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One Steve Limit / Western Animation

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The One-Steve Limit in western animation.

  • The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius has Jimmy and one of his clones gone rogue, Evil Jimmy. There’s Jimmy’s crush named Betty Quinlan and then there’s Captain Betty a guy who’s gone by the name since June 3, 1999.
  • Adventure Time:
    • There's Billy, the legendary hero, and Billy, the buzzard.
    • Simon the ladybug and Simon Petrikov, the Ice King.
    • Depending on the episode, the Ice King's penguin minions may all be named Gunther or slight variations therof. And Ice King is not aware of it, but he subconsciously named all of the penguins after the original Gunther, a dinosaur who served Evergeen, the wizard who created Ice King's crown.
    • The show has both James Baxter, a horse, and James, a candy person who was repeatedly cloned.
    • "Two Swords" introduces Fern, though he isn't officially named until "Do No Harm". The Adventure Time Graphic Novels already had a character named Princess Fern.
  • The Amazing World of Gumball:
    • Three characters (Banana Bob, Bobert, and Rob) all have names derivative of "Robert".
    • There are also two Williams: the floating eyeball with unholy powers and the young boy who more commonly goes by "Billy".
    • One of Billy's many middle names is also "Fitzgerald", the surname of Penny's family.
    • There are four Harrys: One is Gumball and Darwin's purple moose neighbor who hides under the identity of "Gary" instead, the 8-bit spider in Elmore Junior High who goes more often by "Ocho", and two unseen characters who were in Gumball and Richard's third grade classes.
    • Wilson is the surname for Tobias' family and the first name for one of Anais' classmates.
  • In one episode of American Dad!, Francine adopted every child in an orphanage. All of the workers there were so grateful for her generosity, that they went to ridiculous extremes to start worshipping her. One of the things they did was they all legally changed their names to Francine Smith, just so that everybody there would remember her name.
    • There's also the cheerleader love interest and bully of Steve, known as Lisa Silver, and The Smith Family's neighbor, Lisa Collins.
    • The first Christmas Episode starts off as Yet Another Christmas Carol, with the Ghost of Christmas Past, named Michelle, being a major character. The second Christmas Episode has Stan die and go to Heaven, where he interacts with an angel named Michelle.
  • Aqua Teen Hunger Force:
    Frylock: Where is Carl's brain?
    Carl Brain: I am Carl Brain.
    Frylock: No, our friend Carl.
    Carl Brain: I am Carl Brain.
    Frylock: No, different Carl!
    Carl Brain: [beat] I am Carl Brain.
  • Arthur:
    • Unintentionally done in the episode "Buster's Back", which includes the titular character and musician Arthur Garfunkel (though in this case, his name is never mentioned).
    • There's also Arthur's father (named David), and Arthur's maternal grandfather (Grampa Dave).
    • There are two rabbit girls with the names "Marina" and "Maria". The former is Prunella's friend and the latter was a Living Prop for the first 19 seasons of the show's run. Neither character have met each other. Muffy's full name is "Mary Alice", but she almost never goes by that name.
  • As Told by Ginger has Macie's parents both named Bobby and Bobbie Lightfoot. Hoodsey's first name is Robert as well.
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender:
    • There are many characters that have "Lee"/"Li"note  or something that sounds similar somewhere in their name. Truth in Television, because they are both the second most common surname in their respective countries, after "Kim" and "Wang", respectively.
      • Captain Li of the Fire Nation Army.
      • A young boy named "Lei" who Zuko bonds with in his day in the limelight.
      • Ty Lee.
      • Li, one of the old ladies who act as adviser for Azula.
      • Quon Lee, imperial guard from finale who had a talk with an engineer in airship.
      • Halfway through season 2, Zuko took on the name "Lee" while incognito, and stopped using the alias once the "Dai Li" (that's pronounced "Die Lee") showed up.
      • And Dai Li is just a different transliteration of the exact same Chinese characters for Ty Lee's name!
      • The whole thing is lampshaded in "Sokka's Master":
        "You're gonna need a better Fire Nation cover name. Try Lee. There's a million Lees."
    • On a semi-related note, The Dai Li's Government Conspiracy was upheld by placing several women who called themselves "Joo Dee" to watch over suspicious citizens. Justified in this case because they were all brainwashed into the identity anyway.
  • Bob's Burgers: Louise's classmate Rudy Steiblitz is known as "Regular-Sized Rudy", to differentiate him from a little person student known as "Pocket-Sized Rudy".
  • Bunsen Is a Beast: There are two characters named Bob, one of them being one half of a pair of recurring newscasters in Muckledunk and the other being Bunsen's cousin introduced in the Christmas Episode "Bunsen Saves Christmas", who turns out to be the Abominable Snowman.
  • Celebrity Deathmatch: The Backstory for the Mariah Carey-Jim Carrey fight was that they were arguing over parking spaces due to their similar last names.
  • In The Cleveland Show, there are two characters named Larry. Cleveland Junior's stuffed leopard toy, Larry the Leopard, and the casually profane mayor of Stoolbend, Mayor Larry Box.
  • Similarly, Code Monkeys has Black Steve, who was probably called that to differentiate himself from Gameavision's original owner Steve Wozniak, but he continues to be called that even after Wozniak sells the company to Mr. Larrity in the first episode. In later episodes, it serves to remind people who might otherwise try to co-opt his blackness, bitch.
    • Ultimately inverted, as Steve isn't even his real name.
  • Craig of the Creek:
    • Within the Creek, there's Bobby, the boy who's always eating (and dropping) candy, and there's Bobby, the 23-year-old cousin of Paintball Mike and Paintball Benny.
    • Also within the Creek, there's Tony, the secretary of the Junior Forest Scouts, and Tony Mozafari, a rich kid who's always mentioned to have connections, but is never shown.
    • The very first episode, "Itch to Explore", mentions a Creek kid named Michelle Xin (named after a crew member). In a later episode, it was revealed that the first Green Poncho's real name is Michelle Green.
    • Outside the Creek, there's Elder David, a teenager, and two of the members of the band Bad Moves, who themselves have members David Combs and Daoud Tyler-Ameen (Daoud being the Arabic form of "David").
