Follow TV Tropes

Following

Theme Twin Naming

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/capture_974.PNG
No relation to those other two.

"If you did have a twin brother, why would his name need to sound similar to yours?"
Carly Shay, iCarly

When twins appear in fiction, it's very likely that they will be named to sound like a matched set. Common options are rhyme (Tyler and Skyler), Alliteration (Michael and Mitchel), theme (Dawn and Eve), anagrams (Amy and May) or variants of the same name (Daniel and Danielle). Bonus points if the twins have dissimilar full names but usually go by nicknames which fit this trope, like James and Timothy Possible being known as Jim and Tim.

The names will flow together like water to the point that the characters will always be mentioned together like Phil and Lil from Rugrats; as a result, this trope is very common with Single-Minded Twins.

Also, a character's Evil Twin will often have the same name as the character, only reversed, e.g. the evil twin of Alfred will be named Derfla. Of course, if the character's name is something like Bob, this leads to some confusion.

In Japanese and other syllable-based languages this is especially common, because twins often end up sharing either the first or the final characters of their names.

Most definitely Truth in Television. Like most twin tropes, this annoys the hell out of many real-life twins. Child psychologists even advise parents against the practice. It may sound cute for babies, but once they get older, it can impede their development as individuals.

A subtrope of Family Theme Naming.


Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Advertising 

    Anime & Manga 
  • Yanbo and Mabo from 20th Century Boys, though these seem to be nicknames.
  • Angelic Layer has sisters Shōko and Shūko, although they are not twins — Shuuko is older. This was lampshaded by their English voice actresses in the audio commentary, who wondered what kind of cruel parents their characters had.
  • In Aruosumente, the twins Lante and Dante, with only one differing letter in their names.
  • Sarasa's and her twin Tatara's name from Basara sound rather similar.
  • Creepy Twins Hansel and Gretel from Black Lagoon.
  • Blue Seed:
    • Momiji and Kaede are both named after words for "Maple".
    • In Harukanaru Toki no Naka de, the story about Nue has him followed around by two deers whom he calls Momiji and Kaede. Whether it's a Shout-Out to Blue Seed or just a coincidence is unclear (the maple imagery in general does make a few other appearances in the Haruka franchise, along with the more traditional Cherry Blossoms).
  • In Brave10, Rokuro and Nanakuma have "six" ("roku") and "seven" ("nana") as part of their names. This forms one part of the problem for Nanakuma, as it is yet another way in which Rokuro is put ahead of him.
  • Misha and Nasha of B't X.
  • The Tachibana twins in Captain Tsubasa are named Masao and Kazuo.
  • A Centaur's Life has Manami's little triplet sisters Chigusa, Chinami and Chiho.
  • Appears in several CLAMP works:
    • Fraternal Half-Identical Twins Hokuto and Subaru of Tokyo Babylon and X/1999 are both named after constellations of seven stars. Subaru (昴) is Pleiades, while Hokuto (北都) means The Big Dipper. The seven stars theme is quite significant in X.
    • Cho Li and To Li from Miyuki-chan in Wonderland (themselves analogs to Tweedledee and Tweedledum).
    • While no twins exist for two of the three girls with siblings in Magic Knight Rayearth, thematic naming still exists. Hikaru's three older brothers are Satoru, Masaru and Kakeru; two sisters are Tarta and Tatra; and Fuu's older sister is named Kuu. And then there's Hikaru's (a name that can translate to "sparkling") dog, Hikari ("light").
    • In Chobits, Freya and Elda/Urda are named after Norse Goddesses.
    • Maru and Moro of Xxx HO Li C, whose full names are Marudashi and Morodashi (meaning "flashing" and "streaking", Yuuko has an odd sense of humor).
  • Code Geass has Princes Castor and Pollux Rui Britannia in one of the video games. There's also Oldrin Zevon and Orpheus Zevon in the manga spinoff OZ The Reflection.
  • In and Yoh (Japanese for Yin and Yang) from CosPrayers.
  • Marchiano's 12 Sisters in Coyote Ragtime Show. All twelve of them are named after the months of the year (though their relative ages [they're gynoids] are not the same as the order of the months). The three "youngest" sisters are October (Octo), November (Nove), and December (Dece).
  • Digimon:
    • Digimon Tamers has Ai and Makoto, meaning "Love and Truth" respectively, as well as being the title of a popular book.
    • Digimon Frontier had Kouichi and Kouji - "First Radiance" and "Second Radiance".
  • Risa and Riku from D.N.Angel.
  • Luki and Noki from Dogs: Bullets & Carnage.
  • Doraemon: Nobita's New Dinosaur have Nobita becoming the owner of a pair of twin infant dinosaurs, which he names Kyu and Myu.
  • The Kongo Twins of Eyeshield 21 are named Agon and Unsui, which is all part of a very intricate pun:
    • Kongo-Rikishi are the two guardian statues seen at the entrance of Japanese Buddhist temples. The nicknames for these statues are "Agyo" and "Ungyo".
    • Symbolically, "a" represents birth/beginning since it's the first character of the Sanskrit alphabet and "Un" represents death/ending since it's the last character. Thus referring to something as an "A-Un relationship" is another way of saying it's harmonious and natural.
    • An "a" statue refers to a statue with an open mouth. An "un" statue is one with a closed mouth (usually frowning). Guess which twin is the quiet one and which one's the talker?
  • Fist of the North Star:
    • Raiga and Fuga who are modeled after Raijin and Fujin (the Twin Gods of Thunder and Wind in Japanese Mythology).
    • The true identity of the Heavenly Empress is none other than Lin's twin sister Lui.
    • Raoh's suspiciously similar elder brother Kaioh, although they're not exactly twins.
  • Takumi and Isami Aldini of Food Wars!.
  • In Free!, Makoto's younger siblings are twins named Ran and Ren.
  • A variation occurs in Fushigi Yuugi. While Amiboshi and Suboshi are known by their Seishi names and not their real ones, it is still worth noting that their Seishi names sound alike. Miboshi, however, is another story...
  • Mipple and Mepple from the original Futari wa Pretty Cure.
  • Takuma and Kazuma from Gakuen Babysitters both have the character for "horse" in their names, which also goes along with the rest of the characters' Animal Theme Naming.
  • Kyon of Haruhi Suzumiya calls Mikuru's fake twin "Michiru", playing off this trope.
  • Shizuki and Yuzuki from Hekikai No Aion. Shizuki's name means "calm moon" and Yuzuki is "kind moon".
  • In Hozuki's Coolheadedness: When Hozuki decide to give names to the Zashiki-warashi twins, he come up with Ichiko and Niko. This mean "girl 1" and "girl two". Karauri think this isn't a very good choice of name, but they like it and thus decide to go with it.
  • Laurent and Lillian from Innocents Shounen Juujigun are a pair of twins with alliterative names.
  • Kaguya-sama: Love Is War has Maki and her twin brother Mikado, whose names contain the characters for "princess" and "emperor" respectively.
  • Kirio and Kirika of Kamichama Karin. It's also worth noting that their father's name is Kirihiko.
    • Kazune and Kazusa Kujyou, though Kazusa is more of a opposite sex clone than a twin, and their father Kazuto.
  • The Half-Identical Twins in Kiddy Grade are named Tweedledum and Tweedledee (see Literature section above). There are also two Bishōnen Sinistra and Dextera ("left" and "right" in Latin), who are not actually twins but look very much alike.
  • Tiff and Tuff in Kirby: Right Back at Ya!. This does not match in the original, as their names were Fumu and Bun, respectively.
  • Zero and Rei from Kurohime.
  • This sometimes happens in Magical Girl anime where the main character as two sidekicks/assistants/what have you. Examples include Posi and Neganote  from Creamy Mami, the Magic Angel and Pigu and Mogu from Fancy Lala (renamed Pog and Mog in the English dub, despite never being seen on TV).
  • Idol unit Marginal #4 has twins L and R - yes, like "left" and "right".
  • Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch had Kaito and Gackto, both named after popular singers. The anime changed Gackto's name to Gaito in order to play up the connection to Kaito, or maybe just to play down the fact that Gackto has more in common with his namesake than that. There's also the Black Beauty Sisters, Mimi and Sheshe, although "sisters" is just a stage name (possibly so they could get away with public displays of affection in the seven-AM programming block). Although being a pair of enchanted anglerfish, they probably are sisters. The other pair of twins in the series, Caren and Noel, do not match.
  • Mitsudomoe has the Marui triplets Mitsuba, Futaba and Hitoha, whose names translate as "three leaves", "two leaves" and "one leaf", respectively.
  • The Dylandy twin brothers in Mobile Suit Gundam 00. The older twin is Neil, whose name means "cloud"; the younger twin is Lyle, and his name means "island". In a twist, they share the same Code Name in Celestial Being: Lockon Stratos.
  • Naruto:
    • Sakon and Ukon take this a bit further than most— they actually share the same body, and the first kanji in their names mean "left" and "right" respectively.
    • Hinata and Neji's fathers were twins: Hiashi and Hizashi, which mean "daytime" and "sunlight" respectively, and both contain the kanji for "sun" like most Hyuga family members.
    • Then there's Kinkaku and Ginkaku, whose names mean Gold Horn and Silver Horn respectively, and one another's names is the word they have said most in their lives. They usually end their sentences with the other's name.
  • Fuuka and Fumika Narutaki in Negima! Magister Negi Magi. Less obvious in translation, as the former's name is usually Anglicized as "Fuka".
  • One Piece:
    • A group of minors characters are five young quintuplet mermaids who are named after Japanese numbers: Ichika, Nika, Sanka, Yonka, and Yonka Two; Usopp swiftly lampshaded how the last sister's name breaks the pattern (It should have been "Goka").
    • Another group of quadruplets who share the same theme naming are the Vinsmoke brothers, named after numbers in the order they were born: Ichiji, Niji, Sanji and Yonji. Their older sister Reiju follows the same pattern, being named after "zero".
    • Big Mom's biggest single birth was to dectuplets, five boys and five girls. The boys' names were based on numbers with a "New-" prefix (Newichi, Newji, Newsan, Newshi, and Newgo). The girls' names were a little more creative: in keeping with the family food naming theme, one sister was named "Natsumeg", the Japanese word for nutmeg. Since "natsu" is the Japanese word for "summer", her sisters are also named after seasons with a "-meg" suffix: Akimeg, Harumeg, and Furumeg, with Allmeg being used to round the numbers.
  • The Matsuno sextuplets of Osomatsu-kun all have matsu at the end of their first names - Osomatsu, Karamatsu, Todomatsu, etc.. Extends to Family Theme Naming as well since even their parents Matsuzo and Matsuyo have matsu in their names.
  • Yuna and Yuma Kashiwagi in Pani Poni Dash!.
  • Hana (flower) and Ageha (butterfly) in the Papillion manga.
  • An episode of Pokémon: The Series features Forrest and Forrester. Their original names are Jiro ("second son") and Ichiro ("first son") respectively.
  • Pokémon Getto Da Ze! features twins named Rin and Ran.
  • The Quintessential Quintuplets: The Nakano quintuplets are named after the Japanese numbers for one to five, presumably each in order of birth. From oldest to youngest: Ichika, Nino, Miku, Yotsuba, and Itsuki.
  • Ranma ½ had Anime Chinese Girl twins Pin-Ke and Lin-Ke (Pink and Link in some translations) and (anime-only) separate characters Rinrin and Ranran (Ling-Ling and Lung-Lung in the translation).
  • Fraternal twins Miki ("tree trunk") and Kozue ("tree top") Kaoru from Revolutionary Girl Utena, and reflecting their names Miki is the quieter, more stable one while Kozue is a flashy Attention Whore, especially towards her brother, but is a lot less emotionally stable.
  • The twin maids in Re:Zero are named Ram and Rem.
  • Suiseiseki and Souseiseki of Rozen Maiden ("Jade" and "Lapis Lazuli" respectively, also matching up to their dress colors).
  • In Rurouni Kenshin's Kyoto arc, we learn that Cool Big Sis Tae Sekihara has a twin sister named Sae (a move Word of God admits was purely so he didn't have to design another new character for the arc.)
  • Sailor Moon: Deimos and Phobos (Rei's pet crows) are both named for Mars' two moons. Phi and Chi (and Theta) are named for Greek letters. Lethe and Mnemosyne are named around the idea of memory.
  • Nijuku and Sanju from Shoulder-a-Coffin Kuro, whose names are also contracted versions of the Japanese words for twenty-nine and thirty.
  • While not twins exactly, Ran, Miki, and Suu from Shugo Chara! were named after the members of a Japanese singing group from the 1970s called Candies.
  • Tamagotchi! Miracle Friends: Miraitchi and Clulutchi have a form of Punny Names. Specifically, taking the "Mirai" and "Clulu" from their names and putting them together forms "miraclulu" (meant to be "mirakuru", the English word "miracle" spelt in the Japanese alphabet).
  • Tekkaman Blade has a main character and Evil Twin named Takaya and Shinya. Teknoman breaks the pun by renaming Shinya as Cain.
  • Darry and Gimmy (puns on hidari and migi, Japanese for left and right, respectively) in Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.
  • Tokyo Ghoul features Creepy Twins sisters Nashiro and Kurona Yasuhisa. Their names meaning White and Black, respectively.
  • Tatsuya and Kazuya from Touch (1981). Taking it a step further, they are nicknamed Tacchan and Kacchan.
  • Tsukiuta has Koi and Ai, the male and female idol representatives for February. Both of their names mean "love". They both have pink hair, and their birthday is on Valentine's Day.
  • There is a yaoi manga called Twins Labyrinth (not about Twincest) where the twins are named Rin and Ren.
  • Zero and Ichiru Kiryu from Vampire Knight. 'Zero' literally means 'zero' and the 'ichi' in 'Ichiru' means 'one'.
  • From Virgin Ripper, there's Kotori and Kotoha.
  • You and Me has identical twins Yuki and Yuta.
  • Mei and Kyu in Yu-Gi-Oh!; "meikyu" means labyrinth. In the dub their names become Para and Dox.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds gives Rua/Lua and Ruka/Luca, the dub keeps the alliteration with their Dub Name Change - Leo and Luna.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL has the Kamishiro twins, Ryoga and Rio. Although Ryoga is called "Shark" by most of the characters.
  • The Nishigori triplets in Yuri!!! on Ice are named after figure skating jumps — Axel, Lutz, and Loop. To take it even further, their names are written in kanji, and they all share the same "ru" (流) character.
  • Chitose and Chizuru Ikeda from YuruYuri, sharing the first syllable.

