the twins are often referred to like one individual (IE "Jim" and "Tim" are almost always called "Jim-and-Tim" in conversation) this is even more likely, so it's understandably very common with Single Minded Twins.
In Japanese and other syllable-based languages this is especially common, because twins often end up sharing the final characters of their names. Most definitely Truth In Television, even in Western cultures. It applies to triplets and higher-order multiple births as well.
Like most twin tropes, this annoys the hell out of many real-life twins.
Examples:
Live Action TV
- Arrested Development has identical twins named "George Oscar" and, presumably, "Oscar George".
- Northern Exposure: Joel Fleischman's twin brother Jules show up for one episode. Although it was strongly implied that Jules isn't real.
- Seventh Heaven has the Camden babies Sam and Dave. Yes, that's a theme, Sam and Dave are the musical duo that sang "Soul Man".
- Although they're not actually twins, the Identical Stranger nurse who replaced Laverne Roberts in Scrubs is called Shirley. As in Laverne And Shirley.
- Miss Piggy's nephews Andy and Randy Pig in Muppets Tonight.
- Porter and Preston on Desperate Housewives. Their siblings are Parker and Penny.
- Power Rangers RPM has Half Identical Twins Gem and Gemma.
- No twins in Wonderfalls, but an example close to the Ben 10 quote above: The members of the Tyler family are named Karen, Darrin, Sharon, Aaron... and Jaye.
- In an episode of Wings, Lowell is asked to name his pregnant cousin's child, and she has twins, which gives him some trouble, since what with Lowell being what he is, he thinks the names have to rhyme. Not long after, someone jokingly throws out Nancy and Fancy, which Lowell immediately loves, leading to the line: "If in 25 years a grown man called Fancy shows up to kill you, this is why."
- From Newhart: "I'm Larry, this is my brother Darryl, and this is my other brother Darryl."
- Averted in Full House: When Becky has twin boys, she and Jesse name them Nicky and Alex.
- Privileged takes the "thematically similar" route with Rose and Sage.
Literature
- Tweedledee and Tweedledum of Alice In Wonderland.
- In The Care Bears Adventure in Wonderland, the Wizard calls them simply "Dim" and "Dumb". This suggests that Tweedle might be a surname, much like Turanga or Mao. But these Tweedles still have their own theme: low intelligence.
- Robert A Heinlein likes this trope. Castor and Pollux Stone from The Rolling Stones, Laz and Lor Long from Time Enough For Love and subsequent books, and a few others.
- Marilyn and Carolyn from The Baby-sitter's Club.
- And later, when Abby joined the club, her twin was named Anna.
- Which is rather funny, considering the Author admitted that Abby and Anna were called Lucy and Ethel in drafts, as naming the twins was the grand prize of a fan contest.
- Most twins featured in A Song Of Ice And Fire have rhyming names, including Errik and Arrik and Aemon and Aegon.
- Averted with main characters Cersei and Jaime, though.
- Though might not be seen as an aversion as Jaime can be pronounced the same as Jamie
- Alanna, herself a twin, from Tamora Pierce's Tortall Series Franchise, named her twins Alan and Alianne. Alan was the name of her late father, as well as the name she used while posing as a boy during her knight training. However, in an aversion, her twin's name was Thom.
- Rhyme and Reason from The Phantom Tollbooth, on top of the fact that most characters in the story are just about the definition of Anthropomorphic Personification.
- Sara and Tara Leighton from Tales Of MU.
- Adele and Eleda from The Truth-teller's Tale. The mirror-image names are a reference to their Different As Night And Day personalities, but the author also gave everyone else in their family palindromic names.
- Tira and Kira from the Belgariad and prequels, and even more so once they get their wizard names: Beltira and Belkira.
- Corin and Cor (plus Dar and Darin) in The Horse and His Boy. The story lampshades this trope as a naming tradition.
- The Xanth books have a pair of twins named Dawn and Eve. There's also a set of triplets named Melody, Harmony and Rhythm.
