One-Steve Limit

aka: Breaking The One Steve Limit

This is what happens when you break it.

Principal Skinner: Bart, I'm flabbergasted. Surely you knew as you were writing your own name in forty-foot-high letters on the field, that you would be caught.
Bart: Maybe it was one of the other Barts, sir—
Principal Skinner: THERE ARE NO OTHER BARTS!

— The Simpsons, "Principal Charming"

A pretty rigid rule that no two characters in a work of fiction (novel, movie, play, TV series, comic book, etc.) should share the same first name, or even similar-sounding names. If there's a Laura in the story, there will not be a Lyra; if there's an Ed, there will not be a Ted (this is sometimes discarded if the characters happen to be twins). If you wake up one morning and suddenly discover that you don't know any two people with the same first name and that your phone number begins with 555, you can safely assume you've fallen into a work of fiction.

The rationale behind this is that the audience, actors reading a script and even the writer will get confused by multiple characters with indistinguishable names: "Wait, was it good-guy Steve or bad-guy Steve who launched the missile?" It's even common for scripts to avoid names of similar length and/or first letter, sometimes Alliterative Name{s} are used to reduce character's initials to a singular letter.

A strong dramatic reason to duplicate names can override the rule, as, for example, in the Jack Nicholson movie The Two Jakes, but it's so rarely done that audiences will pick up on it almost instantly. Unintentional duplication of first or last names also sometimes occurs when characters from previously distinct works of fiction meet one another, or when fiction is in any way using individuals from Real Life, or in sprawling, shared-continuity settings like the DC or Marvel Comics universes.

It's probably more feasible to list the exceptions rather than examples. Usually when there are exceptions, there will be a storyline involving the characters being confused for each other. One possible way to avoid the issue, however, is for the characters with the same name to use different derivatives. Two Elizabeths may go by Liz and Betty, two Theodores might be Ted and Theo, etc.

One could only wish this were Truth in Television, but as teachers know all too well, names go through cycles and depending on the era, a single class might have three Jasons, Michaels, Jennifers or Claras. Hence, this trope is generally considered an Acceptable Break from Reality.

It is an Enforced Trope, however, within screen and stage acting. After a large number of mistaken identity incidents that caused actors to lose out on jobs to other actors with the same name or even where actors' careers were unjustifiably ruined because of a similarity^note  one such case was that of the actor William Boyd. He had been a up-and-coming matinee idol in the late silent era, and was part of the Production Posse for Cecil B Demille. However, there was another screen actor named William Boyd, usually credited as "William (Stage) Boyd" who had gotten in trouble with the law for alcohol possession and drunkenness (this was during Prohibition) among other things. The reports did not differentiate which Boyd was under arrest, and a number of national newspapers, assuming it was the more famous Boyd, ran his photo in the stories. RKO, who had his contract at the time, fired him on the grounds of the morals clause, even though he had not committed the acts alleged. This stalled his career, though he finally won fame as the portrayer of Hopalong Cassidy, most theatrical unions require or at least very strongly recommend that members joining who have a name of a pre-existing member change it to something else. For instance, "Stewart Granger", born James Stewart, who changed his name to avoid confusion with the James Stewart, or Michael J. Fox, who joined the union when veteran character actor Michael Fox was still active — Michael J added the "J" (which stands for nothing outside of a tribute to Michael J. Pollard, his real middle initial is "A") to differentiate.

This is also a problem in dubbing with "dubbed names". For example, Gomez Addams in Latin America is "Homero", just like Homer the Spider. Or a mobster named Bruno showing up in a Batman (who is known as "Bruno Díaz" instead of "Bruce Wayne") comic.

The antithesis is Planet of Steves, wherein everybody is Steve.

Compare One-Mario Limit, where the "Steve" is too famous for anyone else to use a similar name. Contrast Inexplicably Identical Individuals, where there is a whole bunch of interchangeable characters that look the same and may share the same name—or have very similar names.

Also contrast Same Surname Means Related, which removes the possibility that "Steve" and "Tom, Dick and Harry" having the same last name is just happenstance (even if/when they share one of the most common last names in whichever part of the world their franchise was produced). While on topic, characters from a same family will obviously share the same surname so it's not an aversion of this trope. However, related characters sharing a same first name do count: In Real Life, the practice of a child being named after a parent is not unheard of, and while you may often see a character with "Junior" in their name, or a Preppy Name such as "Charles Reginald III", you will rarely encounter said character's parents.

For moments where there's a one person limit for roles see Cast Speciation.

See also Significant Name Overlap, We Named the Monkey "Jack", Identically Named Group, and Dead Guy Junior, for other ways characters can share names.

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No Straight Examples, Please!:

• Anime & Manga
• Comic Books
  • The DCU
  • Marvel Universe
• Fan Works
  • The Victors Project
• Live-Action Films
• Literature
• Live-Action TV
  • Arrowverse
  • Doctor Who
  • Marvel Cinematic Universe
• Myths & Religion
• Video Games
  • Pokémon
• Webcomics
• Web Videos
  • Dream SMP
  • React
• Western Animation

Other non-straight examples:

Advertising

• There was a time when the Yellow Pages ran a series of commercials showing a Visual Pun of a listing and then the listing. (A football player pounces on a fish being reeled in = Fishing Tackle, A group of men display their ability to perform a death scene for a director = Die Casting.) One such commercial shows a convention of men, all of whom introduce themselves as "Herb". What is the listing? Herbs (silent "h").

Audio Plays

• Parodied by The Firesign Theatre on their album Boom Dot Bust, which takes place in a town called Billville, where everybody's name is Bill.
  • The Firesign Theatre are themselves an example—there are only four of them, and two are named Phil. They once made fun of this by referring to themselves as "Phil, Phil, Phil, and Phil."

Comic Strips

• For Better or for Worse: At least four characters were named Paul, although their storylines didn't overlap and they were never confused with each other by the other characters: Gordon and Tracey's son Paul Mayes; April's guitar teacher Paul Bergan; contractor Paul Gauthier; and Liz's boyfriend Paul Wright. There were also two characters named Susan whose storylines never overlapped — the first was one of Elly's supervisors at the library, and the second, Susan Dokis, replaced Liz as a teacher in Mtigwaki.
• Funky Winkerbean has among its characters both band director Harry L. Dinkle and student-turned-mailman Crazy Harry.
• Knights of the Dinner Table:
  • There are two characters named Bob: Bob Herzhog, one of the main characters, and Bob "Waco" Forzey, who works at Hard Eight Enterprises. It's easy to miss, though, since the latter Bob usually goes by his nickname.
  • The owner of the local gaming store is "Weird" Pete Ashton, who shares a name with Pete Skipowsky, another Hard Eight employee. And, like Waco, he's usually known by his nickname of "Skip."
• Nancy: A character named Rollo had his name taken and put onto a character known as Marmaduke after a similarly named strip had appeared, causing some confusion for those who have picked up the first book of Fantagraphics reprints, where the little rich boy was named so.
  • Even then, John Stanley worked on the Nancy comic book series, where he was given a last name, Haveall. Yes, his name is Rollo there and then on.
• Peanuts: The girl named Patty who was a regular character starting from the very first strip but eventually stopped appearing is a different character from Peppermint Patty, who was introduced years later but is much better remembered.
• Retail:
  • Cooper exploits this trope when Stuart comes to fire both him and Val for violating the 'no workplace romance' policy by having a friend of his pose as a man also named Cooper and made it look like Val was dating him, making Josh (who reported them) look like a fool for the mistaken identity.
  • There were two Fionas in the comic: a girl who got lost in Grumbel's, and Marla's daughter. The former might very well have influenced the name of the latter, as it was watching the first Fiona while waiting for her mother that made Marla decide she wanted children.
• In Safe Havens Maria Hamper was named after Maria Novello, the time traveler who delivered her. They turn out to be the same person.

Fairy Tales

• The general lack of names in fairy tales makes this problem rare, but when Joseph Jacobs collected Kate Crackernuts, both of the princesses were named Kate. He changed one to Anne to avoid confusion when he published it.
• In Grimms' Fairy Tales, Snow White from Snow White (princess pursued by her evil step-mother, helped by seven dwarfs) is not to be confused with Snow White from Snow-White and Rose-Red (helps a bear who turns out to be a prince, gets into trouble with an evil dwarf). Note that in the original German this problem does not exist as the former ("Sneewittchen") uses a Low German name, while the latter ("Schneeweißchen und Rosenrot") a High German one. Played with in Bill Willingam's comic Fables, where both Snow Whites were merged into a single character; this is also the case in the Dark Parables games.
• In Russian fairy tale The Death of Koschei the Deathless, as well known as Marya Morevna, both the title character, Ivan's wife, and one of his sisters are Marya. But the wife is always referred to with the patronymic, so there's no danger of confusion.

Films — Animation

• In Barbie Big City Big Dreams, Barbie visits New York and meets a girl from Brooklyn who has the same exact first and last name as her (Barbie Roberts), thus they go by the nicknames "Malibu" and "Brooklyn" to distinguish the two.
• In Horton Hears a Who! (2008), Morton mentions that the Kangaroo has sent Vlad after Horton. Horton inquires as to whether he means Vlad the Vulture, or Vlad the bunny who gives out cookies. (It's the vulture.)
  • For that matter, Horton and Morton are a subversion right there.
  • On a meta level, this might explain why the young kangaroo is named Rudy instead of the more-cliché Joey—they already had a JoJo.
• The Ralph Bakshi version of The Lord of the Rings felt that the names Sauron and Saruman were too similar, and so Saruman was renamed to "Aruman". Although they still called him Saruman half the time.
• In Mulan, the title character's mother is named Li, which also happens to be her Love Interest's surname. There's also a moment where Mulan practically references this trope: after causing trouble in the camp, the "son" of the Fa family is asked for "his" name and Mushu starts giving her suggestions, one of which is Ling, which Mulan points out is already another soldier's name and she eventually settles on Ping in the face of Shang's growing annoyance with her.
• Averted in Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World: after her romance with John Smith, Pocahontas begins a new relationship with John Rolfe. Justified since these characters are all based on historical people (even if the John Smith part is probably just a legend).
• Averted in Robin Hood (1973) with Prince John and Little John. Justified, as it's adapted from the original legends.
• Frozen has a cross-media version. In the book A Frozen Heart, one of Hans' brothers is named Lars. The comic Frozen: Breaking Boundaries introduces an ice-harvester named Lars.
• In Turning Red, this is Averted. There are two Aarons in 4*Town, namely Aaron T., the group's comedian, and Aaron Z., the group's athlete and main dancer.
• Cars does this with background characters, such as "My Name is Not Chuck"/Chuck Armstrong (a background racecar sponsoring Mood Springs)/Chuck Manifold, Frank the combine/Frank Pinkerton, Hank "Halloween" Murphy/Murphy (an orange SUV), Timothy Twostroke/Timothy Timezone, Todd the Pizza Planet Truck/Todd Marcus (a background racecar sponsoring No Stall), Rusty Rust-Eze/Rusty Cornfuel (a background racecar sponsoring Tow Cap), Dusty Dust-Eze/Dusty Crophopper, Miles "Meat Truck" Malone/Miles Axlerod, Cruz Besouro (Carla Veloso's crew chief)/Cruz Ramirez, Clutch Foster/Craig Faster (both are named after Pixar staff member Craig Foster), etc.