    Audio Plays 

    Comic Books 
  • Michael and Michelle Carter from Booster Gold, were given the masculine and feminine versions of the same name respectively.
  • Pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths, two of Clark Kent's neighbors in his apartment building were twin sisters April and May Marigold.
  • Disney Ducks Comic Universe:
    • Donald's triplet nephews Huey, Dewey, and Louie.
    • And for an alliterative example, the trio's mother, Della, and her twin brother Donald Duck.
    • Daisy's triplet nieces April, May, and June, who only appear in the comics.
  • The Flash:
    • Dawn and Don Allen, the twin children of the second Flash. One suspects their parents resorted to nicknames early on, since the two are homophones in most American dialects.
    • Albert Desmond and his "psychic" Evil Twin Alvin both went by Al.
  • In Marvel Comics, the Fenris twins Andreas and Andrea von Strucker; and mutants Jeanne-Marie and Jean-Paul Beaubier. Additionally, the latter twins' code names, Aurora and Northstar, are both astronomy-themed.
  • Twin sisters Dusk and Dawn of Noble Causes.
  • In Paperinik New Adventures, when you have a character who's an artificial intelligence named ONE, you can't REALLY act surprised when his twin, TWO, shows up. Or when he goes evil for that matter.
  • Dawn and Eve Greenwood in Silver Surfer.
  • A Spanish Comic series features Zipi and Zape, named after the word zipizape, meaning chaos. Their father wanted to call them Romulus and Remus, but their mother disagreed because they would get too many puns.
  • Tambi and Bambi Baker from Strangers in Paradise. (Real names: Mary Beth and Sara Beth.)
  • Swordquest has Torr and Tarra, who were named after their father, Lord Tarr.
  • While not phonetically similar, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles share themed names, as Splinter named them after Renaissance artists; Michelangelo, Donatello, Leonardo and Raphael.
  • Amusingly enough, Thompson and Thomson (originally Dupond and Dupont) from the Tintin comics are not twins. They're not even related, despite being identical except for the shapes of their mustaches. Dupond with a D has the slightly d-shaped one, and Dupont with a T has the slightly t-shaped one.
  • Golden Age Wonder Woman has the similarly named identical Heyday triplets, Lillie, Millie, and Tillie. In The Legend of Wonder Woman (2016) the triplets got reduced to a set of twins named Milly and Tilly.
  • In The Beano, Toots of the Bash Street Kids, the Half Identical Twin sister of Sidney, has given her real name as Sydney with a "y".

    Fan Works 
  • In the extended Discworld, Olga Romanoff's twin children Valentina and Vassily.
  • Twin brother and sister Kedar and Kyra from the Frozen fic The Alphabet Story.
  • Danganronpa: Paradise Lost: Kaede Akamatsu's twin sister is named Momiji, another Japanese word for "maple".
  • Princess Cadence in Friendship is Witchcraft has a twin named Cadance. Cadance was introduced because Cadence was Killed Off for Real by Twilight, but Cadance is a recurring character in the series proper.
  • Insanity Circus by TheNight130 features identical wins Wendy and Willow.
  • Jaune Arc, Lord of Hunger has a pair of twins named Seera and Teera Sun who fight Jaune and Pyrrha in the Vytal Festival Tournament.
  • Jimmy's Visit With Dr. Franklin The twins Johnny and Jimmy Osgood.
  • The Loud House fans have gotten attached to the idea that if main character Lincoln had a twin sister, her name would be Liberty, referencing the fact that Abraham Lincoln is credited with giving Liberty to the slaves.
  • Mary Phillips Story: Jerrica's twin sister is named "Jessica", though she prefers to go by "Jem".
  • In Not a Monster, Bowser's deceased identical twin brother was named "Bone".
  • RWBY: Scars turns Weiss and Whitley into twins, making them a retroactive example (both their names mean "white").
  • Averted early on in Son of the Sannin where Tsunade gives birth to twins named Kaida and Hagane. Played straight later on when Orochimaru gets a hold of some of their DNA and creates adult clones of them named Hebimaru and Hebiko.
  • In Split Second (My Little Pony), there are two pairs:
    • Twilight and Sparkle were born on the same day to the same parents, making them twins in a weird sort of way. They split their original name when they became two independent ponies.
    • Spike and Thornnote  are two semi-artificial dragons created through different means. They still shared the same mothers (yes, plural) and were born on the same day.
  • The Warden and the Mistress's children Ajax and Adele in the Superjail! fanfic The Story of Us.
  • In Zelda and the Manacle of Cahla, the names of the Zora Priestess sisters, Asine and Asuca, are derived from the Filipino words for salt and sugar respectively. They look alike, but have completely different personalities.
  • At the end of The Game of Three Generals in the Elemental Chess Trilogy, Roy and Riza become the parents of twins named Brendan and Reina. Brendan means "prince" and Reina means "little queen," which is a play on their parents being nicknamed "the King" and "the Queen" in Roy's extended chess analogy.
  • The Palaververse: Zebra twins Punda and Milla are named after the Swahili phrase that means Zebra: [1].
  • Xenoblade Chronicles 3 fic Queen's Paninis: Number Seven and Number Thirteen had no names in canon, at least until Sena named Number Seven "Segiri." In the fic, after the events of Aionios, it turns out that they are named Meyneth and Galea, after the two names of the Machina goddess.

