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Names The Same: Cross Media
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- Zero. The entire list is on the page.
- Decisive Battle can refer to a long list of media. The two most popular are the one from an extremely Mind Screw anime and the recurring Final Boss theme.
- Ashley Williams and...Ashley Williams
- Archie Andrews: British ventriloquist's dummy and radio star (yes, really) *
Actually Edgar Bergen had pioneered radio ventriloquism many years earlier with his dummy Charlie Mc Carthy- Another Archie Comics example. Alexandra Cabot is a long-running supporting character in Josie and the Pussycats; she's Josie's wealthy rival and occasional ally. There is another Alexandra Cabot featured in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, a no-nonsense Assistant District Attorney.
- Amon is a pale-faced guy in a black leather jacket who hunts super-powered people for a living, whether they're (mostly) malevolent witches or (mostly) innocent element-benders. There's also the one who tortures innocent Jews. In Devilman, there is also a Demon named Amon.
- Mike Grell's classic barbarian comic "The Warlord" features an issue where he's rescued by a group of college professors. Among them is Richard Belding,who shares a name with the educator who followed Screech around for the duration of the Saved by the Bell franchise.
- Let's not forget Travis Morgan's ally Shakira, who is of course not related to the Colombian singer.
- The Ballad Of Cable Hogue is a 1970 western film about a failed prospector who finds a water source in the Arizona desert, attempts to found a town around it, falls in love with a prostitute, and ultimately dies saving the life of a man who betrayed him years ago. Calexico also has a song, "Ballad of Cable Hogue" (off their 2000 album Hot Rail), about a successful prospector who is betrayed and killed by a Femme Fatale. John Cale (formerly of Velvet Underground) also has a "Ballad of Cable Hogue" (though it was originally released under the title "Cable Hogue"); we're not sure what it's supposed to be about.
- Bender. Lovable Rogue in Futurama or eh...Lovable Rogue in duology of books by Ilf and Petrov and its many adaptations?
- Claire Bennet? Do you have a friend who happens to be an otaku and have time manipulation power? Or is your friend ice cold and prone to dramatically yell your name?
- Noah Bennet is the name of a character in this show or that show; both have been on NBC.
- Does Bianca refer to the friend of Latias and Latios in Pokémon Heroes, the ditzy rival in Pokemon Black And White (note: this isn't present in the original Japanese versions of both, where movie!Bianca is Kanon and game!Bianca is Bel/Belle), Nico's older sister from Percy Jackson and the Olympians, one of the eligible brides of the protagonist of Dragon Quest V, or RICKAAAY!'s wife in EastEnders?
- What about Bianca from the Rescuers?
- Captain Carrot. All-round hero, The Good Captain and indisputably The Cape of his universe. But is he a bunny rabbit with superpowers or a watchman with kingly charisma?
- And the Zoo Crew's Captain Carrot has the real name of Roger Rabbit.
- Elizabeth Shaw: A Hot Scientist who studies aliens. Was she the late Caroline John playing the Third Doctor's assistant, or Noomi Rapace playing the leader of an expedition to discover the origins of mankind?
- Dr. Bob: A medical doctor whose constant failures to save his patients are repeatedly Played for Laughs. Does he simply get distracted by the opportunities to make really bad puns in the emergency room or does he keep accidentally murdering his patients in the process of helping them?
- John Carter. Hero of Mars or a doctor in Chicago county General?
- Sharon Carter. Captain America's badass girlfriend or the "Girl" from Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place?
- Revolutionary Girl Utena and Xenogears both have half-mouse hybrid Team Pets named Chu-Chu.
- The Paper: a paperkinetic ditzy meganekko from Read or Die, or a time-and-space-transcending piece of paper belonging to Strong Bad?
- Edward Cullen is either a wealthy, hunky vampire with a much younger girlfriend or a wealthy real estate guy/murder victim with a much younger girlfriend/murder victim.
- Joanna Dark is either the secret agent protagonist of the Perfect Dark games or God empowered super policewoman the Maid from Top 10.
- Data: Teenaged Bungling Inventor in The Goonies, or Android Starfleet officer on Star Trek: The Next Generation and its subsequent movies? And they both pronounce their name "Day-Tah". Or maybe a member of Griff Tannen's gang in 2015 in Back To The Future Part II. Or perhaps Mega Man's robot monkey.
- Things can quickly get confusing if you say you're a fan of Arrested Development — indeed, the hip-hop group by that name sued the producers of the same-named sitcom, and the latter hung a lampshade on the situation.
- Judge Dee: Hero of a series of detective stories set in 900s China by Robert van Gulik, or hero of a Judge Dredd Megazine strip by Paul Cornell about a Brit-Cit Judge sent back in time to Elizabethan London?
- The Doctor is not The Doctor. Or the other Doctor. Or the other other Doctor.
- Nor is he Il Dottore. Of course, there's also the other Il Dottore, Valentino Rossi...
- Dot Matrix is either a golden gynoid voiced by Joan Rivers or or a green-skinned sprite living in a computer world. Both are instances of a Punny Name relating to electronic hardware, including printers and LCDs.
- Max Edison is a recurring character in the Doctor Who Magazine comic strip, an easy going Agent Mulder, and friend of the Doctor. As far as is known, he has never killed anyone with a silver hammer.
- The World Eaters: Titanic golems led by an evil god of death or red power-armored super soldiers serving an evil god of war?
- DC Comics had a Doom Patrol character named Elasti-girl, and so does The Incredibles. Even their last names are similar: The Doom Patrol Elastigirl is Rita Farr, and the Incredibles Elastigirl is Helen Parr. Their powers are also similar, though Farr has size-changing as well.
- A "depending on the transliteration" example:, Exedore (officially now romanized as Exsedol) from Super Dimension Fortress Macross/Robotech is also a high potentate of the planet Ork.
- When you say "Flash", do you mean The Fastest Man in the World or The Saviour of the Universe (ah-ah!)?
- Or do you mean the programming language used to put games and annoying interactive ads on the web?
