One Steve Limit / Webcomics

• This xkcd has an Alt Text which jokes that, when so many hurricanes form in one season that all 21 pre-set names, all letters of the Greek alphabet, and every single other word in the Oxford English Dictionary has been exhausted, and the hurricanes appear in such a pattern that it becomes impossible to number them, the exasperated meteorological community will collectively throw their hands in the air and name every single hurricane as "Hurricane Steve". Your forecast for this evening: Steve.
• Played with in Girl Genius. One pair of characters that have the same name turn out to be the same person.
  • The comic does feature two unrelated minor characters named "Wilhelm": Aaronev Wilhelm Sturmvoraus, the sixth Prince Aaronev of Sturmhalten, who uses his middle name to distinguish himself from his ancestors, and Wilhelm Diamant, the Mechanicsburg town-official in charge of shuttling prisoners into Castle Heterodyne. This isn't too surprising, since in real-world 19th-century Central Europe at least, Wilhelm isn't just a common name, it's the common name. Complicating matters is one of those aforementioned prisoners, Sanaa Wilhelm; it's ultimately revealed that it's not her real surname, and she used Diamant's name when assuming her alias.
  • In addition, the full name of Aaronev Wilhelm Sturmvoraus' only son is Aaronev Tarvek Sturmvoraus, though he is generally only referred to as Tarvek to avoid confusion.
  • More atypically, one of Agatha's ancestors and one of the rogue Sparks who attack Mechanicsburg share the first name "Igneous".
• Alice has main characters named "Joan" and "Joanne".
• The Wotch has Samantha Wolf and Samantha Smith, Allison Taverner and Allison Wise, and Miranda West and Sarah West (not related).
• Tailsteak's apparently currently defunct Band is composed of Paul Henderson, Brian Smith the willowy übergeek, Brian Smith the hulking drummer, and Tyler, the alien/demon/squid. Neither Smith ever reveals his middle name or answers to a nickname, having sworn a "blood oath" to that effect.
• The Order of the Stick:
  • When Roy announces that he's here to get revenge for the murder of his father's master, Fyron, the villain asks him to be more specific, since he's killed five people named Fyron in that town alone.
  • Certain "nameless" titles can also have this problem, as Nale learns while looking for a new wizard:
  Warthog: I think you'll really like this next one. We call him...The One Who Must Not Be Named.
  Nale: Another one? Good gods, man, that's eleven so far who Must Not Be Named. Not To mention the four Who Must Not Be Looked At, the two Who Must Not Be Spoken To, and the one Who Must Not Be Toilet-Trained!
  Thog: Thog got to use a mop!
  • An ironic self-depreciation occurs in the preface to the print version of book 4, "Don't Split the Party". It features a helpful diagram of the comic's enormous cast and the tangled web of different kinds of relationships between the characters; one of them is "Names Confusingly Similar", connecting Thog with Thor, Durkon with Dorukan, and the Dark One with the Creature in the Dark.
• Narbonic features a secret society of people called Dave and a woman with the same name as her mother because she's a clone.
• Troop 37 has two spoiled cheerleaders named Melissa with nickname Missy.
• Arthur, King of Time and Space uses a variant spelling for Iseulte of Ireland to distinguish her from Isolde of Brittany. It keeps all the Elaines, though, and the "false Guenevere" in the fairy tale arc (in the contemporary arc she's called Fascha, and is Guenevere's full sister).
• Parodied in a Ctrl+Alt+Del strip.
• El Goonish Shive parodies this here.
  • Also, Immortals pick their names when they are reborn, and it's usually mythology based. Apparently, the hissy fits when two Zeuses meet is hysterical. The immortal who explains this, possibly in order to spite his former self for entering into a permanent Geas, then names himself 'Zeus' after being reborn.
  • At one point, Susan complains that "Tom is a jackass". Tom—but not the one Susan meant—takes offense momentarily. A Running Gag that began in The Rants and eventually migrated into the comics is that this Tom is in fact a shining paragon of goodness, unlike the Tom Susan was actually complaining about.
