Same Surname Means Related

"Wass your name, dearie?" she said.
"Smith," said Winston.
"Smith?" said the woman. "Thass funny. My name's Smith too. Why," she added sentimentally, "I might be your mother!"

— Nineteen Eighty-Four

In works of fiction, characters will (most likely) have names. Most authors will go out of their way to avoid giving two characters the same first name in order to avoid confusing the audience, unless it's intentional for the sake of some kind of joke. For the same reason, it's extremely likely that they will only give two or more characters the same surname only if they are related.

It's usually safe to assume that characters that are introduced as being family have the same surname, so examples on this page only cover cases where this is done as The Reveal or otherwise becomes a plot point: a character (major or minor) is discovered to be related to a main character by way of being a Long-Lost Relative, secret partner, someone who had Shed the Family Name or just being a family member that was never previously mentioned because You Never Asked. In the event of a crossover, if any characters from these previously separate works happen to share the same surname, you can bet at least a quick joke will be made of it — and the fanfiction writers will go mad with theories.

Of course, as in Real Life, having the same surname does not always signify the two characters being related. Values Dissonance may apply since surname frequency varies worldwide due to cultural or historical factors.^note This trope is more justified in the Anglosphere, where even the most common surname (Smith) only comprises 0.8% of the population. About 7% of mainland China has the surname Wang, 10% of Hong Kong is Chan/Chen, 20% of South Korea is Kim, and nearly 40% of Vietnam is Nguyen. Watching Korean Dramas, for example, can be somewhat confusing; it seems as though half of the cast share a surname even if they are not related, as that's how things are in real life. Surnames tend to go extinct under the Galton–Watson process. Chinese surnames have been in use for so long, they gradually died out and leaving fewer surnames behind, despite the massive Chinese population. On the other hand, Japanese and Thai surnames are relatively recently invented, so there is a much greater variety of surnames. Vietnamese surnames are an exception as people adopted Nguyen for various reasons and not necessarily from the natural extinction of other surnames. Furthermore, there are cultures that do not even use surnames as is understood in the Anglosphere, like having last names that are patronymics: Guðmundsdóttir indicates "daughter of Guðmundur", not a surname shared by the father.

Sometimes it's an intentional joke (for example, Buster and Babs Bunny). In the case of large casts, it could have been an honest mistake because the writer was not paying attention too closely. Or maybe they were just really lazy. These instances are not aversions of the trope unless someone directly points it out and is immediately told it cannot possibly be for in-story reasons.

Either way, this will make Last-Name Basis awkward. A variant of One-Steve Limit. Contrast Planet of Steves. Compare Same Race Means Related, which is this trope but with ethnicities. See also Ridiculously Long-lived Family Name, when families have the same surname for an incredible length of time.

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In-Universe Examples Only

Anime & Manga

• In Asteroid in Love, when Mira and Ao enter their second year, one of the two new members of the Earth Sciences club introduces herself as Chikage Sakurai. The older members have suspicions, but before they can properly ask the new member for confirmation, the new member comes clean by thanking them for taking care of her older sister, the former vice president Mikage Sakurai.
• In Bakuman。, this is averted. Akira Hattori and Yujiro Hattori, respectively the main characters' and Eiji's editors, happen to have the same surname, but appear to be unrelated, with Yujiro calling Akira by his surname.
• Subverted in The Disastrous Life of Saiki K.. "Saiki" was the family name of both of Kusuo's parents. Rather than proof of relation, these Happily Married Sickeningly Sweethearts see it as proof of destiny.
• In the Macross franchise, there's a United Nations Air Force airman named Edgar LaSalle who appeared in Macross Zero. In Super Dimension Fortress Macross, a United Nations Spacy officer named Claudia LaSalle appears in the show. Shoji Kawamori and the production crew have not cleared up any issues about whether the two are related. On the other hand, it's played with Sheryl Nome as the actual descendant of Mao Nome. The connection was not seen when Macross Frontier aired on television. But a Blu-Ray release corrected this connection when Sheryl's earrings are seen near a picture frame of Mao's parents.
• In A Tropical Fish Yearns for Snow, Koyuki Honami, one of the two protagonists, has the same surname as a teacher at her school. The fact that they're related and their relationship is obvious to everyone means that Koyuki is under even more pressure to act like a model student.
• In UQ Holder!, Isana and Honoka Konoe briefly wonder if they're related to Touta upon seeing his last name (and take to calling him onii-sama), but there's nothing to suggest that there's any connection (especially because he's a hybrid clone of Negi and Asuna). Later, it turns out that they are related in a roundabout way due to the woman who gave birth to him as a surrogate also being a descendant of their grandmother Konoka (though the direct relation is not specified).