- Or do you mean a type of non-volatile memory
 ?
- Or a cleaning agent? (in the UK at least)
- Dr. Clayton Forrester is the name of the good scientist hero in the 1953 movie version of The War Of The Worlds, and the evil scientist villain in TV's Mystery Science Theater 3000. (Yes, the latter was a deliberate Shout Out to the former.)
- Billy Flynn: Dangerously Genre Savvy defense lawyer or horrifying serial killer?
- A Vortigaunt is not a Tyranid organism. Neither is Ibram Gaunt a xeno.
- Are The Founders the shape-shifting leaders of the Dominion, or a group of elder Whitelighters (guardian angels)?
- The GameCube (written with camelcase) is a Nintendo game console from the early 2000s. A Game Cube (with a space) is a representation of the User starting a computer game. Both are typically purple in color.
- The God-Emperor, Lord of the Spice, founder of the Fou Empire, leader of the Daleks, or ruler of the Imperium of Man?
- The God Hand is one of two magically empowered arms used to fight the demon king Angra. It could also refer to a group of the most powerful demons.
- Brian Griffin: Wisecracking talking dog or accidentally murdered English teacher?
- And if it's the latter, what about his wife Kathy Griffin?
- Hans Gruber: German terrorist from Die Hard, German schoolteacher-turned-Nazi supersoldier in Jack Staff, or minor villain from Our Man Flint?
- Tommy Gunn: Rocky's protege, or a gangster in Astro City?
- Jack Hammer: Best pal of Deadpool better known as "Weasel", or a victim in the first Phoenix Wright game?
- Or a fighter on steroids from Baki the Grappler.
- Not to be confused with the actual machine called the "jackhammer".
- Or with Goldberg's finisher.
- Hawkeye: Marvel Universe archer/member of The Avengers? Wisecracking surgeon of the 4077th MASH? Sharpshooter/right hand woman to Roy Mustang? Or protagonist of The Leatherstocking Tales?
- Henry Hill: Did he always want to be a gangster, or did he, also known as Hank, sell propane and propane accessories?
- Rick Hunter, L.A. homicide detective or ace veritech fighter pilot?
- Not in Japan, however; the Macross character's real name is Hikaru Ichijo.
- Rick Hunter is also the first of three people to portray the Postal Dude.
- One of the characters in Queer As Folk is called Brian Kinney; that's also the civilian identity of Altar Boy.
- Arthur Kirkland: A lawyer, or the anthropomorphic personification of England?
- Lois Lane (a.k.a. "Bianca") of the musical Kiss Me Kate is always true to Bill in her fashion, but she probably isn't Superman's type.
- You want Doctor Light? Do you mean Arthur, The DCU villain; Kimiyo Hoshi, The DCU heroine; or Thomas Xavier, the creator of Mega Man?
- You missed one.
- And Dr. Wright in the SNES version of SimCity, who is named after Will Wright, the founder of the series.
- Speaking of Lucky Star itself: Moe anime series about otakudom and food, or an early song by Madonna, or a Paper Mario item, or anything else named as such.
- Oscar Madison—is your roommate your complete opposite? Have you ever been turned into a woman?
- And speaking of Madonna: A nickname for the virgin mother of mankind's possible savior, or a singer from Michigan who made a titanic career out of Getting Crap Past the Radar?
- Hugh Mann: Obscure Golden Age space hero, or a trope-naming badly disguised Decapodian spy?
- Oh look, it's Patricia Martin! Tell me, is she a school girl otaku or a geneticist who ends up getting eaten?
- Thanks to Mega Man's Robot Master Naming Conventions, several comic book characters share names with Dr. Wily's creations, and by virtue of said convention you can expect their powers to be similar. Ice Man, Aquaman, and Shadow Man (Valiant Comics, it's best not to dwell on it) immediately come to mind.
- When you say "Flashman" do you want the roguish Brit, the Super Sentai team, or the Robot Master? Note that the DC character(s) that runs really fast is just The Flash, though Funky Flashman is someone else entirely.
- Hawk Man: Thanagarian hero of The DCU, or French Kinnikuman villain? They also have remarkably similar taste in headgear.
- There's also Junk Man from Mega Man 7, minor Kinnikuman malcontent Junkman, Jimmy Neutron's Junkman, and Astro City's Junkman.
- Similarly, Kinnikuman antagonist Springman shouldn't be confused with Mega Man 7's Spring Man.
- Mask Man. A Super Sentai series, or a Korean ĄMucha Lucha! -esque cartoon?
- Brock Mason. Ruthless and callous soldier, or dyslexic jock?
- Or a guy who only shows up in one episode of Fillmore!?
- Mega Man himself is an example. See this page for more details.
- Does The Master...
- The prepubescent hero of the 1986 fantasy film Troll is named Harry Potter. Unlike the more famous Harry Potter he isn't a wizard, although he does wield magic weapons for part of the movie, and he fights a troll.
- There's a scene in The Proposition where Charlie Burns briefly uses the alias Charles Murphy. It's also possible that John Hurt's character, Jellon Lamb, was named after a dinner.
- James Murphy was LCD Soundsystem. Jim Murphy was an Australian wine dealer.
- Navi, helpful but annoying fairy. Navi, extreme graphical interface computer that puts you INTO the web, or the short term of Net-Navi, aka "Internet Navigator", basically artificial intelligences walking on the Internet. The Na'vi, outgunned but determined space elves.
- Nemo: A little boy who finds adventures in his dreams or a little fish who has to be found? And there's Jules Verne's Captain Nemo! Word Of God says that Pixar's Nemo is a Shout Out to Verne's Nemo.
- Thomas Jerome Newton: He doesn't belong on this Earth in both The Man Who Fell to Earth and Fringe.
- Rachel Nichols is the star of Continuum and an NBA reporter.
- Nirvana is both a Doom II level and a grunge band. Spookily, Doom II came out in the same year that Kurt Cobain killed himself.
- Nirvana was also the name of two other bands that existed at the same time.