• Kevin & Kell:
  • There were three different background characters named "Carl" before a rhino named Carl was introduced as a teammate of Rudy's on the Beige University competitive gardening team.
  • There's also two Georges: Fiona's father George Fennec and a gopher named George who transferred to said gardening team in 2019.
  • And there's two Franks: Kell's father Franklin Dewclaw, and her long-time lion associate Frank Mangle.
  • Vin Vulpin, Rudy's bully and half-brother, and years later, long after Vin was Put on a Bus, Vin, Rudy's self aware, self-driving car. Lindesfarne, on her blog, noted the same name.
• Kevin Pease's Absurd Notions, during its college run, reversed this for a joke. (The archive commentary notes that the real joke is the ubiquity of the name "Jennifer" in the early seventies. Later on in the strip two Jen Greens appear, but they quickly get the initialism nicknames Jyg and Jag.)
• Mountain Time is rife with people (and monsters) named Paul. There's even a Paula or two.
• Melonpool's cast is the comedic version of this trope. First you have Ralph (evil genius) and Ralphie (Ralph's good clone). And then you have Sam (the talking dog), and Sammy (the giant talking hamster). Sammy's very far from intelligent, though, and just picked the first name he liked.
• Questionable Content:
  • Lampshaded - when we are introduced to Marigold, she mentions the name "Angus". When recurring character Angus later shows up, Dora says "I thought she mentioned your name!". Granted, there aren't a lot of people named "Angus", but still...
  • One storyline features Dora, suspecting Cosette is cursed, calling in an elderly witch named "Claire." Fast forward a few hundred strips, and a very different 24-year-old named Claire finds her way into the main cast.
• Parodied in Ansem Retort. When the main cast (with Riku) went into hiding, there was a supporting fill in cast, with Rikku. Darth Maul just referred to her as "girl Rikku".
• The Problem Sleuth story of MS Paint Adventures had a ball with this; by the end there were at least 6 variations of Pickle Inspector, numerous Ace Dicks, and a few Problem Sleuths, and multiple timelines for all of them. This resulted in an occasional page dedicated to explaining who was doing what. Justified in that they were all variants of the original characters.
  • Homestuck subverts this in a similar way. Objectively, no characters share a name, despite the long list of them. (It helps that the two main sets of characters are separated by culture and species, allowing a lot of Aerith and Bob.) However, many characters interact with their own future or past personas.
  • Plus, presumably all game concept characters, such as Jack Noir, Cetus, and PM carry over into each session of Sburb. While ostensibly being the same person and sharing a basic personality, the variations of each character sometimes are quite different, only sharing the initials of their title. Spades Slick, for example, while still ruthless, is much less bloodthirsty than the Sovereign Slayer.
    • Played straight later with the post-Scratch Guardians presumably having the same names as the pre-Scratch Kids, and Rose and Dave's iterations have the same "titles" as their guardians in the Beta Session, meaning there are 2 Mom Lalondes and 2 Bro Striders. Also, a third set of Dersite Agents was introduced, which means there are three separate characters running around, all named Jack Noir.
    • Of course, accounting for the Jack Noir that killed Calliope, there are actually four.
  • Both the Aimless Renegade and Dirk Strider's Auto Responder are referred to as "AR" until the latter renames itself Lil Hal.
• In Fans!' second year, one of the new members was named Tim, but there was already a Tim on the major cast. (The strip where the new Tim introduced himself had the page title "God Made Two of 'Em".) Characters and readers alike generally called the new one "Tim the Fanboy". Eventually, two developments reduced the ambiguity: Tim adopted a new name (as part of his Face–Heel Turn), and we found out his unabbreviated name was Timin, whereas the other Tim is presumably a Timothy.
• While Everyday Heroes does, in fact, have only one Steve, it had at one point two Janes (who were members of the villainous team "The Jane Gang").
  • Also, the neighborhood moms are named Jane, Joan, June, Jenny, Ginny, and so on ...
• In Li'l Mell (featuring the young version of Mell Kelly from Narbonic), there are two girls named Taylor (one blonde caucasian, one dark-haired Asian), and their male counterparts named Tyler.