Franchises

• MonsterVerse:
  • The first two movies in the franchise have two William's between them, who both return in separate later instalments. Navy commander Admiral William Stenz in Godzilla (2014), and elder Monarch operative William "Bill" Randa in Kong: Skull Island.
  • Godzilla (2014) had a female Martinez aboard a U.S. Navy battleship. Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) has a male named Anthony Martinez serving in Monarch's military branch.
  • In the King of the Monsters novelization, there's another Rick besides Dr. Stanton working for Monarch, located at the outpost containing Scylla.
  • And as of Godzilla vs. Kong, Dr. Chen from Godzilla: King of the Monsters (whose actress was slated to return for the film, only for all her scenes to be cut) is no longer the only Ilene who's a relevant character.
  • The first Walter in the franchise, Riccio, was a mythographer madman in the graphic novel The Birth of Kong, who was crushed by Kong. The second, Simmons, was an industrialist Corrupt Corporate Executive in Godzilla vs. Kong who tried to kill Godzilla.
  • As of Skull Island (2023), the MonsterVerse has had three Sam's...
  • ...and two tentacled, part-squid sea monsters that are called the Kraken. The first Kraken (later renamed In-Universe Na Kika) was featured in the Godzilla: King of the Monsters novelization and Godzilla: Dominion, and it was a largely cuttlefish-like creature which was benign so long as it wasn't under King Ghidorah's control. The second Kraken in the Skull Island series was a decidedly different creature: it looked like a mix between a squid and a crustacean, it had venomouys and bio-electric tentacles, and it was extremely aggressive and vicious to the point of murderous sadism all on its own.
  • Monarch: Legacy of Monsters introduces the second Tim in the MonsterVerse, the first having been a minor scientist who was shot dead in the opening of King of the Monsters. Both Tim's are Monarch operatives, but whereas the Legacy of Monsters Tim is a somewhat portly "office drone" in Monarch, the Tim in King of the Monsters is a much scrawnier man and a live Titan-monitoring scientist.

• Transformers:
  • In the live-action films, a character named "Brawl" is erroneously referred to as "Devastator". This is fine and dandy, but he is called "Brawl" in his toys and licensed media. Then, Revenge of the Fallen introduces the Constructicons, a bunch of Transformers that combine to create a colossal Decepticon... by the name of "Devastator".
  • In Transformers: Cybertron, one of the Mini-Cons is named Thunderblast, which just so happens to be the name of a Decepticon in the same series.
  • The upper ranks of the Decepticons in media derived from Transformers: Generation 1 tend to include separate characters named Soundwave and Shockwave at the same time.
  • In the scope of the entire franchise, some names get used a lot. Most media will include most or all of the following: Optimus Prime, Megatron, Starscream and Bumblebee. Additionally, there was a point in the mid-2000s when around five toys were named "Prowl", and they represented anywhere between two to four different characters. This rarely happens with major characters, though, unless it's just to hold onto a trademark. Sometimes this gets complicated, though, as writers have a weird habit of retconning characters who share the same name as being the same person.