- Duke Nukem: Eponymous egotistical chauvinistic protagonist, or radiation-powered villain? This bugged the developers of the former enough to consider changing his name to "Duke Nukum" until they found out that the latter's name wasn't trademarked.
- Photon is either the original version of lasertag (which spawned a TV series), or an anime series, one of two Marvel Comics characters, the name of a form of energy in Dragon Ball, or the name of a light-elemental spell in the Tales Series.
- Q: Would that be the Gadgeteer Genius of the James Bond movies or the Sufficiently Advanced Alien on Star Trek: The Next Generation? Or a guy with a metallic mask and a trenchcoat from the Street Fighter series? Or the tea-loving British Robot in a Centurion's helmet from Armed And Dangerous?
- Raven. A precognitive teen with a knack for trouble, a badass half-Immortal history teacher, a middle-aged lecherous archer, an experienced thief who joins a prince's army, a badass ninja/operative, or a badass mercenary with a grudge against House Ostia?
- Jaime Reyes, 3rd Blue Beetle or UNATCO doctor?
- Sam Carter and air force space adventurer, helicopter pilot, or jaded anti-terrorist quarter master?
- Both 24 and Resident Evil 4 have characters named Ramon Salazar.
- Greg Sanders (spelled Saunders in recent appearances) is the civilian identity of Vigilante, a founding member of the Seven Soldiers. It is also the name of one of the investigators in CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.
- There is a minor character in the novel The Accidental Tourist named Dana Scully. No, this character is not a skeptical FBI agent who investigates the paranormal. In fact, he's a dude.
- The 1939 book Day of the Locust, and the 1975 film adaptation thereof, feature a character named Homer Simpson. The Simpsons is not a Shout Out, though; Word Of God is that Homer Simpson was named after Homer Groening, Matt's father.
- Snips, is it a nickname for Ahsoka, used by Anakin from Star Wars: The Clone Wars cartoon, or one of the bad guys from The Legendary Starfy?
- A year before the first Star Trek: The Original Series episode, Jack Vance's story Star King featured a second-string villain who used the alias Mr. Spock. Not to mention the author of the popular baby care book (who was actually known popularly as Dr. Spock).
- "Starlite" is the name of Rainbow Brite's horse. A "Starlyte" is the actual "gun" used in World of Wonder's version of "Lazer Tag" (which was copyrighted with this particular spelling). And a "Starite" is something Maxwell is obsessed with collecting.
- The sands of time, a curse in a specific Prince Of Persia continuity or the landscape when traveling through time in Kamen Rider Den-O? In Kismet, it's just the title of a song based on Borodin's "In the Steppes of Central Asia."
- Tempest the arcade game, and The Tempest the William Shakespeare play. Additionally, Forbidden Planet (which is based upon The Tempest) has monsters from the deeps (of the human psyche), whilst Tempest has monsters from the deeps (of variously-shaped pits).
- Tinstar: A segment on The Schnookums and Meat Funny Cartoon Show or a Super Nintendo game?
- And there's Tin Star the rock band.
- PG Wodehouse's famous character Bertie Wooster has an Uncle Tom, but not the racist kind. It's just that his Aunt Dahlia married a man named Tom Travers.
- While most people know Ultraman as a Japanese giant hero, Superman had an Evil Counterpart also called Ultraman. This character even preceded the more well-known Ultraman by two years.
- Either of those two might have been the inspiration for My Secret Identity's Andrew Clements (played Jerry O'Connell) to call himself Ultraman when Dr. Jeffcoate's experiment accidentally gave him superpowers.
- And all of them were preceded by at least a quarter century by "Gary Concord, the Ultra-Man" a Golden Age hero who first appeared in All-American Comics #8 in 1939.
- Susan Walker, of Once In A Lifetime and Coupling: two very different young women.
- James Wilson: American Founding Father portrayed as a meek "non-entity" who doesn't want to be remembered, or a doctor who's best friends with House?
- George Wilson: perpetually exasperated neighbor to Dennis the Menace or the slightly worrisome car mechanic from The Great Gatsby?
- Mary Worth: meddlesome US newspaper comics protagonist or ghost?
- A double cross-media example from within the same franchise. Gary Oak's sister is named Daisy in the Pokemon Red And Blue game, and May in The Electric Tale of Pikachu manga. Unfortunately, the anime has reserved both names for completely unrelated recurring characters. Naturally, bringing Gary's sister into Fan Fiction causes a lot of head scratching unless written quite clearly, as using either name for the poor girl will get her mixed up with someone else either in or closely related to the main cast.
- For bonus points, in Electric Tale of Pikachu Ash had a crush on May Oak, and shippers will occasionally pair Ash with May from the anime as well. It's like an Abbott and Costello routine just waiting to happen.
- Kiba Daioh (Great King Fang): The leader of the Kiba Clan from Fist of the North Star? Or the combined form of the Kiba Ranger's giant robot and four other mechas from Gosei Sentai Dairanger?
- Red Falcon: The evil alien army from the Contra series? Or the Red Ranger from Choujuu Sentai Liveman?
- The Egg Emperor from the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise. Is it the Final Boss (not counting Metal Overlord) of Sonic Heroes, or the Japanese codename for E-99, the Humongous Transforming Mecha from Sonic X?
- Jack Ryan — protagonist of The Hunt For Red October or BioShock? Or both?
- Itsuki the esper? From the Haruhi Suzumiya series or the Elite Four member in Pokémon Gold and Silver (Will in English)?
- The nation of Belka, with its Germanic airs - A homeland of powerful mage-warriors or skilled fighter pilots?
- Speaking of Belka, there's a small village within it named Arlon, pronounced exactly the same as Arlen, Texas.
- Jimmy Two-Shoes was also used in a gag on Whose Line Is It Anyway? several years earlier.
- Who is Doctor Evil the archenemy of? Austin Powers, or DC Comics hero Captain Action?
- The Gorillaz biography Rise of the Ogre makes reference to a preteen Murdoc's run-in with a bully named Tony Chopper, who apparently has no connection to One Piece.