Comic Books

• Common in DC Comics.
  • Larry Jordan, the GoldenAge character Airwave, was later revealed to be a cousin to Hal Jordan, the Silver Age Green Lantern.
  • Shierra Sanders, the GoldenAge Hawkgirl was established in JSA as a cousin to the GoldenAge adventurer Speed Saunders, even though the names weren't quite the same.
  • A team-up between Superman and the Silent Knight had Clark taken aback by learning the Knight's real name was Brian Kent. The implication seemed to be that he must therefore be Pa Kent's ancestor.
  • Conversely, Batman villain Harvey Kent had his surname retconned to Harvey Dent after his first few appearances to make it clear that he wasn't related to those Kents.
  • When DC acquired the Quality Comics characters, Sandra Knight, Phantom Lady, became a cousin of Ted Knight, the original Starman. On that note, Phantom Lady is a notable Aversion. Despite three of the Phantom Ladies sharing a surname, none have been revealed to be related to each other.
  • When she was introduced, Kate Kane, Batwoman, didn't appear to have any connection to the established Kanes in the Batman mythos. Her New 52 series established that Bette Kane, Flamebird, was her cousin, meaning she was also related to Kathy Kane (whose role as the original Batwoman had recently been reinserted into continuity). In Batman: Zero Year, Bruce's Uncle Philip has portraits of Kate's family in his office, suggesting Martha Kane's maiden name isn't a coincidence either; subsequently she would explicitly call Bruce her cousin in Detective Comics (Rebirth). (Of course, in Real Life, they're all named after Batman creator Bob Kane.)
  • One writer wanted to establish the original Black Canary, Dinah Drake, as Tim Drake's great-aunt, though it was nixed by the editor. It would actually make a bit of sense, however, since both belong to wealthy Gothamite families.
  • Played with in Reboot Legion Of Superheroes. Laurel Gand/Andromeda is a Daxamite who claims descent from the legendary Daxamite hero (and galactic religious icon) Lar Gand/Valor. Brainiac 5 points out that "Gand" is a very common surname on Daxam, and she retorts "I know what I know."
• Massive Multiplayer Crossover, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen will usually make characters with the same last name Related in the Adaptation;
  • In the prequel story "Alan and the Sundered Veil'', it is revealed that Randolph Carter is a great-nephew of John Carter.
  • Both being spies, Tara King from The Avengers is now the sister of Jason King.
  • Captain Universe's alter-ego, Jim Logan is now a brother to Jet-Ace Logan. Short-lived superhero and Captain Space, Defender of Earth! from British comic strips respectively.
  • Dean Moriarty from On the Road by Jack Kerouac is a descendant of James Moriarty from the Sherlock Holmes stories.
• Disney Ducks Comic Universe: The Disney Comics originally introduced various characters by the name of "Duck" as unrelated to the main Donald Duck — just a case of Species Surname gone wild. However, as time went on, characters like Moby Duck, or, yes, his own girlfriend Daisy Duck, were retconned to be variously related cousins (not so much as a conscious decision as out of new writers assuming this trope was at play and that they always were meant to be related).
• In the Marvel Universe, Spider-Man 2099 debuted in 1992, introducing the world to Tyler Stone, the boss of Spider-Man in his civilian identity of Miguel O'Hara. A decade later, Tiberius Stone debuted in 2001 as The Rival of Tony Stark. No relationship between the two Stones existed until the 2013 Superior Spider Man storyline "Necessary Evil", which established Tiberius as Tyler's father.
• Golden Age Marvel heroine Betsy Ross (Golden Girl) turned out to be related to The Incredible Hulk's General Ross and thusly to the near-identically named Betty Ross.
• Parodied and ultimately averted in the first comic crossover between X-Men and Star Trek in which both Hank "Beast" McCoy and Leonard "Bones" McCoy not only have the same last name, but they are also doctors. At one point, someone says, "Dr. McCoy" and they both answer at the same time.
• In The Uncanny X-Men and New Teen Titans, one of Marvel & DC's early Intercontinuity Crossovers, during an Everyone Meets Everyone scene Changeling (Gar Logan) wonders if he and Wolverine (who at the time was known only as Logan when not using his codename) are related.
• X-Men: Colossus, real name Piotr Rasputin. Originally it was just a stereotypical Russian surname, but later it was revealed that the most well-known Rasputin was actually his ancestor.^note In real life, the only (known) surviving descendants of Grigori Rasputin as of 1975 (when Colossus was introduced) lived not in the Soviet Union but in the United States. Those who stayed in Russia had been killed in the wake of the October Revolution. Any unknown descendants who might have survived would be unlikely to use the Rasputin surname.
• Sam Wilson, The Falcon, and Jim Wilson from '70s The Incredible Hulk, began as a coincidence but were eventually retconned into uncle and nephew. However, Wade Winston Wilson - if that is in fact his real name - is apparently no relation.
• When Joss Whedon was writing X-Men, he wanted to include a joke implying that a certain character of his was part of the already quite tangled Summers family.
• Averted in The Walking Dead. Robert Kirkman confirmed that Paul "Jesus" Monroe isn't related to the Monroe family in Alexandria and he had simply reused the surname because "Monroe" is a very common last name in the D.C. area.

