You see plenty of actors with similar names who are made to change their “professional” name to something else, like Michael J. Fox and Vivica A. Fox.
How come you don’t see duplicate sports player names? Granted, I don’t know the name of every player who’s ever played any sport, but I can’t think of any instance where a well-known player shares the name of another well-known player (save father/son superstars).
I actually have known three Mike Jordans during my life. Granted, they were little nerdy white guys but still…what if they made it big in the NBA? Would they be forced to change their names as soon as they made it to the pros?
And, what about the father/son matchups? Does the MLB make announcers call Tony Pena Jr. “Tony Pena Junior” or do they just do it on their own?
If you guys know instances of players with the same name as other players, I’d like to hear them.
For a very short while, there were two guys named Javy (Javier) Lopez, on the Red Sox, a pitcher and a catcher. This was a few years ago, when both Varitek and Mirabelli were on the DL. Don’t remember if the two were ever paired up.
Javier the pitcher is still in the Sox bullpen. Javy the Dreamboat Catcher is retired, I think.
The Mets once had pitchers Bobby J. Jones and Bobby M. Jones together on the roster. Later, they were both Padres at the same time.
J. was a righty, while M. was a lefty.
J. was actually pretty decent, even making an All-Star team. M. was a marginal player.
J. had a secretary named Lincoln, while M. had a secretary named Kennedy.
Last year, both the Royals and the Brewers had players named Ryan Braun. (It’s true this year as well, but the Royals’ Braun is out for the year for surgery or some such.)
Both the Royals and Brewers had a Jeff D’Amico back in the early 2000’s as well.
And in the late 1980’s, there were two pitchers named Greg Harris.
Tragically, no - Javy wasn’t on the team very long anyway (it was in 2006).
Pitcher Scott Service did not get a chance to pitch to catcher Scott Servais, either.
In the 70’s, both the Vikings and the Niners had WR’s named Gene Washington. Both made All-Pro once, IIRC.
When shortstop Juan Uribe made the majors with the Cardinals, he was still Juan Gonzalez. But he then decided the world already had enough Juan Gonzalezes, and adopted his mother’s name instead.
Going back, the 1962 Mets had Robert L. Miller and Robert G. Miller. To tell them apart, think of the “L” for left-hander. Thus Robert L. Miller was not the lefthander (he went on to have a fairly successful career and is one of three original NY Mets who played for a pennant-winning Mets club).
A quick check shows there are many combinations, though only a handful played on the same team at the same time (The two Bob Millers were the first). For instance, in 1984-85, there were two Dave Smiths. In 1947-47 there were two Don Johnsons. In 1987-92, there were two Jeff Robinsons and in 1993-97 there were two Pedro Martinezes.
Although their careers didn’t quite overlap, there were two Bob Gibsons, the second coming around after the first had finished his Hall of Fame career. So even though the second shared a name with one of the greatest pitchers of his day, there was no reason for him to change it.
There is one sport that does have a rule, though: horse racing. You cannot use a name for your horse that has been used in the previous ten (I think – it may be longer than that) years, and you cannot use the name of a well-known champion (e.g., Man O’War, Secretariat, Kelso, Cigar, etc.)
There was a flap in the papers about basketball player Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (formerly known as Lew Alcindor by us old-timers) complaining about football player Karim Abdul Jabbar using his name, but I don’t remember what the result of that was.
The Vancouver Canucks used to have two players named Greg Adams.
… and when Kurt Warner first appeared in the NFL, it was a little confusing because Curt Warner had retired a few years before that. Why is that old guy making a comeback in a different position??? Oh, different guy.
Steve Smith is the star wideout for the Carolina Panthers, and Steve Smith is the up-and-coming wideout for the NY Giants (not to be confused with sports reporter Steven A. Smith).
FWIW, one reason the Screen Actors Guild restricts official membership names has to do with credits – credits are among the touchiest, most negotiated aspects of actors’ contracts: how the name appears onscreen, for how long, still or scrolling, in what order, how big related to other people’s, alone or in a group, with what identifying phrase (e.g., “Also Starring”). Also, in an arena where appearing to be other people is actually your job, identifying you clearly is more of an issue. Athletes don’t pretend to be other people and can be identified by their uniform number, playing position, and team affiliation as well as by name.
This was going to be my contribution as well. The baseball game I have for my PS3 distinguishes them by referring to the older Young as “Chris Young” and the younger Young as “Chris A. Young.”