- Gou Hibiki: Dan Hibiki's father? Or the name of Speed Racer in the Japanese version of Mach GoGoGo '97
- G-Force. A group of Disney rodents with gizmos or a certain group of science ninjas...
- Steve Austin: The Six Million Dollar Man or the WWE superstar?
- The latter actually was named for the former, as one of his nicknames, "The Bionic Redneck", suggest.
- The Brood are either X-Men villains or a Professional Wrestling stable consisting of Edge, Christian, and Gangrel (and later The Hardys).
- The Beast is an X-Men member, a Fairy Tale character, famous fighting game tournament player Daigo Umehara, or Satan.
- Does anyone want to see a battle between Alucard and Alucard?
- There is The Sandman, The Sandman, The Sandman, and...The Sandman.
- (The) Thing: a rocky superhero, a disembodied hand, or an extraterrestrial abomination?
- Blue Falcon: a blue-clad Hanna-Barbera superhero and Dynomutt's companion? The giant mech in Shadow the Hedgehog? Or Captain Falcon's ship? It doesn't help matters that Captain Falcon himself is often mistakenly called "Blue Falcon" and bears a bit of a resemblance to the Hanna-Barbera character.
- Blood Falcon: Captain Falcon's Evil Counterpart? or the terrorist group in Contra: Shattered Soldier?
- Andros, Red Ranger, or Andross the one with the brains to rule Lylat?
- Black Condor: A DC Comics superhero? Or the Black Ranger from Choujin Sentai Jetman?
- Who owns a parrot named Iago? Is it Bianca Castafiore or Jafar in Disney's Aladdin?
- The Disney one was named after the villain from Shakespeare's Othello. The Tintin one was named after the villain from Verdi's opera based on Othello. Confused yet?
- Star Man, not to be confused with Starman, Starman, waiting in the sky, Starman, waiting in a ? block or the Knight family.
- Both Blackadder and Redwall featured characters named Friar Bellows.
- Dirk the Daring from Dragon's Lair is not to be confused with Dirk Daring, the name change given to Joe Asakura in the G-Force dub of Science Ninja Team Gatchaman.
- Rerun: Younger brother of Lucy and Linus van Pelt, or friend of Roger and Dwayne on What's Happening!!?
- Try not to confuse Jim Halpert, a smug and sexy paper salesman with Lt. Jim Halperin, a skeptical hard-ass cop from the past/present/1996.
- Mike Brady, head of the Brady household or the heroic health inspector?
- Goemon is the name of a character in Lupin III, and also the name of the protagonist of the Mystical Ninja series.
- Both are named after the legendary Japanese bandit Ishikawa Goemon though, so it's not a coincidence in this case.
- Avatar the film, or Avatar The Last Airbender? To avoid Title Confusion (and possible lawsuits) the film adaptation of the latter dropped the Avatar from the title.
- James Cameron's Dark Angel (which also had a video game adaptation) vs. Dark Angel: Vampire Apocalypse (a horrible PS2 game).
- Sugar Ray (Leonard), a boxer, Sugar Ray (Robinson), another boxer, and Sugar Ray the rock band.
- Ayla of Clan Of The Cave Bear and Ayla of Chrono Trigger. The latter is also somewhat of a Shout Out to the former, since both characters are prehistoric women. Ayla (pronounced eye-la, from Turkish) is also an alias of electronica musician Ingo Kunzi (aka DJ Tandu).
- Balrog can refer to: the demon from The Lord of the Rings, the Flying Fortress in Strider, the final boss of Cadash, the boxer in Street Fighter II (or the Spaniard if you prefer to stick with the Japanese names), the Recurring Boss in Cave Story, Balrog Lune from Saint Seiya and the Balrog in MapleStory.
- The Scarecrow. DC Comics villain, Marvel Comics villain, brain-lacking Oz resident, alias of the Reverend Doctor Christopher Syn or Syd Barratt song?
- Jack Wade is both the name of a CIA operative who assists James Bond in GoldenEye and the protagonist of the video game Headhunter.
- Scar: Treacherous brother of pride leader Mufasa or religiously-motivated serial killer who comes to understand and resent the cycle of revenge?
- There's an Iron Man knockoff titled Metal Man, which is the name of a Robot Master from Mega Man 2.
- Clannad the anime series, and Clannad the band.
- Talla 2XLC had a song called "Descent 3", which came out about two years before the game of the same name. Weird coincidence.
- Cheese and The Cheese. Don't get them mixed up (considering one's basically incompetent and the other's basically omnipotent, this shouldn't be too difficult).
- A Candroid is a Robot Me named after Candace Flynn in Phineas And Ferb. Another type of Candroid is a Robot Buddy that transforms from a soda can in Kamen Rider OOO.
- Kasumi Asou is the name of a gorgeous Phantom Thief in the manga City Hunter, and the name of a gorgeous teacher in the Dating Sim Tokimeki Memorial 2.
- The Big Bads of Aladdin and the earlier Prince Of Persia games are both viziers named Jafar (the latter's is spelled with two f's), which was also the name of a character in The Arabian Nights, although that one wasn't a villain. All three were actually named after a real Grand Vizier Jafar.
- There is also an assassin named Jaffar, although that's not really the subject.
- Zurg from Toy Story 2, or the Zerg from StarCraft?
- Chimera was a monster in Greek mythology, the name of an order of cartilaginous fishes, a monster in Resident Evil, and the alien race in Resistance (who actually look rather similar to the RE monsters).
- Candy Candy: classic shojo anime, or Axe Cop villain with the power to excrete explosive cars?
- Harley Quinn is The Joker's young female apprentice, while Harley Quin (originally Quinn) is one of Agatha Christie's (male) detectives, created over sixty years earlier. Both, of course, are a play on the word Harlequin.
- Bill Williamson is the protagonist of Uwe Boll's Rampage and an outlaw in Red Dead Redemption.
- The main character of this Chick tract is named John Freeman.