    Films — Animation 
  • Adelita and Scardelita from The Book of Life.
  • Brave does this with triplets: the triplet princes are named Hubert, Hamish, and Harris.
  • Dawn and John from the second Care Bears movie.
  • Cars:
    • Mia and Tia, the Miata twins from Cars.
    • Also Rusty and Dusty RustEze and Johnny and Jamie.
  • Coco:
    • Oscar and Felipe, whose names mean "friend of deer" and "friend of horses" respectively.
    • Their great-great-grandnephews are named Benny and Manny.
  • Unintentionally subverted in Despicable Me 3, with Gru and his twin brother Dru initially appearing as this... except Gru is their last name, meaning their full names are Felonius Gru and Dru Gru.
  • In Lady and the Tramp, the twin Siamese cats Si and Am.
  • According to the book A Frozen Heart, Hans from Frozen has twin brothers named Runo and Rudi.
  • Conjoined twins Satin and Chenille in Trolls are themed, as they're both fashion designers.
  • How to Train Your Dragon has the twins Ruffnut and Tuffnut.
  • Speaking of Conjoined Twins, Terri and Terry from Monsters University.
  • While not named in the film, itself, The Addams Family (2019) movie novelization states that Parker's twin friends are named Layla and Kayla.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • Flora and Fauna, the Conjoined Twins from The Addams Family.
  • Parodied in Austin Powers in Goldmember with the twins Fook Mi and Foo Kyu.
  • Barbarella: The Creepy Twins Stomoxys and Glossina, whose names are the scientific names of two species of fly.
  • In the 1988 comedy Big Business, rich Mrs. Shelton and poor Mrs. Ratliff both happen to give birth to identical female twins in the same hospital. At Mr. Shelton's suggestion, the Shelton twins are named Rose and Sadie, after his two favourite aunts. This is overheard by Mr. Ratliff, who, being unable to think of anything better (the good names apparently were all used up among the already existing Ratliff brood), decides to give his new daughters the same two names. But as an absent-minded nurse managed to mix up the two sets of twins, the end result is that in one actual set of twins (both played by Lily Tomlin) both are called Rose, while those in the other (Bette Midler) are both called Sadie.
  • In Face/Off, the fraternal twin terrorists Castor and Pollux Troy (Castor and Pollux are the Gemini twins).
  • While he only appears in a brief sketch from an early-90s The Earth Day Special, leading to debate on how canon he is, Egon Spengler from Ghostbusters apparently has an identical twin brother named Elon. Literally completely identical. (Both Spengler twins were played by the same actor within the span of a year or so.) Egon does mention having nieces and nephews in the 2009 video game, but doesn't mention Elon or even having a twin outright.
  • Glass Onion: Identical twins Cassandra "Andi" and Helen Brand are named for a pair of sisters-in-law from The Trojan War.
  • Hail, Caesar!: Identical twins and rival gossip columnists Theodora and Thessaly Thackery, both played by Tilda Swindon.
  • Noreen and Doreen, the twin dancers in the Council from Hairspray.
  • In the sequel to the deliberately campy The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra, two characters who had been killed off turn out to have had identical twins. One of them merely shares the last two letters of his dead brother's name, but the other one has exactly the same name. When he's asked whether it ever caused confusion, he explains, "We have different last names."
  • The Parent Trap (1961) features the twins Susan and Sharon, while The Parent Trap (1998) has the twins named Annie and Hallie.
  • President Scroob's twin mistresses, Marlene and Charlene, from Spaceballs.
  • Another case of mixed-up sets of identical twins occurs in Start the Revolution Without Me: aristocrats Philippe and Pierre DeSisi and commoners Claude and Charles Coupé, both played by Gene Wilder and Donald Sutherland.
  • Star Wars: Luke and Leia Skywalker, Ann and Tann Gella, Jaina and Jacen Solo.
  • Weaponized in the Disney Channel Original Movie Motocrossed. Twins Andrew and Andrea both enjoy racing motocross, but only Andrew competes, due to gender norms. When he gets injured, Andrea takes his place. When all is revealed, she is allowed to keep her win because there are no actual rules against women racing, just an expectation and because she didn't register as Andrew but Andy — her nickname, but the close names meant no one caught on.

    Jokes 
  • A woman is 3 months pregnant with twins and gets into a car crash, which leaves her in a coma. Six months later, she wakes up.
    Doctor: Ma'am, you were in a coma for 6 months. During that time, you gave birth to a boy and a girl. We asked your brother to name them.
    Woman: Oh, no! My brother's an idiot. He probably gave them terrible names!
    (The brother comes in and presents the twins to their mother.)
    Woman: What did you name the girl?
    Brother: Denise.
    Woman: Oh, thank goodness. Denise is a lovely name. What did you name the boy?
    Brother: Denephew.
    • Alternatively...
      Doctor: Ma'am, you were in a coma for 6 months. During that time, you gave birth to a boy and a girl. We asked your brother to name them.
      Woman: Oh, no! My brother's an idiot. He probably gave them terrible names!
      (The brother comes in and presents the twins to their mother.)
      Woman: What did you name the boy?
      Brother: Jason.
      Woman: Oh, thank goodness. Jason is a lovely name. What did you name the girl?
      Brother: Jadaughter.

    Literature 

By Author:

  • V. C. Andrews has done this a few times: Carrie and Cory Dollanganger, Deirdre and Darren Marquet, Cade and Adrian Eaton in the De Beers series, Justin and Austin in the "Secrets" series.
  • Robert A. Heinlein seems to have been unable to give twin characters non-thematic names: Castor and Pollux from The Rolling Stones (1952), Laz and Lor (Lapis Lazuli Long and Lorelei Lee Long) from Time Enough for Love. At first it seems that Tom and Pat Bartlett, from Time for the Stars, are an exception — but they were named for their father's two favorite figures from American history and their mother's two favorite Renaissance artists, and thus are actually Thomas Paine Leonardo da Vinci Bartlett and Patrick Henry Michelangelo Bartlett.
  • Triplets Snipp, Snapp, and Snurr in the Swedish picture book series by Maj Lindman, who also wrote a series for girls with triplets Flicka, Ricka, and Dicka.
  • Happens in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-Earth (The Silmarillion, The Lord of the Rings, etc), although here it is only part of the larger tradition of family members commonly being given similar names: Amrod and Amras (Fëanor's twin sons, who were also both named Ambarussa); Haleth and Haldar, the twin children of the human chieftain Haldad; Dior's twin sons Eluréd and Elurín; twins Elrond and Elros; Elladan und Elrohir (Elrond's twin sons); Folcred and Fastred (twin sons of a king of Rohan).

By Work:

  • Flora and Ferdy Devere in Agent Angel.
  • Tweedledee and Tweedledum of Alice in Wonderland. In The Care Bears: Adventure in Wonderland, the Wizard calls them simply "Dim" and "Dumb". This suggests that Tweedle might be a surname, much like Turanga or Mao. But these Tweedles still have their own theme: low intelligence.
  • American Girls Collection:
    • Samantha's Aunt Cornelia has much younger identical twin sisters named Agnes and Agatha.
    • Rebecca’s older sisters are identical twins Sadie and Sophie.
  • Anatole, a French mouse who is also a cheese expert, has three sets of twins (sextuplets?): Paul & Paulette, Claude & Claudette, and Georges & Georgette.
  • In Angela and Diabola, the titular twins are initially named Jill and Jane by their parents. But then at their baptism, the vicar blurts out the first names that come to his mind at the sight of them: "Angela" for the angelic Jill and "Diabola" for the monstrous Jane.
  • In Angela Nicely, a Dirty Bertie spinoff, there are the Payne twins Eileen and Myleen.
  • In the Anne of Green Gables series, there are three sets of twins:
    • Davy and Dora Keith (Nothing to do with Davidora).
    • Gerald and Geraldine Raymond
    • Nan and Diana Blythe (named after Anne Shirley and her childhood best friend, Diana Barry)
  • The Baby-Sitters Club:
    • Marilyn and Carolyn Arnold, two of the kids the club members watch.
    • When Abby joins the club, she has an identical twin sister named Anna. This is rather funny, considering the author admitted that Abby and Anna were called Lucy and Ethel in drafts, as naming the twins was the grand prize of a fan contest.
    • There are also twins named Mariah and Miranda in the girls' class at school.
    • Terri and Tammy Barkan, Ricky and Rose Salem, Tasha and Terry Hoyt, Callie and Keith Bates. Averted with the Pike triplets Adam, Byron, and Jordan. There's also an unnnamed set of boy twins in the same grade.
  • In BattleTech, a renegade group of Clan Jade Falcon scientists created children that were genetic clones of their war hero, Aidan Pryde. All named children in the book had anagrams of Aidan for their names.
  • Tira and Kira from The Belgariad and prequels, and even more so once they get their wizard names: Beltira and Belkira.
  • The high school books from the Betsy-Tacy series feature twins named Phil and Phyllis Brandish.
  • One of the stories in The Bippolo Seed And Other Lost Stories features identical twin boys named Todd and Tadd.
  • Ulf and Wulf of Brotherband fit this trope, and regularly swap names simply to confuse people. At one point the narrator admits he's lost track of which is which.
  • A variation in David Morrell's Brotherhood of the Rose where it's the codenames which are twin-based (Romulus and Remus, Castor and Pollox, etc) for the children that spymaster Elliot recruited and trained to be his spies and assassins. That's because he didn't recruit actual twins but two children who had formed a bond in the orphanage, to whom he could act as Parental Substitute.
  • Bradley and Brian in the Calendar Mysteries series.
  • In the Cambridge Latin Course, there are a pair of twins named Loquax and Anti-Loquax. This sort of thing may have been relatively common practice among the ancient Romans; see Real Life below.
  • In The Cat Lady, one litter of kittens all has "—-nut" names, such as Coconut (Coco for short) and Groundnut.
  • Cat Pack has Marco and Polo, twin cats named after Marco Polo.
  • The Cat Who... Series: Book #25 (The Cat Who Brought Down the House) features Thelma and Thurston Thackeray, whose names started with the same two letters; Thelma states that her mother came up with two names, one for a boy and one for a girl, because she didn't know which she was having at the time, and wound up using both when it turned out to be fraternal twins.
  • Chalet School - the Maynards' triplets: Mary Helen, Mary Margaret and Mary Constance (although they go by "Len", "Margot" and "Con" respectively).
  • Also happens in The Chronicles of Narnia, specifically Archenland, which may be connected given C.S. Lewis' and Tolkien's friendship and their influence on each other. Archenland is known for sets of twins with similar names such as Cole and Colin, Cor and Corin, and Dar and Darrin. In The Horse and His Boy, Cor tells Aravis this is an established naming tradition, although he implies that it's for brothers rather than specifically twins. The most famous characters exhibiting this in the books, Cor and Corin, do happen to be twins, though. For attentive readers the trope may actually hint that Corin has a missing older brother prior to the reveal.
  • The Corsican Brothers by Alexandre Dumas has (separated Conjoined Twins) Louis and Lucien Franchi. Possibly a shout-out to the most famous family from Corsica: Napoléon Bonaparte had two younger brothers called Lucien and Louis.
  • Discworld: From Pyramids, a pair of twins named Ptaclusp IIa and Ptaclusp IIb (their father being simply Ptaclusp). They're actually pronounced "two-ay" and "two-bee".
  • Exaggerated in Doglands. A pair of twin giant schnauzers are both named "Pumpkin" because their owner can't tell them apart. It's also a Gender-Blender Name because their owner doesn't care much about them. For convenience's sake Furgul calls them by their "dog names", "Cogg" (which means "war") and Bazz (which means "killer").
  • East of Eden, which draws heavily on the Cain and Abel story from The Bible, first depicts the relationship with two brothers (not twins) named Charles and Adam. When Adam's twin sons are born, he considers actually naming them Cain and Abel, but a neighbor tells him that would be asking for trouble. He goes with Caleb (Cal) and Aaron (Aron) instead. Of course, the relationship repeats anyway.
  • Sent up in Ray Romano's book Everything and a Kite:
    Now with twins, I don't know what it is, but parents have a natural instinct to give them those soundalike, same-initial, cutesy names.
    "Hey, meet our twins, Timmy and Tommy."
    Once again, it's cute when they're four, but by ten they're in therapy.
    Each twin needs to have his own personality and that should start with the name. It should be unique in and of itself, and not dependent on the sibling. That's the healthiest thing you can do for them as parents.
    I can see different personalities already starting to develop in my boys.
    Gregory's the independent one, outgoing and daring and not afraid to try anything.
    Schmegory... well, he's got a few problems.note 
  • A variant happens in Fangirl where the protagonist and her twin sister are named Cath and Wren because their mother didn't know she had twins and didn't bother to come up with a second name when she found out. She just split Catherine and gave each daughter a half. Cath’s full name is Cather, but prefers Cath.
  • Firstborn: Magpies have a tendency to do this. Maggie's parents Mag and Max named their children Maggie, Mark, Marge, Mandy, Mack, and Matt. Maggie's mate Dan named their four boys Denny, Dash, Del, and Dave. Maggie, who hates this practice and find her own name embarrassing, named their sole daughter Anastasia.
  • In Fudge, there are identical twin girls named Flora and Fauna, sometimes referred to collectively as the "Natural Beauties".
  • Geek Love has Conjoined Twins Iphigenia and Electra (nicknamed Iphy and Elly).
  • In Rudyard Kipling's short story Gemini, the two titular twin brothers are Ram and Durga Dass, two names taken from the Hindu pantheon.
  • From Harry Potter: Padma & Parvati Patil and Lorcan & Lysander Scamander Luna's twin sons with Rolf Scamander, grandson of the author of Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them. Averted with the most notable pair of twins in the series, Fred and George Weasley, who fit into the broader Family Theme Naming of using famous personages of English/Arthurian origin (King Alfred the Great and Saint George in this case). Played straight in the Norwegian version where the Weasley-twins are renamed Fred and Frank.
  • Achille and Hercule Poirot are both named after Greek/Roman heroes in the French form. Except Achille Poirot doesn't exist.
  • David Weber does this in the Honor Harrington series with the Masadan ships in Honor of the Queen.
    • Power and Dominion
    • Throne and Principality
    • Angel and Archangel
    • David and Solomon
    • Cherubim and Seraphim
      • Most of these are from the medieval celestial hierarchy; in decreasing order, Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones, Dominions, (Virtues,) Powers, Principalities, Archangels, and mere Angels.
    • The Star Kingdom, a prequel spinoff series by Jane Lindskold based on Honor Harrington, introduces a pair of Treecat mirror-twins named "Left-Stripe" and "Right-Stripe." They are notably the only Treecats in the franchise to be given the same name by the humans and the Treecats.
  • Heidi and Hannah in Hope Was Here.
  • Tiona and Tione Hiryute in Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? have names that only differ by one letter.
  • Daisy and Demi in Little Women, named after their parents Margaret (Meg) and John.
  • In Erich Kästner's Lottie and Lisa (Das doppelte Lottchen), the twins are called Luise and Lotte - after their mother, Luiselotte.
  • Malazan Book of the Fallen:
    • The series gives us the twins Envy and Spite, both named by their father. The prequel trilogy reveals that they're actually triplets and the third one used to be named Malice. Draconus adds that if there was a fourth one she'd be named Venom. He obviously had preconceived notions about his daughters.
    • Compared to that, the twins Stavi and Storii have very tame theme naming.
  • Martins Mice has two litters of mice. One is a set of eight, named after numbers, and another is a set of twelve, named after the months.
  • Roxy and Rhody in Louisa May Alcott’s story "An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving" (in Aunt Jo’s Scrap-Bag VI).
  • Toyed with in the young adult novel One-Of-A-Kind Mallie by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley; the eponymous character has an identical twin who goes by Hallie, but their full first names are Hannah and Matilda. Near the end, the twins' mother finally tells Mallie (who is starting to chafe at feeling that she's never been seen as an individual) that she didn't intend to give them matching names at all; rather, it was something that just evolved out of the situation.
    "We named you Matilda Marie Graber, but we planned to call you Mallie. We named Hallie Hannah Alice, but calling you Mallie and Hannah sounded silly, and so did Hannah and Mallie. Eventually, we started calling your sister Hallie, to match you."
  • Rhyme and Reason from The Phantom Tollbooth, on top of the fact that most characters in the story are just about the definition of Anthropomorphic Personification.
  • The children's book Poop or Get Off the Potty features twins named Mason and Mia.
  • Subverted in The Power of Five in Jamie and Scott's case; their first names came from the box in which they were found and their last from the doctor who checked them out.
  • Discussed in Ramona Quimby, when Mrs. Quimby is pregnant with the youngest Quimby sister Roberta, the characters are discussing names and when the possibility of twins comes up, they consider Gerald and Geraldine, Paul and Pauline, Bonnie and Connie, and Peter and Mosquiter (the last one being a joke).
  • The Jou twins of Run with the Wind are called Tarou and Jirou, which appropriately mean first and second son. The theme equally applies to their nicknames (which are primarily used by the team), which combine their first names with their surname (in Japanese order) to get Jouta and Jouji.
  • In The Secrets of Drearcliff Grange School and The Haunting of Drearcliff Grange School, Jacqueline "Shrimp" Harper has a twin brother named Jacques.
  • Seeker Bears features twin grizzly cubs named "Toklo" and "Tobi". Tobi, suffering an illness, dies early in the first book.
  • Violet and Daisy Shramm from Sisterland. After the twins start college, Daisy starts going by Kate in an effort to distance herself from her past.
  • Most twins featured in A Song of Ice and Fire have half-rhyming or alliterative names, including Tyrell guards Erryk and Arryk (named after a famous historical pair of twins and members of the Kingsguard during the Dance of the Dragons, Erryk and Arryk Cargyll), Aegon and Aemon Blackfyre (sons of Daemon I), Jaehaerys and Jaehaera Targaryen (children of Aegon II), Aelor and Aelora Targaryen (Aerys I's and Maekar I's nephew and niece, who married each other), Horas and Hobber Redwyne (Margaery Tyrell's second cousins), and Jeyne and Jennelyn Fowler (Nymeria Sand's playmates). Averted with major characters and Half-Identical Twins Cersei and Jaime Lannister, though.
  • SOPHIE: The eponymous girl's older brothers are identical twins named Matthew and Mark.
  • James Bolivar diGriz, also known as "Slippery Jim" and The Stainless Steel Rat, has twin sons whom their mother Angelina named James and Bolivar.
  • The Star Trek Novel 'Verse retroactively makes Taurik from the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Lower Decks" and Vorik from Star Trek: Voyager twin brothers. (Both characters were played by Alexander Enberg).
  • Before they give themselves their adult names in a Naming Ceremony (or are named by their longpaws), dogs in Survivor Dogs sometimes follow this. Lucky and Bella were named Yap and Squeak (with their other siblings being nameless extras).
  • Identical twin brothers Dayhunter and Nightcatcher from Tailchaser's Song.
  • Sara and Tara Leighton from Tales of MU.
  • Tales of the Five Hundred Kingdoms: In Beauty and the Werewolf, Bella's twin stepsisters are named Amber and Pearl, after the gems.
  • Over the last two books in the Teenage Worrier series, Letty's classmate gets pregnant with twins and is forced to drop out of school. She names them Barin and Rabina, which Letty finds funny, but turns out to be significant because the names are more or less anagrams of "Brian" - Brian Bolt is the father.
  • The Terra Trilogy novels by Mitch Benn do it with vowel-less alien names; there's a set of Fnrrn twins called Shnst and Thnst.
  • The short story Too Many Rabbits by Paul Jennings has a litter of rabbits named One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, and Eight.
  • Tortall Universe: Alanna, herself a twin, named her twins Alan and Alianne. Alan was the name of her late father, as well as the name she used while posing as a boy during her knight training. However, in an aversion, her twin's name was Thom. Which itself means twin.
  • Adele and Eleda from The Truth-Teller's Tale. The mirror-image names are a reference to them being Polar Opposite Twins, but the author also gave everyone else in their family palindromic names.
  • T*Witches: Cam and Alex's birth names are, respectively, Apolla and Artemis.
  • Warrior Cats: Graystripe and Millie's kits are named Bumblekit, Blossomkit, and Briarkit (which became Blossomfall, Bumblestripe, and Briarlight as adults).
  • The Witches of Eileanan:
    • Isabeau and Iseult.
    • Later, Iseult has twins named Owein and Olwynne.
  • Whyborne and his twin sister from Whyborne and Griffin. For the first half of the series, all we know about Whyborne's twin sister is that she died at birth, but we later find out her name is Persephone, matching her brother's first name, Percival.