Music

Real Life Examples

Within a Group

• The Academy Is... has Mike Carden (rhythm guitar) and Michael Guy Chislett (lead guitar). Before Chislett joined the band, the very first lineup included Mike Carden and Mike DelPrincipe (drums).
• Partial example/subversion with Alice in Chains. The band had two bassists named Mike, but not at the same time.
• Danish pop band Alphabeat has six members: Anders, Stine, Anders, Rasmeus, Anders, and Troels.
• The Australian Pink Floyd Show introduce themselves on stage as six Bruces, four Sheilas, and Rolf.
• The Band had two Richards—Manuel and Danko—but the aversion wasn't too obvious since the latter used the nickname "Rick."
• Two out of the three Beastie Boys are named Adam. They're usually referred to by their full names or stage names anyway—Adam Yauch is MCA while Adam Horovitz is Ad Rock.
  • The remainder of the group consisted of Mike D and DJ Mixmaster Mike.
• The Beatles had lead guitarist George Harrison and producer George Martin, which can lead to all sorts of confusion when you're reading about the production of certain albums.
• Over the course of Built to Spill's career, they've had a Brett Nelson and a Brett Netson.
• The Cab had, at one point, three of five band members all named Alex—Alex DeLeon, Alex Marshall, and Alex Johnson. The latter two have since left the band, though.
• Da Yoopers had Jim DeCaire (drums) and Jim Bellmore (guitar). Their early bassist was Jim Pennell, who quit after the second album and was replaced by Joe DeLongchamp, who himself overlapped then-guitarist Joe Potila. Jerry Coffey was a longtime percussionist, who overlapped collaborator Jerry "Mungo" LaJoie.
• Deep Purple has had multiple singers, but the best known is Ian Gillan. The drummer is Ian Paice.
• Def Leppard have two "Rick"'s, Rick Allen, the drummer, and Rick Savage, the bassist. Rick Savage is differentiated by the nickname "Sav". (Interestingly enough, they also had a "Steve", rhythm guitarist Steve Clark, who died in 1991.)
• Devo has both Robert Mothersbaugh and Robert Casale. They are generally referred to as Bob1 and Bob2. Interestingly, both had brothers in the band—Mark Mothersbaugh and Jerry Casale respectively.
  • After the death of Bob2, the band now features drummer Josh Freese and guitarist Josh Hager.
• When he formed Dexys Midnight Runners, Kevin Rowland insisted that Kevin Archer (the group's first guitarist) start going by his nickname "Al" Archer. Apparently, he even said, "There's only room for one Kevin in this band."
• Extreme metal band Dimmu Borgir once had three Stians: Stian Thoresen (vocals, better known as Shagrath), Stian Arnesen (bass, better known as Nagash) and Stian Aarstad (keyboards, no stage name).
• Lampshaded by The Donnas who went by the names of Donna A, Donna R, Donna F and Donna C until reverting to their own names by their fourth album.
• When Kevin James LaBrie joined Dream Theater, he dropped his first name and adopted James as his stage name, to avoid having two Kevins in the band (along with Kevin Moore). The band still had two Johns, however. And Mike Mangini has replaced Mike Portnoy as the drummer.
• During their peak, Duran Duran had three members all with the last name Taylor: Bassist John, guitarist Andy, and drummer Roger (not to be confused with another drummer of the same name). Not one of them was in any way related to either of the other two.
• The Eagles have Don Henley and Don Felder.
• Edguy has vocalist Tobias Sammet and bassist Tobias Exxel. Exxel goes by the nickname "Eggi" though, so there's no confusion.
• For a short time in 2010 Evanescence featured two members called Will Hunt, both drummers. Vocalist Amy Lee dubbed the 'new' one Will 'Science' Hunt during his time with the group.
• Faces featured bass player Ronnie Lane and guitarist Ronnie Wood, the latter now better known as a Rolling Stone.
• Super Group Fight or Flight was essentially started by Dan Donegan from Disturbed and Dan Chandler from Evans Blue.
• Post-hardcore band Finch features rhythm guitarist Alex Linares and drummer Alex Pappas.
• Foster the People has two Marks, singer Mark Foster and drummer Mark Pontius, who have been the only two constant members throughout.
• Funeral for a Friend has the lead singer Matt Davies and former bassist Gareth Davies. For the band's first three albums, they used these names and were constantly asked if they were brothers. They got tired of this, so for their fourth album Memory And Humanity, Matt changed his surname to Davies-Kreye and Gareth changed his to Ellis-Davies. Gareth ultimately left before the album was released, so not many people actually referred to him by that name anyway. Matt has kept his. Since the start of the band, Kris Roberts had already been going by Coombs-Roberts, so the double barreled thing was actually a trend in the band.
• KPop girl group GFRIEND has two Eunbis, Jung Eunbi (who goes by Eunha) and Hwang Eunbi (who goes by SinB)
• Averted by the short-lived supergroup GTR, featuring progressive guitar heroes Steve Howe and Steve Hackett.
• Until shortly after the release of their second album, the lineup of Genesis had two people named Anthony (Phillips, the guitarist, and Banks, the keyboardist). Fortunately, they go by "Ant" and "Tony", respectively, so this wasn't much of an issue (although their long-time band manager is named Tony Smith, and their past manager was Tony Stratton-Smith, who was not the same man). Also, two of the band's previous drummers were both named John (Silver, then Mayhew). They did, however, have only one Steve in their lineup (lead guitarist Steve Hackett).
• Finnish band HIM has a severe case of violating the limit. One of their line-ups featured Mikko Paananen on bass, Mikko Lindström on guitar, Mika Karppinen on drums and Jussi-Mikko Salminen on keyboards. Oh, and speaking of drummers, they had Jukka Kröger and Juha Tarvonen in different points of their history. To prevent confusion, all the band members, except for vocalist, use nicknames.
• Helloween has Michael Weikath and had Michael Kiske. Weikath is frequently referred to as "Weiki" and Kiske is occasionally "Michi" (though "Michi" seems to be more a fangirl thing).
• Averted by Imagine Dragons, who have three members with the first name Daniel — vocalist Reynolds, who goes by Dan, drummer Platzman, who is usually billed by his complete first name, and guitarist Sermon, who goes by his middle name, Wayne.
• Insomnium's original lineup consisted of Niilo Sevänen (vocals and bass), Markus Hirvonen (drums), and two guys named Ville on guitar. After Ville Vänni left the band, leaving Ville Friman as the only "Ville" in the band, his replacement was...another Markus.
• Journey has/had three Steves: Steve Perry (lead singer), Steve "Smitty" Smith (drummer) and Steve Augeri (lead singer following Perry's departure from the band.)
• KISS guitarist Ace Frehley's real first name is Paul; he used his nickname of 'Ace' to distinguish himself from Paul Stanley (who, ironically, is not a Paul at all; his real name is Stanley Eisen.) For similar reasons, Paul Caravello changed his name to Eric Carr upon joining the band as drummer.
• Lacuna Coil has two Marcos, two Cristianos and a Cristina... and Andrea.
• Led Zeppelin had a John (Bonham) and a John Paul (Jones). They did not have a John Paul George Ringo, however.
• Marillion has two members actually named Steve: lead singer Steve Hogarth and lead guitarist Steve Rothery. They are often referred to as "h" and "Rothers" respectively to avoid confusion.
• Canadian band Martha and the Muffins (of "Echo Beach" fame) was named for singer Martha Johnson, but they also had keyboard player Martha Ladly during their successful period in 1979/80.
• Megadeth has lead singer/guitarist Dave Mustaine and bassist Dave Ellefson. The latter usually goes by David, or sometimes "Junior" to distinguish him from Mustaine.
• Mike + the Mechanics featured both Paul Carrack and Paul Young on lead vocals until the latter passed away in 2000.
• Speaking of The Monkees, they included Micky Dolenz (George Michael Dolenz) and Mike Nesmith (Robert Michael Nesmith), though ironically, both go by their middle name.
• Neuraxis once had two Oliviers in the band (Pinard and Beaudoin); amusingly enough, Despised Icon (started by former drummer Alexandre Erian) also had two Alexandres in the band (Erian and Pelletier).
• From about 1995 to 2008 Nocturnal Rites had both Nils Norberg and Nils Eriksson in their line up. Norberg used to sign his autograph as "Nils2".
• Short-lived band Oh-OK had Linda Hopper (later of Magnapop) and Lynda Stipe (Michael's sister) for their duration. Meanwhile, when drummer David Pierce left, he was replaced by David McNair. At least guitarist Matthew Sweet was able to keep his name unique.
• Our Lady Peace frontman Michael Maida became Raine Maida to avoid confusion with guitarist Mike Turner (and possibly just to be more memorable.)
• The original lineup of Pink Floyd technically had two Rogers, but it wasn't much of an issue because Roger Barrett was already going by Syd before the band started.
• Placebo are a bit confusing with this, in that they replaced a drummer named Steve (Hewitt) with another drummer named Steve (Forrest). Also, the bassist's name is Stefan.
• Australian band Powderfinger includes two Johns. One goes by JC, which doesn't really help since the other's surname also begins with C.
• R.E.M. has both Michael Stipe and Mike Mills.
• Relient K has Matthew, John, Matthew, Jon, and Matthew Dave Ethan.
• The Rolling Stones averted the limit from 1969 to 1974, when frontman Mick Jagger was joined by guitarist Mick Taylor, who bridged the gap between Brian Jones and Ron Wood.
• Santana used to have two members named Chester Thompson—the drummer who played with Frank Zappa and would later tour with Genesis, and the organist who also played with Tower of Power.
• UK instrumental rockers The Shadows' 1962-63 lineup had three out of its four members named Brian, but only one went by his real name and nothing else. The three Brians were: Hank Marvin (b. Brian Robson Rankin) on guitar, Brian "Licorice" Locking on bass, and Brian Bennett on drums.
• Kevin Crompton (cEvin Key), Kevin Ogilvie (Nivek Ogre), and Dave "Rave" Ogilvie of Skinny Puppy.
• Sound Horizon's Roman takes the aversion to the logical extreme, where just about every male character is named Laurant.
• Spawn of Possession once had THREE Jonases in the band (Karlsson, Bryssling, and Renvaktar).
• The Spice Girls had two Melanies. Melanie B (Scary Spice) and Melanie C (Sporty Spice). The initials remained in their stage name as they started solo careers, although Scary was simply known as Mel B.
• The two constant members of Welsh rock group Stereophonics are singer/guitarist Kelly Jones and bassist Richard Jones.
• The Stooges for a short while had no less than three members named James—James "Iggy Pop" Osterberg, James Williamson, and Jimmy Recca. They also had two members named Scott Asheton and Scott Thurston.
• Finnish power metallers Stratovarius (known for their tendency to be a Revolving Door Band) featured guitarist Timo Tolkki and vocalist Timo Kotipelto for several years until the former quit the band.
• Progressive metal band Symphony X has three Michaels: Michael Romeo on guitars, Michael Pinnella on keyboards and Michael Lepond on bass guitar.
• When Long Island band Taking Back Sunday replaced their lead guitarist and back-up vocalist for the second time, they ended up with two Matts, Matt Rubano on bass and now Matt Fazzi on guitar. They differentiate by last name.
• The Tea Party had two Jeffs (Martin and Burrows).
• When Otis Harris replaced Eddie Kendricks as The Temptations' lead tenor, he changed his first name to Damon, as they already had Otis Williams in the group.
• The core members of They Might Be Giants are John Flansburgh and John Linnell. They are often referred to by fans as "the Johns". For almost five years, their touring band of Dan Miller, Dan Hickey, and Danny Weinkauf was often called "the band of Dans". In 2004, Dan Hickey was replaced by Marty Beller, introducing a third name to the group.
• The Brechtian cabaret band The Tiger Lillies consists of Martin the Monster Clown lead singer, and two guys called Adrian.
• Guitarist Steve Lukather and keyboardist Steve Porcaro in the band Toto.
• Vocaloid has both a Miku and a Miki.
• US thrash metal band Whiplash is an odd example as one of their Rock Trio lineups had two Anthonys and one Tony, but they all performed as Tonys.
• An early line-up of Whitesnake featured drummer Dave Dowle, known as 'Duck' to distinguish him from David Coverdale; he was soon ousted in favour of Coverdale's old Deep Purple mate Ian Paice.
  • The most recent line-up includes two Brians: drummer Brian Tichy and keyboard player Brian Ruedy.
• The Yacht Rock Revue has 3 Marks in it. Mark Bencuya is typically addressed by his last name, Mark Dannells is nicknamed "Monkey Boy", and Mark Cobb writes his name with a ? in front ("Question Mark", get it?)
• Jon Anderson left Yes in the late 70s and Trevor Horn took his spot for the album Drama before the band went on hiatus. When they reformed for 90125, Anderson returned as vocalist, but Trevor Rabin became their new guitar player, and Horn produced the album.

Individual Artists

• David Bowie's real name is David Jones, but assumed the surname of Bowie to avoid confusion with Davy Jones of The Monkees.
• Trisha Yearwood's first few albums were produced by Garth Fundis. She frequently collaborated with, and later married, Garth Brooks.
• Former After Forever bandmates Floor Jansen and Mark Jansen have been known to joke about people mistakenly thinking they're siblings due to sharing their last name.
• Phil Collins worked on a few of Earth, Wind & Fire singer Philip Bailey's solo albums, and (as radio DJs love pointing out to this day) the two both sang lead vocals on "Easy Lover".
• There are two rappers with remarkably similar stage names: Aesop Rock and A$AP Rocky. Even The Other Wiki clarifies they aren't to be confused with each other.
  • Similarly, there's the the R&B singer Mario Winans, and the... other R&B singer... known simply as Mario.
• Lampshaded in the music video for Stevie Ray Vaughan's cover of "Superstition". After the music concludes, an offscreen voice calls for a cat to "come to Stevie", before the camera pans to reveal that the Stevie in question is not Vaughan, but Stevie Wonder, the song's original author, making a Creator Cameo.
• T.I.'s current stage name was the result of both this and mild Executive Meddling. When T.I., then still known by his longtime nickname, Tip, signed to Arista Records, Q-Tip was already there under a solo deal. Because of a potential marketing snafu, and T.I.'s own respect for Q-Tip's legendary career, Arista made him shorten his name to "T.I.", which stuck well after he departed Arista.
• The soundtrack to the movie Dead Man on Campus includes a Cover Version of Dusty Springfield's "I Only Wanna Be With You", as performed by Marilyn Manson bassist Twiggy Ramirez and model / actress / singer Twiggy (partial inspiration of the former's stage name) - seemingly just done for the fun of having the track credited to "Twiggy & Twiggy".

Works

• Sheena Easton's song "9 to 5" was renamed "Morning Train (9 to 5)" to avoid confusion with Dolly Parton's song "9 to 5".
• Peter Gabriel has had four self-titled albums released, which were nicknamed after what was shown on the cover (Such as Car, and Scratch) Although in the United States, it was made so that the 4th was titled Security.

In-Universe Examples

• Eminem:
  • The second verse of "Guilty Conscience" introduces an early-twenties guy named Stan who considers raping an underage girl at a party (with Dr. Dre holding him back and Shady egging him on). Eminem later wrote his iconic song "Stan" about a different Stan who is also his stan. He has stated that he just never thought about that when writing and never intended the two characters to be the same, but they could be, if you want.
  • "Guilty Conscience" also mentions a Renée, who is presumably the aunt of Eddie (the robber in the first verse). Renée also turns up on "Get You Mad" as someone whose house Slim Shady throws live grenades at.
  • "Kim" contains a passage where Slim/Marshall reminds Kim of the time she threw up at "Brian's party". An unreleased song for the same album, "Jimmy, Brian and Mike" (eventually released in 2022), describes a house party Slim attends with a Brian who takes a shit in a clothes hamper, then gets thrown out by Slim for being too drunk and ruining his shoe (and told to drive off). It's not clear if these are the same Brian, but probably not. Another Brian shows up in "The Kids" as the Eric Cartman Expy who heckles Slim. Another (?) Brian turns up in the Ken Kaniff skit at the end of "Underground" on Relapse as the guy speaking before Ken interrupts the addiction counselling session with his tap dancing.
  • In Eminem's "blonde" albums, he refers to a character named "Eric". Little Eric jumps off the terrace in "Who Knew"; Little Eric looks just like Eminem in "White America" (so he survived?); and then in "My 1st Single" Eric gets high on generic sleep medication and wakes up naked in bed next to his best friend Derek, which probably is not the child Eric referred to in the other lines. Eric Cartman and Eric Harris also make appearances as characters in Eminem's songs.
  • Several Relapse-era songs mention a Victim of the Week named Dakota, and one references Dakota Fanning. It's a topic of debate as to whether the Dakota of "Music Box" is Ms. Fanning.
  • The song "Headlights" features fun.'s Nate Ruess on the hook, but also involves lyrics about Nate Mathers, Eminem's little brother.
• The Mike Doughty song "27 Jennifers" plays with this trope:

  I went to school with twenty-seven Jennifers
  Sixteen Jenns, ten Jennies and then there was her.