Fan Works

• In the Distant Epilogue of Bridge to Terabithia 2: The Last Time, Jess and Leslie find out their daughter had a crush on a boy named Brandon Hoager, who shares a surname with Jess' former childhood bully Scott Hoager (from the 2007 adaptation). Turns out that yes, they are related, and Jess' daughter just fell for the son of his ex-bully, much to Jess' bewilderment.
• Doctor Who fics:
  • The Doctor Who / Magician's House crossover "A Name of Ill-Omen" by John Elliott implies a connection between Stephen Tyler and Rose Tyler.
  • The fanfic Osgood is written based on the premise that three Whoniverse characters with that surname are different generations of the same family. ^note The concept that Petronella Osgood was in fact Tom Osgood's daughter had yet to be explored in canon, and is still officially unconfirmed as of 2019; in fact, Petronella had yet to receive her first name.
  • In the This Time Round setting, the proprietor of Carter's Imports appears to be related to every fictional and real-life character with that surname.
• Farce of the Three Kingdoms: Liu Bei claims that all Lius belong to the royal family, especially him of course. This (usually) stops him from attacking other Lius openly, although backstabbing is still fair game.
• This has become so common on Earth-27 thanks to Related in the Adaptation, that now practically Everyone Is Related, one way or the other. The most mundane examples include Hawkman/Carter Hall, being the older brother of Hank and Don Hall, the first Hawk and Dove duo, and Tim Drake/Robin III/Red Robin being the nephew of Laurel Drake-Lance, mother of Dinah Lance/Black Canary.
• The Mountain and the Wolf: The Wolf cannot seem to get it through his head that Westeros customs give the same surname to bastard children regardless of their parentage, and congratulates Jon (Snow) for being a much better fighter than his brother Ramsay (also Snow, although by the time the Wolf killed him, Ramsay had already been legitimized as Ramsay Bolton).
• In Quiet Snow, the side story "The Life I Chose" has Yukiko Amagi go through with her plan to leave Inaba after graduating and get a job as an Office Lady in a city where no one knows her except her roommate and girlfriend Shizuka Yagami(a Gender Flip of the protagonist). One of Yukiko's coworkers, who's getting married, asks Yukiko for possible destinations and notices that Yukiko has the same surname as the inn's owners, thus assuming that she's a relative.
• Subtly done in the Angel/Tarzan/Zorro fanfic "The Wolf Gate", in which the modern day La Zorra, Alejandra Vega, mentions she has a great-uncle who was a lawyer with a secretaty named Street - obviously a reference to Perry Mason, who is presumably related via Ken Mason from the serial Ghost Of Zorro.