    Live-Action TV 
  • 7th Heaven has the Camden babies Sam and Dave. Yes, that's a theme, Sam and Dave are the musical duo that sang "Soul Man".
    • Their names actually have double meaning because it is stated in the show that all the kids were named after people in the Bible, so you could say it's theme sibling naming.
  • The Amazing Race had the teams of Derek & Drew (Season 3) and Kami & Karli (Season 5).
  • Arrested Development has identical twins named "George Oscar" and, presumably, "Oscar George". note 
  • The elder twins of Baskets are named Chip and Dale. Not that they get along well like their namesakes.
  • Beverly Hills, 90210 twins: Brandon and Brenda.
  • Towards the end of Dark Angel, it was revealed that the heroine Max had a long-lost twin sister named Sam.
  • In Denji Sentai Megaranger, the not so twin Shibolena (絞れな) and Hizumina (歪な) share a name that are synonym with the word "twist". It's more like theme naming since the entire Nejirejia were named after the word "twist" too.
  • Porter and Preston on Desperate Housewives. Their siblings are Parker and Penny.
  • Doctor Who: "The Twin Dilemma", featured twins called Romulus and Remus. Unfortunately, the actors playing them had difficulty pronouncing the letter "R".
  • Euphoria gives us Troy and Roy.
  • In an episode of Full House Jessie and Becky attend a support group for parents of twins. One set of parents there named their two kids, Phil and Phyll. The father is also named Phil and the mother is named Phyllis.
  • House of the Dragon: Two members of the Kingsguard are a pair of twins named Erryk and Arryk Cargyll. Averted with Daemon Targaryen's daughters, Baela and Rhaena, who are twins but have dissimilar names, and the Lannister twins named Jason and Tyland, which seems to be a family tradition considering that another pair of Lannister twins (Jaime and Cersei) from Game of Thrones also have unique names.
  • In It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, the Reynolds twins are named Dennis and Deandra.
  • On Jane the Virgin, Petra and Rafael name their twin daughters Elsa and Anna. The theme isn't intentional; when Jane mentions Frozen, Petra doesn't make the connection, and once she does, figures Jane's the only one who will. Once the series had a Time Skip of three years, Elsa now goes by "Ellie" because Petra was annoyed by the Frozen jokes.
  • Lucifer (2016): Lucifer and his twin brother Michael were supposed to be this with the names God chose for them: Samael and Mikael. After his failed rebellion Lucifer rejected his given name, and Michael insists on a different pronunciation because he resents Lucifer so much.
  • On Modern Family Cameron and his sister Pameron.
  • Miss Piggy's nephews Andy and Randy Pig in Muppets Tonight. (They originally appeared in Muppet Classic Theater as two of The Three Little Pigs. The third pig was Miss Piggy herself, as "Sandy".)
  • From Newhart: "I'm Larry, this is my brother Darryl, and this is my other brother Darryl."
  • Northern Exposure: Joel Fleischman's twin brother Jules show up for one episode. Although it was strongly implied that Jules isn't real.
  • The Politician: Payton's brothers are Martin and Luther.
  • Popular featured the Tuna twins, April and May.
  • Power Rangers RPM has Half-Identical Twins Gem and Gemma. Likely justified as being codenames given to them by the government think tank they were abducted into - their friend in the tank was known as "Dr. K" and specifically could not remember her real name.
  • Privileged takes the "thematically similar" route with Rose and Sage.
  • Although they're not actually twins, the Identical Stranger nurse who replaced Laverne Roberts in Scrubs is called Shirley. As in Laverne & Shirley.
  • Sesame Street:
    • Chip and Dip are brothers, and they're implied to be from the same litter of kittens as they started speaking around the same time.
    • Bert has a twin brother named Bart.
    • Chuckie Sue the hamster has quadruplets named One, Two, Three, and Four.
  • Sister, Sister has Tia and Tamera, played by Tia and Tamera Mowry.
  • The Jukebox Band Twins on Shining Time Station are named Tex and Rex.
  • In The Sooty Show, Sweep has an identical twin brother named Swoop.
  • Denise of The Walking Dead (2010) had a twin brother named Dennis.
  • Utterly averted on The West Wing: Andy's twins are named by two different people, for completely different reasons, and in fact not even at the same time.
  • In the second series of ITV crime drama Whitechapel (TV Series), Ronnie Kray's twin sons who are not actually related to him, although they don't know this, Jimmy and Johnny Kray.
  • In an episode of Wings, Lowell is asked to name his pregnant cousin's child, and she has twins, which gives him some trouble since, Lowell being what he is, he thinks the names have to rhyme. Not long after, Joe jokingly throws out Nancy and Fancy, which Lowell immediately loves, leading to the line: "If in 25 years a very large man named Fancy Mather shows up to kill you, this is why."
  • No twins in Wonderfalls, but an example close to the Ben 10 quote above: The members of the Tyler family are named Karen, Darrin, Sharon, Aaron... and Jaye.

    Music 
  • Evelyn Evelyn:
    • The titular Conjoined Twins exaggerate this as they share the same name, Evelyn Evelyn. Subverted as their original names were "Eva" and "Lynn" but no one (including themselves) could remember which was which.
    • Evelyn Evelyn ended up working in a freak show act as teenagers. They befriended a set of conjoined elephants, Bimba and Kimba (also known as "Elephant Elephant").
  • Vocaloid:
    • Rin and Len Kagamine have their first names start with R and L, "right" and "left", and their names are pronounced similarly in Japanese. Also, their last name includes the character for "mirror" (kagami), representing their being mirror representations of each other.
    • Anon and Kanon are a pair of twins with rhyming names.
  • The Chieftains' Christmas album features the song "The St. Stephen's Day Murders". The opening lines mention the narrator's knowing two sisters with the surname Christmas, and the given names Dawn and Eve. He then wonders whether they grew up hating the holiday.

    Myths & Religion 
  • Classical Mythology:
    • Apollo and Artemis: Fraternal twin offspring of Zeus.
    • Heracles (Hercules) and his twin half-brother Iphicles, both sharing a suffix derived from kleia "glory". They were simultaneously conceived by Alcmene with Zeus (disguising himself as her husband) and with her husband Amphitryon. Note that Heracles was originally called Alcides, but renamed Heracles ("glory of Hera") to appease Zeus' wife.
    • Kastoras and Polydeukes: The original Gemini technically were part of a set of two boys and two girls born by Leda to Zeus and her husband Tyndareus. Averted with them, and also with their sisters Helen and Clytemnestra. And with their rivals, the twins Idas and Lynceus, sons of Arene, Zeus' brother Poseidon and Arene's husband Aphareus. However, their own names became twin theme names in themselves, usually in the Roman forms Castor and Pollux.
    • It is not clear if Phobos ("fear") and Deimos ("terror"), sons of Aphrodite and Ares, are actual twins, but they function as if they are. Their siblings Eros ("love") and Anteros (requited "love") also fit.
  • Romulus and Remus: Founders of Rome.

    Radio 
  • In What Does the K Stand For? Stephen K. Amos's twin sister is named Stephanie. (In real life, her name is Stella.)

    Roleplay 

    Tabletop Games 
  • Dungeons & Dragons: The Dvati are a humanoid race entirely composed of twins. Their names in their own language being The Unpronounceable, they very often adopt these types of names in the Common tongue to interact with non-Dvati — Xephon and Xephat, Lia and Kira, etc. They have, however, a tendency to forget which twin is using which name, and thus they will sometimes switch.

    Theatre 
  • Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors features two sets of twins who both have the same name. This is somewhat justified in that both pairs were raised separately.

    Toys 
  • From 1966 to 1971 the Barbie doll line had Tutti and Todd, Barbie's two kid siblings. Tutti has since been replaced with Stacie (or at least she's been renamed) while Todd sparsely appears.
  • Subverted and played straight in Ever After High. Daring and Darling Charming are not twins, despite their similar names. Darling is Daring's little sister and Dexter's twin.
  • Every pair of twins in My Little Pony history is this. Dibbles and Nibbles, Doodles and Noodles, Sniffles and Snookums, Milkweed and Tumbleweed, Dart and Dash, Stardust and Moondust, Jabber and Jebber (renamed Tickles and Giggles in the UK), Sleep Tight and Sleepy Head, etc.