    • There's Duane Williams, Craig's father. And Tony Mozafari knows The Rock's phone number (but when Kelsey tried to call, she got some guy named Dwayne).
    • Mariah Carey's famed Christmas album is mentioned in one episode. Season 4 introduces us to Mariah, the leader of the Roller Bladers on the Other Side of the Creek.
    • The Mercer family has John Paul "J.P." Mercer and his father John Mercer.
      • There's also Kat, Laura Mercer's girlfriend, and the family cat Goo, which he sometimes calls "cat".
  • In Chowder the Arborian trees are either only named Arbor (male) or Arbola (female)
  • Danny Phantom plays with this a bit with Danny's "Dani-with-an-I" Opposite-Sex Clone, Danielle. So, for at least two episodes we had both Daniel "Danny" Phantom and Danielle "Dani" Phantom.
  • Daria:
  • Darkwing Duck has a rather bizarre example with two supervillains both named Negaduck: one the evil half of Darkwing himself the other an Evil Twin from a Mirror Universe.
  • DC Animated Universe:
    • Batman: The Animated Series:
      • The very first episode, "On Leather Wings", had both Detective Harvey Bullock and District Attorney Harvey Dent (before the latter's Face–Heel Turn). The latter even addressed the former by name (which sounded a little strange). The former also had a Big Brother Instinct toward the latter in the episode "Pretty Poison", when he threateningly interrogated an entire restaurant staff after the latter was almost fatally poisoned there. It's largely downplayed from then on there, as Harvey Dent tends to be referred to as Two-Face after his Face–Heel Turn and Harvey Bullock tends to just be referred to as Bullock since most people can't stand him enough to be on a first-name basis with him. Notably, the original writers bible had Harvey Bullock renamed Harry Bullock, after Dirty Harry according to Word of God, because of that first episode scene with two Harveys — they ultimately chose not to rename him, because they knew Bullock would mostly only be referred to as his surname while Harvey Dent only had one more episode to go before he'd become Two-Face.
      • "I Am The Night" had, in addition to Commissioner James Gordon, a gangster nicknamed "Jazzman" whose real first name was "Jimmy." Amusingly, the latter attempted to kill the former.
    • Batman Beyond:
      • There are two characters named "Ace": The DC Animated Universe's version of Ace the Bat-Hound, and the "Ace" member of the Royal Flush Gang (a mute android in Beyond). The two rarely get confused.
      • There were also two characters named "Howard". One was a geeky classmate of Terry's, the other was one-time villain Bullwhip.
      • As is revealed in Justice League Unlimited, Batman was probably the closest thing to a friend the Ace of the first Royal Flush Gang had. She was an underaged girl with massive Blessed with Suck Reality Warper powers that died of a Power Incontinence-induced aneurism, and Batman stayed with her until she died so she wouldn't have to die alone or hurt anyone else. The dog was presumably named after her.
    • Justice League:
      • Justice League features John Stewart, the Green Lantern, and J'onn J'onzz, the Martian Manhunter. Flash sometimes refers to them as "The Two Johns." In addition, Closed Captioning for the episodes will sometimes get the names mixed up. Even so, "J'onn" is usually pronounced more like the French "Jean" while Stewart is often referred to as "Lantern" or "G.L.", to mitigate this. Once the show enters the Unlimited era, Steel (John Henry Irons) and Red Tornado (John Smith) also join the cast, though they're usually referred to by their superhero names.
      • A minor example, from the Justice League Unlimited episode "The Once and Future Thing" part I:
        Lash: Friends called me Bat, Bat-Lash.
        John Stewart: I am John. This is my friend Diana and, er—
        Batman: [grimly] Bruce.
      • When it comes to similarly sounding superhero identities, there's The Atom (Professor Ray Palmer) and Captain Atom (Captain Nathaniel Adams), both key members of the League during the Unlimited era of the series, although the former is usually referred to as Professor Palmer and very rarely by his superhero name. Also, Hawk (of the superhero siblings Hawk & Dove) is not to be confused with the Thanagarians Hawkman and Hawkgirl.
  • Defenders of the Earth features two minor characters named Christina/Kristina. One of the two is Professor Huxley's assistant from "The Panther Peril", while the other is the woman who's out to kill the Phantom in "Return of the Skyband", believing (wrongly) that he killed her grandmother. It is not known how Huxley's assistant spells her name, but the booklet accompanying the DVD boxed set uses Kristina for the antagonist from "Return of the Skyband".
  • Ed, Edd n Eddy, after a fashion. Edd is usually addressed as "Double-D" (as "Edd" is pronounced the same way as "Ed"), and the other Edwards are addressed by their titular nicknames. As the trio is generally seen hanging out together, the other kids collectively call them "the Eds".
  • The Fairly OddParents!:
    • In the episode "Genie Meanie Minie Mo," Timmy's wish for Trixie Tang to fall in love with him backfires when she ends up giving kisses to everyone in the country whose name is Timmy Turner, and the wish is undone right before she gets to him.
    • In the storybook "Too Many Turners", Timmy wishes that he had lots of brother and sisters, but after he sees how much trouble all those siblings are, he calls out for Cosmo and Wanda to get rid of them, resulting in this scene:
      "Cosmo! Wanda!" Timmy called, pushing through a crowd of siblings.
      "What?" asked a boy named Cosmo.
      "Yes? asked a girl named Wanda.
      "Never mind," Timmy said, sighing.
    • Also, Elmer, Timmy's friend with the boil, shares his name with an elf featured in A Fairly Odd Christmas.
    • There are two Garys: Happy Peppy Gary in Season 2 and Imaginary Gary in Season 3.
    • The series has had two characters named Winston, the first being Jorgen Von Strangle's godchild from the Oh Yeah! Cartoons short "The Zappys" (who isn't even acknowledged after The Fairly OddParents became a full-fledged TV show) and the second being Winston Dunsworth, a British teen who Vicky has a crush on in "A Bad Case of Diary-Uh".
    • Cosmo and Wanda's son Poof shares his given name with Dr. Poof Everwish, a character from the Soap Within a Show All My Biceps, which stars Poof's maternal aunt Blonda.
