This came up in the Beowulf thread. What examples are there of works of fiction in which two different characters have the same name? I imagine in most cases this is done deliberately for some plot-related purpose, like the two Quentins in The Sound and Fury (which greatly confused me when I first read it). I wouldn’t expect it to happen very often just by carelessness on the part of the author, but perhaps there are cases of that too.
It has been 50+ years since I was forced to read it, but IIRC there was more than one Catherine in Wuthering Heights.
I could be misremembering however.
The Big Lebowski
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend had Josh and “White Josh.”
Bobs Burgers has Regular-sized Rudy and Pocket-sized Rudy.
I vaguely remember that one of Asimov’s stories had two characters with the same or very similar names, and that Asimov actually apologized for this in an introduction to the story in some collection. I can’t remember the specific story though.
As mentioned in the Beowulf thread, The Iliad has Greater Ajax and Lesser Ajax (I myself like Fitzgerald’s transliteration “Aias”, if only because I no longer think of cans of cleanser).
In the John Gardner James Bond novel Death is Forever there are the hitmen “Big Hans” and “Bigger Hans”, but those aren’t really their names.
Sherlock Holmes’ arch-enemy James Moriarty had a brother also named James.
Also Bob and Big Bob.
Robert Louis Stevenson’s unfinished novel The Weir of Hermiston.
From the wiki summary: “Archie meets and falls in love with Kirstie (Christina). As the two are deepening their relationship, the book breaks off. Confusingly, there are two characters in the novel called Christina, the younger of whom is Archie’s sweetheart.”
And yes, there are two Catherines in Wuthering Heights. Chronologically, there’s Catherine Earnshaw, who’s in love with Heathcliff but marries Edgar Linton, and there’s Catherine and Edgar’s daughter, Catherine Linton.
One Hundred Years of Solitude had some of this, as I recall.
In the Paksenarrion series there’s a deliberate example, where Paksenarrion has a moment of angst when a recent recruit is called by the name of one of her dead friends. And I’m pretty sure there were several other cases of different people with the same name.
In the Fallout games, Vault 108 is filled with violently insane clones all named Gary, and who only say their name.
After the character Gav in the webcomic Schlock Mercenary was copied 950 million times (thus becoming his very own major demographic) they still had all the same name, at least initially.
The “Newhart” show had two brothers who were both named Darryl.
Shakespeare’s As You Like It has two characters named Oliver and two named Jaques, for no apparent reason. (He’s got several other plays with multiple characters who have the same name, but usually there IS a reason – either they’re historical figures and those were their actual names, or they’re long-separated identical twins who have to have the same name to maximize the potential for comedic mix-ups. And then there’s Henry IV, Part 2, where there’s a Lord Bardolph who is a historical figure and a plain old regular guy named Bardolph who isn’t, except Shakespeare had already invented Regular-Guy Bardolph and committed to his name back in Part 1.)
Thomson and Thompson. I also like the French Dupond and Dumond.
Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Ernest.
In season 5 The Sopranos had two Tonys. Tony Blundetto, usually referred to as “Tony B” by the characters, and of course Tony Soprano, who needed no last initial.
I thought I remembered Tom Clancy’s Op-Center having two characters named Kim Lee. Looking it up, there’s a Kim Hwan and a Kim Lee.
Saving Private Ryan - one Private Ryan played by Matt Damon and one played by Nathan Fillion.
The Hangover has Doug and Black Doug.