    Video Games 
  • Single-Minded Twins Timmy and Tommy from Animal Crossing series.
  • Maori's twin sisters Koito and Kouta in Arcana Heart. It's more obvious in Japanese, their names both start with the kanji for 'small'.
  • Shahar (or Shazar) and Shalim from Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines.
  • This can be chosen by the player in Astral Chain if the female protagonist is picked, as one of the default names for her is "Akane", which starts with Ak like the protagonist's twin sibling, "Akira".
  • Big Bang Beat's Kendo and Kyudo Nakanishi are named for their respective fighting styles - Kendo is the "way of the sword" (practiced with the 'shinai' that Kendo uses as well as actual swords), and Kyudo is "the way of the bow", or archery.
  • Django and Sabata from Boktai are named after two famous protagonist of western movies, quite fitting the western-like theme of the game.
  • Bubble Bobble games: Bub(blun/by) and Bob(blun/by), the main protagonists in the games. And Coro(ron/n) and Kulu(lun/n), that female Beta Couple in Bubble Symphony.
    • In Bubble Bobble Plus (WiiWare), Pab and Peb, a different female Beta Couple. (refer to Title Operations Guide in Wii Shop Channel)
  • Lei-Lei and Ling-Ling, twin Chinese girls who use a Dangerous Forbidden Technique to fuse into a Chinese Vampire in Darkstalkers.
  • The Edison twins Jed and Ned in Day of the Tentacle.
    • The whole Edison family gets in on this. In total, there are Dr. Fred, Weird Ed, Edna, Dead Cousin Ted, Red, Ned, Jed, Zed, Zedna and Ved (The latter three being in the far future, explaining their use of Xtreme Kool Letterz.)
  • Dante and Vergil from Devil May Cry, named after the two protagonists of the Divine Comedy.
  • Diner Dash Adventures has Grandpa Norbert and his twin brother, Dorbert.
  • Billy and Jimmy Lee from the Double Dragon series. The NES version of the third game infamously misspelled the former's name as "Bimmy" in the 2-Player version of the opening intro.
    • Their counterparts in River City Ransom are named Randy and Andy, the Dragon Twins. In the Japanese Kunio-kun games, their names are Ryūichi ("first dragon") and Ryūji ("second dragon") Hattori.
  • In Earthbound Beginnings, Ninten's little sisters are named Minnie and Mimmie.
  • Ensemble Stars! has the Aoi twins, Hinata and Yuta.
  • While the cast of Eternal Sonata falls under something more like Population Theme Naming (so that March and Salsa aren't particularly noteworthy), a better example, similar to Kat and Ana above, can be found in Tenuto's fields early in the game: a pair of twin girls named Sop and Rano.
  • Fallout series:
  • Fatal Frame loves doing this with twins, particularly noticeable in Fatal Frame II, where twins are important in Minakami Village. There's Mio and Mayu; Sae and Yae; as well as Itsuki and Mutsuki. The only characters this doesn't apply to are twins found in a spin-off manga.
  • Fatal Fury: The Jin twins are named respectively Chonshu and Chonrei.
  • Final Fantasy:
  • Fire Emblem:
  • Fuga: Melodies of Steel has Hack and his twin sister Chick. Both are single-syllable names ending in "ck".
  • Though not twins, Gears of War gave us brothers Anthony, Benjamine and Clayton Carmine. A rather dark Running Gag involves one Carmine dying in each game - though after voting it was averted with Clay.
  • Genshin Impact has Fontaine-based magician duo Lyney and Lynette.
  • Barzum and Baizli Soleil of Hiveswap and Hiveswap Friendsim, named after Barnum and Bailey respectively.
  • Alex and Ash from Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number, both unisex names* that start with "a".
  • Ami and Mami Futami from The Idolmaster franchise.
  • Browser game KanColle has sisters Ikazuchi and Inazuma, whose names mean "thunder" and "lightning" respectively. The fandom gave them the collective nickname "Raiden", combining the kanji of their names into the name of the Shinto god of storms.
  • I Was a Teenage Exocolonist: In a case of theme triplet naming, Anemone's triplet younger brothers are named Cirrus, Cumulus and Nimbus, which are all cloud types.
  • Hannah and Hinnah from The Last Remnant.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time has Ganondorf's surrogate mothers, Koume and Kotake, who are named after a pair of elderly twins in a Japanese mystery novel.
  • Kirara and Sarara Hoshisora from Magical Girl Kirara & Sarara ~Dioskroi of Starlit Sky~ (better known for their appearances in Magical Battle Arena) have this going on, namely with their names in kanji looking nearly identical to each other and ending in "rara".
  • The Amane twins from Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story (although Tsukuyo's legitimate surname being Akatsuki due to their parents' divorce) named Tsukuyo and Tsukasa, both written with the kanji of "moon". "Tsukuyo" means "full moonlit night" while Tsukasa is synonymous to "birth of a new moon". Upon meeting as teenagers after being separated as young children, the similarity of their names is one of the things that tips them off to their being siblings.
    • The Yuzuki twins has both Hotori and Rion having "ri" in their names, even though they're not rhyme.
  • Mega Man:
    • Vent & Aile of Mega Man ZX. French for "Wind" & "Wing", respectively. Though they aren't twins so much as alternate universe equivalents of each other (or something).
    • And of course Rock & Roll from the original. They're not quite twins, as Roll was built a bit later, but it still fits.
    • There's also Crea and Prea (create and pray) from Mega Man Zero, named by Alouette.
    • And Mega Man Battle Network has the Hikari twins, Netto (熱斗) and Saito (彩斗). Both names share a kanji character and are both puns on computer terms - "netto" (ネット) is short for "intaanetto" (インターネット), Japanese for "Internet", and "saito" (サイト) means "web site". In the English version, their names were changed to Lan and Hub, both computer terms.
  • Solid and Liquid Snake (of Metal Gear), along with their third brother Solidus Snake, are triplets whose military code names reference different states of matter (and their second name, Snake, was taken from their father, who used the code name Naked Snake at one point). This has led to jokes (and more than a few Urban Legends Of Zelda) that there may be a fourth Gas Snake out there somewhere (and knowing Kojima this may very well be possible). note 
    • Interestingly enough, Solid and Liquid go by "Snake" and "Liquid", respectively, averting this trope in dialogue at least. Also, this trope is played straight with their birth names, David and Eli, being references to The Bible.
  • Lucas and Claus in Mother 3. They were actually named after the protagonists of Agota Kristof's novel The Notebook. Lucas and Claus are anagrams of each other. Not that you can tell when they're written in katakana.
  • Devola and Popola, the Miko twins from Nier, besides sharing the last syllable, are named after a weapon from Drakengard, which was from the same creators.
  • The Neptunia series has Rom and Ram.
  • In online game worlds, the Papa's Gameria series has Xandra and Xolo, even though Xandra first appeared three games earlier than her brother.
  • Caroline and Justine from Persona 5. Both of the twins' names come from characters in Frankenstein, like the other Velvet Room attendants, and because of the way Caroline is pronounced, they rhyme with each other.
  • Pokémon
    • Many members of the Twins trainer class in the series use this trope, especially in the Gen II games. Twins Ann & Anne are probably the most extreme example. They also tend to use identical, similar, or complementary Pokémon.
    • Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire has the twin leaders of the Mossdeep Gym, Tate and Liza. Their names when combined together (Liza-Tate) sound like "levitate", which alludes to their specialty in Psychic-types.
    • Also first seen in Ruby and Sapphire are the Pokémon, Plusle and Minun. They are Electric-type rabbits which look very similar to each other and have a positive/negative charge theme, which is reflected in their names.
    • Pokémon Black and White introduces the leaders of the Battle Subway, twin brothers Ingo and Emmet. Their Japanese names (Nobori and Kudari, respectively) are derived from the Japanese terms for up-train (上り, nobori) and down-train (下り, kudari). Their English names follow suit: Ingo is from "in-going" (as in an inbound train), and Emmet is a corruption of "emit" (alluding to an outbound train).
  • Puyo Puyo has the ghostly twins Yu and Rei, yūrei being the Japanese word for ghost.
  • Serena and Sera (Suu and Muu in the Japanese version) from Rune Factory 2.
  • The Sims 2: The University expansion pack has Aldric and Almeric Davis, twins who attend La Fiesta Tech. Their names both start with "Al" and mean "ruler" or "prince".
  • Splatoon has the Squid Sisters, whose names are always some sort of Pun in different localizations, though they're actually cousins:
    • Their names in Japanese are Aori and Hotaru, which are two species of squid.
    • They're Callie and Marie in English, a pun on calimari.
    • In French, they're Ayo and Oly, based on aioli sauce, which is frequently served with seafood.
    • In Spanish, they're Mar and Tina, meaning "sea" and "tub" respectively. It's also a pun on "Martina", a given Spanish name.
    • In German, they're Aioli (the aforementioned sauce) and Limone ("lemon"), both being popular condiments for seafood.
  • Gouken (Strong Fist) and Gouki (Strong Demon) from the Street Fighter series, although this is Lost in Translation due to the latter becoming "Akuma" in the international versions.
    • Also, Yun and Yang
  • Super Robot Wars
  • Ariel and Mariel in Summon Night: Swordcraft Story not only have similar names, but dress the same (though in different colors). At one point Mariel refers to Ariel as "big sister", but as they are specifically called twins, this is probably a title of respect.
  • Gauche and Droite from Tales of Vesperia, respectively mean "left" and "right" in French. They even wield swords in their respective hands.
  • Redmond and Blutarch in the backstory for Team Fortress 2 just so happens to be the founders of the rivalling companies Reliable Excavation Demolition and Builder's League United, aka RED and BLU. You will also notice that the first three letters of the brothers' names synchronize pretty well with the acronyms for their companies. And now their long lost third-triplet brother, Gray, who grows up to command a machine army.
  • Kat and Ana of WarioWare. Yes, they're ninjas. But are they better?
  • In The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, two of the fighters in the Companions guild are fraternal twin brothers Vilkas and Farkas. This doesn't seem like the trope, but it actually is - both names mean "wolf" in different (real world) languages.
  • The fourth game in the Detectives United series introduces Mortimer Brown, the identical twin brother of team member Dorian Brown. Dorian's name means "child of the sea," while Mortimer's means "dead sea." Perhaps not coincidentally, Mortimer is the Evil Twin.
  • Wick has ghost twins Tim and Tom, though Word of God tells us their full names are Timas and Tomothy, an obvious play on Thomas and Timothy.
  • Dragon Quest:
    • Dragon Quest IV has twin sisters Maya and Meena.
    • Dragon Quest V: The Hero's twin children's default names are partly derived from their grandparents on their father's side: Pankraz -> Parry and Mada -> Madchen. Their Japanese names are Ten ("Heaven") and Sora ("Sky")
  • Xenoblade Chronicles 3: The twins Number Seven and Number Thirteen are both "named" numbers typically associated with luck. The fact that kind, compassionate, but unexpressive Number Seven is named after the lucky number, while brash, violent, and cheerful Number Thirteen is named after the unlucky number is likewise probably not a coincidence.