    • Parodied in "Old Man and the C-". When Timmy's dad goes Back to School in Mr. Crocker's class, Crocker realizes that since he refers to Timmy on a Last-Name Basis, it'll be confusing to have two "Turner"s in the class. He then renames Timmy to Becky.
  • In Family Guy, there is a character named "Bert", (Peter's Caucasian boss and husband of Sheila), and a character named "Bertram" (Stewie's time traveling evil twin brother from another mother). Fortunately, Betram was killed off and completely forgotten about, like 6 seasons before Bert was introduced, so it shouldn't be too confusing.
    • There's also New Brian from "The Man with Two Brians", although this was entirely because Peter wanted to have a younger, healthier dog around in case the first Brian died.
  • FETCH! with Ruff Ruffman had two contestants named "Brian" (Brian McGoff from season 1 and Brian Conroy from season 4) and two contestants named “Jay” (champion Jay Brosnan from season 3 and Jay Ricco from season 5). There were 2 contestants named “Marc” in season 5 (Champion Marc Frongillonote  and Marc Prophet) and in season 3 had Samuel "Sam" Blumfield and Samantha "Sammy" Boucher.
  • Averted in The Flintstones episode "Dino Disappears", where Fred tries to pick Dino out of a group of Inexplicably Identical Individuals by saying "Come on, Dino! We're going for a walk!", and ends up having the entire bunch run him over.
    Barney: Well, you proved one thing, Fred. There are a lot of dogs named Dino!
  • Futurama:
    • "Clarification: the Philip J. Fry from planet Earth or the Philip J. Fry from Hovering Squid World 97A?"
    • In "The Luck of the Fryrish" we find out that the first person on Mars was also named Philip J. Fry, and happened to look exactly like Fry's brother Yancy. "Oh, so your brother was that Philip J. Fry?" (Justified by the revelation that Yancy named his son after his long-disappeared brother.)
  • Garfield and Friends featured a guest appearance by Jon's cousin Marian, who was marrying a man whose surname was "John." Garfield then became very confused when he overheard Marian (whom he had never met before) saying that, within a week, she'd be "Marian John," which he mishears as "I'll be marrying John."
  • Gargoyles has the recurring antagonist Coyote, a robot associated with the Pack and thus sharing their Animal Theme Naming. A later episode features Coyote, the magical figure from Native American Mythology. Xanatos, with his dry sense of humor, used the former to capture the latter.
  • Goldie & Bear has several Jacks. There's Jack of the Jack and the Beanstalk tale, Jack of the nursery rhyme Jack and Jill, little Jack Horner, Jack B. Nimble (he claims the "B." stands for "Best") and Bear, whose first name is actually Jack. In "The Clubhouse That Jack Built", Jack B. Nimble starts a club in which only Jacks are allowed. However, the other Jacks soon start to miss their friends and quit the club.
  • Goof Troop:
    • Two of the main characters are named Peter, one named after the other. The show generally gets around this by calling the younger one "PJ" but the difference in sound between "Pete" (the elder's preferred nickname) and "Peej" (an oft-spoken diminutive of the younger's initials) is so subtle that sometimes it's possible to hear one as the other. The two are as different as night and day.
    • There are also at various points in the series several characters named Bob: Bob Sparrowhawk (Peg's uncle), Bobby Zimmeruski (Max and PJ's friend in the movies), and just Bob (a friend/acquaintance of Max in one episode). The Bobs never interact.
  • Gravity Falls uses "Carla" for the Vanna White Expy in "Boss Mabel," Stan's ex-girlfriend (surname McCorkle) mentioned a few times in the series, and as a gag and cryptogram in "The Hand That Rocks The Mabel." (The first two also used the same character design, but with different coloring and clothing.)
  • Hey Arnold!:
    • The title character has a Country Cousin named Arnie who's basically a boring, creepy Bizarro Universe version of him.note  Obviously the name is part of the joke.
    • One episode has Arnold going through the streets shouting for his lost pig, Abner. A man sticks his head out a window and continually calls "What?!" before giving up and going inside.
    • Related: there's a minor recurring character named Lorenzo and a fictional, plot-significant country called San Lorenzo.
    • In one episode Arnold has a Precocious Crush on his substitute teacher, and is shocked when he overhears her talking about getting a romantic evening alone with "Arnold". Turns out her fiancé happens to have the same name.
  • Obsessive Invader Zim fans will note that the show has a Vortian Lard Nar leading the Resisty and an Irken Lardnar as an Invader. A very minor example, however, since both names are only used in scripts and writers' notes.
  • Averted in Ivanhoe: The King's Knight. There are two characters named Harold and Brian, one a main character and the other a one-shot character. They appear in "The Legend of the White Stag" and "The Traitor" respectively and in the case of the latter Bois-Guilbert's given name is only said once in the entire series while the one-shot villain has no surname or place of origin in their name and in the case of the former, the character who appears in "The Legend of the White Stag" has the surname of "Godwin" in contrast to Sir Harold who lacks one.
  • Both of Jerrica's love interests in Jem have similar names: Rio and Riot (whose real name is "Rory" but he's exclusively referred to by his Stage Name).
  • Enforced on Jimmy Two-Shoes. After The Rodeo Clowns steal one of his shoes, Jimmy notes that without it, he's Jimmy One-Shoe. At that point, a monster dressed exactly like him with only one leg hops by, muttering "And that name is already taken."
  • There are two "Estellas" in Jonny Quest: The Real Adventures: Estella Scheele, a one-off antagonist seen in "In the Realm of the Condor", and Estella Velasquez, Jessie's mother. And they're both redheads, too.
  • Kim Possible:
    • Kim Possible had a student named Ron Reager at the high school. His initial appearance was just for a joke on his sharing a name with Ron Stoppable, but he actually made two more appearances in the Post-Script Season!
    • Invoked in another episode, when Dr. Drakken is flabbergasted to learn that the upstart teenager who's always foiling his plans is the daughter of his old college roommate, whose mockery drove him to the evil side of mad science. He tries to claim that he never put it together before because Possible is a very common name, then wanders off to find a phone book when everyone points out that it's really not. The phone book does not help him.
