On a somewhat related note…
My high school Business Law teacher said, “If your name is Howard Johnson, and you open a grocery store or a car lot, you can name it after yourself. If you open a motel, you’d better name it something else.”
There’s no requirement you get permission to use a name, unless it’s the name of a public figure. As others have indicated, it would be impossible and impractical to do so.
If you portray someone in a bad light, they could sue you for defamation. Occasionally, a name will be changed to head that off. The best-known example was changing Dr. Hugo Z. Quackenbush to Dr. Hugo Z. Hackenbush (In A Day at the Races) because of the fear that some Dr. Quackenbush might sue.
To win the defamation suit, however, you have to prove that you were harmed by the work and that the author definitely had you in mind. A matching name isn’t enough.
(I heard of one case a decade or so ago where an author had a villain with a name like “Dr. Badguy.” At a party, someone met the author whose name actually was “Dr. Badguy.” He had the author sign the book, “To the real Dr. Badguy.” Then he sued the author for defamation, planning to use the book as proof that the author had him in mind. The author won, but it wasn’t pleasant.)
For a public figure, it requires a higher level of proof for any lawsuit. Not only must there be a false statement of fact, but it has to be proven that the author knew the statement was false.
This doesn’t mean that people don’t sometimes do things to head off lawsuits. American Express always showed the name “C. F. Frost” in their ads. Frost was an Amex executive and they used his name to avoid issues. But there was no requirement they do so.
Did they have to find a family called “Feeble” for Meet the Feebles?
I wouldn’t have signed that contract. 
It means “breeder” in the States, too!! 
And if they really found a Focker family… did they happen to have a kid named Gaylord?
I would assume that’s the reason you occasionally see the disclaimer “Any resemblance to real people, living or dead, is completely coincedental”. Gotta keep your tail covered in these days of huge lawsuit settlements. :rolleyes:
Is being such a smartass really necessary in GQ?
Joseph Hannah’s autobiography. I’m not going to give you chapter & verse becasue the book is at the libraryand I’m at work. He mentioned having to track down a George Jetson in the New York phone book. I don’t remember if he mentioned anything about Fred Flintstone.
IIRC, Sherwood Schwartz alluded to having paid a Gilligan in the NY phone book $1 for the rights to the name as well. This would be in his book about Gilligan’s Island.
You say, "every character in every movie that’s made today" (bolding mine) but you back it up with George Jetson and Gilligan? Maybe (just maybe) things may have been that way at one time, but I find it nearly impossible to believe that’s the current method.
Excuse me, Joseph Barbera. Not Hannah.
Anyway, his book was writting in 1994ish and he seemed to indicate that the practice continues (at least as recently as 1994ish).
In one of the Uncle John books he mentioned that when they were making the “don’t squeeze the charmin” commercial, they had to find a guy with the same name as the character, but they couldnt, so they had to choose a new name. It was implied that this is common practice.
Also so that Chico could call him “Hack-in-a-puss”
A quick check in a database of NY State phone numbers reveal 318 different listings for people with the surname Gilligan.
So what would be gained by giving one of them $1? From a legal standpoint? Did Sherwood Schwartz make that person sign a contract promising not to sue him for defamation forever and ever?
What if you were one of the Gilligans who wasn’t given a $1? The fact that some unrelated Gilligan said he wouldn’t sue for defamation doesn’t get anyone off the hook?
What about all the George Baileys in the world? Or Dorothy Gales?
There’s a Michael Corleone who lives in Mineola, NY. Did he get a buck from Francis Coppolla?
On the director’s commentary on the “Fight Club” DVD (yes I listened to it), they mentioned searchin nationwide for Tyler Durdens and Marla Singers (pretty much the only characters named in the film) to get their approval/promise not to sue. They found no Tylers, and only 1 Marla Singer, who incidentaly, could not have cared less. Just thought I’d mention it.
In other news, I just passed 100 posts! Yay to me!
This is a common technique used in various kinds of publishing, not just movies or books.
For example, software documentation manuals – the screen shots shown with a persons’ name on it – often that is the name of a company employee, who has signed a statement authorizing use of his name. And the same with example checks shown in ads by check printing companies. For years, Deluxe Checks used “John C Morrison”, the head of the largest bank holding company in this area. Presumably, they had some agreement with him to do that.
It doesn’t prevent a lawsuit from another person with that name. (You can always be sued, for just about any reason someone can dream up.) But it does provide a couple levels of defense for you in court:
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But it wasn’t you our movie referred to, Mr. Fokker – it was this other Mr. Fokker. Who gave us written permission to use his name.
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And the name Fokker is not unique – there are 2 Mr. Fokkers in this courtroom, who knows how many others across the country – so how can the plaintiff claim that our movie defamed him, particularily?
Paying someone $1 (and maybe a free DVD of the movie) is cheap insurance, if it eventually helps them fight off an expensive lawsuit.
If you do a Yahoo! People Search for the entire US, three Fockers show up. Amazingly, they are all named Gaylord or Greg.
I know two guys in Germany whose last name is “Foecker” (that is, o with an umlaut, I used the new convention of “oe” here). They live near the Dutch border. Hilarity ensues…
People are seriously suggesting that no one will make movies with fictional characters unless they find real people with the same names? 
That is completely counterintuitive to me.
While I thought that this was BS…What to my wondering eyes should appear but this story in todays N.Y. Daily News.
Interesting! But of course, they cleared the name with the real Zissou after someone made up a name he thought no one had; that’s different than picking out a name you know already exists then trying pay all of those people off, especially for $1 each. Any bright individual approached for a buck would realize that it’d cost the production a whole lot more to change the name, and hold out for at least a bit more.
There’s a bi-lingual joke which goes like this:
ROFL . Anyone who has seen the new film “Kinsey” will know why I laugh at that last post.