  • This is almost certainly based on a real phenomenon—witness this college newspaper comic from 1990...
• Paul and Storm have some songs supposedly by a barbershop quartet entirely made up of guys named "Barry". The fake band is called "The BarryTones".
• Bruce McCullough from The Kids in the Hall had a song called "Daves I Know", each verse being about a different Dave (or David) from his life.
• The Rodney Carrington song "Fred's Riding Fred" parodies this, as the narrator is drunk (or stoned in some recordings) and can't remember the names of anyone in the story, so he names them all Fred. This includes the protagonist, the horse and the protagonist's girlfriend.
• Discussed by The Men That Will Not Be Blamed for Nothing. "Steph(v)enson" is about George and Robert Stephenson, the father and son who co-invented the first commercial steam locomotive; not to be confused with Robert Stevenson, a lighthouse engineer who also worked on trains; not to be confused with Robert Louis Stevenson, author of Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde and Treasure Island.
• Parodied in Louis Jordan and His Tympani Five's "Five Guys Named Moe".
  One guy, Big Moe
  Two guys, Little-bitty Moe
  Three guys, Four-eyed Moe
  Four guys, No Moe
  Five guys, Eat Moe
  Five little guys named Moe

Podcasts

• Averted in The Adventure Zone, by Brian and his pet spider Bryan.
  • There have also been four Jerrys over the course of the show. A gerblin in Here There Be Gerblins, two Hammerhead ruffians named "Regular Jerreeeeee" and "Lil' Jerry" in Petals to the Metal, and a bank guard in The Eleventh Hour. Guest host Stuart Wellington added a fifth one in tribute to the Hammerheads with Goldcliff's Councillor Jerry, who also had the Hammerheads' distinctive "Joe Pesci" accent.
  • Finally, there are two bugbears named Jamie Green. One is Klarg's mother and Lucas' gardener, and the other is a reporter on the IPRE's homeworld.
• Averted as well in the ongoing series of The Aliens That Came From A Completely Different Planet To Earth within The John Dredge Nothing To Do With Anything Show: It features both Jeff and Jim, who are constantly getting mixed up by the other characters—occasionally even they themselves can't get their names right.
  Jeff: A flying saucer, Jeff?
  Jim: I'm Jim, you're Jeff.
  Jeff: Sorry, that's the trouble with having two characters with similar names, Jeff.
  Jim: Jim.
• MarsCorp has Dave Price and David Knight in its main cast. In this case it's a side-effect of Write What You Know crossed with The Danza: the characters are named after their actors, who also co-wrote season one. So far none of the characters have remarked on it (in reality, why would they?).
  • MarsCorp also has Jonathan Kingsley and John Smith.
• Played with in the Cool Kids Table game Here We Gooooo! when it comes to the Yoshi. Alan's character has an Overly Long Name, so they call him Yoshi for short. But to keep things from getting confusing when Yoshi is introduced in a kingdom full of Yoshis, they refer to Mario's Yoshi as the "OG Yoshi".
• My Dad Wrote a Porno has, in the titular erotic literature, three characters named James: James Spooner, Sir James Godwin, and Jim Sterling. In addition, two of the hosts are named Jamie and James.
• In episode three of Mystery Show, Starlee assumes that Bob Bland and Bob Six are the same person. They're not.
  • Also subverted in episode six with Starlee's client Jonathan and John, an author that she meets during her investigation.
• Since two of the three regulars on the OSW Review podcast are named Steve, they go by the nicknames V1 and Mr. OOC.
• Averted in Welcome to Night Vale:
  • All of the angels who stay with Old Woman Josie are named Erika. With a "k".
  • There's also two Laurens: Lauren Mallard (Night Vale Radio Station manager and StrexCorp Shill) and Lauren James (Night Vale Weekly Gazette writer).
  • And two Janices: Cecil's niece Janice and Janice Rio from down the street.
  • For the record, there is only one Steve: Cecil's Sitcom Arch-Nemesis and Janice's stepfather Steve Carlsberg.
• The Magnus Archives technically has three recurring characters named Michael: Michael Crew, avatar of the Vast, Michael Shelley, Gertrude Robinson's former assistant, and "Michael", the Distortion avatar that killed Michael Shelley and now inhabits his body. There's also a Mikaele Salesa — it's pronounced very differently, but jumps out at you when you see it written down.
  • It's probably also worth mentioning Sasha James, Not-Sasha-James, Sasha Rackett from the sister Rusty Quill Gaming podcast, and castmember Sasha Sienna. (Quite a few Magnus Archives characters are named after cast and crew members from various Rusty Quill productions; series creator Jonny Sims named the protagonist after himself. He'd been warned, too.)