Films — Live-Action

• Subverted in Capitalism: A Love Story: Michael Moore interviews economic writer Stephen Moore, and notes that they have "no relation" after giving his name.
• Parodied in Die Hard. When the two FBI agents arrive one of them says "I'm Agent Johnson. This is Special Agent Johnson... No relation." The joke is that one of the agents is black and one is white.
• Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga has a Patronymic variation: Sigrit and Lars frequently have to explain that they're not siblings. The fact that their surnames are Ericksson(g) and Ericksdottir doesn't particularly help. At the end of the film it's revealed that they are definitely not siblings. Apparently their fathers were just both named Erick.
• Deliberately averted in Star Wars, where George Lucas intended for Antilles to be the galaxy's version of a common, generic last name like Smith. A New Hope has both Captain Raymus Antilles (of the Rebel blockade runner from the opening scene) and Wedge Antilles (the Ensemble Dark Horse Rebel pilot). The Phantom Menace also mentions Senator Bail Antilles. None of them are related. Although Raymus and Bail were related in Legends, with both being from the Alderaanian House of Antilles; it's unknown if it's still the case in current canon.
• Quentin Tarantino has said in interviews that some of his characters with the same surnames are related to each other:
  • Vince Vega from Pulp Fiction and Vic Vega from Reservoir Dogs are brothers. They were meant to get a movie together but it never got off the ground.
  • Donny Donowitz from Inglourious Basterds is the father of Lee Donowitz from True Romance.

Literature

• Discworld
  • Emphatically averted by Bedlow Nobbs of Unseen Academicals, who is very much not related to Corporal "Nobby" Nobbs of the Watch, not even from a different branch but an entirely different family tree.
  • In Lords and Ladies, Granny Weatherwax says she is distantly related to Arch-Chancellor Galder Weatherwax from The Light Fantastic.
    "There was even a Weatherwax as Archchancellor, years ago," said Ridcully.
    "So I understand. Distant cousin. Never knew him," said Granny.
  • In The Last Continent, Rincewind meets a Bill Rincewind in Fourecks, and the two decide that they must be distant relatives because it's such an uncommon name. It's also been suggested that Rincewind is a descendant of Eric's Lavaeolus, whose name translates to "rinser of winds".
• Averted and played with in Allen Steele's Coyote novels: In the first two novels of the series we have Captain Robert E. Lee (who traces ancestry to the old CSA general), who led the first colonial expedition to the planet and became an almost legendary figure in the planet's human history, and martyr in the resistance war with the Western Hemisphere Union colonists in the second book. Then in Coyote Horizon we have Sawyer Lee, a wilderness guide, who as far as he knows is no relation to the by-then late Captain Lee but always gets asked that (and notes that the surname coincidence probably helps boost his outfitting business a bit). By that time, there are a few hundred thousand people living on the planet.
• A Song of Ice and Fire:
  • Justified in most cases by only the feudal nobility having surnames; two identical surnames really means at least some kind of relation. There are distant cadet branches whose relation to the main House no one remembers (such as the Lannisters of Lannisport), but they still are distant relatives and not just guys with the same last name.
  • Averted with any nobleborn bastards, who are given a surname based on the region they're born in rather than inheriting their parent's name. For example, Jon and Ramsay Snow, the respective bastard sons of Ned Stark and Roose Bolton, are unrelated; they just happen to both have grown up in the North.
• In Michael Moorcock works, any character with the surname "Beck", "Bek" or "Begg" is a member of the sprawling von Bek family who originally stem from the Ruritania of Mirenberg, exist across the entire multiverse, and in many male cases are alternate versions of Elric of Melnibone. In some later editions of his early work, Moorcock even retroactively changed character names to add them to the clan.
• Averted with lampshade hanging in Challenges of the Deeps, in which protagonist Ariane Austin is Earth's representative on an alien world. At one point, a minor character whose surname is also Austin gets himself into trouble by being a jerk to some aliens, and the alien leaders are worried this is going to cause a major diplomatic incident until they're assured that he's no relation.
• Angels Flight: The novel introduces two characters with the surname O'Connor. They aren't related.
• Harry Potter:
  • There is an infamous Aversion: the fifth book briefly mentions a character named Mark Evans living in Harry's Muggle neighborhood, and later reveals that "Evans" was also his mother's maiden name. Given the series' love of Chekhov's Gunmen, fans were abuzz about the significance of this until Word of God admitted that it wasn't even a Red Herring, she just picked the same fairly-common surname twice without thinking.
  • The series has many characters, and surnames sometimes repeat without any indication or denial of a relationship: for example, four "Joneses" who are never mentioned together. Though we have Word of God that the Goldstein sisters from Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them are distantly related to minor Ravenclaw character Anthony Goldstein.
  • Most of the fanbase speculates that Hepzibah and Zacharias Smith are related. Although "Smith" is a ridiculously common surname, the two share a theme of uncommon Biblical names (both with a "z"), and both have a connection to Hufflepuff (Zacharias is a Hufflepuff student, while Hepzibah is apparently descended from her).
• In Brave New World, two of the main female characters have the surname Crowne, and know each other because their lockers are subsequently next to each other. The narration notes that they're not related—family isn't even a thing in this setting—but society has simplified things by only using a relatively small number of surnames.
• The Lord of the Rings: when Frodo visits Bree, he introduces himself as "Mr. Underhill" to avoid any villains on the lookout for a "Baggins." Humorously, he then meets an actual Underhill family of hobbits in Bree who immediately welcome him like a long-lost cousin, despite his insistence that they're not related.
• Whateley Universe: Lupine's (Stella Woolfe) parents, with surnames of Wolf and Woolfe, were actually members of a long dispersed Native American clan, based around the wolf, and initially thought their similar surnames were just a funny coincidence. But, there are other characters with Wolf-related surnames, who are of unknown relatedness to Lupine, like Techwolf (Harry Wolfe).
• Ranger's Apprentice: Halt immediately knows he and Sean are related because they share a surname: O'Carrick.

