# Works in which two different characters have the same name **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 9, 2024, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/works-in-which-two-different-characters-have-the-same-name/1007022 "2024-09-09T17:27:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2024, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/works-in-which-two-different-characters-have-the-same-name/1007022/21 "2024-09-09T23:27:34Z")
_Muppet Treasure Island_ has Old Tom, Real Old Tom, and Dead Tom. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2024, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/works-in-which-two-different-characters-have-the-same-name/1007022/22 "2024-09-09T23:32:54Z")
Terry Pratchett writes of the Nac Mac Feegles in his discworld books. They include characters named Jock, Big Jock, Medium Sized Jock, Wee Jock, and No’-as-big-as-Medium-Sized-Jock-but-bigger-than-Wee-Jock Jock. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2024, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/works-in-which-two-different-characters-have-the-same-name/1007022/23 "2024-09-09T23:35:43Z")
DAMMIT! I was just looking up the exact phrasing of Jock’s name when a certain _someone_ beat me to it! ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2024, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/works-in-which-two-different-characters-have-the-same-name/1007022/24 "2024-09-09T23:39:57Z")
_Breaking Bad_ (Walts senior and junior). ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2024, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/works-in-which-two-different-characters-have-the-same-name/1007022/25 "2024-09-09T23:45:56Z")
Dickens’ novel _Martin Chuzzlewit_ has two characters by that name: the protagonist, and his grandfather. Wilkie Collins’ novel _Armadale_ has multiple characters named Allan Armadale. ---
**Author:** ![Ynnad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/4491bb/32.png) [@Ynnad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ynnad)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2024, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/works-in-which-two-different-characters-have-the-same-name/1007022/26 "2024-09-09T23:51:11Z")
_Sealab 2021_ had Debbie and Black Debbie. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2024, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/works-in-which-two-different-characters-have-the-same-name/1007022/27 "2024-09-10T00:26:13Z")
I’m assuming that cases where one character is named after another don’t count. The later Avengers movies had two Peters, Parker (AKA Spider-Man) and Quill (AKA Star-Lord). This is presumably due to them originally being completely separate works that got mashed into each other. Apparently in Batman vs. Superman, their first moment of bonding was when they learned that both of their mothers were named Martha. Lord of the Rings has a few: The hobbit farmers Cotton and Maggot, as well as the whatever-he-was Bombadil, are all named Tom, and the inkeeper Barliman, the ne’er-do-well Ferney, and the pony are all Bill. The Dresden Files books include Michael the Archangel, Michael Carpenter the knight (though he’s presumably named, directly or indirectly, after the angel), and Mike the Volkswagen mechanic. Though I think that the knight is the only one who ever appears “on screen”, as it were. The series also has Susan, a love interest, and Sue, an apex predator, though Sue was already named before Dresden included her in the book. The Traveler, by our own @CalMeacham, has a protagonist who’s known as Tenobius, but it’s eventually revealed that that’s a variant on his surname, and his given name is Marc, same as the narrator The video game City of Heroes includes a number of pairs or trios of NPCs who have the same name for no particular reason (plus many more for whom there is a reason), such as mutants Penny Preston and Penny Yin, witch Katie Hannon and government telepath Katie Douglas, and speedster Steve Berry, scientist Steven Sheridan, and archvillain Stephan Richter. Though there are enough NPCs in that game that it’d be difficult for everyone to have a unique name. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2024, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/works-in-which-two-different-characters-have-the-same-name/1007022/28 "2024-09-10T00:30:14Z")
The long-running British soap opera **Coronation Street** had, in the 80s, characters named Betty Turpin and Bet Lynch. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2024, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/works-in-which-two-different-characters-have-the-same-name/1007022/29 "2024-09-10T00:32:24Z")
> [@GailForce](#): > > One Hundred Years of Solitude had some of this, as I recall. A lot of it, as I recall. ---
**Author:** ![Reeses\_Monkey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reeses_monkey/32/2885_2.png) [@Reeses\_Monkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeses_Monkey)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2024, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/works-in-which-two-different-characters-have-the-same-name/1007022/30 "2024-09-10T00:33:22Z")
The Bible gives us the apostles James and James-the-Less. Sucks to come in second, doesn’t it? Imagine being stuck with that nickname for 2000 years. ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2024, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/works-in-which-two-different-characters-have-the-same-name/1007022/31 "2024-09-10T00:43:32Z")
_Anna Karenina_ has [two characters called Alexei AND two called Sergei](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Karenina#Main_characters). Plus another Anna. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2024, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/works-in-which-two-different-characters-have-the-same-name/1007022/32 "2024-09-10T08:02:53Z")
_Rescue Me_ had Sean and Black Shawn, so named not because he was black, which he was, but because they already had a Sean in the firehouse. ---
**Author:** ![kitap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b9e5f3/32.png) [@kitap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kitap)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2024, 10:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/works-in-which-two-different-characters-have-the-same-name/1007022/33 "2024-09-10T10:41:20Z")
**Die Hard** had Agent Johnson and Agent Johnson. No relation. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2024, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/works-in-which-two-different-characters-have-the-same-name/1007022/34 "2024-09-10T13:38:20Z")
So ‘black’ was just a randomly chosen designation? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2024, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/works-in-which-two-different-characters-have-the-same-name/1007022/35 "2024-09-10T13:52:47Z")
Not exactly what the OP is looking for, I know, but I just re-watched **Blazing Saddles** , and almost everyone in town has the same _last_ name – Johnson (which go used in a lot of jokes, like “Howard Johnson – One Flavor”). In the film **The Englishman who went up a Hill but Came Down a Mountain** practically everyone in the Welsh town has the last name “Jones”, about which a lot is said. Several people also have the same first name, so this movie is filled with people with the same first and last name. The all have different nicknames, though, to distinguish them. [The Englishman Who Went up a Hill but Came down a Mountain - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Englishman_Who_Went_up_a_Hill_but_Came_down_a_Mountain#:~:text=Mountain%20(novel).-,The%20Englishman%20Who%20Went%20up%20a%20Hill%20but%20Came%20down,and%20directed%20by%20Christopher%20Monger). ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2024, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/works-in-which-two-different-characters-have-the-same-name/1007022/36 "2024-09-10T14:02:09Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Not exactly what the OP is looking for, I know, but I just re-watched **Blazing Saddles** , and almost everyone in town has the same _last_ name – Johnson (which go used in a lot of jokes, like “Howard Johnson – One Flavor”). And in **Spaceballs** , Dark Helmet is surrounded by Assholes. ---
**Author:** ![Jas09](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d07c76/32.png) [@Jas09](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jas09)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2024, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/works-in-which-two-different-characters-have-the-same-name/1007022/37 "2024-09-10T14:08:51Z")
A lot of Russian novels have this feature, I think. There are either not enough Russian names or they just like a few of them a whole lot. And then the characters all have various nicknames as well, and patronymics, and it just gets damn confusing without a character list. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2024, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/works-in-which-two-different-characters-have-the-same-name/1007022/38 "2024-09-10T14:55:49Z")
Willkie Collins’s _Armadale_ had three characters named Allan Armadale: a man who is murdered, his son, and the son of the murderer. ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2024, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/works-in-which-two-different-characters-have-the-same-name/1007022/39 "2024-09-10T15:03:09Z")
The movie _Scott Pilgrim vs. the World_ has the main character, Scott Pilgrim, and also a minor character called “Other Scott.” ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2024, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/works-in-which-two-different-characters-have-the-same-name/1007022/40 "2024-09-10T15:03:27Z")
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