  • King of the Hill has two Carls. There's the principal of Tom Landry Middle, Carl Moss. The other is a twice-appearing man that runs a delhi restaurant. Both even have similar voices.
    • There's also Hank and his baby brother, Good Hank, or GH for short. His dad orginally attempted to take back Hank's name and give it to the baby, thus making him the only Hank, but Hank protested, thus the "Good" part was added.
    • There was also the drug addict who, after going into rehab, declared that he didn't want to be called by his own name anymore since it was the name of a drug addict, and demanded that people call him Hank Hill from now on, since it was the name of someone more respectable.
    • This seems to happen to Hank a lot, since there's also a Hank P. Hill that lives in West Arlen. Our Hank (Hank R. Hill) keeps getting his mail by mistake.
  • Language Arts Through Imagination has two aversions:
    • There is a Jessica in "How Does Sound Sound?" and a Jessie in "Where Does Time Fly?".
    • There's a kid named Peter in "How Does Sound Sound?" and Peter Pan in "Reading Magic With Figment and Peter Pan".
  • The Legend of Korra has a mobster named "Two-Toed Ping". He actually has twelve toes, but there was already a mobster that was called "Twelve-Toed Ping" on the south side.
  • Let's Go Luna!: There are 2 characters named Ali: one who appears in "Bob The Plant", and another who appears in "Turkish Delight".
  • The Life and Times of Juniper Lee: Subverted. There are two characters named "Michael". One of them is the protagonist's father and the other is a monster. So far, there's no episode featuring both Michaels.
  • Averted in the Littlest Pet Shop (2012) episode "So You Skink You Can Dance". All the male dancers of the Shake-A-Leg show are named Igor and all the females are named Katrina.
  • The Long Long Holiday has a relatively small list of characters, but include a Jean (a kid and one of the main characters), Jeanne (some of the other kids' mother) and Jean-Baptiste (the friendly neighborhood mailman). The English dub changed the latter to just "Baptiste."
  • Looney Tunes tends to re-use names for characters:
    • Three characters named Ralph: Ralph Phillips, a daydreaming little boy, Ralph Crumden, a mouse avatar of Jackie Gleason's character from The Honeymooners, and Ralph Wolf, a Wile E. Coyote lookalike in Chuck Jones' sheepdog-wolf series.
    • Three Sams as well: Ralph Wolf's sheepdog costar, the iconic cowboy Yosemite Sam, and Sam Cat, a red-furred who was paired up with Sylvester.
    • Also four Claudes: Claude Cat (from the early 1950s), the gangster from the 1968 "Bunny and Claude" cartoons, the iconic Tasmanian Devil whose first name was revealed to be "Claude" in one short, and a kangaroo from an early short entitled "Hop and Go".
    • And two Eggheads. The Elmer Fudd prototype and Miss Prissy's prodigy son that was more than a match for Foghorn Leghorn, later renamed "Eggbert" in the comics.
    • There were also two Piggys (who both happen to share a page on Wikipedia). The replacement for Foxy after Walt Disney threatened to sue Harman and Ising and a gluttonous pig from some of Friz Freleng’s earlier shorts. Curiously, both of them starred in only two shorts before being scrapped.
  • The Loud House:
    • One of the Loud girls, Lynn Jr., is named after their dad, Lynn Sr.
    • One of Lincoln's friends, Girl Jordan, is referred to as such because there's already a Boy Jordan, both named after members of the show’s staff.
    • There are two characters named Jackie: One of them is a teenager who's friends with Leni, the other is a young girl who likes beauty pageants.
    • Lance can refer to both the name of the Loud kids' paternal uncle and a recurring background character who’s a classmate of Lincoln.
    • You also have Dana, another one of Lori and Leni's friends, and Dana Dufresne, a transgender pageant host formerly known as Donnie.
    • A downplayed example, in that the names only sound identical: You have Bobby Santiago, Lori's boyfriend, and Bobbie Fletcher, a race car driver that Lana idolizes.
    • Taking the spin-off The Casagrandes into account, you have Becky, the teenage redhead from the parent show, and then Becky the blonde wrestler girl from the spin-off.
  • One episode of Mighty Max has the protagonist, Max(well), compete with another Max(imilian) who might actually be The Chosen One. (Aside from the name, they were born within five minutes of each other.)
  • Miraculous Ladybug has a few aversions:
    • There are two characters named André: André Bourgeois, the mayor, and André Glacier, the ice cream man. It is eventually revealed that André Bourgeois's birth name was actually "Anaximandre".
    • There are also two Vincents, both of whom are photographers; Vincent Aza is a Loony Fan of rocker Jagged Stone who gets akumatized into Pixelator, and the other Vincent works around Paris, including the school's class pictures and Gabriel Agreste's photo shoots, and has never been akumatized.
    • Chloé's butler is referred to by various compound names starting with Jean, as Chloé and her mother are too lazy and apathetic to learn his real name. There's also Jean Duparc, a Recurring Extra who goes to school with the main characters (albeit in the other class). Season five reveals that the butler isn't named Jean-anything, but rather Armand... sharing a name with Armand D'Argencourt, Adrien's fencing instructor.
    • In the dub, there are two characters named Chris. One (whose last name is currently unknown) is a mime who is a rival of Fred Haprèle. The other is Nino's brother, Chris Lahiffe. (In the French version, however, Chris Lahiffe's name is "Noël".)
  • Molly of Denali: Discussed in "Name Game." Molly is certain this applies to Native names. Tooey informs her that is no guarantee, then explains how he was quite surprised to discover there was another kid in Alaska named Tooey when he began receiving the latter's mail.
  • Two students from Mrs. Munger's Class are named George.
  • The way My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic characters are named causes a lot of similar sounding names and characters sharing parts of their name:
    • There's Sunset Shimmer and Starlight Glimmer. They're two villains who ended up undergoing Heel Face Turns and becoming Twilight's friend, albeit the former only exists in My Little Pony: Equestria Girls. Their names are similar because they're both meant to parallel Twilight Sparkle. Starlight's case gets lampshaded in "Triple Threat", where Dragon Lord Ember confuses Starlight Glimmer and Twilight Sparkle repeatedly, because both of them are purple ponies whose names relate to shiny things.