Live-Action TV

• In a latter-season episode of 30 Rock, Dennis introduces his new wife as "Megan Duffy, maiden name Duffy, hopefully no relation". ^note This is also a Call-Back to a previous joke in the episode, involving yelling "MEGAN!" at the St. Patrick's Day parade and watching half the dancers suddenly go out of step. The writers believe there are very few Irish names.
• In one episode of Bones, Seeley Booth reveals that he's a descendant of John Wilkes Booth, the man who murdered Abraham Lincoln. The extreme disgrace to the family name that Seeley feels this brings is one of the reasons why he became an Army Ranger and later FBI Agent.
• Played for extremely creepy drama on the Criminal Minds episode "Machismo": the B.A.U. agents and the Mexican police are trying to analyze the modus operandi of a Serial Killer that is annihilating old ladies and they discover that the old ladies share the same last names as the victims of some rape cold cases. Turns out that the man that is killing the old ladies is the rapist that assaulted the women before, and in a combination of devolution in modus operandi, wanting to show Who's Laughing Now? at some victims who mocked him, and plain old strong-arming the women to keep quiet, he's going after their mothers.
• The Millionaire: In one episode, the titular Eccentric Millionaire sends his assistant, Michael Anthony, to deliver a life-changing amount of money to a man named Charles Bradwell, who works at a school. When Mike introduces himself, there's a Sustained Misunderstanding resulting from Bradwell's assumption that he's the father of a student at the school whose name happens to be Henry Anthony. (This also ties into the episode's theme, as Bradwell's big regret that determines how he uses the money is that he has no family of his own.)
• In the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Booby Trap", the character of Leah Brahms was originally named "Navid Daystrom", and was intended to be a descendant of Dr. Richard Daystrom from the original series episode "The Ultimate Computer". However, Daystrom is black and the actress hired for the role was white (the casting department wasn't told what race she needed to be). Rather than keep the name and imply that she's an unrelated character who happens to have the same surname, they renamed the character.
• In the Blackadder II episode "Head", Ploppy is the jailer and Mrs. Ploppy is the woman who cooks Last Meals. They're unrelated.
  Blackadder: You are clearly a woman of principle and compassion, mistress...?
  Mrs Ploppy: Ploppy, Sir.
  Blackadder: Ah, so you are married to...
  Mrs. Ploppy: No, many people think that but it's pure coincidence. We did laugh when first we found out. "Good morning mistress Ploppy" he'd say, and I'd say "good morning Mr. Ploppy." [both laugh]
  Blackadder: The long winter evenings must just fly by.
• Lampshaded on NCIS when Tony and Kate meet a doctor named Brad Pitt.
  Pitt: Yes, that's my real name, and no, we're not related. Wish we were. Love to meet Angelina Jolie.
• All That has a sketch called Channel 6 1/2 Sports, where the co-anchors are named Jack and Mack Takahashi. As Mack is quick to note after introducing himself, they have no relation. Like the Agent Johnsons of Die Hard, Jack (played by Kenan Thompson) is black and Mack (played by Josh Server) is white.
• Parodied on Living Single episode "Likes Father, Likes Son" When Regine lampshades how she unwittingly started dating a father and son in spite of them having different last names, Synclaire dismisses the scenario by bringing up Richard and LeVar Burton.
• The Wire: Randy Wagstaff is a middle school student living in a foster home. He doesn't share any scenes with the drug dealer Cheese, but a profile once showed Cheese's real name was "Calvin Wagstaff". The show's staff have confirmed Cheese is indeed Randy's absentee father.
• Luke Cage: The second season gives us Raymond "Piranha" Jones, alongside returning character from season 1 Comanche, whose legal name is revealed to be Darius Jones. Both are generally referred to by their nicknames, avoiding confusion.