- Zuko: banished prince of the Fire Nation or dancing and singing John Travolta? Or a mobster who killed Robin's parents? Or maybe a member of a pirate crew? Or another mobster who killed Louie Gardino?
- (The) Brain: a Brain in a Jar from Doom Patrol or a brainy mouse from Pinky and the Brain?
- Pippin generally goes barefoot and has some sort of objection to Self Immolation. Is he a hobbit sidekick in a high fantasy tale or the everyman title character of a musical or that big guy?
- Or Apple's failed attempt to enter the console market?
- Or Johnny Thunder's female sidkick in Lego's Adventurers line.
- Shiki: We have Shiki, SHIKI, Shiki, Shiki, the Shiki, and, Shiki(eiki)note In which "Eiki" may or may not be a surname.
- Don't forget about Shiki!
- Lumpy is a blob monster, idiotic moose, Chewbacca's son,heffalump, mouse turned- oil tycoon, and many others.
- Lammy: a schizophrenic lamb, or a guitarist in a band?
- The Avengers: The Marvel Universe super-hero team or the British spy series?
- This resulted in a Market-Based Title for the 2012 Avengers movie, which is called Avengers Assemble in the British Isles.
- Captain Stern(n): A character from Pokemon Ruby And Sapphire/Emerald (and he also made an appearance in the anime), or the titular character from a segment from Heavy Metal.
- Cooper: A soldier who travels to an island, is chased through a jungle and then devoured by an enormous predatory dinosaur, or a soldier who travels to an island, is chased through a jungle and then devoured by an enormous predatory dinosaur. Huh...
- Kida, a Japanese boy voiced by Mamoru Miyano, or an Atlantean princess voiced by Cree Summer?
- Roger Smith: Negotiator, or alien? Or is he the "Roger" of Michael Moore's documentary Roger and Me, the Real Life CEO of General Motors?
- Brother Bear: One of The Berenstain Bears or an animated Disney movie?
- Jiraishin: a hardboiled detective manga by Tsutomu Takahashi? Or the Humongous Mecha from Sekai Ninja Sen Jiraiya? The kanji used to spell both names are different though.
- Shin Asuka: Ultraman Dyna? Or the angsty pilot from Gundam Seed Destiny?
- Bert and Ernie: Two roommates with very different personalities or a taxi driver and a cop?
- Renaldo: A soccer player or Dangeresque's boss.
- Hatchet: A 1987 Gary Paulsen novel, and a 2006 slasher movie.
- One of the segments in the 1932 Anthology Film If I Had a Million has characters named Bullwinkle and Peabody.
- One villain from The Powerpuff Girls is actually a Monster Clown named Mr. Mime.
- Mathman is the name of a Show Within a Show on Square One TV parodying Pac-Man, and also a PC math edutainment game.
- Oz: a magical land, a Kevin Nash gimmick and a HBO crime series.
- The book Bringing Down The House became Twenty One in order to avoid Title Confusion with that other film.
- Red Robin is both a restaurant chain and a superhero identity in Batman currently used by Tim Drake.
- Stephen Black the lowly servant with a glorious destiny from Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, or Steven Black, the one-shot Wayne Brady character on 30 Rock. And yes, both of them are black.
- Hakumen: one of the Six Heroes who fought against the Black Beast, or a nine-tailed fox demon bent on destroying the world one nation at a time for its own enjoyment? (Although the latter is properly known as Hakumen no Mono.)
- They may have different surnames, but two works share a titular character of Arthur: a Dudley Moore movie about a drunken heir, and a cartoon series about a young aardvark.
- Muk is either a living mass of sludge or a polar bear.
- A Soul Gem sure sounds like a powerful item...but tell us, is it one of the Infinity Gems in the Marvel Universe, a device used to capture souls for use in recharging magic items in the The Elder Scrolls universe, or a key magical girl item in the universe Puella Magi Madoka Magica?
- There's Gary A pet snail belonging to an idiot sponge (or Ash's rival) and Garry a human Antarctic base commander as well as Gerry and Gerry, a pair of hikers from a movie called Gerry.
- Are the Coneheads cone-headed aliens or cone-headed robots or zombies wearing road cones on their heads?
- Gibbs: Leroy Jethro, Joshamee, or Jimmy Jr.?
- CeCe and C.C. One is a 13-year old dancer in a TV Show. The other is the one who has Geass given to a Royal rebel. The latter however, is officially pronounced "C-2".
- In an episode of Street Fighter II V, Ryu and Ken fight a pair of giant mooks named Sodom and Gomorrah. The anime aired before the former's namesake from Final Fight appeared as a playable character in Street Fighter Alpha.
- Evolution is a mystery...it could refer to a 2001 film.
- Black Cat is an anime and Felicia Hardy from Spider-Man.
- Kharma is a female member of the WWE. Karma is a female member of the X-Men.
- The Darkness: Comic book-turned-video game, or a British rock band with a falsetto lead singer ("I Believe In A Thing Called Love")?
- Zelda: princess who usually needs rescuing from The Legend Of Zelda series or an evil hag alien from Terrahawks? Robin Williams named his daughter after the former, as a recent advert for the 3DS shows.
- How about Sabrina the Teenage Witch's Aunt Zelda?
- Princess Zelda herself is named after Zelda Fitzgerald, the wife of Francis Scott Fitzgerald.
- Zelda Van Gutters, dog reporter from the now defunct Nickelodeon Magazine.
- The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter: A 1940 novel by Carson McCullers, or a Reba McEntire song?
- Nuts and Milk: The eponymous Waddling Heads from an old video game, or two of the three mascot creatures in Yes! Pretty Cure 5?
- Sam the Eagle: Patriotic eagle or patriotic eagle?
- Animus: Able to send you to the memories of your ancestors, a god in giant robot form, or the unconscious masculine side of the female psyche, according to Carl Jung?
- Click the appropriate links for the 2006 Adam Sandler film and the kid's Game Show hosted by Ryan Seacrest.