    • Twilight Sparkle shares her name with her mother, Twilight Velvet (whom Twilight Sparkle greatly resembles). This is due to them being based on the same character, the original Twilight from G1, who also has this issue due to other 'Twilight''s existing in G1. Lauren Faust wanted to make Twilight Sparkle the original Twilight but couldn't due to copyright issues. She ended up using the palette and name of a G3 pony, Twilight Twinkle, as her basis instead. As a Mythology Gag, Twilight's mother uses the original Twilight's design. Fans took notice and fanon pinned Twilight's mother as the original Twilight. This ended up as Ascended Fanon. Twilight Velvet's name is never mentioned in the cartoon itself, though. Fans usually refer to her as "Velvet" in fanworks involving both her and her daughter, or call her by her full name when referenced alone. When Twilight Velvet appeared in the show, the cartoon itself avoided referring to her by name (however the credits have her as "Twilight Velvet").
  • Moral Orel: Word of God is that the one friend in Orel's social circle that's lumped in as 'And the Rest' is named Billy...which goes a long way into explaining why he's lumped in as And the Rest, as also in that circle is Billy Figurelli, who's had A Day in the Limelight.
  • The Oblongs has the Debbies, a posse of popular girls who all have the same name 'Debbie. It drifts into creepy territory since they also look exactly alike.
  • There were four unrelated Oh Yeah! Cartoons shorts that featured a character named Max.
    • The drummer of the titular insect rock band in "The Feelers".
    • The bully in "Terry and Chris".
    • The title protagonist of "Max and his Special Problem" and its sequel "Max and the Pigeon Incident".
    • The leader of the group of alien dogs Kate is acquainted with in "Planet Kate".
  • Lampshaded in The Owl House episode "Reaching Out" where Eda insists on calling Edric "Blight Brother" because his name is too similar to her own.
  • On Peg + Cat, the purple alien Richard actually turns out to be one of several Richards in his family. Even his sister is named Richard.
  • The Penguins of Madagascar: There are two Maurices — lemur and zookeeper.
  • Penn Zero: Part-Time Hero: Maria the pirate and Maria the ship. Rippen lampshades it. Larry then says he has two aunts who share a same name. He says they're sisters or the same person.
  • Phineas and Ferb:
    • This is played for laughs in the episode "The Lizard Whisperer", where the boys are looking for a giant chameleon named Steve. They find other Steves and even arrive at a Steve Convention. Note the creators are on record as TVTropes readers.
    • There are two girls named Wendy. The first Wendy is the girl Candace competed with in the science fair episode (though her name was never spoken onscreen), and the second Wendy is the girl Baljeet kissed in the Christmas Special. Perhaps for distinguishing reasons, the latter Wendy has the surname Stinglehopper.
    • At several points in the series, Candace mentions wanting to name her future son Xavier, while in "It's About Time!," the tour guide mentions that the time machine was invented by an Xavier Onassis. Of course, this shouldn't be much of an issue, since one's already dead and another isn't even born...until the time-traveling episode "Quantum Boogaloo," where the plot required both to appear. Perhaps to get around this, Onassis shows up without his name ever being mentioned.
    • Also in "Quantum Boogaloo", An adult Candance travelling back in time and getting Phineas and Ferb busted for building the rollercoaster resulted in a Bad Future where Doofenshmirtz takes over the Tri-State Area and forces everyone to change their name to "Joe" so he doesn't have to bother remembering other names.
    • In "Ballad of Badbeard", Doofenshmirtz names both of his alligators "Susan", claiming he named them after each other.
    • Eliza Fletcher is one of Ferb's cousins. Eliza Feyersied is the founder of the Fireside Girls.
      • On the subject of Ferb's cousins, there are three named Beckham (not counting Eliza, whose middle name is Beckham) and two named Pele.
    • On a semi-related note, the show introduced Phineas and Ferb's Aunt Tiana around the same time Disney was hyping a different Tiana. Co-creator Dan Povenmire noted the similarity but said it was just a coincidence, as he named the show's Tiana after one of his sisters (the other being the namesake of Linda).
    • For some meta fun, Fanon had declared Baljeet's last name to be Patel, but that's actually the name of his childhood friend Mishti. (His actual last name temporarily was Raj, but was later changed to Tjinder.) Also, the character Isabella shares her name with two of the show's voice actresses, and was named after Dan Povenmire's oldest daughter to boot.
    • In "Backyard Hodge Podge", Internet sensation Parry Gripp appears as himself, leading to some confusion whenever someone obligatorily says, "Hey, where's Perry?"
  • In Postman Pat, there's Sarah Gilbertson, a schoolgirl and the local doctor's daughter, Sara-Ann, Katy Pottage's doll, and Sara Clifton, Pat's wife and Julian's mother. Sara-Ann is a one-off from the first episode, while Sarah and Sara are rarely seen in the same episode.
  • Rated "A" for Awesome:
  • Ready Jet Go!: Dr. Skelley's forename is Amy, as revealed in a PBS description for the episode "Commander Mom". Amy is also the name of the scientist who hosts the show's interstitial segments, Amy Mainzer.
  • Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Supporting character Casey Jones turns out to be a pair of characters this time around — the present day version is a girl known as Cassandra Jones, while her son is a future version.
  • Recess:
    • There is a Girl Posse of non-identical looking, but identical in personality, rich fourth grade snobs named Ashley, who identify each other by name and last initial. One of the six protagonists is always called by her last name, Spinelli, because her first name is Ashley, and she is as different from the Ashleys as could possibly be. The episode where this is revealed has the other kids all change their names to Ashley in support.
    • Later episodes reveal the Ashleys all have sisters named Britney in kindergarten and brothers in third grade named Tyler.
    • One episode had Spinelli meet a group of girls who were all named Megan, a deliberate parallel to the Ashleys.
    • There's also Becky Benson, an elementary school student, and T.J.'s older sister, Becky.