- From Discworld "Pyramids", a pair of twins named Ptaclusp IIa and Ptaclusp IIb (their father being simply Ptaclusp). They're actually pronounced "two-ay" and "two-bee".
- Happens in JRR Tolkien's Middle-earth. (Although there it is common for family members to have similar names, so you also get that for father-son and non-twin couples.)
- In the Silmarillion the sons of Dior are named Eluréd and Elurín, which are both variants of "Heir of Elu", referring to Elu Thingol, their grandfather.
- Not to mention the twin sons of Fëanor, who according to the Backstory were both named Ambarussa.
- They're better known as Amrod and Amras, which still fits the trope.
- There are also the twins Elrond and Elros (Silmarillion), Elladan und Elrohir (Elrond's sons, LotR), Folcred and Fastred (twin sons of a king of Rohan).
- Also happens in Narnia, specifically Archenland, which may be connected given C.S. Lewis' and Tolkien's friendship and their influence on each other. Archenland is known for sets of twins with similar names such as "Cor and Corin" and "Cole and Colin".
- In the Cambridge Latin Course, there are a pair of twins named Loquax and Anti-Loquax. This sort of thing may have been relatively common practise among the ancient Romans.
- Anatole, a French mouse who is also a cheese expert, has six sets of twins (sextuplets?): Paul & Paulette, Claude & Claudette, and Georges & Georgette.
- David Weber does this in the Honorverse with the Masadan ships in Honor of the Queen.
- Power and Dominion
- Throne and Principality
- Angel and Archangel
- David and Solomon
- Cherubim and Seraphim
- Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors features two sets of twins who both have the same name. This is somewhat justified in that both pairs were raised separately.
- From Harry Potter: Padme & Parvati Patil and
Lycan Lorcan & Lysander Scamander Luna's twin sons with Rolf Scamander, grandson of the author of Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them. Though not twins, Sirius and Regulus Black are named after stars, as are their cousins Andromeda and Bellatrix (would that make Narcissa the Odd Name Out?).
- Averted though, with Fred and George Weasley.
Anime
- Kyon of Suzumiya Haruhi calls Mikuru's fake twin.. "Michiru".
- From the anime W~Wish, there's twin siblings Junna and Senna.
- Appears in several CLAMP works:
- Sisters Tarta and Tatra from Magic Knight Rayearth.
- Fraternal Half Identical Twins Hokuto and Subaru of Tokyo Babylon and X1999 are both named after constellations. Subaru (昴) is Pleiades, while Hokuto (though using different kanji) means The Big Dipper. More than that, both are constellations of seven stars.
- Cho Li and To Li from Miyuki-chan in Wonderland (themselves analogs to Tweedledee and Tweedledum).
- In Chobits, Freya and Elda/Urda are named after Norse Goddesses.
- CLAMP appears to have restrained themselves with the twins Fay and Yuui of Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle, however, since their names have no apparent meaning and may have been intended to simply sound foreign to Japanese readers.
- Maru and Moro of xxxHOLiC, whose full names are Marudashi and Morodashi (meaning "flashing" and "streaking", Yuuko has an odd sense of humor).
- Suiseiseki and Souseiseki of Rozen Maiden ("Jade" and "Lapis Lazuli" respectively, also matching up to their dress colors).
- Mion and Shion from Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni, collectively referred to as "Shmion" for their habit of pulling Twin Switches.
- Sakon and Ukon of Naruto take this a bit further than most — they actually share the same body. Also, Hinata and Neji's fathers are twins: Hiashi and Hizashi.
- Ranma 1/2 had Chinese Girl twins Pin-Ke and Lin-Ke (Pink and Link in some translations) and (anime-only) separate characters Rinrin and Ranran (Ling-Ling and Lung-Lung in the translation).
- Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch had Kaito and Gackto, both named after popular singers. The anime changed Gackto's name to Gaito in order to play up the connection to Kaito, or maybe just to play down the fact that Gackto has more in common with his namesake than that. There's also the Black Beauty Sisters, Mimi and Sheshe, although "sisters" is just a stage name (possibly so they could get away with public displays of affection in the seven-AM programming block). Although being a pair of enchanted anglerfish, they probably are sisters. The other pair of twins in the series, Caren and Noel, do not match.
- Digimon Tamers has Ai and Makoto, meaning "Love and Truth" respectively, as well as being the title of a popular book.
- Likewise, Digimon Frontier had Kouichi and Kouji - "First Radiance" and "Second Radiance".
- Tiff and Tuff in the Kirby anime series. This does not match in the original, as their names were Fumu and Bun, respectively.
- The Meido twins from Tsukihime, Hisui (jade) and Kohaku (amber), are named after their respective eye colors.
- Momiji and Kaede of Blue Seed are both named after words for "Maple".
- Kyou and Ryou of Clannad both have Tomboyish Names that rhyme.
- Yuna and Yuma Kashiwagi in Pani Poni Dash.
- Kirio and Kirika of Kamichama Karin. It's also worth noting that their father's name is Kirihiko.
- Don't forget Kazune and Kazusa Kujyou, though Kazusa is more of a opposite sex clone than a twin, and their father Kazuto.
- Darry and Gimmy (puns on hidari and migi, Japanese for left and right, respectively) in Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.
- Fuuka and Fumika Narutaki in Mahou Sensei Negima. Less obvious in translation, as the former's name is usually Anglicized as "Fuka".
- In Rurouni Kenshin's Kyoto arc, we learn that Cool Big Sis Tae Sekihara has a twin sister named Sae.
- The Half Identical Twins in Kiddy Grade are named Tweedledum and Tweedledee (see Literature section above). There are also two bishonen Sinistra and Dextera ("left" and "right" in Latin), who are not actually twins but look very much alike.
- While not twins, Kanon's Kaori and Shiori would otherwise qualify.
- Kidou Tenshi Angelic Layer has sisters Shōko and Shūko, although they, too, are not twins — Shuuko is older. This was lampshaded by their English voice actresses in the audio commentary, who wondered what kind of cruel parents their characters had.
- A variation occurs in Fushigi Yuugi. While Amiboshi and Suboshi are known by their Seishi names and not their real ones, it is still worth noting that their Seishi names sound alike. Miboshi, however, is another story...
- The Tachibana twins in Captain Tsubasa are named Masao and Kazuo.
- The Dylandy twin brothers in Gundam 00. The older twin is Neil, whose name means "cloud"; the younger twin is Lyle, and his name means "island". In a twist, they share the same Code Name in Celestial Being: Lockon Stratos.
- Sarasa's and her twin Tatara's name from Basara sound rather similar.
- Tatsuya and Kazuya from Touch. Taking it a step further, they are nicknamed Tacchan and Kacchan.
- In and Yoh (Japanese for Yin and Yang) from Cos Prayers.
- Marchiano's 12 Sisters in Coyote Ragtime Show. All twelve of them are named after the months of the year (though their relative ages [they're gynoids] are not the same as the order of the months). The three "youngest" sisters are October (Octo), November (Nove), and December (Dece).
Manga
Western Animation
- Azula's elderly Creepy Twin teachers Lo and Li from Avatar The Last Airbender, playing off a Chinese phrase that means "to mumble endlessly".
- Sherri and Terri from The Simpsons. Patty and Selma are an odd exception to the theme naming rule.
- Kim Possible's younger brothers, the twins Jim and Tim Possible. Shego's twin brothers are Wego. Both of them.
- Phil and Lil of Rugrats.
- Although, in an aversion, their full names are Phillip and Lillian.
- And then un-averted, as it was probably designed that way so that their shortened names would rhyme.
- Tomax and Xamot, the twin leaders of COBRA's Crimson Guard, in GI Joe.
- Wilykit and Wilykat from Thundercats.