    Visual Novels 

    Web Animation 
  • Happy Tree Friends has the thieving raccoon twins Lifty and Shifty.
  • Fuwawa and Mococo Abyssgard, the Twin Demonic Guard Dogs of hololive English. Not only are their names structured similarly, but they both derive from two Japanese onomatopoeia for soft, fluffy objects: "fuwafuwa" and "mokomoko".
  • In Red vs. Blue, there are a pair of twin Freelancers codenamed North Dakota and South Dakota.
  • RWBY: In the prequel Yellow Trailer, Yang finds herself fighting two twin girls called Melanie and Miltia, who are identical twins that are distinguished by the fact that Melanie wears white and is a kick-boxer while Miltia wears red and is a fist-fighter.
    • There’s also Yang’s mother and her and Ruby’s uncle, fraternal twins named Raven and Qrow (pronounced Crow) respectively.

    Webcomics 
  • In Alice and the Nightmare, the Vena twins both have initials DTV.
  • Cirque Royale has the twins Claudette and Charlie Klownikov, who are named after their father's Kingston's late parents.
  • In Drowtales, Quain'tana Val'Sarghress' fraternal twin eldest children are Mel'arnach and Kel'noz. Word of God states that they were originally just Mel and Kel, reflecting Quain's total lack of creativity in naming her children.
  • Also not exactly twins, but... Ellen and Elliot from El Goonish Shive. Justified as Elliot coined the name by feminizing his own when he was first turned into a girl.
  • In The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob!, Bob nicknames Molly's clone/sister Galatea "Golly", leading Molly to comment, "We're a Little Richard song!"
    • And the third "sister" is named Djaliana, or "Jolly".
  • Thoss and Thlassa in Juathuur.
  • Muted: Every set of Severin twin sisters shares the same first letter of their names.
    • Abrielle, Athalie
    • Sophia, Silvia
    • Chloe, Camille
  • Sally and Sammy in LnM. Their nicknames for each other, L and M, come from being the only letters in their names that are different.
  • Magical 12th Graders: Despite not actually being twins, Yeorum and her older sister Gyeowul fit this trope quite neatly. "Gyeowul" means winter and "Yeorum" means summer, so it's often assumed they were born in winter and summer respectively. The truth is that they were both born in December, albeit a year apart. Yeorum was just named to fit Gyeowul's theme.
  • Transmission: Russell and Reggie (Rus and Reg) are the alliterative version.
  • The Same-Sex Triplets born to Robin and Leslie in Shortpacked! are named Abby, Tabby and Gabby, but these are just nicknames and their full names are Abigail, Tabitha and Gabriella respectively.
  • Splitting Image: The main character and his brother, Mortimer and Dylan, have names themed after water that aren't obvious at first, meaning "stillwater" and "tide".
  • Nale and Elan in The Order of the Stick. Nale's the Evil Twin, Elan's the Good one. Elan, being the Cloud Cuckoolander he is, wonders if there's a Neutral "twin" out there named Lean.
  • Unsounded:
    • Twin sisters Lori and Iori were given rhyming names by their parents before being sent to the shrine.
    • Kept twins Siya and Sara have another pair of similar names, and it's revealed all kept twins are given such names.
  • Welcome to Room #305: Yoona and her twin brother Yoon Sung.
  • In Yokoka's Quest, Yin and Yang are twins, named after the concepts of yin and yang. The Poker Gang are quadruplets, named after their respective card suits in French. While we don't know Yokoka's pre-amnesia name, judging from the Moon Clan's pattern of naming after stars, it's likely that she's named after a star in the Orion constellations like her twin brother Mao (Meissa).

    Websites 
  • From Out of Context D&D Quotes:
    "Snork, Bork, Pork, and Chork" — the orc quadruplets.
  • Toki and Doki and Brownie and Brittani. The former is a play on Japanese word for "sometimes" (tokidoki) and in the case of the latter, well, we don't really know where that came from, though that could be used to to denote their personalities as well as physical differences (Brownie is a blonde and Brittani is a brunette).

    Web Videos 
  • Vax'ildan and Vex'ahlia from Critical Role. It's more obvious because they usually go by Vax and Vex, which neither the players nor the DM can ever keep straight. Amusingly, their players are named Liam and Laura, and share a birthday (but in different years), which was why they decided to play twins in the first place. Many new fans assume the actors are related until informed otherwise due to their sibling dynamic in-character and at the table.

    Western Animation 
  • 6teen's Clones are named Kirsten, Kristen and Chrissy, though despite looking identical, none of them are actually related. As a side note, the similarity of the former two's names resulted in their voice actresses regularly confusing each other's lines, with a good chunk of these flubs accidently remaining in the final episodes.
  • Iggy Koopa and Lemmy Koopa, two of the Koopalings from Super Mario Bros. 3 were renamed Hip and Hop Koopa in The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3, and are portrayed as Single-Minded Twins.
  • According to the American Dad! episode "White Rice", Hayley had a twin brother named Bailey who died after Stan refused to vaccinate him.
  • In Angelina Ballerina, the Pinkpaws twins are named Priscilla and Penelope.
  • Around the World with Willy Fog: Dr. Frik and Dr. Frok, German twin archaeologists working at the same excavation in Egypt.
  • Tommy and Timmy from Arthur.
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender:
    • Azula's elderly Creepy Twin teachers Lo and Li from Avatar: The Last Airbender, playing off a Chinese phrase that means "to mumble endlessly".
    • In The Legend of Korra, sequel to The Last Airbender, Korra's fraternal twin cousins, Desna and Eska, are named after rivers: the Desna is a river in Russia and Ukraine that flows into the Dnieper, and the Eska is a river in southern Alaska. The third season also introduces Suyin Beifong's twin sons Wei and Wing.
  • In Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, a pair of twins act as Co-Dragons, and are known collectively as "Dee-Dee". Their real names, revealed at the end, are Delia and Deidre Dennis.
  • Two-Face's twin henchmen in his Batman: The Animated Series origin story are called Min and Max. The novelization, Dual to the Death gives them the full names of Marvin and Maxwell Janus, and also adds the henchwomen Heidi and Lois Twain (Hi and Lo). Note also that both surnames are duality-related.
  • Ben 10: Ben and Gwen, who are cousins, but were nonetheless born on the same day. However, it seems the Tennysons just wanted every member of that generation to have a name that ends with "en", as we later learn in an episode of Alien Force that Gwen has an older brother named Ken.
    Kevin: [laughs] What?! Ken? Your brother's name is Ken? Gwen and Ken Tennyson? What's your folks' names? Sven and Jen? I'm talking to you, Ben.
  • In Biker Mice from Mars, the episode "We Don't Need No Stinkin' City" features the Loogey Brothers, who are individually known as Hacka and Honka.
  • Bob's Burgers: Played with for the Pesto twins Andy and Ollie, whose names both end with an "e" sound but don't perfectly rhyme. It's never mentioned whether their names are simply shortened forms of Andrew and Oliver or not. The scheme is shared by their father and brother, both named Jimmy.
  • In Season 3, episode 14, of The Boondocks it turns out that Uncle Ruckus' siblings are named Daryl and Darrell.
  • Robin and Rosie in the British stop-motion series Cockleshell Bay.
  • Camp Lazlo provides an interesting subversion. Of the loon twins, the most commonly referred-to one is "Ping" which makes you think the other's name would be "Pong". In actuality, though, the first is named "Ping Pong" and the other is named "Dave". It is, however, played straight with Chip and Skip, the dung beetle twins.
  • Baby Tugs and Baby Hugs from Care Bears.
    • John and Dawn from the second movie also count.
  • The Crumpets has the Trickster Twins Bother and Blister, an alliterative and pun (to brother and sister) example.
  • Defenders of the Earth: The fourth episode in the series reveals that not only is the Phantom's real name Kit Walker, he has an older brother named Kurt. This is a rare example of siblings who are not twins being given similar sounding names.
  • DuckTales (1987): Huey, Dewey, and Louie, the triplet nephews of Donald Duck and grand-nephews of Scrooge McDuck. The reboot subverts this by revealing their full names are Hubert, Dewford, and Llewellyn. Not that you'll ever see the kids use them.
    • The reboot also introduces the triplets' mother Della, who is Donald's twin sister.
  • The Fairly OddParents!:
    • Wanda and Blonda
    • Tommy and Tammy aren't confirmed to be twins, but it's quite possible.
  • Tomax and Xamot, the twin leaders of COBRA's Crimson Guard, in G.I. Joe.
  • He-Man and the Masters of the Universe/She-Ra: Princess of Power: The title characters, real names Adam and Adora, fit in both their normal and heroic identities.
  • Gravity Falls:
  • Grojband has Kin and Kon Kujira, although the two are Polar Opposite Twins in nearly every way. Unusually however, the other four main characters also have matching name pairs despite both members of each pair being unrelated to one another: Corey & Laney and Trina & Mina (although in the latter pair's case, All There in the Manual material says that Mina was originally named Bernadette until Trina forced her to change her name so they would rhyme).
  • Johnny Test:
    • In Susan and Mary Test's case, this trope is averted even though they are identical twins who have similar interests
    • Mr. Black and Mr. White also qualify, even though they clearly are not related and their names do not rhyme, but they are named after the colors of black and white. These could be codenames however as their real names are unknown.
  • Alexander and Alexandra Cabot on Josie and the Pussycats.
  • Inverted in Kaeloo with the bunny twins. One is called Pretty and the other is called Eugly (pronounced like the word "ugly").
  • Kim Possible:
    • Kim's younger brothers, the twins Jim and Tim Possible. Their father James Timothy "Jim" Possible has a non-twin brother called Slim. In one episode, mention was made of an ancestor named Mim (short for Miriam). The Possible family got a lot of mileage out of that rhyme scheme.
    • Shego's Super Family Team already has Family Theme Naming with her brothers Hego and Mego, but it gets a bit silly when her other brothers, who are twins, are identified jointly as "Wego."
  • Ang and Ling Jouyan in Legend Of The Dragon — because Ang is Yang and Ling is Yin.
  • Vex'ahlia and Vax'ildan from The Legend of Vox Machina — Vex and Vax for short. Scanlan admits in his introductory song that he can never remember which is which ("He's Vax." "She's Vex.")
  • The twin sisters from Littlest Pet Shop (2012) are really Brittany Biskit (White Hair) and Whittany Biskit (Black Hair) who are known as the Biskit Twins.
  • The Loud House has the Loud twins Lana and Lola, though downplayed as their siblings all have L-names too, and their sisters Lisa and Luna also have names ending in "A".
  • Magiki has Marie and Antoinette, who are named after Marie Antoinette, the last queen of France before the French Revolution.
  • Miraculous Ladybug:
    • Alya's younger sisters, Ella and Etta.
    • There's also Adrien's mother Émilie and her sister Amélie.
  • Muppet Babies: To add another female to the cast, Scooter was given a twin sister named Skeeter.
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
    • Brothers Flim and Flam from the episode "The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000".
    • Pound Cake and his twin sister Pumpkin Cake, introduced in the episode "Baby Cakes".
    • The IDW comics revealed that Cheerilee has a twin sister in Manehatten named "Cherry Blossom"note . Both often call each other "Cheerie" and "Cherry".
  • The Owl House has Amity's older siblings, the twins Edric and Emira. Made more confusing by the fact that Amity calls them "Ed" and "Em".
  • Fraternal twin poodles Ootsie and Bootsie from PB&J Otter.
  • Tessa and Vanessa of Pepper Ann. Their Day In The Limelight episode "Vanessa Less Tessa" has a Show Within a Show with protagonists Gina and Tina.
  • Molly and Polly from Pigeon Street ("Molly and Polly, they're two of a kind / They look both the same when they're seen from behind / But when they turn round then it's easy to see / Who's Molly with an M and Polly with a P").
  • The Pound Puppies (1980s) episode "Pups on the Loose" featured a case of theme triplet naming, where Rusty and Lucy's three puppies were named Andy, Mandy, and Candy.
  • The Proud Family had fraternal twin babies BeBe and CeCe, which not only rhyme, but are a reference to Gospel music artists BeBe and CeCe Winans, a brother and sister duet group. Subverted in the revival, where their real names are revealed to be Benjamin and Cecilia.
  • Rated "A" for Awesome has a pair of Alpha Bitch twin sisters both named Trisha.
    • In "When Mascots Attack" they're shown to have an identical cousin also named Trisha.
  • Rugrats:
    • Phil and Lil. Subverted in that their full names (Phillip and Lillian) don't rhyme, but their short forms do.
    • The series also features brothers Drew and Stu Pickles, the respective fathers of Angelica, and Tommy and Dil. They're not twins, but their names do rhyme, at least in their shortened forms.
    • Phil and Lil have cousins who are twins the same age as them, named Hedley (girl) and Smedley (boy).
  • The Simpsons:
    • Sherri and Terri, two twins that go to Springfield Elementary.
    • Patty and Selma are an aversion.
    • Kang and Kodos are also an interesting topic, considering they both look alike, but whether they are even related is still up for debate.
  • The SpongeBob SquarePants episode "Rodeo Daze" mentions that Sandy has a twin brother in Texas named Randy.
    • In "Sandy's Nutty Nieces", Sandy's triplet nieces are introduced and are named Hazelnut, Pistachio, and Macadamia- after types of nuts.
  • Strawberry Shortcake has Polar Opposite Twins Sweet Grapes and Sour Grapes.
  • Super Noobs:
    • Super Noobs has alien warriors Memnock and Zenblock. They play with this trope even more through the names they give to the human disguises they have to use in public to avoid having their identities exposed, which are Bob and Rob. Their nicknames, Mem and Zen are however subverted because the last letters of their nicknames do not really match but come in pretty close. They are also identical to each other, only differing in skin color, teeth, and nose shape but whether they are related to each other or not is debatable
    • Also the titular characters of the fictional game "Candy Mama", which only appears in the series are named Oakie and Doke.
  • Thomas & Friends has this in spades:
    • Bill and Ben
    • Donald and Douglas
    • Mighty and Mac.
    • Max and Monty.
    • Averted with Annie and Clarabel.
    • Another aversion with Arry and Bert.
    • Downplayed with the Diesel Works engines: Den and Dart. They're not twins but they often behave like Single-Minded Twins and are almost never seen apart.
  • Wilykit and Wilykat from Thundercats 1985 and ThunderCats (2011).
  • Total Drama:
  • Transformers:
    • The original names for the Lamborghini Twins were Sideswipe and Spinout.
    • Spinout become Sunstreaker, which is still a bit similar... Both can be abbreviated to SS.
    • Jetstorm and Jetfire, the jet twins. Their combined form breaks the pattern, being called Safeguard.
  • The protagonists of The Twins of Destiny are named Jules and Julie. Jules says that their French adoptive father named them both in honor of Jules Verne.
  • Thematic example with Nancy and Drew Quymn in The Venture Brothers. They are, of course, named after Nancy Drew.
  • Whatever Happened to... Robot Jones? has the Yogman Twins, whose first names are Lenny and Denny.
  • Yin Yang Yo!: Yin and Yang anyone?