  • Regular Show has two Thomases, one (Nikolai) is a billy goat park intern and the other is the over 300-year-old infant son of Death. It gets lampshaded when Mordecai asks Rigby to babysit Death's Thomas:
    Mordecai: Dude, I need you to do me a huge favor and babysit Thomas tonight.
    Rigby: Isn't he, like, in college?
    Mordecai: Not that Thomas, Death's Thomas.
  • Rugrats: There are two minor characters named Steve: the first was one of a pair of two teenagers that showed up in the early seasons, the second was a snow-baby created by the Rugrats in its eponymous episode in the final season.
  • Scooby-Doo:
  • Sealab 2021 had Debbie Dupree and Debbie Love, aka "Black Debbie," who in her first appearance protested her nickname and pointed out the other wasn't called "White Debbie." Some fans call Debbie Dupree "White Debbie" for this reason.
    Quinn: How would you like it if people called you "White Stormy"?
    Stormy: [confused] You mean, there's a Black Stormy?
    Quinn: [looooong pause] No.
    • Of course, a later episode reveals there is a Black Stormy-namely Space Stormy. Quinn and Debbie Dupree have space counterparts, named Space Quinn and Space Debbie respectively.
  • Sheep in the Big City averted the trope of no two characters having the same name at the end of the episode "Mistaken Identi-Sheep", where the Ranting Swede dedicates his latest rant to a person named Timmy McPherson and proceeds to rant about his annoyance at another Timmy McPherson, whom he clarifies is a completely different person from the one he's dedicating his rant to.
  • The Simpsons:
    • The Simpsons has both the No Homers Club, as well as the Ancient Mystic Society of No-Homers; which means only one Homer can join. Unfortunately for Homer Simpson, both of them already admitted a Homer Glumplich.
      "It says No Homers. We're allowed to have one."
    • The Simpsons is particularly aversive of this trope: Homer and Ned's mothers are both named Mona, Chief Wiggum and Marge's father are both named Clancy, Prof. Frink and the camp accessory salesman from "Homer's Phobia" are both named John, notwithstanding the incredibly similar Carl (of Lenny and Carl) with Karl (Homer's one time secretary); the very closely related Eddie, Edna, and Ned (with the latter two eventually getting married; or Lou (a cop), Louie (a Mafia member), Lewis (a Living Prop), and Luann (Milhouse's mother). Plus rhyming names such as Rod, Todd, and Maude (all in one family); Sherri and Terri (Theme Twin Naming) or Moe and Joe (Mayor Quimby). Milhouse shared the same name as some random Shelbyville kid ("I thought I was the only one"). And that's not even mentioning Martin Prince or Waylon Smithers, who were named after their fathers (or the prominent first-season character Marvin Monroe, not to be confused with Martin). One particularly elusive one is the presence of two Charleses, one being the minor, bespectacled plant worker "Charlie" and the other being "C. Montgomery Burns" (though the latter almost always goes by "Monty" instead). Of course, this is probably just a side-effect of having many characters.
      • Chief Wiggum and Ralph Wiggum weren't originally supposed to be related; they just randomly wound up with the same last name, and the writers eventually decided to make them father and son.
    • An accidental reference to this trope appeared in the episode when they go to New York. Homer contacts the Parking Violations Bureau over the phone and receives a pre-recorded message read by a woman's voice, with the specific details added in, in a man's voice. The message states that he will be met by "Parking Officer Steve... (voice of recording suddenly changes) GRABOWSKI!" — that is, "Steve" is part of the pre-recorded message, implying that all of the officers are named Steve.
    • Another aversion: In "Waverly Hills 9-0-2-1-D'oh," there are three girls at Waverly Hills Elementary named Caitlin (with a "C"), Katelyn (with a "K"), and Kate Lynn (two words)
    • Invoked and played with in "The Principal and the Pauper": Just as Springfield is starting to celebrate Skinner's twentieth anniversary as principal, the actual Sgt. Seymour Skinner (voiced by Martin Sheen) appears, and the principal confesses that his real name is Armin Tamzarian, and when Sgt. Skinner went MIA, his mother mistook Armin for her real son, but he didn't have the heart to tell her otherwise. Agnes is furious at Sgt. Skinner's backtalk when he comes home drunk late at night, while Momma's Boy Armin was too sissified to ever sass Agnes.
      • Near the end of the episode, when Sgt. Skinner is sent out of town, this becomes an Enforced Trope:
        Principal Skinner: Well, this is a lovely gesture, but we all have to face the fact that I'm not really Seymour Skinner.
        Homer: Oh no we don't. Judge Snyder?
        Judge Snyder: By authority of the City of Springfield, I hereby confer upon you the name of Seymour Skinner, as well as his past, present, future, and mother.
        Skinner: Okay.
        Judge Snyder: And I further decree that everything will be just like it was before all this happened, and no one will ever mention it again... (Dramatic Pause) ...under penalty of torture!
    • Yet another aversion: There are two Larrys: the bald guy that isn't Homer who can usually be seen at Moe's, and Mr. Burns's illegitimate son from "Burns, Baby Burns".
    • Lou the police officer shares a name with the bull that Bart bonded with in "Apocalypse Cow".
    • In "Itchy and Scratchy Land", after Bart fails to find license plates with his name but finds one with the name "Bort", a child named Bort asks for his mother to buy it, only for a man to think the mother was referring to him when she says his name. The theme park later runs out of the Bort license plates, implying there are others with that name.
    • The Springfield bowling alley is named "Barney's Bowl-o-ramma" and it's never been made explicitly clear if this name has anything to do with Homer's loser friend Barney. One episode shows Barney working there, but Barney's indifferent uncle "Al" is the owner. So either Al named the bowling alley after his loser nephew for some reason, or there's another Barney out there.
    • Another aversion, Dewey Largo (the music teacher) and his then-boyfriend also named Dewey.
    • Lampshaded in "Principle Charming". When Bart tries to pass the blame for his herbicide prank to one of the other Barts in school, Skinner fires back with, "THERE ARE NO OTHER BARTS!".
    • Played for laughs in the "Dial Z for Zombie" segment of "Treehouse of Horror" when the zombies return to their graves.
