# Same Name, Different Character **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 26, 2010, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-name-different-character/526530 "2010-01-26T17:20:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2010, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-name-different-character/526530/41 "2010-01-28T14:17:12Z")
[Laura Levine](http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/m/leslie-meier/candy-cane-murder.htm) writes a series about private eye Jaine Austin. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2010, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-name-different-character/526530/42 "2010-01-28T14:24:22Z")
I do want to mention that three groups of people, not genetically related, in Paul McCartney’s family, share the same name: His paternal great-grandmother and her daughter-in-law were both Mary McCartney. His father’s second wife and his brother Michael’s first wife were both Angela McCartney. His stepdaughter and his second wife were both Heather McCartney. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2010, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-name-different-character/526530/43 "2010-01-28T17:11:05Z")
> [@fusoya](#): > > There were at least 3 Tanner families on 80s Sitcoms… As well as Jack Tanner, the presidential candidate in the 1988 HBO series. More on the luscious Leeta: [Leeta | Memory Alpha | Fandom](http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Leeta) ---
**Author:** ![Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harvey_The_Heavy)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2010, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-name-different-character/526530/44 "2010-01-29T05:39:32Z")
[Hank Hill](http://www.dula.tv/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/hank-hill-pimp.jpg) and [Henry Hill](http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3375/3326987910_56d962488b.jpg). (“Hank” is short for Henry, right?) And not quite fitting the OP, but Anthony Michael Hall’s character in _The Breakfast Club_ has the same name as the lead singer in AC/DC (Brian Johnson) ---
**Author:** ![Lucky\_13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucky_13/32/13209_2.png) [@Lucky\_13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucky_13)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2010, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-name-different-character/526530/45 "2010-01-29T15:48:50Z")
> [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](#): > > No, that was Leeta, played by the delightful Chase Masterson. And I think they called her a dabo girl because she was the dealer at a game of chance called “dabo” that was played at Quark’s. IIRC it was similar to roulette. A few years ago there were 3 unrelated anime shows released at the same time that featured a girl named Haruhi. The two whose names I remember were “The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya” and “Ouran High School Host Club,” whose main character was a girl named Haruhi Fujioka. The first Haruhi was a godlike entity and was completely unaware of this and the other passed as a boy to pay off a debt, and somehow got several boys (who knew she was female) to fall in love with her. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2010, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-name-different-character/526530/46 "2010-01-29T16:07:16Z")
There was a character named Josh Lyman on _The West Wing_ and in _Doonesbury_. Both were White House staffers. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2010, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-name-different-character/526530/47 "2010-02-03T02:58:05Z")
Sean Connery plays a character named John Connor in _Rising Sun_. As near as I can tell, there are no automaton assassins after him. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2010, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-name-different-character/526530/48 "2010-02-06T20:40:20Z")
**Chuck** and\*\* Brothers and Sisters\*\*, both shows currently on the air, have American characters named Sarah Walker, played by Australian actresses. ---
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2010, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-name-different-character/526530/49 "2010-02-06T21:19:18Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > Wasn’t the hooker in DS9 Leela too? they called her a dabo girl. Dabo girls weren’t hookers. From Memory Alpha: > [@](#): > > Dabo girls were beautiful women of various species often employed by Ferengi during the 24th century. > > During the 2360s and 2370s, Quark hired a variety of dabo girls to waitress and operate the dabo table at his bar on Deep Space 9. One of their main duties was to distract gamblers at the dabo wheel in order to try to keep them from winning. > > Quark often included “fringe benefits” in his Dabo girls’ contracts (page 21, subsection D, paragraph 12), up to and beyond oo-mox. However, Commander Benjamin Sisko assured him in 2369, after Starfleet took command of the space station, that those provisions were not legally enforceable. (DS9: “Captive Pursuit”) ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2010, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-name-different-character/526530/50 "2010-05-20T23:36:56Z")
Got another one. Seinfeld had Bob Cobb, the Maestro. Cougar Town has Bobby Cobb, the ex-husband that never grew up. ---
**Author:** ![MsChilePepper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@MsChilePepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsChilePepper)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2010, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-name-different-character/526530/51 "2010-05-21T05:44:30Z")
Two characters named Lyla Garrity appear in the current TV series “Friday Night Lights” and the 2000 TV series “Wonderland”. The former is a high school cheerleader who cheats on her paralyzed boyfriend, and the latter is a NYC psychiatrist in the psych ward of a big hospital. Both shows list Peter Berg as creator or writer. ---
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-name-different-character/526530/52 "2010-06-07T20:37:40Z")
At the same time, on the same network (NBC) there were the following two characters: [ul] [li]Rachel Greene, Dr. Mark Greene’s daughter on [“ER”](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0295222/)[/li][li]Rachel Green, on [“Friends”](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108778/)[/li][/ul] [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-name-different-character/526530.md?page=2)