- Thematic example with Nancy and Drew Quymn in Venture Bros. They are, of course, named after Nancy Drew.
- Tessa and Vanessa of Pepper Ann.
- Adam and Adora from Masters of the Universe/Princess of Power.
- Also true of their superpowered counterparts, He-Man and She-Ra.
- Tommy and Timmy from Arthur.
- Ben 10 had these. Their introduction? "I'm Andy!/And I'm Mandy! (together)We're twins!"
- Ben and Gwen (and, as the page trope says, Ken, Gwen's lesser-known older brother) fit this trope although they aren't twins. They were born on the same day, however.
- Ben's last name is Tennyson. As in "Ben Tennyson. Gwen also shares his last name. Kevin's last name, however is Levin... as in "Kevin Eleven". Yup.
- Kevin's middle name is eventually revealed to be Ethan, making his actual name Kevin E. Levin. Even Ben thinks it's too much.
- Camp Lazlo provides an interesting subversion. Of the loon twins, the most commonly referred-to one is "Ping" which makes you think the other's name would be "Pong". In actuality, though, the first is named "Ping Pong" and the other is named "Dave". It is, however, played straight with Chip and Skip, the dung beetle twins.
- Huey, Dewey, and Louie, the nephews of Donald Duck. They rhyme without sharing any letter combinations.
- The Proud Family had fraternal twin babies BeBe and CeCe, which not only rhyme, but are a reference to Gospel music artists BeBe and CeCe Winans, a brother and sister duet group.
- The Powerpuff Girls are technically triplets, and are named Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup.
- Then there are the Rowdyruff Boys: Boomer, Brick, and Butch. Not to mention Bunny, the girls' experimental sister.
- The movie explains how they got their names. Blossom was the first to address the Professor, so she was named for how open she was. Bubbles was cute and bubbly. And Buttercup...because it also begins with a "B".
- In Batman Beyond : Return of the Joker, a pair of twins act as The Dragon(s), and are known collectively as "Dee-Dee". Their real names, revealed at the end, are Delia & Deidre Dennis.
- 6teen's clones are named Kirsten, Kristen and Chrissy.
- Alexander and Alexandra Cabot on Josie And The Pussycats
- The original names for the Lamborghini Twins in Transformers were Sideswipe and Spinout.
- Spinout become Sunstreaker, which is still a bit similuar... Both can be abriavated to SS.
- And now we have Jetstorm and Jetfire, the...jet twins.
- Thomasthe Tank Engine has this in spades. Bill and Ben, Donald and Douglas, Mighty and Mac...
- Yin and Yang anyone?
- The Fairly Oddparents: Tad and Chad, Wanda and Blonda, Tommy and Tammy.
Video Games
- Mio and Mayu from Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly. The story also includes twins named Sae and Yae, Azami and Akane, and Itsuki and Mutsuki. (The entire game is essentially about a village that considers twins to be one spirit.)
- Palom and Porom in Final Fantasy IV.
- Don't forget Hurdy and Gurdy who were first introduced at Final Fantasy XII.
- As well as Ai and Yu from Final Fantasy Unlimited. In addition to being homophones for I and You, Ai can mean "love, affection, friendly" and "indigo" while Yu can mean "happy, pleased" or "jade".
- Lucas and Claus in Mother 3. They were actually named after the protagonists of Agota Kristof's novel The Notebook.
- Also, Lucas and Claus are anagrams of each-other. Not that you can tell when they're written in katakana...
- Lei-Lei and Ling-Ling, twin Chinese girls who use a Dangerous Forbbiden Technique to fuse into a Chinese Vampire in Darkstalkers.
- Solid and Liquid Snake (of Metal Gear Solid) are twins named after opposing states of matter, while the third brother is named Solidus. This has led to jokes (and more than a few Urban Legends Of Zelda) that there may be a fourth Gas Snake out there somewhere (and knowing Kojima this may very well be possible).