      Pilgrim Zombie: Excuse me. I'm John Smith.
      Cowboy Zombie: [Points to gravestone] John Smith 1882?
      Pilgrim Zombie: My mistake.
  • Solar Opposites: Averted with the Stacys being the popular girls at school.
  • South Park seems to have a real problem with accidentally giving the parents of the children the same names:
    • Sharon Marsh and Sheila Broflovski were both originally named Carol, as was Linda Stotch. Because of this, it became Fanon (and eventually Ascended Fanon) for Kenny's mother.
    • Butters' parents are Stephen (originally Chris) and Linda; Tolkien's parents are Steve and Linda. Jimmy's dad was originally also "Stephen", but is now "Ryan."
    • Two of the kids (Timmy and Tweek) have dads named Richard, with a third Richard serving as the school's shop teacher.
    • Chef's father is named Thomas, Craig's father is named Thomas, and Heidi's father is also named Thomas. There's also the kid with Tourette's syndrome from "Le petit Tourette" whose name is also Thomas.
    • Kyle has a cousin from Connecticut who is also named Kyle, although it seems that instance only exists for the joke that Sheila considers her own son to be "Kyle 2."
    • Other aversions exist through extremely minor characters, such as a second Terrance (who only most prominently appeared in the episode right before Terrance and Phillip were introduced, and was later pushed to the background) and many instances of male characters being named "Kevin", most noticeably a background kid and Kenny's older brother. note 
    • There are actually three Scotts: Scott Tenorman, Cartman's enemy and half-brother, Scott Malkinson, an unpopular diabetic classmate of the boys, and Scott "the Dick", seen in various Canada-centric episodes.
    • Clyde Donovan, one of the students at South Park Elementary, has the same name as one of Cartman's plushies, Clyde Frog.
    • The "Brown Noise" episode featured Kenny G. None of the boys mention that he has the same name as Kenny.
    • The names of "Rebecca" and "Kelly" have been used as stock names for various female characters, mainly Red, whose name swinged between "Rebecca" and "Red" before being officially left as the latter, although the original two were one-shot love interests of Kyle and Kenny, respectively. In South Park: The Fractured but Whole, the New Kid's mother's name is revealed to be Kelly.
    • Butters' father, as mentioned above, was originally named "Chris" before being changed to "Stephen". In South Park: The Fractured but Whole, the New Kid's father's name is revealed to be Chris.
    • After several years, the names of the male Goth Kids were finally revealed. The kindergartener one is named Firkle (later revealed to be just a nickname and his real name being Georgie), the tallest one is named Michael, in an episode that also reprises the Vampire Kids and their leader, Mike, and the red-haired one, Pete, was given the surname "Thelman" in South Park: The Stick of Truth...despite the fact that there's a very minor character with the exact same name, plus another named Pete Melman.
  • SpongeBob SquarePants:
    • SpongeBob and Squidward once encountered a band of Vikings all named Olaf, except for their leader (Gordan), curiously enough.
    • Outright avoided in the German dub. The show is so popular in Germany, the American team decided to name a background character Thaddeus in honor of Squidward's German name, Thaddäus. In return the German dub named Thaddeus "Fischward" to avoid confusion.
    • "Why hello. You're the television food critic Gene Scallop, aren't you? Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Eugene Krabs." There's not even any real indication that the writers realized what they did there.
    • There have been SIX different characters named Larry: Larry SquarePants (SpongeBob's cousin, mentioned in the Operation Krabby Patty game), Larry the Lobster (a lifeguard at Goo Lagoon), Larry Luciano (a very old snail), Larry the Snail (a temporary replacement for Gary), Pinhead Larry (a criminal in Sandy's dream), and Lucky Larry (a shopowner mentioned in "House Sittin' for Sandy").
    • Harold refers to either a commonly-seen background character (best known for the line “big meaty claws”) or SpongeBob’s father.
  • Steven Universe:
    • The show makes an obvious reference to this trope in the crossover episode "Say Uncle", where Pizza Steve refuses to share screen-time with another character named Steve. He later attempts to fool the Crystal Gems by putting on a wig reminiscent of Steven's hair and calling himself "Pizza Steven Universe". Amethyst eats him, of course.
      Pizza Steve: I told you I have two rules, Uncle G. No more than 40 or 50 vans, and only ONE Steve allowed!
    • Bordering on Planet of Steves when we learn that any Gems of the same kind have the same name — for example, the story has multiple Pearls as recurring characters, though only one of them is a main characternote . When they first appear in "Hit the Diamond", the Ruby Squad all introduce themselves as "Ruby", and Steven responds by eventually giving all of them nicknames based on their gem placements, which at least one of them (nicknamed "Eyeball") objects to. One episode of Steven Universe: Future focuses on two different Pearls at once, which causes things to get so awkward that Steven quickly nicknames one of them "Volleyball" after a game being played nearby.
    • The trope is brought up again in "Pool Hopping" when Garnet adopts a kitten to dote after in place of the no longer weak and vulnerable Steven. When she tries naming the kitten "Steven", the original gently objects — so she goes with "Cat Steven" instead.
  • The 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon has two characters whose names can confuse the viewers due to their similarities. There's April's boss named Burne (confused as Verne) and her rival named Vernon.
  • The Railway Series and its Animated Adaptation, Thomas & Friends:
    • The Railway Series had a bus named Bertie, and a small railway engine named Bert. The show then adds Bert the diesel, and a narrow gauge engine named Bertrum. Later, Sir Topham Hatt was given the first name Bertram.
    • It also featured tank engines named Bill (introduced in Season 2) and Billy (Season 11).
    • Perhaps the most obvious example of all, Diesel in Duck and the Diesel Engine and Diesel in Stepney the Bluebell Engine. While they never interact with each other, promotional material tends to differentiate the two by calling the latter "Class 40" (the locomotive he's based on) or "The Diesel", and the former is sometimes called "Devious Diesel".
    • Then we also have Henry, Henrietta, and Hank (which is a pet form of the name Henry). 'Arry could also fit here, as Harry can derive from Henry and Harold (the latter of which is also the name of the helicopter).