- Or a technology series from The BBC.
- Young Frankenstein is a Mel Brooks' film and a Teen Titans member.
- Mister America: Justice Society of America member and Hulk Hogan's Charlie Brown From Outta Town identity.
- Kimba is an anime-styled white lion and the name of the heroes' team from the Whateley Universe.
- Grace Holloway is a former jazz singer loyal to the Rapture Family... or maybe she was a short-lived companion of The Doctor.
- This happens to celestial bodies, of all things, in this case Pandora. One is a dangerous jungle moon with stores of unobtanium being harvested by corrupt corporate executives from earth. The other is a barren wasteland planet resulting from strip mining by competing mega corps that also has stores of unobtanium being harvested by corrupt corporate executives Hilarious coincidence, as these two came out the same year.
- Wanda is either the fairy who guided Mario through levels when he had a bucket stuck on his head, or the fairy godparent of Timmy Turner.
- Cosmo can either be a green haired plant girl from Sonic X, a green haired male fairy from The Fairly Odd Parents or a weird neighbor who borrows food from your fridge.
- Suzie Wong is a Chinese prostitute from a novel by Richard Mason, and Henry's little sister on Digimon Tamers.
- Necron: The final boss of Final Fantasy IX or a Warhammer 40000 faction? Meanwhile, Nekron is a DC Comics supervillain.
- Son Goku: Hero from Dragon Ball and the Japanese pronounciation of Sun Wukong, the Monkey King.
- Also, one of the four leads of Saiyuki, which is also based off of Journey to the West.
- Now, a tailed beast.
- Billy West: Voice actor and hero of the Bayou.
- FATHER: Big Bad from Fullmetal Alchemist or the one from Codename Kids Next Door? Or perhaps one of the central characters from Ragtime?
- Sora: Either the Keybearer, a Chosen Child, an acrobat, or one half of an incestuous pair of twins.
- Java is a caveman in both Martin Mystery and in DC Comics' Metamorpho-related titles.
- Also a program of sorts.
- Besides being an island and another name for coffee.
- Mrs. Cake is either a precognitive spiritualist or co-owner of Sugarcube Corner.
- Is Poochie Yoshi's pet dog or an extremely hated cartoon dog voiced by Homer Simpson?
- John and Dave, the snarky hero and goofy best friend, or John and Dave, the goofy hero and snarky best friend?
- Princess Celestia from My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic actually shares her name with a popular astronomy software.
- Elizabeth Halsey is of course the scientist who helps develop the SPARTAN program in Halo and also a minor character in Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead.
- The claymation character Gumby has nothing to do with a certain group of people who wear hankerchiefs on their heads, glasses, gumboots, sport toothbrush mustaches and talk in slow, loud, broken sentences who are fond of the sound of bricks being bashed together and often complain that their brains hurt.
- Pulstar is either an electronic music piece by Vangelis, or a Neo Geo R-Type clone.
- Sanjūrō Sugata: a student from Nekketsu High School, or the commander-in-chief of Hikari Sentai Maskman?
- Sector Seven: are they trying to hide the existence of the Transformers, are they fighting against the forces of the NOL, or are they just a sector in Midgar destroyed by Shinra?
- Joey Wheeler: Yugi's blond friend or the fire planeteer?
- Bellatrix is a Death Eater loyal to Lord Voldemort or an Icelandic girls only rock group
- Lothar, the black man from Mandrake The Magician and Defenders Of The Earth, meet Lothor the Big Bad from Power Rangers Ninja Storm.
- Is Clu a video game or a computer program gone bad?
- Bust-A-Move is the name of a Young MC song, the overseas title of Taito's Puzzle Bobble arcade game, and the Japanese title of Enix's Bust-A-Groove rhythm game. Coincidentally, Taito is now owned by Square-Enix.
- Stephen Stills: Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young guitarist, or Scott Pilgrim's bandmate?
- Is Morris a moose with a unicorn tail or a midget moose?
- Or the world's most finicky ginger cat?
- Team America can either be the team of well-meaning patriots who cause a lot of destruction for America or a team of motorcycle daredevils from the Marvel Universe.
- Survivor: that massively famous TV show? A certain rock band that's a lot less famous wanted you to think otherwise.
- Ronin: maybe a comic series set in feudal Japan written by Frank Miller, or a film about secret agents no longer needed after the Cold War, starring Robert De Niro.
- Kurt Wagner: a loveable blue fuzzy mutant or a crazy cultist and serial killer?
- Is Elmer a rainbow patchwork elephant, or a misfit elephant who's in love with a tiger?
- Luke is a blonde guy wielding a sword, a blonde guy wielding a lightsaber, or a red-haired guy wielding a sword.
- Nyx: Big Bad of Persona 3, protagonist of Past Sins, or a fiery wizard with a living scepter?
- The Best Night Ever: My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic episode or fanfiction?
- Edna: Elementary school teacher in love with the principal or female companion to three boys with the same name?
- There are at least 3 separate works titled Tamayura. The one we have here on TV Tropes is the anime adaptation of a Slice of Life manga; another is a (heterosexual) Visual Novel about slaying demons from Akabei Soft2; and finally, a yaoi Visual Novel, unrelated to either of them, from Palmiers. To tell one from the others, the hetero VN has "soul" character for its tama while the yaoi one has "ball".
- Black Heart: the son of Mephisto, a boss from Battle Garegga, or the moe personification of the PlayStation 3?
- Devastator: Either a giant robot made up of several smaller ones, or a giant biomechanical being capable of turning into sand. Or perhaps some smaller robot dudes who ride in giant robot suits? Or even the Imperial Star Destroyer that captured Princess Leia?
- Pokey the Pig, one of Adam's few real possessions in I Am The Cheese, and Pokey Minch (whose first name is actually Porky), Ness's pig-like Jerkass of a neighbor in EarthBound who becomes The Dragon and then the Big Bad in Mother 3.
- Gauron: Klingon warlord who hopes to lead the High Council and makes a deal to restore Worf's family honor, or an unhinged evil mercenary mecha pilot.
