# How Many People Do You Know Who Were Named For TV Characters/Actors? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 10, 2006, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-do-you-know-who-were-named-for-tv-characters-actors/360246 "2006-06-10T23:25:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Leechboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9fc348/32.png) [@Leechboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leechboy)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2006, 10:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-do-you-know-who-were-named-for-tv-characters-actors/360246/21 "2006-06-11T10:43:01Z")
A Court Case I was doing security for last year featured an entire family obsessed with Bonanza. They named their homestead the “Ponderosa” and one of the kids was actually named Little Joe. They all got done for tax evasion in the end, so life tends to balance out. ---
**Author:** ![ASAKMOTSD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/919ad9/32.png) [@ASAKMOTSD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASAKMOTSD)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2006, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-do-you-know-who-were-named-for-tv-characters-actors/360246/22 "2006-06-11T12:02:27Z")
Daughter named Elyse after Elyse Keaton on Family Ties ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2006, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-do-you-know-who-were-named-for-tv-characters-actors/360246/23 "2006-06-11T12:05:36Z")
[QUOTE=Rodgers01] And the strangest thing is that the guy, Rommel, is a really relaxed, Hispanic stoner/surfer dude. Not the kind of guy you’d expect would be from a family that names their kids after Nazis. [quote] What I don’t get is why he’s still answering to it. You can change your name, yanno, or go by your middle name, or go by a nickname, etc. > [@](#): > > I don’t know him, but of course there’s also John Wayne Bobbit – he was a celebrity porn star for a while (Bobbit I mean, not the Duke). His status of “celebrity” porn star, of course, resulting from his notoriety, gained when his wife Lorena cut off his dick. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2006, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-do-you-know-who-were-named-for-tv-characters-actors/360246/24 "2006-06-11T12:07:48Z")
Damn. Sorry about that coding. ---
**Author:** ![SkeptiJess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea666f/32.png) [@SkeptiJess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkeptiJess)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2006, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-do-you-know-who-were-named-for-tv-characters-actors/360246/25 "2006-06-11T12:09:12Z")
[QUOTE=Rodgers01] That’s a terrible character to name a kid after! (I mean, sure the kid was cute before he got run over, but after he got buried in the Pet Semetary he was a little devil.) That’s like naming your kid Damien. [/QUOTE] I agree. My sister in law is a rabid Stephen King fan. She claims she loves to read, but it turns out the only books she’s ever read all the way through are King books. She has a nice book shelf in her living room, with all of his books in hardback. Those are the only books in her house, other than the kid’s school books. She hated _Danse Macabre_ and _On Writing_, but all the rest are there on the shelf, with a fine coating of dust and the spines barely cracked. Weird. ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2006, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-do-you-know-who-were-named-for-tv-characters-actors/360246/26 "2006-06-11T12:12:15Z")
One of my work colleagues is called Demelza, named for the lovely female character in the \*Poldark \* novels/television series. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2006, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-do-you-know-who-were-named-for-tv-characters-actors/360246/27 "2006-06-11T12:17:49Z")
I can’t think of one. Sure, some of the people I know have names like that of TV characters, but to the best of my knowledge they weren’t named for them. ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2006, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-do-you-know-who-were-named-for-tv-characters-actors/360246/28 "2006-06-11T12:33:15Z")
I’ve made out with a girl named for _Anne of Green Gables_. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2006, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-do-you-know-who-were-named-for-tv-characters-actors/360246/29 "2006-06-11T12:44:07Z")
By being born a girl my sister missed being named Dwight David. ---
**Author:** ![Avarie537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/48db29/32.png) [@Avarie537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Avarie537)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2006, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-do-you-know-who-were-named-for-tv-characters-actors/360246/30 "2006-06-11T13:43:44Z")
I am 26, and I went to junior high with a girl named Leia. However, she insisted on pronouncing it like Leah (which is MY name!). ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2006, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-do-you-know-who-were-named-for-tv-characters-actors/360246/31 "2006-06-11T14:21:58Z")
As I recently confessed in the latest Joss Whedon Lovefest thred, our daughter is named after Kaylee, the mechanic on Firefly. We pretend she isn’t, and that pretense is shored up a bit by the fact that my husband insisted we spell it the “real Celtic way”: Caileigh. Which just means we’ll be spelling it for everyone and they’ll still get it wrong for the next 18 years. Maybe we should have gone with Kaylee. At least it’s phonetic. My son is named Kyle, and Kyle McLaughlin was one of my favorite actors back in 1993. But really I liked the sound of it, as it was an unusual name until the very moment I named him at his birth in January. By December of that year, at least 239 million people had also named their boys Kyle. :smack: (We have the added fun (which I didn’t forsee) of having children with similar sounding names. I guess. They don’t seem so to me, but all her grandparents keep calling her “Kylie” as if she was some ameoba-like budding off her big brother.) ---