    Real Life 
  • http://www.behindthename.com/twins.php is a page on such theme naming.
  • Masashi Kishimoto, author of Naruto, has a twin brother named Seishi Kishimoto, author of 666 Satan. The last character in both given names is the same.
  • The Social Security list of popular names for twins shows that this is distinctly a case of Truth in Television. Nearly all of them rhyme, alliterate, fit into a theme, or are names of famous siblings. This could be a case of statistics not telling the whole truth. It makes sense that two similar names would be used on more sets of twins than two unrelated names. And the numbers aren't that big; less than two percent of the sets of twins born per year have name sets on that list.
  • Mark Antony and Cleopatra's twins, Alexander Helios and Cleopatra Selene. Helios is the god of the sun; Selene is the goddess of the moon.
  • The famous newspaper advice columnists Abigail Van Buren and Ann Landers were identical twins. Their real names were Pauline Esther (the original Abby — the current columnist is her daughter) and Esther Pauline (the late Ann).
  • New Zealand had a case where the parents wanted to name their twins Fish and Chips. This was blocked by the courts. The courts did allow a request from another set of parents to call their twins Benson and Hedges. More details can be seen here
  • The twin grandsons of Earl Mountbatten of Burma, who were with him when the IRA blew up his boat in 1979, were Nicholas Timothy Knatchbull (who died) and Timothy Nicholas Knatchbull (who survived).
  • Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony named their twin children Max and Emme. As in Dragon Tales.
  • It was apparently somewhat common for Romans to name one kid Xxxx and the other Anti-Xxxx. In other words, one kid was defined as being the other one's opposite. The Romans were very uncreative about naming in general and had a tendency to give all of their daughters the same name, so this probably wouldn't have stood out.
  • Rami Malek (known for his role in The Pacific, Mr. Robot and Night at the Museum, just in case if you don't recognize him) has a twin brother named Sami Malek.
  • Actress Jill Hennessey has a twin sister named Jacqueline. In other words, "Jack" and "Jill".
  • Ronnie and Reggie Kray, notorious London gangsters.
  • Back in the Middle Ages, "Adam and Eve" were common as twin names. Fridge Logic makes you wonder why parents were naming siblings after a married couple, however, until you realize that Eve was a clone created from cells taken from Adam's side, and therefore they were genetic identical twins. (Not that anyone in the Middle Ages would have thought of that.)
  • Legendary Mixed Martial Arts fighters and identical twins Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira and Antônio Rogério Nogueira, with only their middle names being slightly different. To avoid confusion, most fans refer to them as "Big Nog" and "Lil Nog" (given that Rogério cuts weight to fight at light heavyweight and his "big brother" doesn't), or less commonly, "Diet Nog" (Rogério has even been seen wearing a Diet Nog t-shirt). They've even been referred as this by the announcers on TV (more for Lil Nog, Rodrigo can also be differentiated by his nickname Minotauro).
  • Funny enough it's subverted in Danish culture. The strange thing about this is that many, if not most, normal siblings have similar sounding names but in case of twins, parents are apparently obeying the advices of child psychology.
  • Kin Narita and Gin Kanie, the oldest twins ever (lived to be 107 and 108 respectively) - Kin means "gold" and Gin means "silver".
  • Averted with Bill and Tom Kaulitz — though, amusingly enough, the name Tom means, simply, "Twin".
  • Totally played straight in China, where not only twins are subjects of the trope, but entire families. Chinese names are usually two-part names, with two elements. In twins and often in non-twinned siblings, the same element is often used for either the first or second part of the given name, and then different elements used for the other. Well known examples include Madam Chiang Kai-shek, whose birth name was Soong May-Ling. Her sisters were Soong Ai-Ling and Soong Ching-Ling.
  • NFL linemen LaShawn Maurkice Pouncey and James Michael Pouncey use their middle names professionally, possibly to invoke this trope.
  • Swedish songwriter (among other things) Emil Norlander named his twin sons Tore and Nore. Besides going through life as part of a rhyme, Nore Norlander was also stuck with an Alliterative Name yet didn't get to be a superhero.
  • Mariah Carey has twins and named the girl Monroe (after Marilyn), and the boy Moroccan (after...the style of furniture).
  • Yoruba (Nigerian) culture has specific names for twins: Taiwo and Kehinde (literally, "first" and "second" born of twins respectively, regardless of gender). Many used them as middle names because every 5th person you met probably shared your name!note 
  • All five Dionne Quintuplets had the name "Marie" somewhere in their names, for the Virgin Mary: Marie Reine Alma, Yvonne Édouilda Marie, Annette Lillianne Marie, Cécile Marie Émilda, and Émilie Marie Jeanne.
  • César and Constantin Faucher, twin generals from the French Revolution.
  • Israel has not one, but three sets of triplets named Dor, Or and Mor.
  • The dictator Sulla had fraternal twins named Faustus Cornelius and Fausta Cornelia.
  • Twin brothers Moses and Aaron Wilcox, whom the Cleveland suburb of Twinsburg was named for as they were the town's earliest investors, were named after the brothers from the Book of Exodus who freed the Jewish slaves.
  • Miloš Forman's twin sons by his third/last wife were born in 1999, the same year his penultimate film Man on the Moon was released. Their names are Jim and Andy. (Not-so-incidentally, their namesakes actually share a birthday.)

Alternative Title(s): Twin Theme Naming

Top