- Both Tribeca Prep and Moperville North High School have teams with the unlikely name the Turkeys.
- Dakota North. Private detective? Or supermodel?
- Jack and Rose are lovers, lovers from a century later, father and daughter, mortal enemies, Companions, and Johnny Depp's children (Jack and Lily-Rose).
- Bonkers could easily be a hammer-welding gorilla mini-boss or a cartoon bobcat police officer. Not to mention Bonker, a clay clown driven insane, which is not to be confused with the real-life Bonkers the Clown.
- Is Luigi an Italian plumber or an Italian car?
- Is Kabuto a trilobite, Orochimaru's right-hand man, a mean Japanese car, or a Kamen Rider?
- The name Jackson and the nickname Jax. But who could it be? Sonya's bionic-armed commanding officer, or the recently-promoted president of a biker gang?
- The White Queen is either a former supervillainess-turned-X-woman or an albinistic ruler of a fantasy world that detests physical violence? Or a character killed by her black counterpart?
- Chun-Li: "The Strongest Woman in the World" or Dragon Shiryu's childhood friend?
- Or Elizabeth Woodville, Queen Consort of Edward IV of England, in Phillippa Gregory's novel.
- Sadako. A girl with psychic powers who was thrown down a well? Or a Hiroshima bomb survivor famous for folding paper cranes before dying of leukemia?
- Rex. This can refer to a toy dinosaur, a teenage boy in a Crapsack World who can turn his body parts into machines, a droid pilot of the StarSpeeder, and a captain in the Clone Army. Notable in that the latter two are within the same franchise.
- The Saboteur has an evil British man named Bishop who is voiced by John Noble. On Fringe, John Noble plays Dr. Walter Bishop.
- Rip Van Winkle: one of the tropes on this website? The main character of the story with the Trope Namer? Or a musket mistress from Hellsing?
- Montana Max is either a greedy, villainous spoiled brat who runs the Acme Corporation or the leader of a batallion of Nazi vampires who survived World War II and want to start a war of their own.
- Dora, a young girl that teaches young viewers to speak English and Spanish or a centaur fighting against evil?
- Uhura is a communication officer on a starship or a single mother warrior defending her tribe?
- John Shep(p)ard: he's a military man who fights aliens and has a unique approach to "first contact." But are you thinking of the one in the Navy or the one in the Air Force?
- Dr. McCoy is improbably well versed in all areas of medical science, biochemistry, and genetics, but does he serve on a starship or at a school for gifted youngsters?
- Mei Ling: Li Shaoran's cousin, a Chinese gate-keeper from the Scarlet Mansion, or a Chinese-American Mission Control girl?
- Is Nora Walker the mother of a large family or of a single blind, deaf, mute kid?
- Aqualung could be a song by Jethro Tull, the stage name of Matt Hales, or a really nasty water-based magic used by Jenova.
- Kuai Liang. Adviser to Liu Biao? Or Bi-Han's little brother?
- Conan: The Barbarian, The Detective? or the TV host?
- Echidna: a mercenary Dark Elf, an artificial human, or a boss who always hangs from the ceiling?
- Ramon: a Mexican wrestler, a Mexican guy who lives in a neighborhood, or a Japanese guy who is better known as "Ryuken"?
- Panty: a horny angel? or a horny panther?
- Mr T has nothing to do with Mr. & Mrs. T's Bloody Mary mixes. Nor was he connected to Mr. Tea, the Mr. Coffee spinoff invented by Father Guido Sarducci. And don't confuse him with Pat Morita's character in the short-lived sitcom Mr. T. & Tina.
- Solaris: a mysterious planet covered in an intelligent ocean or a living sun from the 853rd century?
- It's also the name of a UNIX-type Operating System created at Sun Microsystems (now part of Oracle)...
- And it's a Hyundai car.
- Killer Bee. Cammy's former Shadowlaw codename? Or A's younger brother and jinchuuriki to the Eight-Tails?
- Hammerhead: A Rulon general that ride dinosaurs to wage war or a gangster who use his hard head to battle Spider-man?
- Spider-Man and Batman: costumed super heroes with Animal Motif or the first two foes of Kamen Rider Ichigo?
- Shocker: A C-List bad guy that fights a arachnid superhero or a super powerful evil organization that battles insect superheroes?
- Star Sapphire: Is she a level-headed member of a trio of mischievous fairies? Or is she a villainess with a thing for the Green Lantern?
- The Eggman: a character in I Am The Walrus, another name for Dr. Robotnik in the Sonic the Hedgehog series, a nickname for Pixar employee Ralph Eggleston, or the boss of the "Eggman Movers" removal company in the Toy Story movies (named after Eggleston, natch)? The Pixar Wiki page for Eggman Movers is plagued by idiots repeatedly inserting the "connection" between this company and Sonic.
- The Negaverse: Is it the enemy of certain magical schoolgirl superheroine, or the alternate universe of the world a masked avian hero?
- Knuckles: Captain or echidna?
- Diva Destruction is either an American darkwave band, or a New Zealand roller derby team.
- Sting: Former frontman of The Police, or professional wrestler?
- Miko: Monk/Paladin or foreign exchange student from Japan?
- There's Link from The Legend Of Zelda series and Link from The Matrix Reloaded.
- A Super Smash Bros. parody site made fun of this by using the Matrix's Link in place of the Zelda character. When an update about Young Link appeared, it was a young version of said Link.
- Thomas and James and... Thomas and James. Takes on a whole new meaning, doesn't it?
- Castamir was a man who usurped the throne of Gondor but was killed by King Eldacar. Castamere was a noble house that tried to usurp the power of the Lannisters but was killed by Tywin Lannister. Given George RR Martin's extensive knowledge of epic fantasy, this is most likely a Shout Out to J.R.R. Tolkien.
- Yakone: Semi-villainous bloodbender or polar bear?
- Elephant Gear: A boss and music track from Gradius V, or a collaboration between Autechre and Venetian Snares.