    • There are two Stephens; Sir Topham Hatt's grandson, and the engine modeled after Stephenson's Rocket.
    • The Railway Series had a mountain engine named Patrick (who was named for a passenger he rescued), and the TV series had a cement mixer named Patrick.
    • There are two Olivers, one is a tank engine, and the other a digger. The special, Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure has a Lampshade Hanging on this by having Marion think the tank engine Oliver turned into a digger. There is even a Wooden Railway 2-Engine pack that ties in with the special, called "Oliver and Oliver", which has models of both Olivers.
  • The Tick had an episode called "The Tick Versus The Tick", in which The Tick had to fight a guy named Barry, who also used "The Tick" as his superhero name and wasn't keen on sharing.
  • Time Warp Trio had main character Joe and his Uncle Joe, whom gave him the time traveling book the series revolved around. The titular trio (Joe, Sam, and Fred) would also go on to meet their great granddaughters from 2105, whom were named Jodie, Freddi, and Samantha. And that's not getting into the historical figures they'd meet, whom being real life people, also shared a first name with another historical person they met while time traveling or a member of the cast.
  • A Running Gag in Tiny Toon Adventures: "I'm Buster Bunny!" "And I'm Babs Bunny!" "No relation." For that matter, they're not related to Bugs Bunny, nor are any of the other Expies who have the same Species Surname as their Looney Toons counterparts.
    • Duncan Potter, the little rabbit boy Babs Bunny babysat in "I Was a Teenage Bunnysitter" (part of The "Acme Home Shopping Show"), and Duncan Duff, Elmyra's younger brother who appears in the episodes "Take Elmyra Please" and "Grandma's Dead."
  • Tom's black cat friend (or enemy, depending on the premise of the short) in Tom and Jerry is named "Butch." However, an alternate name used for Spike the Bulldog is also "Butch."
  • Total Drama, with its large cast, has fallen into this several times. A season one short introduced Leshawna's friend Jasmin, while a different Jasmine was a major character in Pahkitew Island. That season also introduced a female Sammy despite there already being a male Sam.
  • The Spin-Off, Total Drama Presents: The Ridonculous Race does this a lot with names from the old series. There's Brody (similar to Beth's boyfriend Brady), Ellody (similar to Ella), Mickey (just a variant of Mike), and Don (pronounced in many dialects the exact same as Dawn).
    • In the Canadian French dub of Race, where Devin's girlfriend Shelly and Courtney have both been renamed Audrey.
    • The most noticeable instance, however, is a character from The Ridonculous Race and a contestant from the 2023 season both being given the exact same name: Emma. Similarly, The Ridonculous Race has a contestant named Mary and the 2023 season has a contestant named Mary Kate, though it's averted in the latter's case as she's better known as MK.
  • Transformers:
  • Ultimate Spider-Man (2012): Spider-Man a.k.a. Peter Parker and The Trapster a.k.a. Paste-Pot Pete or Peter Petruski. They got around it by never having The Trapster called by any of his other names.
  • Visionaries has Arzon and Orzon. Arzon is a Spectral Knight and makes at least a cameo appearance in all thirteen episodes. Orzon, the leader of the Khemirites, only appears in "The Price of Freedom".
  • Though he's never seen, another Tino is mentioned in The Weekenders when the main character, Tino Tonitini, fails to get his name in the yearbook for "Best Tino". Also averting the "similar names" aspect is minor character Tony Tortallero, who even looks and sounds a lot like Tino.
  • Winx Club: Pepe, Icy's duck, followed the Trix to Light Haven/Light Rock at the end of season one and hasn't been seen since. The creators must have forgotten about him since in season four, Musa's pet bear was named Pepe.
  • Work It Out Wombats!: Quique's real name is Enrique, but this is not mentioned on the show. However, "The Treeborhood Parranda" introduces the Flapping Feathers, one of whom is named Enrique.
  • Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum: So far, there are 2 Alexanders (Graham Bell and Hamilton), 3 Marys (Shelley, Leakey and Anning), 2 Georges (Washington and Washington Carver), 2 Maries (Curie and Owens), 2 Arthurs (Conan Doyle and Ashe) and 2 Jackies (Robinson and Joyner-Kersee).
  • In Xiaolin Showdown, all of Jack Spicer's robots are called Jackbots or Robo-Jack for the more human-looking ones. Jack also adopts a parrot which he names Little Jack at one point.
  • Young Justice (2010):
    • Martian Manhunter suggested that Superboy choose the surname "Kent" for his Secret Identity. However, since nobody on the Team knew Superman's real name yet, they assumed it was supposed to be the recently deceased Kent Nelson.
    • Martian Manhunter himself is named J'onn J'onzz, aka "John Jones", on a team that includes a John Stewart. And then, on J'onn's suggestion, Red Tornado takes the name John Smith. (For added fun, there's also Zatara, whose first name, Giovanni, is the Italian form of John.)
    • In season one we have the villain Hugo Strange, while season two gives us the hero Adam Strange.
    • Aqualad's friend back home is named Garth, while Beast Boy's real name is Garfield "Gar" Logan. And for a meta coincidence, his voice actor is named Logan Grove.
    • In the comics, Roy/William Harper and Violet Harper are an example of this trope, but in this show "Violet Harper" is the character's invented identity, with her getting the surname specifically from him. However, right after that she has her first day of school and befriends Harper Row.
    • There are three Cassandras on the show: Cassandra Savage, daughter of Vandal Savage, Cassandra Sandsmark, AKA Wonder Girl, and Cassandra Wu-San, AKA Orphan. As the show has a large cast, no episode gave focus to two of them at once, that is, until the second story arc of Season 4 dealing with Artemis and the League of Shadows, where Savage and Orphan were both important characters.
    • The show does something similar with code names. As of season 4, there are two Flashes and four Green Lanterns that are all members of the Justice League, and Arthur Curry decides that he's a better superhero than king and decides to resume being Aquaman but thinks that Kaldur'ahm (who'd taken up the Aquaman title after his retirement) and La'gaan also both deserve it as well, leaving the League with three active Aquamans.

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