Music

• Inverted (exaggeratedly) in the folk song "The Kellys", covered by Mick Moloney among others. The Narrator is seeking his uncle Kelly, but everyone he asks also happens to have that name, despite all being totally unrelated.
  Well, I went and asked directions from a naturalized Chinese,
  But he says, "Please, excuse me, but me name it is Kell Lee."
• Defied in Childish Gambino's song "Heartbeat", where he says that assuming that J. Cole is related to Keyshia Cole, just because they have the same last name, is racist.
  J. and Keyshia are related: racist.

Roleplay

• Panopticon Quest: The NWO renames its Operatives names that initialise to "JB", with certain surnames reflecting where one is in the hierarchy, meaning that Operatives sharing a surname need not be related. It is noted In-Universe that there have been people who made this mistake anyway.

Theatre

• Deconstructed in Avenue Q when Princeton asks Kate Monster if she and Trekkie Monster are related, since they're "both Monsters"; Kate finds this incredibly racist, asking him if he thinks "all monsters are related". Kate and Trekkie are the only named monsters in the play, so it's unclear how widespread the surname "Monster" is, or if indeed all monsters carry it regardless of relation.
• Played for surreal effect in The Bald Soprano, which features a character named Mr. Martin and another named Mrs. Martin, who — despite an absurd amount of evidence suggesting that they're husband and wife — insist that they've never even met before.
• Hamilton: In "Helpless", Angelica Schuyler introduces Hamilton to Eliza, who introduces herself as "Elizabeth Schuyler". Hamilton notes their common surname, and Angelica responds that Eliza is her sister.
  Eliza: Elizabeth Schuyler. It's a pleasure to meet you.
  Hamilton: Schuyler?
  Angelica: My sister.