Pro Wrestling

• AWA had FOUR Richards or similar names hold the AWA World Heavyweight Title during the promotion's existence (Dick the Bruiser [William Richard Afflis], the Destroyer [Dick Beyer], Mighty Igor Vodic [Dick Garza], and Rick Martel [Richard Vigneault].)
• New Japan Pro-Wrestling on a few occasions employed both Masa Saito and Hiro Saito, who despite a close physical resemblance are not related.
• WCW had a good number of Scotts at one point (Hall, Steiner, Norton, Riggs, Armstrong, Putski, Dickinson [a referee], Hudson [a TV announcer]), and then it was revealed that Raven was also a Scott when his mother showed up for a storyline^note his real name is Scott Levy. In addition, Raven's Flock included Riggs and Sick Boy (real name Scott Vick). The nWo had Hall, Norton, and Steiner all in the group, and when it splintered into the Wolfpac and Hollywood factions, all three Scotts were in nWo Hollywood. Scott Steiner was widely referred to on a Full-Name Basis during this time, since he was a) not the only Scott and b) not the only Steiner (see below).
• Early in his career, Kevin Sullivan arrived in the Gulf Coast Wrestling territory in Alabama. Wrestler Eddie Sullivan (real name Ruben Huizar) was already established there, so the promoters renamed Kevin "Johnny West."
• WCW had an infestation of men named Rick during the 90s. In 1997 alone their roster included at least 12 wrestlers using Rick or Ricky as their first name (Ric Flair, Rick Fuller, Rick Martel, Ricky Morton, Rick Rude, Rick Steiner, Ricky Santana, Rick Grange, Rick King, Ricky McDaniel, Rick Thames, Rick Thorn ^note  the last six were Power Plant [WCW's wrestling school] members or jobbers that only wrestled one match.). As an aside, Rick Steiner's real first name is Robert (as everyone watching Summerslam 1993 discovered when his sister accidentally called him "Rob"), which makes you wonder why he didn't use that name in WCW to avoid confusion with the more famous Ric Flair or Rick Rude^note "Rick Steiner" is actually his (and Scott's) last name, spelled Rechsteiner. This list does not include Ricks that had already retired (i.e. Ricky Steamboat) or had yet to debut (i.e. Rick Cornell aka Reno of the Natural Born Thrillers) in 97. WCW always seemed to have a swarm of jobbers named Rick. Between 1991 and 1996 they had 24 men, not counting the big names, known as Rick^note  (Santana, Thames, Stockhauser, Garcia, Hayes, Hudson, Keller, Matrix, Teasley, Valentino, Tango, Fargo, Hardrock, Ryder, Bravo, Ford, Cannon, Nelson, Stockhauser, Jones, Cats, McCord, Wilkins, Riddle, Kenan) and they had a combined record of 1-125 ^note  The one win belongs to Thames. He beat WCW World Heavyweight Champion Vader by DQ in February 93.
• Interestingly, WCW's title scene actually adhered to this rule during its existence. From January 1991 through March 26, 2001, of the 19 different men who held the WCW World Heavyweight Title, none of them had the same first name as any of the others. This ended when Chris Jericho won the title on October 21, 2001, during the InVasion/Alliance storyline, since Chris Benoit had won it on January 16, 2000^note And you could make the case this doesn't count, Benoit's win was invalidated the next night (because he asked for and was given his release, the kayfabe justification was Sid's foot being under the ropes when he was pinned) and later retconned by WWE into a title reign. Not to mention that WCW ceased to exist 7 months before Jericho won the "WCW" world title. Literalized, since Sting was one of the guys who held the title and his real first name is in fact Steve.
• Averted by the WCW tag team Kronik, since both guys (Brian Adams and Bryan Clarke) were named Bryan and nobody seemed to question it.
• During the 1980s, WWE called Kamala, normally known as "the Ugandan Giant", "the Ugandan Headhunter" due to the fact that André the Giant, who Kamala feuded with both in WWE and elsewhere, was in the promotion at the time. It also doubled as a Name to Run Away From Really Fast.
• WWE changed Buzz Sawyer's Red Baron from "Mad Dog" to "Bulldog" during his brief run in 1984 because Mad Dog Vachon was in the promotion at the time.
• Bruiser Brody used the name King Kong Brody in territories where Dick the Bruiser was established.
• 2 Cold Scorpio had to use the name Black Wazma in Mexico because another wrestler named Scorpio was already established there at the time.
• Ricky Morton averted this when he and Ricky Fuji teamed up in Japan as The New Rock N Roll Express.
• The WWE World Heavyweight Championship has been held by three Michaels (Shawn Michaels [Michael Shawn Hickenbottom], Mankind [Mick Foley] and The Miz [Michael Mizanin]). There have also been FOUR Roberts or similar names (Bob Backlund, Sgt. Slaughter [Robert Remus], Rob Van Dam [Rob Szatkowski], and Bobby Lashley [real first name Franklin]). There have also been two Randys (Randy "Macho Man" Savage [Randal Mario Poffo] and Randy Orton), two Stevens/Stephens ("Stone Cold" Steve Austin [Steven Williams, born Anderson] and Sheamus [Stephen Farrelly]), two Pauls (Triple H [Paul Michael Levesque] and The Big Show [Paul Wight]), and three Johns (John "Bradshaw" Layfield [John Charles Layfield], John Cena and Dean Ambrose [Jonathan Good]).
• There have occasionally been wrestlers in WWE with the same first names though they are normally called by their last names by announcers. Chris Jericho and Chris Benoit, as well as the similar sounding Christian. WWE renamed Christopher Pavone "Caylen Croft" because his previous ring name of Chris Cage was too close to Christian's previous name of Christian Cage. There was even a storyline started when Lilian Garcia goofed and announced Benoit as "Jericho" (something Jim Ross would do often on commentary). There was also the time when Mark Henry and Mark Jindrak were on the roster at the same time. There was also John Cena, John "Bradshaw" Layfield, John Laurinaitis, John Morrison, and Johnny Curtis. There are also Paul Wight and Paul Levesque, but don't call them that.
• At one point in WWE there was a Jacqueline, generally called Jackie by everyone, and Miss Jackie Gayda. As Jacqueline went by the name "Miss Jackie Moore" in TNA there is often confusion whenever reporters recap old events and forget that Miss Jackie wasn't her name in WWE. According to Ivory (Word of Saint Paula?) they avoided this problem backstage by simply calling them Black Jackie and White Jackie.
• WWE tends to change wrestlers' names to avoid this trope altogether. A notable example is Steven Regal becoming William Regal since they already had 3 Steves: "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, "The Lethal Weapon" Steve Blackman, and Steven Richards. And Steve Williams becoming Steve Austin was another example, to distinguish him from "Dr. Death" Steve Williams.
  • At one point in the late 80s the WWF had Jims coming out the ying yang. Jim 'The Anvil' Neidhart, Jim Powers, Jim Brunzell, Jimmy Snuka, Jimmy Hart, Hillbilly Jim, "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan, The Ultimate Warrior (born James Hellwig)...
    • Understandable, since "Jim" was an extremely common name for Baby Boomer boys, who would have been in the prime of their wrestling careers at the time.
    • Were he not 20 years too late, the above line could have been "Jims coming out the Wang Yang".
    • That just sounded... wrong.
  • Garrison Cade competed as Lance Cade^note His real name was Lance K. McNaught once Lance Storm retired.
• "Stone Cold" Steve Austin got his name because of this trope. He began competing in WCCW under his real name Steve Williams, but when it was bought out and merged with another territory, they already had "Dr. Death" Steve Williams. Since Doc was the senior of the two, it was Austin who had to change his name. Dutch Mantell tossed off Steve Austin (claiming it had nothing to do with The Six Million Dollar Man). Austin hated the name, but it stuck, and he eventually became the biggest draw in the history or wrestling.
• Chris Jericho once remarked that after he joined WWF from WCW he had to change his finishing move name from the Lion Tamer to the Walls of Jericho as Ken Shamrock already had his special Lions Den Match, humorously remarking that Vince McMahon had said "there are too many lions!"
• ECW had THREE NWA ECW Heavyweight Champions/ECW World Heavyweight Champions with the real first name of Terry (Terry Funk, Sabu [Terry Brunk] and Rhino [Terry Gerin].) There were also two Jameses (Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka [James Reiher] and the Sandman [Jim Fullington]), two Johns or similar names (Johnny Hot Body [Johnny Weiss] and Mikey Whipwreck [Jonathan Watson]), two Scotts (Raven [Scott Levy] and Bam Bam Bigelow [Scott Charles Bigelow]), and two Peters (Taz [Peter Senerchia] and Justin Credible [Petey Polaco]).
• Starting in February 1999, WWE has had at different times several women on its roster with "Mary" or related names in their real names, including Stephanie Marie McMahon, Ivory (Lisa Mary Moretti), Stacy Marie Keibler, Victoria (Lisa Marie Varon), Ashley Marie Massaro, Eve Marie Torres, Dawn Marie (Dawnmarie Psaltis), Amy Marie Weber, Savannah (Angela Marie Fong) and Maria Kanellis.
• Zig Zagged to all hell and back by Ken Kennedy. He started wrestling under his real name Ken Anderson. Then when he joined the WWE he changed his name to Ken Kennedy to avoid comparison to the fictional Anderson Wrestling Family. Then it was revealed in-story that his name is Kennedy because he's the bastard son of Vincent Kennedy McMahon. Then it was revealed that he was making that up. Then he got fired and went to TNA as Ken Anderson.
• TNA has a preponderance of men named Robert. Rob Van Dam, Bobby Roode, Robbie E, and Rob Terry. From 2002–2017, TNA was also a subsidiary of Panda Energy, owned by Robert Carter. Technically, there was also Bobby Lashley.
• TNA once booked a tag match with the Harris twins against Brian Lee and Chris Harris. Everyone's legal last name is Harris, though subverted as Lee is a first cousin of the Harris twins, Chris isn't related.
• Alicia Fox used the names Victoria and Tori in Ohio Valley and WWE's version of FCW (her real name is Victoria, of which Tori is a nickname) so of course when she was called up they already had a Victoria and a Torrie Wilson, whose real name was Victoria Anne Wilson (and the latter two at one point were both members of a heel trio called Vince's Devils). It'll give you a bit of a chuckle to hear she was put into a storyline with another Victoria—Vickie Guerrero. WWE's previous Tori was known as Terri Power as an indy wrestler, but changed her name to avoid confusion with Terri Runnels. However she was in the company when Victoria entered in 2000 and Torrie Wilson in 2001 meaning they had 3 women with the same name.
• Brooke/Miss Tessmacher fell victim to this after the signing of Brooke Hogan to TNA. This was also used when Brooke Hogan departed as she had been in a romance angle with Bully Ray. After Brooke's absence he still kept talking about her and eventually introduced his "girlfriend Brooke" on TV...to reveal that it was Tessmacher now.
• When Shawn Daivari was in WWE's developmental league Ohio Valley Wrestling, they changed his name to Khosrow, most likely as a tribute to The Iron Sheik, whose real name is Hossein Khosrow Ali Vaziri, although the name "Khosrow" never made it to WWE TV, and also to presumably avoid anyone possibly confusing Daivari with Shawn Michaels. Similarly, when WWE brought in the tag team the Heartbreakers (Antonio Thomas and Romeo Roselli), they renamed them the Heart Throbs because Shawn Michaels' Red Baron is "The Heartbreak Kid."
• CHIKARA spoofed this in a way with the tag team Lancelot (or Lance-A-Lot) made up of two masked guys each named "Lance Steel".
• In LLF, had both Dark Angel and American Angel. And both were unmasked to reveal they were Sarah Stock and Sara Del Rey. (Which wasn't too surprising if you knew them already, especially not the latter)
• While Nikki Matthews was a last minute addition to SHIMMER, they found time to change her billing to Nicole, as they already had a Nikki Roxx. Nikki The New York Knockout is just NY Knockout likely for the same reason. Then they picked up Nikki Storm. Then Nicole Savoy. (Amusingly, their first champion also used to be known as Nikki until this trope came into play)
• Colt Cabana was renamed Scotty Goldman because of Carlito's Talk Show with Fists "Carlito's Cabana." Averted in Jersey All Pro Wrestling with him and Chris Cabana, though given the later was a member of the Christopher Street Connection it was less likely anyone would be confusing them.
• Pro Wrestling RESPECT, which did developmental shows for ROH and SHIMMER academy trainess before moving over to Chikara, had several ninja jobbers for them to beat up that came in several variations (Red Ninja, Ninja Cheetah, etc), one of them just being plain The Ninja, accept The Ninja had a tag team partner also just called The Ninja.
• Total Divas uses this. Most of the women are referred to by their real names—except Eva Marie, whose real name is Natalie. She's called Eva presumably to avoid confusion with Natalya—who is called Nattie by everyone. However otherwise averted with the boyfriends as three women are involved with men named John. Nikki is with John Cena, Trinity is with Jon Fatu (though his ring name is Jimmy Uso) and Eva Marie is with Jonathan Coyle. And that's not including Nikki and Brie's father Jonathan Garcia and brother JJ (Jonathan Jr.) Garcia. Additionally Josie is the name of both Eva Marie's mother and Brie's pet dog.
• Male cheerleader stable Spirit Squad had members whose real names are Nick Nemeth and Nick Mitchell. As the former went by Nicky, the latter went by Mitch, a shortened version of his surname.
• Previously averted in WWE by Luke Harper and Luke Gallows. As of 2018, WWE dropped Harper and Erick Rowan's first names when they became The Bludgeon Brothers. And Harper, by then known in AEW as Mr. Brodie Lee, sadly passed away in 2020.
• Pro Wrestling NOAH had Takeshi Rikio and Takeshi Morishima, who spent their early years as a tag team.
• Dragon Gate:
  • Since its inception, DG has employed both Masaaki Mochizuki and Susumu Mochizuki. They were even in a popular stable together, M2K, named for the two Mochizukis and Yasushi Kanda. Eventually, Susumu lost the rights to the name in a match with Masaaki, and took the name Susumu Yokosuka after his beloved hometown.
  • Susumu would later found a stable called the Jimmyz, almost all of whom changed their name to Jimmy - Jimmy Susumu, Jimmy Kagetora, Ryo "Jimmy" Saito, Jimmy K-Ness J.K.S., and Jimmy Kanda among them.
  • Ryo Saito is one of three Saitos in DG, the others being K-Ness (Makoto Saito) and Super Shisa (Yoshiyuki Saito, who had previously wrestled under the name SAITO). Presumably Ryo’s nickname SaiRyo originated backstage to differentiate him from the more senior Saitos.
  • In 2016, some new trainees debuted, including Hyou Watanabe and Shun Watanabe. Shun quickly donned a mask and adopted the name Shun Skywalker to avoid confusion.
• Averted with Ring of Honor, who had two Adams (3x champ Adam Cole and midcarder Adam Page), and three Jays (Jay Lethal, Jay Briscoe, and Jay White). Played straight when both Adam Cole and Adam Page joined the Bullet Club and Page changed his name to Hangman Page following a gimmick change where he started stringing up opponents with a noose
  • Possibly played straight during "All Ego" Ethan Page's brief run in the promotion, concurrent with Adam Page's ongoing run. While announcers acknowledged that he went by Ethan Page elsewhere, they stated that he changed his name in ROH to Ethan Gabriel Owens. As noted below, Ethan Page later kept his name despite again coming into a company where Hangman Page was well established when he was signed to AEW in 2021.
• Enforced when it comes to the McMahons. Gregory Helms was told that he could not go by Shane due to Shane McMahon, and when asked why they were fine with three Chris's on the roster ^note  Jericho, Benoit and Masters. Christian would make it four as well , he was told it was because "There's no Chris McMahon". Likely the same is true for Linda Miles going by Shaniqua and Stephanie Garcia-Colace going by Nikki Bella.
• Milena Roucka went by the name Rosa Mendes likely to avoid confusion with Melina Perez. In fact, there was a long standing rumor that Melina was romantically involved with Batista while still with her long-time boyfriend John Morrison. In reality, it was Mendes who dated Batista at that time.
• Cross-gender example: Male wrestler "Smooth Sailin'" Ashley Remington" (aka Dalton Castle) had stopped appearing in CHIKARA by the time Ashley Vox arrived.
• WCW had male wrestler Shannon Moore and female valet/wrestler Daffney Unger, whose real name is Shannon Spruill, on the roster at the same time.
• Averted during the 2004 "Million Dollar" edition of Tough Enough, which featured eventual winner Daniel Puder and third-placer Daniel Rodimer. This season also featured the aforementioned Nick Mitchell, who became Mitch to avoid confusion with fellow Spirit Squad member Nicky (aka Dolph Ziggler).
• Averted big-time with All Elite Wrestling. As of September 2022, they had the following aversions:
  • Brian Cage, Christian Cage, "Hangman" Adam Page, Ethan Page, and Diamond Dallas Page
  • Adam Cole and Adam Page
    • Cole is part of a stealth aversion—his real name is Austin Jenkins, and AEW also has Austin Sopp, performing as Austin Gunn.
  • Colt Cabana and Colten Gunn.
  • Christian Cage, Chris Jericho, and Christopher Daniels
  • Brian Cage, Brian Pillman Jr., and Bryan Danielson
  • Maxwell Jacob Friedman and Max Caster
  • Matt Jackson, Matt Sydal, Matt Hardy, and Matt Menard
  • Shawn Spears and Shawn Dean
  • Jon Moxley and John Silver
  • Mark Henry, "Smart" Mark Sterling, and Marq Quen. AEW also had Marko Stunt before his May 2022 release.
  • Anthony Bowens, Anthony Ogogo, Antony "Tony" Khan, and Noah Anthony "Tony" Schiavone
  • Brody King and Mr. Brodie Lee Jr.
  • Lee Johnson and Lee Moriarty