• Coga Suro has, in fact, precisely one Steve; the main character.
• Subverted in Spinnerette, where the main character learns that the name Spinnerette is already a name used by a spider-themed (Specifically, Drow-themed) villainess. The character is later referred to as Evil Spinnerette by everyone else. Later, the comic introduces the main character's counterpart from an earlier date in another universe, who is subsequently known as "Silver Age Spinnerette".
• Lampshaded (and subverted!) in this Multiplex strip.
• In Wright as Rayne, the last name of Dorothy, the girl Alex Rayne winds up in the body of, is Wright, which is also the last name of one of Power's mooks. Word of God has it the two aren't related in any way.
• Parodied in this Treading Ground strip where a manager refers to two employees as Nate and Black Nate, even though their names are Nate and Jimi.
• In Charby the Vampirate, one of the Rose Sisters (who initially only appeared in one strip but later returned) is named Rosemary, and one of Zerlocke's sisters (introduced much later, but a much more important character) is also named Rosemary. When the Rose Sister found out there was someone else named Rosemary, her response was "Whaat? There can be only one! Destroy her!" (She was talked out of it).
• Averted in Elf Blood where one of the lead characters, Mara, shares her name with (and indeed was probably named after) the Elves' Mother Goddess.
• In The Dreamer, there are two characters named Benjamin—Benjamin Cato and Benjamin Tallmadge. Cato lives in the 21st century, while Tallmadge lives in the 18th century.
• Subverted in The Word Weary with Sam and Sam 2.
• Averted, probably accidentally, by Ménage à 3 and its spin-off Sandra on the Rocks:
  • The setting features a Sandra, a Sonya, and a Senna. (And a Suzi, but everyone calls her "Zii".) The occasional confusion resulting on discussion boards may be as good a demonstration as any of why the rule is a good idea. For bonus points, some posters seem to insist on referring to Sonya as "Sonja".
  • There are also two minor characters named "Adrien".
  • However, the limit was later enforced belatedly after one strip introduced a new character named "Jim" when that name had already been used once. In the next strip, the new Jim was addressed as "James", and the tags attached to both strips were changed accordingly.
• Tails of Lanschilandia gives us Lanschi and King Lanschi, who are not the same person and presumably not related. There's also Lanschi's brother Panschi.
• Averted with White Dark Life:
  • There are two people named Alison. One was Collin's girlfriend, the other is one of the many deaths.
  • The RPs avert this even further, as there are two people named Rebecca, Damien, Altair, Artemis, and Matthew. Even funnier is that both Matthews have a relationship with Uma (one is her father, the other is her wannabe boyfriend). And even then, Luigifan and pommyman are also named Matthew, so there are actually four of them!
• Averted in Fortuna. For any given AI, there are several different versions; for example, the comic has followed both Apollo V1 and Apollo V3, with both usually being referred to as just "Apollo". Even crazier, there are a couple of player characters named Hermes and Prometheus, even though there are already A.I.s with those names (the latter is implied, though hasn't actually made an appearance yet.
• Averted by Jenny Over-There's cameo in Jenny and the Multiverse: despite the similarity in name, she has no relationship to Jenny Everywhere, and neither looks like her nor conspicuously unlike her. She's just another character with a similar name, no more, no less.
• Averted in L's Empire. There are two entirely unrelated characters named Rosa and both are referred to as such. It actually confuses Void (since he met the first) when the second one is introduced.
• In Consolers, as the characters share their names with the companies they're based off, there are two companies named Tiger - Tiger Telematics and Tiger Electronics (though the latter one has yet to appear), both usually just going by "Tiger". When the first one gets mistaken for the second, he's NOT happy about this.
• The family tree published after Chapter 12 of Stand Still, Stay Silent showed a few first names running in families. Three pairs of identically-named characters were relevant to the fandom before that point:
  • Sigrun shares the name of her great-grandmother, who is one of the focus characters in the Just Before the End Distant Prologue.