Video Games

• Averted so far in the Ace Combat Strangereal series, where at least three different women have shared both the given, and the family name "Kei Nagase": Phoenix's wingwoman in Ace Combat 2 (who also makes a brief cameo in Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies), an Ouroboros member in Ace Combat 3: Electrosphere, and Blaze's wingwoman in Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War. No relation is currently known to exist between the three of them, except that the devs seem to love that name.
• When Kian's surname was revealed to be "Alvane" in Dreamfall: The Longest Journey, long-time series fans immediately picked up on his connection to Lady Alvane, The Narrator of the original The Longest Journey. The Wild Mass Guessing ranged from her being his long-lost mother (or aunt) to them getting married in the future. The mystery was officially settled ten years later in Dreamfall Chapters, where Saga gets Kian to adopt her, legally changes her surname to Alvane, and eventually becomes the Lady Alvane from the future whom April meets in the first game thanks to wacky time travel.
• Discussed in Persona 5 when the Thieves are given the task of tracking down a girl named "Futaba Sakura". They realize that it's a relatively common last name, but even though it seems like a long shot their only starting point is Sojiro Sakura, Joker's temporary guardian for his probation period. Luckily, that ends up being exactly who they needed to talk to: Sojiro is Futaba's adoptive father.
• Return Of The Obra Dinn does this twice. The two seamen with the last name "Peters" are brothers, and the first mate is the captain's brother-in-law (because the captain is the first person you can identify, and his wife listed her maiden name as a middle name, it's fairly simple to identify him as well).
• Silent Hill utterly averts this. There are a lot of unrelated characters in the series who share the same surname. The only ones explicitly related are James and Frank Sunderland. They appear in different games and never interact, but are confirmed as son and father.
• This Starry Midnight We Make: After the third quest for Yi Xinghua, the Kenpeitai, a.k.a Japanese Military Police, assume, that surname first, Yi Xinghua and Yi Xingli are related, and they are. They're missing brother and known sister.

Visual Novels

• Ace Attorney:
  • Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: "Rise From the Ashes" has the name "Neil Marshall" show up as the last victim of the SL-9 Joe Darke serial killings, who Phoenix guesses that he's related to Jake Marshall. He was his younger brother who died fighting Joe while trying to protect Ema, but despite the case being officially closed, Jake knew there was more to the case, so he was willing to steal evidence before it got archived forever and assault a fellow cop.
  • Ace Attorney Investigations has attorney Calisto Yew, who has the same surname as the victim of a murder. After some initial teasing, she tells Edgeworth that they are sisters. This turns out to be a lie; "Calisto Yew" is an alias, and her real name is never revealed.
• In Chapter 2, Part One of Your Turn to Die, the Reception Doll's name is revealed to be Gashu Satou, Kai's father. The relation is confirmed by the warning message on Kai's laptop, which refers to his father by name.

Web Animation

• RWBY:
  • Subverted with Ruby Rose and Yang Xiao Long. They're half-sisters who share a father and were reared by their father, but their surnames are different. Yang is named after their father yet Ruby is named after her mother (and Yang's stepmother).
  • Word of God has confirmed that Lil' Miss Malachite from Volume 6 is the mother of the twins Miltia and Melanie Malachite from the pre-series Yellow trailer.

Webcomics

• The Hero of Three Faces:
  • Hermione Granger is the niece of Rev Geraldine Granger.
  • Lois Lane and Margo Lane, which suggests some interesting things about heredity in their family.
  • Spoofed in one comic in which the Doctor states that, in universes where Supernatural and M*A*S*H both exist, the Winchester brothers are related to Major Charles through their mother.
• Played with in Homestuck: The Big Bad of the story is the mysterious time-traveling Lord English. Many fans assumed he was either related to one of the heroes, Jake English, or even that he was Jake's future self. Turns out Lord English is Caliborn's future self. He took Jake's name as a Take That! gesture after his first defeat at the hands of Jake... and Jake inherited it from his grandma, who changed her surname to "English" in defiance to the Condesce, who feared no one but Lord English.
• Stand Still, Stay Silent: The reveal that the main cast and members of Mission Control are descended from people seen in the Distant Prologue set Just Before the End hinges entirely on the reveal of identical surnames.
• Discussed in Yumi's Cells. When Yumi meets her boyfriend Babi's cute new employee, Da Eun, she tries to convince herself that nothing would happen between the two since they share the same surname, and are therefore related and can't romance each other. However, her fears do eventually come true, as Babi does briefly fall for Da Eun, and after Yumi broke up with him for the second time, he ends up married with her.