Radio

• Parodied in the BBC comedy Deep Trouble, which in its second series had an Alison and an Alice. But since the show is set on a submarine, everyone is usually referred to by rank and surname anyway (and Alice Barry in fact insists on being called Barry).
• BBC comedy The Burkiss Way once featured a group of servants who were all called Rose, male and female alike, since they could only afford one name between them.
• Truth in Television, or rather Truth In Radio for that matter. 96 Trent FM (now known as Trent FM) had Matt Wilkinson presenting afternoons and Matt Wilkins appearing at various times of the day. Hilarity Ensues. Confusion reigns. So Matt Wilkins became Matt Marsden, on Trent FM at least. Now he's at Key 103 under his original name.
• The Archers: Edward "Eddie" Grundy, and his second son, Edward "Ed" Grundy.
• Round the Horne had Kenneth Horne and Kenneth Williams.
• Old Harry's Game had a demon called Gary in series 1, and a dimwitted teenager called Gary in the first episode of series 6.
• New Dynamic English is rather realistic. It has at least two Johns (John Wilson and John Orwell) and three Karens (Karen Wilson, a Karen from a Daily Dialogue and a Karen from Man on the Street).
• The Goon Show had Count Jim Moriarty, Jim Spriggs and Little Jim as regular or semi-regular characters. In 'The Starlings' there's another: Bluebottle gives his full name as Jim 'Bluebottle' Tigernuts.

Roleplay

• Behind The Veil has some of the more common names repeated, but the one that takes the cake is the tale of the two Jons: Both are Bone Gnawers, Theurges, at the same sept.
• Dawn of a New Age: Oldport Blues, owning to the large cast, has a few repeat names across the main and secondary characters:
  • Two of the supporting characters are called Edward- one goes by Ed, whilst the other goes by Eddie (or his surname, Longhorn).
  • Tracy is the name of both Ivy's mother and Jenna's little sister.
  • Ciro and Luna both have a father called Robert.
  • The government agent keeping an eye on the kids is called Sarah, the same as Vivian's mother.
  • One of the supporting characters, Jae, shares a name with Hyeon's out-of-town cousin. This one is somewhat ironic, as the first Jae has a rivalry going on with Hyeon.
• v3 of Open Blue featured a Colonel Jackson and a Sergeant Jackson. One commanded a brigade of troops from the five major countries of The Federation, and the other commanded a The Squad of Praetorian Guard from a single country. The two were as familially related as their job descriptions are similar.
• Survival of the Fittest has had duplicates of several (first) names, including that of the winner of version 1. The nature of the RP, of course, renders this trope essentially unenforceable.
  • Perhaps the biggest example of this is the name James, which is given to two characters in V1 and SIX characters in V3.
  • V4 currently has three Aarons and three Sarahs.
  • The above doesn't even come close to the duplicate name insanity that is v4. Not even counting the terrorists and just the students that appear on the island, there are 2 Peters, 5 Alexs, 3 Johns, 2 Tims, 3 Maxs, 4 Davids, 4 Roberts, 3 James/Jimmys, 2 Steves, 3 Chrises, 3 Simons, 2 Trents, 2 Daniels, 3 Williams, 2 Mikes, 2 Rolands, 2 Frankies, 3 Sarahs, 2 Jennifers, 2 Tiffanys, 3 Janets, 2 Alices, 2 Marias, 3 Jackies, 2 Charlottes and 3 Lilys. And that's not even getting into names that sound the same, but are just spelled differently, or names that sound extremely similar (Gary and Garry, Nick, Nick and Nik, Eve, Evie and Eva, Raine, Rena and Raina, Remi and Remy, and Allen and Alan). Not to mention Erik Laurin and Eric Lorenz, whose first and last names are very similar to one another.

Tabletop Games

• Often averted in Warhammer 40,000.
  • Because the epic, millennia-spanning scale of the lore, this is sometimes because characters appearing later in the timeline are named in honor of earlier ones, such as the famous Commissar Sebastian Yarrick, whose parents named him after legendary crusader and church reformer Sebastian Thor, though there are also a few who are contemporaries in the very same story, such as Big Bad Horus Lupercal and his idealistic subordinate "Little" Horus Aximand in the Horus Heresy prequel novels.
  • One of the more drastic aversions in the setting is the name Lucius, which belongs to at least five characters (including three Space Marines) and a planet, with no known relation between any of them.
  • Despite the wide variety of names available to orks, they still managed to get two bosses named Gorgutz: Gorgutz Ghostkilla Deffscreama Bloodspilla Deffkilla Gunsmasha Daemonkilla 'ead'unter in Dawn of War, and another Gorgutz with no qualifiers in the Blood and Thunder comic who serves as the Villain Protagonist's Bad Boss until he takes an exploding gargant to the face.
• In the Mystara setting for Dungeons & Dragons, Stephan and Stefan are in fact the most common names for noblemen. There is an amazingly high number of them around.
• Steve Jackson Games and Games Workshop were respectively founded and co-founded by two different Steve Jacksons. The Steve Jackson from Steve Jackson Games even wrote several books in a series primarily written by the other Steve Jackson, and there's little to no indication within them that the author is a different person.
• The original Faerunian pantheon from the Forgotten Realms included both a goddess of joy named Lliira and a goddess of illusion (currently deceased) named Leira. The similarity of their names was Lampshaded by an ugly rumor that circulated in the immediate aftermath of the Avatar Crisis, alleging that Lliira's avatar had intentionally hunted down and killed Leira's, specifically because their names were too much alike.
• Sentinels of the Multiverse:
  • The heroine Fanatic is also known as Helena; the villain-turned-hero La Capitán/La Comodora is named Maria Helena...Teresa Fafila Servanda Jimena Mansuara Paterna Domenga Gelvira Placia Sendina Belita Eufemia Columba Gontina Aldonza Mafalda Cristina Tegrida de Falcon. Even given that most of her names are taken from Spanish, it's honestly impressive that she only really overlaps with another character once.
  • The hero Randall Butler/Benchmark shares a first name with Randy "Rotmouth" Burke, the low-life who would eventually become Plague Rat. It probably helps that, within the fictional comics, by the time the former debuted, the latter had been a feral rat creature answering to the name of "oh God it's got my arm" for a while.
  • The Parsons line has a tradition of naming the heir to the Legacy identity Paul, meaning that both the standard Finest Legacy and the promo Greatest Legacy are named Paul Parsons (VII and VIII respectively). Paul VIII's firstborn is spared this only by having been born a daughter instead, so she was named Pauline instead. (The Parsons family is typically loyal, steadfast, noble, diligent and compassionate, but it's just a wee bit short on imagination.) Naturally, she prefers to go by her middle name, Felicia.