  • The author ended up giving the name "Árni" to both Reynir's great-grandfather from the Distant Prologue and Reynir's father so his name would have a familiar ring to readers not familiar with the Icelandic Patronymic system. The Distant Prologue character is basically named "Árni, Reynir's son", while his present-day descendant is named "Reynir, Árni's son".
  • Before the family tree was made, All There in the Manual had already revealed that Mikkel has a twin named Michael, which is also the name of their great-grandfather from the Distant Prologue.
• When Steven in Ask White Pearl and Steven (almost!) anything meets the Crystal Gem Pearl, he starts referring to White Pearl as "Earl" to avoid confusion.
• The Redacverse loves messing with this trope. Some characters can have octopus counterparts with similar names, but spelled with an "octopus accent" (for example, Matthew's counterpart is named Maffhew). Another kind of counterpart can be found on the Moon (Mattis for Matthew or Terrys for Therry). And then there's a whole group of characters known as Your Father, His Father, Your Son...
• Invoked by Debbie in the epilogue to the chapter "Shade" in Latchkey Kingdom, regarding the copy of Willa. She can't go by her first name (for obvious reasons) or by her middle name because another character is named Rosaline, so she chooses the name Rose for herself.
• Mr. Boop: Features both Sonic The Hedgehog and Dr. Sonic the Hedgehog (an unrelated human man).
• This Carry On strip, which doubles as a Newhart Shout-Out.
• Nature of Nature's Art: Lycosa plays with this trope as a plot point. The arthropods are identified by their genus and species names instead of having family and given names. Despite the comic using a Cast of Snowflakes, two spider characters are the same species, so they should have the same name... but they use different classification systems, giving them different genus names. The plot point is that Lycosa herself is using the older genus name; the ninth member of Venom 8 is a Gladicosa wolf spider.
• Unsounded:
  • Karl is the name of a random kid in Ulestry and the name of the man Toma's wife leaves him for.
  • Hart is the name of a wright and the captain of the peaceguard in Ethelmik.
  • Jon was the name of a bully Duane killed in school and the name of his second in the military. His commanding officer was also named John.
• Walkyverse: There are two Rachels in this universe: Rachel Jackson, one of the co-builders of Ultra Car and the catalyst for the story arc that got Robin and Leslie together for good, and Rachel Moore, a minor character seen in the background a couple times.
  • In the Ultimate Universe version of this verse, Dumbing of Age, the two Rachels actually become roommates. Rachel Moore in this 'verse is called 'Other Rachel' (even in the tags).
  • Also in Dumbing of Age, the reason Jennifer Billingsworth went by the name Billie for years is because when she was in kindergarten there was already a Jennifer and a Jenny on the bus she took to school and they accused her of stealing her name from them. Billie went back to being called Jennifer in the second semester of college.
  • There are two Alexs in the strip: the grouchy male TA running Amber's class, and the more bubbly female TA that replaced him. A popular Fanon is that they're the same person pre and post transition respectively. (Word of God doesn't hate the idea.)
• War and Peas has recurring characters Bob and Bob, whose entire schtick is being a regular friend duo.
• Gone with the Blastwave averts and lampshades this.
  Pyro: "Why is almost everyone we meet named Steve?"
• Ruby Quest:
  • There's two Toms — Subjects #5 and #6 (named after the two Toms in Animal Crossing: Tom the Cat and Tom Nook respectively). Subject #5 is Ruby's companion and Deuteragonist, while Subject #6 is a side character first mentioned in notes as being extremely violent and dangerous, and who Ruby later meets in Upper Lab B. The characters having the same name comes in pretty handy for hiding that the players had them both mixed up all along- the person in Upper Lab B was actually Subject #5. Ruby's companion Tom was Subject #6 all along.
  • There's also a meta example, as Weaver references two real life people called William Murdorch, one of whom was the inventor of the pneumatic tube and the other was a rather obscure poet. A pneumatic tube figures heavily into the plot, and The Metal Glen, the poem Ruby Quest was based on, was by the poet Murdoch. Actually, the poem was by Weaver, who pretty accurately mimicked the real Murdoch's style for it.

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