- Joker: Insane clown-themed criminal, the singular Kamen Rider identity of Shoutarou Hidari or a creepy jester-themed villain who faces a team of magical girls?
- There is a character in Family Guy with the name of Joe Swanson. Joey Swanson is also the name of the male lead of the infamous Maradonia Saga. Both nicknames are presumably short for "Joseph", so it counts.
- Dead or Alive: An extremely popular fighting game by Tecmo, or a new wave group from the 80s who became popular due to Memetic Mutation? Also adding to the confusion is a Tom Clancy novel and a set of completely unrelated films.
- It's also a popular JAM Project song. "T-T-T-T-TWO JEEGS?!"
- Also a Eurobeat song which samples the 80's band's signature song "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)".
- The Shield: Either a fast-paced, gritty cop drama that aired on FX, the name of Archie Comics' patriotic superhero that predates Captain America, or a WWE stable allegedly out to stop injustices in the company.
- Cordelia: Youngest daughter of King Lear, Cheerleader and Alpha Bitch of Sunnydale High, or has a cheerleader for a little sister and helps out with a sniper rifle at San Romero high?
- Jack Crowley is either a artistically-inclined inmate or a disgruntled State Alchemist and Big Bad of one of the series' games.
- Dexter can be a bumbling little scientist or a "blood splatter specialist-slash-serial killer.
- Talos is a mighty deity, though whether he's the patron deity of the Empire or of storms depends on whether you're in Tamriel or Faerűn.
- Wraith are scary aliens. But are they space vampires or gas giant-living aliens that can cloak?
- The Ancients, a sufficiently advanced precursor species. But did they ascend to another plane or upload their consciousnesses into a giant computer?
- Claudette: a redhead princess? or a character from a very bad movie?
- Scott Walker: Musician or politician? If you like the former on Facebook, it'll recommend articles about the latter.
- Parker: is she an art thief with a heart of gold or is he a double-crossed thief with a heart for revenge? Or is he Agent Booth's son? Or is he butler and chauffeur to Lady Penelope? Or a company that makes pens?
- Teddy Altman is the name of one of the male Young Avengers and also the name of a female doctor on Grey's Anatomy. This was intentional, as both characters were created by the same writer.
- Both Dead Rising 2 and the Goosebumps book "The Haunted Mask" feature characters named Chuck Greene.
- MTM can be one of two things: either a television production company (named after Mary Tyler Moore) known for having a meowing kitten as its Vanity Plate, or a Do-Anything Robot built by Calvin.
- Sauron: Giant, eternally hungry T. rex knockoff or guy with a famous Eye who wants the One Ring?
- Char: Amuro Ray's rival or prince of a faraway kingdom?
- There are many Lieutenant Morgans in fiction, including Police Quest, Battle Nations, Dexter, and Fallout 3's Operation Anchorage DLC.
- Jeff "Swampy" Marsh is the co-creator of Phineas and Ferb. Geoff "Swampy" Marsh is a former Australian cricketer.
- John Madden: American football player or director of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and Shakespeare in Love?
- The Genesis Wave: A novel series set in the Star Trek: The Next Generation era or the plot device that shifts Mobius from its comic version to its video game version from time to time.
- Rogue: ASCII RPG, frontman of The Crüxshadows, or X Men heroine? Or the best X-Wing pilots in the galaxy?
- Ben Jackson is the name of a Tiger & Bunny taxi driver/secret keeper and also a companion of the first two Doctors.
- Labyrinth is an American movie with David Bowie and a British miniseries with Katie McGrath. Even more confusingly for soundtrack fans, Trevor Jones scored both.
- A certain Capcom game for the PS1 happens to be called One Piece Mansion, but despite the name, it has no connection to the actual manga One Piece.
- A new idol from The Idolmaster Cinderella Girls happens to be named Akane Hino, which is the civilian name of Smile Pretty Cure's Cure Sunny.
- When you mention Aranea, are you talking about an elven priestess of a Daedric prince or a spider-themed alien girl? The two have different last names (Ienith and Serket, respectively), but the name is definitely not common: a type of orb-weaving spiders. While Aranea Serket's connection to them is clear, Aranea Ienith's is up for debate.
- Captain Hammer: Corporate Tool or pretend superhero.
- Is the Universal Union The Federation or The Empire? Depends. Are you reading Redshirts or playing Half-Life 2note that's the Combine's official name?
- Destron: An evil terrorist organization that Kamen Rider V3 fought or the Japanese name for the Decepticons
- Manimal, a nickname for humans in The Little Flying Bears or the name of a TV show about a human who transforms into animals?
- The Divide: A book trilogy chronicling the adventures of Felix Sanders, a nuke-ravaged city in the Mojave Wasteland, or a post-nuclear war film set in New York?
- Are Creepers green cubic creatures who blow up your stuff or weird crawling thing that appear in Sector Five?
- House: You're either talking about a cynical surgeon or the arrogant ruler of New Vegas. More interestingly, Considering that Robert House graduated MIT, he might just be qualified to call himself Dr. House.
- Who is Princess Lydia? A Spoiled Sweet girl from a merchant family whose love happened to be the heir to the kingdom, or a Rich Bitch aristocrat who married the heir in order to usurp his throne and possibly tricked him into marrying her?
- Scandal: Adding to the confusion with the 80s New Wave group and the Japanese rockers, now we have the American TV show. There's also the New God who consorted with Superboy before being seen in the Secret Six.
- Anna Torv is an actor who starred in Fringe and was Rupert Murdoch's second wife.
- Wiseman is a Big Bad, but is he Prince Demand's cloaked advisor, the sole survivor of an ancient race, or the leader of the phantoms? Or is he actually a mysterious ally to Fei? Or perhaps a dream entity who wants to take over both the real and dream worlds?
- Leroy Brown: Boy Detective, subject of a song by Jim Croce or professional wrestler?
- Miku is an Idol Singer, but which one? The Vocaloid, the Spirit, or one of the Cinderella Girls?
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