Theatre

• In William Shakespeare's plays:
  • Similar to the Bible example above is The Comedy of Errors, which involves two sets of identically named identical twins separated at birth and maintaining the same bourgeois-and-servant relationship. Hilarity Ensues.
  • As You Like It, for no particular reason (i.e. makes no particular mention of it in the story, unlike Comedy of Errors), has two characters named Oliver (Orlando's eldest brother and the country priest) and two characters named Jaques (Orlando's middle brother and the melancholy wit in Duke Senior's retinue).
  • The Two Gentlemen of Verona: Sir Eglamour, the Milanese friend of Silvia, has the same name as the suitor of Julia who's mentioned briefly in act 1.
  • The history plays have a lot of duplicate names, because real history is like that. Shakespeare did try to reduce their number, though; for example, Lord Richard Grey and Sir Richard Ratcliffe—both characters in Richard III—are referred to by their last names only.
    • Lampshaded in Richard III where Queen Margaret starts riffing on the remarkable bodycount of the past few plays in Act IV, Scene iv: "I had an Edward, till a Richard kill'd him; I had a Henry, till a Richard kill'd him: Thou hadst an Edward, till a Richard kill'd him; Thou hadst a Richard, till a Richard kill'd him..." and it goes on from there. There's a special kind of pride that comes from hearing that scene and actually knowing who all the Henries, Richards, and Edwards were.
    • Henry IV Part 1 is basically about a war between King Henry and Prince Henry versus Henry Percy and his son Henry Percy. They get the last name / title / nickname treatment in the script, though.
  • And in The Taming of the Shrew we have Gremio and Grumio. Good luck remembering which is which.
  • A Midsummer Night's Dream gives us Puck, known by the euphemism "Robin Goodfellow", but in addition to him, we have Robin Starveling, the tailor.
  • Julius Caesar had both Cinna the conspirator and Cinna the poet. Unfortunately for Cinna the poet. As well as five Marks: Antony, Lepidus, Cicero, Brutus, and Corvinus. There's also Marcus Brutus and Decius Brutus (they were related, although the play doesn't mention this): the former is usually called just "Brutus" while the latter is usually called by his full name.
• In the Stage Version of Bugsy Malone Joe is a recurring name.
• RENT has two (minor) Steves: one of them is a member of the Life Support group (so we know that he is named after a friend of Larson's who died of AIDS), and the other is one of the (unseen) people Joanne is talking to on the phone in We're Okay. It's also not entirely impossible that these are the same person, but it's not relevant or interesting or significant in any way if they are.
• Notably averted in 1776, in which the two main characters are both named John (Adams and Dickinson). In point of fact, there are no less than four Johns in the show (Adams (MA), Dickinson (PA), Hancock (MA), and Witherspoon (CT)). There's also the Georges (Reed (DE) and Washington (VA)) and Thomases (Jefferson (VA) and McKean (DE)). However, since they usually address each other as "Mr. Lastname," it doesn't really matter.
• Similarly, the cast of Hamilton is composed of historical figures, so we have Philip Hamilton, named for his grandfather Philip Schuyler; James Madison and James Reynolds; George Washington, King George III, and George Eacker; as well as John Laurens and John Adams (although the latter doesn't actually appear in the musical).
• Similarly, The Crucible is based on historical fact and so features a number of characters with the same name—in this case, also John: Proctor, Hale, and Hathorne. However, like in 1776, this never becomes an issue because most of the men are referred to by surname. The only man referred to as John is Proctor.
  • Also in the play are Thomas Danforth and Thomas Putnam.
  • Enforced in the case of the Putnams' daughter, since the Putnam girl who was an accuser in the Salem Witch Trials was named Ann, a name she shared with her mother (officially, they were Ann Putnam Jr. and Ann Putnam Sr.). The play changes the daughter's name to Ruth to prevent audiences from confusing the two.
  • Similarly, "Susanna Walcott" was actually named Mary Walcott in real life, with her name changed in the play presumably to avoid confusion with Mary Warren.
• A Man For All Seasons has an unusually large fraction of (real-life) male characters named Thomas: main character Thomas More; Cardinal Thomas Wolsey; chief minister Thomas Cromwell; Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk; and Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury.
• The Amish in Plain and Fancy have four Jacob Yoders and two Abner Zooks. Fortunately, only one Jacob Yoder appears in the show, though Fat Jacob Yoder and Hairy Jacob Yoder are mentioned.
• Completely averted in Yeast Nation, in which every character is named Jan. Every single one. (Of course, it's written by the same guys what did Urinetown, so...)
• The play Society Shell features four upper class women all named Mary. They are mostly on a full name basis amongst themselves.
• In Donzietti's opera Anna Bolena ("Anne Boleyn"), the historical Henry Percy has his first name changed to Riccardo to avoid confusion with King Enrico/Henry VIII.
• Completely averted in Six, where no less than three of the protagonists bear the given name of "Katherine" (of Aragon, Howard and Parr) and two others have the similar "Anne" (Boleyn) and "Anna" (of Cleves). This is justified, due to being based on the real wives of Henry VIII, who, much like the above example, also had a historical namesake in Henry Percy, who was briefly mentioned.
• Westeros: An American Musical: The Compressed Adaptation gets the play rid of several pairs of characters sharing a name from the original story. However, focusing the play on the King's Landing events while having a couple songs about the Night's Watch results in the play having both several mentions of Jon Arryn and on-stage appearances of Jon Snow.

Toys

• The powers that be at Mattel must have a short memory due to how many Barbie characters share names, even within their debuts coming less of a decade amongst each other:
  • "Chelsea" is the name of a one of cousin Jazzie's friends (although spelled "Chelsie"), a My Scene character and Barbie's second-youngest sister (after years of being named "Kelly").
  • Speaking of "Kelly", this is also the name of foreign markets for "Stacie", the second-oldest Barbie sister.
  • "Whitney" are names of a short-lived mid-80s brunette friend of Barbie and a (usually) redheaded friend of Stacie's in the 90s.
  • "Todd" has been a twin twice: a redheaded one from the 60s and a brunette one from the 90s. In spite of their similar identifies, they are said to not be the same character.^note There is also an unrelated third doll to share the name; the one-shot "Todd" groom doll getting married to the bride "Tracy" doll released in 1982
  • There have been plenty of friends named "Stacie" over the years and with varying spellings, but the most popular has been the Barbie sister introduced in 1991.
  • Averted with Allan. While he went from a redhead in the 60s to a brunette in the 90s and beyond and the second "l" was dropped from his name, they are canonically the same doll (and married to Midge).
• Noticeably averted in BIONICLE where most of the names are made up words. Several locations are named after legendary beings, examples being Mata Nui, Artakha, and Karzahni, the latter having a sentient plant named after him.
  • Also, some of the names sound similar: Krekka, Krahka, Krika, Krakua; Onewa, Onua
  • Makuta subverts this. Originally introduced as "Makuta," he was referred to as "the Makuta" just as often. As it turns out, "Makuta" is the name of an entire species, with the original "Makuta" just preferring to use the title instead of his actual name, akin to a group of dukes where one likes to call himself Duke (though admittedly, Teridax is rather epic itself).
• Care Bears features two bears whose names are the same, albeit in different languages. "Amigo Bear" shares his name with the earlier character "Friend Bear". In Spanish they are called "Amigosito" and "Amigosita", which are the same name except masculine and feminine respectively.
• My Little Pony suffered from this during the middle of its G1 run. There were two "Twilight"s, two "Sniffles", two "Snookums", three "Sea Breeze"s, and many ponies with the name "Cuddles". The G3 line reused many names from G1, and the G2 line reused certain names too (for example "Prince Firefly" shares the name with the female G1 pegasi "Firefly"). My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic took a few characters in the toy lines and reused their names, though changing the designs for several. The most absurd case is probably all the different Twilight's. There are now approximately seven different ponies named Twilight, if you count the ones where it's followed by a second word—the two G1 Twilight's, G3's Twilight Twinkle and Twilight Pink, and G4's Twilight Sparkle, Twilight Sky, and Twilight Velvet (two of whom are related). When someone on a collector's site asks for artwork of "Twilight" to set as their forum signature, the artist can and will get very confused.
• Squishmallows: Sometimes characters will have names that are only slightly different from those of other characters, like Jingle (a Christmas tree) and Jingles (a cat). There are also cases where multiple Squishmallows share a name.
• Tamagotchi:
  • There are two Tamagotchis named Masktchi, a Waddling Head one from the original 1996 virtual pet and a more humanoid one that debuted later. The former is usually referred to in modern materials as "Maskutchi".
  • Cosmotchi from the Tamagotchi P's isn't the only Tamagotchi with that name. Way back in 1997, Tamagotchi Video Adventures featured a different Cosmotchi as a main character.
  • Before the introduction of the more popular Kuromametchi in 2006, there was actually another Kuromametchi who appeared in the 1998 Licensed Game Hoshi de Hakken! Tamagotchi. The Hoshi de Hakken! Kuromametchi looks a bit like Mickey Mouse due to his black suit with mouse-like ears.
• ToyBiz's Silver Surfer toyline from the 90's renamed changed Nova's name to "Super Nova" to differentiate him from Frankie Raye, who was using the Nova name at that time.