Web Video

• Petscop often uses Given Name Reveals with the last names "Mark" and "Leskowitz". Of course, given that this is an In-Universe case of both Write Who You Know and retelling events, this is justified.
• Averted in Gayle, in which Gayle and her husband Dave had the same surname prior to getting married. She insisted on hyphenating anyway, making the family name "Waters-Waters."

Western Animation

• The Simpsons:
  • In "Rosebud", a flashback shows that comedian George Burns is Mr. Burns' younger brother. (In actuality, "George Burns" was a stage name he adopted as an adult and his real name was Nathan Birnbaum.)
  • A flashback in "The Colour Yellow" has Burns' grandfather mentioning that his story will one day be told by his descendants, Ric and Ken Burns.
  • Ralph Wiggum is referenced by the last name Wiggum a few episodes before he is canonically established as Police Chief Wiggum's son. The writers say that this was initially an accident before they realized that the two characters honestly seemed like they could be related.
  • In a throwaway gag in "The Blue and the Gray" episode, Lisa suggests buying a supermarket tabloid to see what "Cousin Jessica" is up to.
• Family Guy:
  • In a brief cutaway in "A Picture is Worth a 1,000 Bucks", it's revealed that Kathy Griffin (an actress and comedian) is a distant relative of the family through Peter's side.
  • "Pawtucket Pat" has a bit implying that Kid Rock and The Rock are brothers, where Kid Rock is berated by his fictional father Adult Rock, who remarks "Why can't you be more like your brother The?"^note Kid Rock and The Rock's respective real names are Robert James Ritchie and Dwayne Johnson.
• One of the most memorable running gags of Tiny Toon Adventures was Babs and Buster Bunny saying "No relation!" whenever they introduced themselves, confirming that they were not related despite sharing the same surname. In the Tiny Toons Looniversity reboot, they have become twin siblings.
• Played with in the Kim Possible episode "Attack of the Killer Bebes". Dr. Drakken decides to avenge himself on the classmates who'd mocked him in college. It simply does not occur to him that the one surnamed "Possible" is in any way connected to his nemesis Kim Possible, and when he finds out that he's her father, he rather absurdly insists that it's a common surname.
• Futurama:
  • Amy Wong introduces herself in "The Series Has Landed". Leela immediately, and correctly, guesses that she's from the super-rich "Mars Wongs," despite that being a common surname (though it could be less common in the year 3000) and nothing about Amy's appearance indicating how well-off she is.
    Amy: Look, we're not as rich as everyone says.
    Leela: Oh, really? What sorority did you belong to?
    (Beat)
    Amy: (quietly) Kappa Kappa Wong.
  • On the other hand, "The Luck of the Fryrish" reveals that "Philip J. Fry" is a famous historical figure by the year 3000, but for some reason, the other characters never thought to connect him to Philip J. Fry, the show's Fish out of Temporal Water protagonist. Fry, meanwhile, deduces that his Big Brother Bully must have stolen his identity after he was frozen. As it turns out, the famous one is actually Fry's nephew.
    "Oh, your brother is that Philip J. Fry?"
  • Averted with a brief gag in "The Why of Fry" in which Fry has to clarify that he's not "the Philip J. Fry of Hovering Squid World 97A."
  • "All the Presidents' Heads" revolves around Professor Farnsworth being a descendant of David Farnsworth, a Real Life Loyalist double agent and counterfeiter during the Revolutionary War. Other historical Farnsworths said to be in his family tree include inventor Philo Farnsworth and naval commander Dean Farnsworth, developer of the Farnsworth Lantern Test.
• Young Justice
  • Black Lightning's ex-wife, Lynn Stewart-Pierce, is apparently the sister of Green Lantern John Stewart. This is not the case in the comics, where her creator toyed around with the possibility of making them related, but it never wound up happening.)
  • In a variant: in the comics, Halo's name is Violet Harper, but has no connection to Green Arrow character Roy Harper. Here, "Violet Harper" is a pseudonym, and he offered up his last name for her to use.
• In Celebrity Deathmatch, Nick Diamond dispels the apparent rumors that despite having the same first name as Nick Nolte, they aren't related.
• The King of the Hill episode "Hank Gets Dusted" has ZZ Top's Dusty Hill voicing himself as Hank Hill's cousin.

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