- Twins Chinami and Ayame of Gyakuten Saiban 3 have flower themed names. Their names in the English Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations are Dahlia and Iris.
- Ariel and Mariel in Summon Night: Swordcraft Story not only have similar names, but dress the same (though in different colors).
- At one point Mariel refers to Ariel as "big sister", but as they are specifically called twins, this is probably a title of respect.
- Kat and Ana of Wario Ware. Yes, they're ninjas.
- Dante and Vergil from Devil May Cry, named after the two protagonists of the Divine Comedy.
- Vent & Aile of Mega Man ZX. French for "Wind" & "Wing", respectively.
- And of course Rock & Roll from the original. They're not quite twins, as Roll was built a bit later, but it still fits.
- There's also Crea and Prea (create and pray) from Mega Man Zero, named by Alouette.
- And Rockman.EXE has the Hikari twins, Netto (熱斗) and Saito (彩斗). Both names share a kanji character and are both puns on computer terms - "intaanetto" (インターネット) is Japanese for "internet", and "saito" (サイト) means "web site". In the English version, their names were changed to Lan and Hub, both computer terms.
- Ingram & Viletta (a corruption of Baretta) from Super Robot Wars, both named after guns. They're not ''exactly'' twins, though.
- Billy and Jimmy Lee from the Double Dragon series. The NES version of the third game misspelled the former's name as "Bimmy"
 in one of the opening intros.
- They're counterparts in River City Ransom are named Randy and Andy. In the Japanese version, their names are Ryuichi ("first dragon") and Ryuji ("second dragon").
- Vocaloid has Rin and Len Kagamine. Their names are a pun on the words "right" and "left", respectively.
- Lolo and Lala in The Adventures of Lolo, as well as their Expies Lololo and Lalala in the Kirby games.
- The Edison twins Jed and Ned in The Day Of The Tentacle.
- The whole Edison family gets in on this. In total, there are Dr. Fred, Weird Ed, Edna, Dead Cousin Ted, Red, Ned, Jed, Zed, Zedna and Ved (The latter three being in the far future, explaining their use of Xtreme Cool Letterz.)
- Serena and Sera(Suu and Muu in the japanese version) from Rune Factory 2.
- Bubble Bobble games: Bub(blun/by) and Bob(blun/by), the main protagonists in the games. And Coro(ron/n) and Kulu(lun/n), that female Beta Couple in Bubble Symphony.
- Maori's twin sisters Koito and Kouta in Arcana Heart. It's more obvious in Japanese, their names both start with the kanji for 'small'.
- Gouken (Strong Fist) and Gouki (Strong Demon) from the Street Fighter series, although this is Lost In Translation due to the latter becoming "Akuma" in the international versions.
- While the cast of Eternal Sonata falls under something more like Population Theme Naming (so that March and Salsa aren't particularly noteworthy), a better example, similar to Kat and Ana above, can be found in Tenuto's fields early in the game: a pair of twin girls named Sop and Rano.
- Big Bang Beat's Kendo and Kyudo Nakanishi are named for their respective fighting styles - Kendo is the "way of the sword" (practiced with the 'shinai' that Kendo uses as well as actual swords), and Kyudo is "the way of the bow", or archery.
Comic Books
- In Marvel Comics, the Fenris twins Andreas and Andrea von Strucker; and mutants Jeanne-Marie and Jean-Paul Beaubier. Additionally, the latter twins' code names, Aurora and Northstar, are both astronomy-themed.
- Twin sisters Dusk and Dawn of Noble Causes.
- Dawn and Don Allen, the twin children of the second Flash. (One suspects their parents resorted to nicknames early on.)
- Michael and Michelle Carter from Booster Gold, were given the masculine and feminine versions of the same name respectively.
- Amusingly enough, Thompson and Thomson (originally Dupond and Dupont)from the Tintin comics are not twins. They're not even related, despite being identical except for the shapes of their mustaches. Dupond with a D has the slightly d-shaped one, and Dupont with a T has the slightly t-shaped one.