Visual Novels

• Subverted in Double Homework. Morgan reveals in the penultimate chapter that her real name is... Amy. Not only that, she’s named after Amy (an incognito princess), as the two girls were born on the same day.
• When They Cry:
  • Higurashi: When They Cry has Jirou Tomitake and Daiki Tomita—both of whom are almost always addressed or referred to by their surnames. Incidentally, they both happen to look similar, though Tomita is just a minor character. Plus, Tomitake's name is implied to be an alias, anyway.
  • In Umineko: When They Cry, the Ushiromiya family's human butler Genji's family name ("Ronoue") is pronounced almost exactly the same as the name of Beatrice's demon butler ("Ronove"). This is implied to be because Ronove is one of Sayo Yasuda's many Imaginary Friends, and she based Ronove off of Genji. To further reinforce this, a flashback in the EP8 manga reveals that young Genji looked very much like Ronove.
• SHUFFLE! has two Rins: the male lead and one of the love interests (in her case it's short for Nerine). Sometimes you can tell which character is being addressed by the honorifics used. For instance, when Sia uses the affectionate term "Rin-chan", she means Nerine; she likes Rin but doesn't know him as well, so he's usually "Rin-kun" unless she's being very serious.
• An important plot point in Tsukihime. The main character and the Big Bad are both called Shiki Tohno — the main character is adopted, in fact, and it seems the main reason he was adopted was because the head of the family thought that it was amusing that he had the same name as his son.
  • The two names are spelled differently in kanji though, so after The Reveal there's no confusion whatsoever to the readers. It had previously been assumed that he just wrote his name in katakana as kid out of laziness. English fans of the series write out SHIKI in all caps to differentiate.
  • Then there is Shiki's alter ego Shiki Nanaya, named for his biological clan.
  • Interestingly, the author also used this exact name confusion thing in The Garden of Sinners. It's even the same name: Shiki (Ryougi). Again, they're spelled differently in kanji and in fact both of them are different from both of the spellings in Tsukihime. Furthermore, this Shiki has three personalities, one of them being named SHIKI. The reason why Shiki Tohno and SHIKI Tohno share their first name with Shiki Ryougi (and SHIKI Ryougi) is because the author reused Ryougi's gimmick for Tsukihime when it initially seemed that Kara no Kyoukai wasn't getting published.
  • So all in all, there are six different characters that bear the name Shiki in the Nasuverse.
• Ace Attorney:
  • Some cases in the Ace Attorney series have two characters with similar names. For instance, case 1 of Justice for All has two witnesses: Dick Gumshoe and Richard Wellington, and case 4 of Ace Attorney Investigations has Manny Coachen and Manfred von Karma. Whenever this happens, the name similarity isn't pointed out at all, since their names were completely different in the original Japanese version.
  • Similarly, the series also features Larry Butz and Lawrence Curls, Robert Hammond and Bobby Fulbright, Zak Gramarye and Zacharias Barnham, and Jack Hammer and Jack Shipley, though none of these sets of characters appear in the same game.
  • Because of this series' penchant for Punny Names, occasionally the same pun will be used for two different characters: Horace Knightley and Knightle (knight), Shelly de Killer, Kira and Lady Kee'ra (killer). Once again, none of these sets of characters appear in the same game.
  • The English version of Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth plays this trope straight, changing the character Zinc White's name to Zinc Lablanc, probably to avoid any connection to Redd White from the first game. As Redd White's name had also been changed from the original Japanese, this was only an issue in the international release.
  • The Engish Fan Translation of Gyakuten Kenji 2 generally avoided this with its character's names but the official localisations of later games resulted in this: Simon Keyes and Simon Blackquill, John Marsh and Johnny Smiles, and Patricia Roland and Paht Rohl (both puns of "patrol"). The Great Ace Attorney has another "patrol" pun with Patricia "Pat" Beate and her police officer husband Roly.
  • The Great Ace Attorney has a major character called Iris Wilson, who has the same name the nun Iris from Trials and Tribulations (who's called Ayame in the original Japanese, which is Japanese for Iris). There's also an Ayame in the game, namely Yujin Mikotoba's late wife, and Yujin chose to name Lady Baskerville's orphaned daughter "Iris" in honor of his wife. The duology also has both John Garrideb and John H. Watson/Wilson. The witness Oscar Fairplay is renamed Bruce Fairplay in the English localization, not to be confused with Bruce Goodman, the victim of Rise from the Ashes.
• Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc averts this, since Celestia Ludenberg's real name is Taeko Yasuhiro, and there's another character named Yasuhiro Hagakure. This provides a big clue towards figuring out who the murderer is in Chapter 3.
• Minotaur Hotel: Averted with the delivery man, whose name is Jean-Marie, the same name as the master of the hotel that preceded Clement, which raises suspicion towards the man.
• Averted in Snatcher, which has Junker chief Benson Cunningham and Junker engineer Harry Benson as part of its supporting cast. This becomes a plot point when Gillian discovers evidence that someone named "Benson" may have been snatched.
• In Ever17: no two characters actually share the same name, but the names that the player initially knows them as can sometimes be one of several characters. "You" could be either Youbiseiharukana Tanaka or Youbiseiakikana Tanaka, "Kid" could refer to Ryogo Kaburaki or Hokuto.
  • One example actually does exist, though it is a minor one. Takeshi Kurenari is the name of the main character, and shares his given name with the father of another character (Coco Yagami), although Takeshi Yagami is only mentioned in dialogue and never appears onscreen.
• In Yearning: A Gay Story, there's a pair of girlfriends who are both named Liz and use their last name initials to differentiate their names (Liz B. and Liz G.). When Dan asks why they don't just call one of themselves "Elizabeth" to avoid confusion, they retort that he can call himself Elizabeth because it's his middle name too.
• In Kanon, it's later revealed in Makoto's route that she's actually a fox that Yuuichi looked after seven years ago, and thus she doesn't have a real name or even a human identity. The name "Makoto Sawatari" was the name of an older girl Yuuchi told Makoto he had a crush on at the time, and she took that name for herself as one of the few things she could remember after she became human at the price of her memories. The real Makoto Sawatari makes a notable appearance in the 2006 anime, where she looks like an older Makoto.
• A variant happens in Highway Blossoms. Marina and Mariah's names are merely similar, but after Amber starts calling the Marina "Mare," she later learns that Joe uses the same nickname for Mariah.

Web Animation

• Camp Camp: The aspiring astronaut solely known as "Space Kid" claims his name is Neil Armstrong Jr. (named after his "great-grandfather" Neil Armstrong), which would mean he shares his first name with main character Neil. The second season finale reveals this really is his name, and the original Neil is not happy to find this out.
• DC Super Hero Girls features a large cast so this occurs. One noticeable example is Batgirl and Cheetah. They're both named "Barbara" and are referred to as such, but not in the same episode.
• DSBT InsaniT: Weird Girl suggests Koden calls her 'WG', but he says he can't do that because he already knows a WG (Waterfall Girl).
• Etra chan saw it!:
  • Both Tsutsuji and Yuzuriha assume that Hiiragi is cheating on them. When Hiiragi returns home and finds both women in his apartment, neither he nor Yuzuriha recognize each other and dispel the suspicion. Yuzuriha's boyfriend, who is a completely different character from Hiiragi, merely shares the same name as Tsutsuji's husband.
  • Yuzuriha stalks Akamatsu and his wife, Karin, because she believes her boyfriend is inside the house. When the police apprehend her, she didn't recognize Akamatsu as her boyfriend, who is also named Akamatsu. Rather horrifying, the police report that the Akamatsu who "dumped" Yuzuriha never dated her. She has been delusional this whole time, rambling about this "Akamatsu" who may never exist, especially in the end, where she identifies Hiiragi for Akamatsu.
  • Azami thinks Karin won a vacation to Hawaii and tries to tag along with her, prompting Karin to tell her that the person who won the prize happens to have the same name as hers, but she dismisses it as a lie and continues to pester her about the non-existent vacation.
• The Most Popular Girls in School: There's a Jenna Darabond and a Jenna Dapananian, both being important characters. There's also a Trisha Cappelletti and Trisha 2 - both also major characters.
• Averted with Slush Invaders, whose cast consists of two Brians.
• Homestar Runner:
  • In the action film spoof Dangeresque 1: Dangeresque Too?, hard-boiled detective Dangeresque (played by Strong Bad) is assigned a partner also named Dangeresque (played by Homestar); the latter is usually called "Dangeresque Too".
  • There's also Science Fiction Greg and D&D Greg from the Teen Girl Squad 'toons. The TGS spin-off "4 Gregs" introduced Open Source Greg, Japanese Culture Greg, and minor character Regular Greg.
• One of the scenes in the Animutation "Irrational Exuberance" riffs on this, saying "There can be only one" Dave Thomas and then using "Worthington's Law: more money = better than)" to eliminate the less successful of the two.
• Red vs. Blue has two Franks (Franklin Delano Donut and Frank DuFresne), but like the rest of the cast, both are always referred to by their nicknames Donut and Doc respectively. There's also three Leonard Churches (Doctor Leonard Church, Alpha, and Epsilon) and three Allisons (the original, the original Agent Texas, and the Epsilon-created Agent Texas). None of the three Allisons co-existed (and the original is barely even referenced), and the Churches are generally called "the Director"/"Director Church"/"Doctor Church", Church/Alpha, and Church/Epsilon. Still, it gets confusing when it comes to fan theories. "And then Church did this." "Wait, do you mean Alpha-Church or Epsilon-Church?"
• Averted and lampshaded on Extra Credits, with the three Dans. There's Dan Floyd, the narrator, Other Dan, who helps with editing and behind the scenes work, and Dan #3, the new artist. Confusion starts almost immediately.
• Averted in brewstew, where the narrator describes two Zacharys and two Davids that he knows. There's Zachary, the kid everyone hates because he's a snitch, has ADHD, and won't stop TALKING ABOUT MONSTER TRUCKS! And then there's Zachary, the kid across the narrator's street who is not quite like everyone else because he likes Beetleborgs rather than Power Rangers. The first Zachary has glasses while the other does not. Then, there's David, Tyler's best friend during cub scouts, who got last place in the Pinewood Derby and got sold off into child slavery in Nigeria. And then there's his cousin, David, who created the "Shitmas Tree".
• This trope is the reason for some squick within the Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse fandom. Midge was reintroduced and she falls for a new character named Ryan. The problem is Midge was previously seen in the toyline with a son named "Ryan" (with her husband, Alan). This made some fans grossed out because it seemed like maybe they were the same character with Ryan's backstory being revamped. However, they're too different in design to be the same Ryan.
• Kanon's RomCom Mangas: Hakuba Nakata thinks Alice has a crush on someone else with the same name as him, named Sho Hakuba, who's also his best friend. As it turns out, she really likes him instead of Sho. After receiving Alice's confession, many girls attempt to confess to Hakuba as well, with one of them explaining they were only approaching Sho to get closer to the former while viewing the latter unworthy to date. Later on, Sho explains to Hakuba that he doesn't want to date any girl and have a crush on him as well.

Web Original

• Since the Whateley Universe has such a massive number of named characters, it's not surprising that there are lots of names occurring more than once. Like Elaine: Elaine Nalley and Elaine Fleischer are both gorgeous mutants with the Most Common Superpower, and they're both inventors. When they both went on Phase's birthday trip to Boston, Elaine Nalley went by "Doc" to avoid confusion among the other guests. On the other hand, the school does enforce rules about distinct Code Names for everyone.
• Averted in the "Humans Are Space Orcs" Tumblr blog, due to the Token Human being designated "Human Steve." This led to a joke that "Steve" must be a remarkably common name among sapient races, with the crewmember who is just named "Steve" being a cross between a spider and a starfish. Regular and Abnormal Steve are female and male yeti's, respectively. Extra-Regular Steve is the ship's cat, Tall Steve is an AI on a microchip (and is, somehow, The Casanova), and Evil Steve is the captain (it detests this nickname, however).
• Jon Bois \ SB Nation has several aversions: "Lonnie Smith" from Pretty Good also features music from one Dr. Lonnie Smith, "History of the Seattle Mariners" from Dorktown briefly shows the career of every MLB player named Randy. But the greatest aversion from Jon is The Bob Emergency, which exclusively goes through the careers of athletes named Bob, even uncovering one obscure fighter who averts it on his own with the name Bob Bob.
• Viral Texts: Sally accuses Dave of cheating on her after finding a wedding invitation on his desk, Dave tries to explain to her that he got it from a friend from high school who had the same exact name as him, but she dismisses him and divorces him. Dave really told the truth and Sally was just using the opportunity to divorce him so she could be together with another man.

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