**Author:** ![quiltguy154](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/ad7895/32.png) [@quiltguy154](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/quiltguy154)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2006, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-do-you-know-who-were-named-for-tv-characters-actors/360246/32 "2006-06-11T14:29:11Z")
Work with a guy who was named for the actor Ronald Coleman. Seems Granny was enamored of said actor while her daughter was expecting. Go figure! ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2006, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-do-you-know-who-were-named-for-tv-characters-actors/360246/33 "2006-06-11T14:39:40Z")
Post-_Matrix_, there’s been an upswing in little girls born into the world and named “Trinity”. 5,370 born in 2005 alone according to the Social Security office. The name went from #900 in popularity in 1993 to #48 in 2004 & 2005 with the biggest jumps being between 1998 (#526) to 1999 (year of Matrix cinematic release and #209) to 2000 (#74). ---
**Author:** ![Cazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cazzle/32/75_2.png) [@Cazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cazzle)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2006, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-do-you-know-who-were-named-for-tv-characters-actors/360246/34 "2006-06-11T14:54:44Z")
I knew one, a Jeremy (born 1979) who was named after a character in a tv show that we were both too young to remember… and that’s why I can’t remember what the show was called. ---
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2006, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-do-you-know-who-were-named-for-tv-characters-actors/360246/35 "2006-06-11T15:47:08Z")
[QUOTE=twickster] What I don’t get is why he’s still answering to it. You can change your name, yanno, or go by your middle name, or go by a nickname, etc. [/QUOTE] I don’t know if he still answers to it; I saw his name when he handed me his driver’s license when I was signing him up for an account at the video rental I work at. [QUOTE=Alessan] My kid brother Ori (18 years old last month) was named partially after Orry Maine, the Patrick Swayze character in North and South. It ran here just before he was born and was hugely popular. [/QUOTE] I’m just surprised to hear that “North and South” was hugely popular in Israel! I’m always interested to hear about odd American cultural artifacts that unexpectedly become popular in random countries (like Conan O’Brien in Finland or, apparently, Starsky and Hutch in New Zealand). ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2006, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-do-you-know-who-were-named-for-tv-characters-actors/360246/36 "2006-06-11T16:12:17Z")
[QUOTE=quiltguy154] Work with a guy who was named for the actor Ronald Coleman. Seems Granny was enamored of said actor while her daughter was expecting. Go figure! [/QUOTE] “Colman,” in case anyone wants to Google. Just reminded me: Bette Midler was named after Bette Davis, and Gilda Radner was named after the Rita Hayworth movie. ---
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2006, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-do-you-know-who-were-named-for-tv-characters-actors/360246/37 "2006-06-11T16:17:07Z")
My MIL was named after a racetrack, does that count for anything? Because her dad’s initials were A & J, hers had to be also. Dad was named Albert, so they were going to stick her with Alberta. Horrors… Her uncle loved the ponies and went to Hollywood Park or Santa Anita every day to place his bets. He suggested Anita as her first name, and that’s what she got! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2006, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-do-you-know-who-were-named-for-tv-characters-actors/360246/38 "2006-06-11T16:20:38Z")
[QUOTE=Rodgers01] I don’t know if he still answers to it; I saw his name when he handed me his driver’s license when I was signing him up for an account at the video rental I work at. [/QUOTE] Ah. Okay. I feel much better now. ---
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2006, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-do-you-know-who-were-named-for-tv-characters-actors/360246/39 "2006-06-11T16:21:03Z")
My best friend has three kids, two girls and a boy. Boy is named Jean-Luc. Yep, after the captain on friggin’ _Star Trek TNG_. Youngest daughter is named Chani, after the character in the _Dune_ books. Oldest daughter is named Frankie, after her Papa Frank! Grandpa wanted a child named after her, but nobody liked the name Frank… He was as proud as all get out! ---
**Author:** ![merrily](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@merrily](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/merrily)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2006, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-do-you-know-who-were-named-for-tv-characters-actors/360246/40 "2006-06-11T16:25:44Z")
[QUOTE=WhyNot] As I recently confessed in the latest Joss Whedon Lovefest thred, our daughter is named after Kaylee, the mechanic on Firefly. We pretend she isn’t, and that pretense is shored up a bit by the fact that my husband insisted we spell it the “real Celtic way”: Caileigh. Which just means we’ll be spelling it for everyone and they’ll still get it wrong for the next 18 years. Maybe we should have gone with Kaylee. At least it’s phonetic. [/QUOTE] I know a couple who named their daugher Kaylee also, but spelled Joss’s way, although the dad said his daughter could use the Celtic spelling as her screen name when she gets older. Your kids can duke it out on the 'net. I know a couple who named their boy Riggo, after John Riggins, the Redskins Football great. (How can you not love someone famed for spitting on a Supreme Court Justice?) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-do-you-know-who-were-named-for-tv-characters-actors/360246.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-do-you-know-who-were-named-for-tv-characters-actors/360246.md?page=3)