Film
- Parodied in the third Austin Powers with the twins Fook Mi and Foo Kyu.
- Noreen and Doreen from Hairspray.
- President Scroob's twin mistresses, Marlene and Charline, from Spaceballs.
- Star Wars: Luke and Leia Skywalker, Ann and Tann Gella, Jaina and Jacen Solo.
- Dawn and John from the second Care Bears movie.
- Jules and Verne from the end of Back To The Future III.
- Mia and Tia, the Miata twins from Cars.
Real Life
- http://www.behindthename.com/twins.php is a page on such theme naming.
- Kishimoto Masashi, author of Naruto, has a twin brother Kishimoto Seishi, author of 666Satan. The last character in both names is the same.
- The Social Security list of popular names for twins shows that this is distinctly a case of Truth In Television. Nearly all of them rhyme, alliterate, fit into a theme, or are names of famous siblings.
- Mark Antony and Cleopatra's twins, Alexander Helios and Cleopatra Selene. Helios is the god of the sun; Selene is the goddess of the moon.
- The famous newspaper advice columnists Abigail Van Buren and Ann Landers were identical twins. Their real names are/were Pauline Esther (the original Abby — the current columnist is her daughter) and Esther Pauline (the late Ann).
- This Troper thinks that the worst she ever saw were a set of identical boys named Christopher and Christian.
- While not as bad, this troper knew a set of twins named David and Dan in high school. Their parents apparently named their kids alphabetically, since their older sibling had a C name and their younger sibling had an E name.
- This troper knew a similar pair named Annie and Bonnie, with a baby sister Connie. And their parents had explicitly said that if they had another kid, the name would be Danny or Dani.
- This troper also knows a David/Dan twin set (their middle names are "A" and "B" respectively). Made more annoying by the fact that they both married women whose names started with "Pa," co-own the same company, and used to live on the same street.
- This trouper can even top THAT, when she was a Freshman in High School, she knew twin sisters named Alin (I-Leen) and Aylin (Ay-Leen)!
- This troper's dad knows identical twins with the SAME NAME!!! both were named Daniel Salas. Daniel Andrés Salas and Daniel Eduardo Salas! both were Daniel!!! he said he saw one of them and said "'sup Daniel" without knowing who he was talking to.
- Likewise, this troper's father knew two guys in college, both of whom were not only named "John Smith", but also had the same middle initial.
- This Troper knew a Michael and Mark twin set. In his own family, his non-twin cousins on his father's side all have names that start with "A" (Ashely, Amanda, and Adam). Ironically, his twin cousins on his moms side do not have theme naming initially (their middle names are Joesph and Patrick, which is their father's given name. )
- Three brothers. Nate, Nathan, and Nathaniel. SERIOUSLY.
- This Troper's family includes two examples: On Mom's side we have Cousin Anne's twin sons named Hans and Christian - and no the last name is NOT Anderson! On Dad's we have Aunts Patricia and Priscilla known all their lives as 'Pick and Pat' apparently after a comedy duo of yesteryear.
- New Zealand had a case where the parents wanted to name their twins Fish and Chips. This was blocked by the courts. The courts did allow a request from another set of parents to call their twins Benson and Hedges. More details can be seen here.
- This troper's dad claims to have run into more than one instance of Italian-American sons, especially twins, being named Primo and Secondo.
- This troper had a classmate named Forrest; his older sister is named Kelly. You can probably guess what their last name is.
- The twin grandsons of Earl Mountbatten of Burma, who were with him when the IRA blew up his boat in 1979, were Nicholas Timothy Knatchbull (who died) and Timothy Nicholas Knatchbull (who survived).
- The Islamic version of Cain And Abel, Habil and Kabil.
Webcomics
Web Animation
- Doreen and Maureen. And their mum Noreen. Then there are their parody counterparts Meryl, Beryl and Cheryl. (who have saggy arses instead of saggy breasts)
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