Name's the Same/Western Animation


 * Oddly enough, the Transformers franchise does this within itself. Being named Prowl, Thrust, Snarl, Inferno, or one of any of the other most common names in the Cybertronian phone book, it doesn't mean you've got anything in common with anyone else with the same name.
 * However, they're simply Rebooted shows' versions of the same character, no different from the two Battlestar Galactica shows each having Starbuck. It's just that there are waaaaay more than two retellings of the Transformers' story.
 * The toyline, however, is another story. As is the way of these things, fans are a lot more concerned with continuity and such than the makers who just want you to buy it, so when two dissimilar toys are given the same name in the same toyline, or a toy with the name of a character it doesn't resemble comes out, the Epileptic Trees get planted as people try to figure out when the scant lines of bio "take place." Prowl the owl and Prowl the lion both released as Beast Wars toys? Are they the same guy? Which one, if either, is the same guy as G1 Prowl? There are, in fact, a ton of toys named Prowl that don't exactly mimic any character named Prowl and are hard to place. Transformers Wiki has a page for each of them, and even some of those pages have a "this is what we think we know; even we can't be sure" section.
 * In-fiction, there's the Unicron Trilogy, where some Transformers Armada Mini-cons have their names re-used for full-sized characters. Most of them don't get their names spoken onscreen, but a few do: The names Dirt Boss, Downshift, Mirage, and Blackout, we'll be hearing from again with characters who clearly cannot be the same ones. Also, the Mini-con helicopter Jolt may or may not be a case: despite both being Minicon helicopters named Jolt, it's hard to reconcile the backstories of the Armada and Cybertron versions. Also, some Beast Wars characters share the names of unrelated Transformers Generation 1 characters (while some, like Starscream and Ravage, are the G1 characters. The show is quite clear on who's who.)
 * The movieverse has another version: non-movie material such as comics often movie-ify past characters and use them, and the next movie comes out and uses the same name with an unrelated character. Sometimes Arc Welding is used (we find out how Arcee becomes one 'bot with three bodies), sometimes not (there's no slagging way Movie 1 Comic Mudflap and Revenge of the Fallen bad racial stereotype Mudflap are the same guy.)
 * Japan's got a different version: Most versions of Optimus Prime are called Convoy. Some get a prefix (Fire Convoy, Grand Convoy, etc.) but then, so do leaders who are not based on Optimus himself (as the rank Prime is also called Convoy.) Furthermore, what America considers a reboot and what Japan considers a reboot aren't always the same. Therefore, if a character looks like Optimus Prime and is called Convoy or Something Convoy it is impossible to know if he is intended to be (a) the same character as; (b) a rebooted show's version of; or (c) a completely different character who happens to be similar to any other given Convoy or Something Convoy.
 * In a more standard example, the various Autobots named Sideswipe share their name with a character in The Incredible Crash Dummies.
 * And a teenage girl shares a (nick)name with a Decepticon Leader.
 * Real Life instances were lampshaded in Histeria! by a Running Gag where Squeeing fangirl Pepper Mills would hound a historical figure for an autograph, only to be disappointed that she'd gotten the wrong person. For instance, she mistook Leonardo Da Vinci and Vladimir Lenin (in separate skits) for Leonardo DiCaprio and John Lennon.
 * Darkwing Duck, the Land of Negative Continuity, had two Psycho for Hire villains named Negaduck -- one, a one-shot Evil Twin created when some Applied Phlebotinum split The Hero Kirk-like into his good and evil halves; the other, his recurring Evil Counterpart from a Mirror Universe, no relation to the first except in inspiration.
 * Also, Sarah Bellum.
 * Galaxy Rangers is also the official international English name for Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger.
 * Fenton is the civilian first name of a Part-Time Hero on DuckTales and the civilian last name of the Part-Time Hero Danny Phantom.
 * Danny Phantom and Teen Titans both have an episode where a girl named Kitten blackmails The Hero into dating her to make her ex-boyfriend jealous.
 * A variant on The Danza, in which voice actress Grey DeLisle has two feline characters named "Kitty." The first being on Danger Rangers and the other on Tuff Puppy.
 * Both Arthur and Tiny Toon Adventures have a rabbit character who goes by the name of "Buster."
 * Danny Phantom and Static both have a Gadgeteer Genius Sidekick with the last name Foley.
 * Tom & Jerry was the name of a Mutt & Jeff-type duo who appeared in a series of Van Beuren Studios cartoons in the early 1930's. Of course, the later Tom and Jerry are now far better-known.
 * Max the White Rabbit; rambunctious and mischevous younger sibling or psychotic freelance police officer?
 * Jimmy Two-Shoes and Planet Sheen both have characters named Dorkus.
 * In-universe example in King of the Hill: in "The Perils of Polling", Hank, while giving his name to a reporter, makes mention of a "Hank P. Hill" who apparently doesn't pay his Discover card bills.
 * Toby Tortoise is actually an animated character from one of two Disney cartoons: The Tortoise and the Hare or Robin Hood.
 * Similarly, both Goliath II and Aladdin feature tigers named Rajah among the films' main cast.
 * Both Pluto's Kid Brother and Cinderella feature mean cats named Lucifer.
 * And speaking of Cinderella, the title heroine's ugly stepsister Anastasia actually falls in love with a baker named Dmitri in the Direct to Video sequel, Cinderella II: Dreams Come True. Sound familiar?
 * Pablo the Penguin is either a penguin of an indeterminate species from The Backyardigans or a Galapagos penguin from The Three Caballeros.
 * Is Rocko a penguin or a wallaby?
 * Hanna-Barbera was known for reusing names for its characters. To wit:
 * Fred--Flintstone and Jones
 * Augie--Doggie and Anderson (The Funky Phantom)
 * Scooby--the Seal (Moby Dick & The Mighty Mightor) and Scooby Doo
 * Dum-Dum--the dog (Touchè Turtle) and the dimbulb of the Ant Hill Mob
 * Bubbles--the keyboardist for the Neptunes, the drummer for The Powerpuff Girls, and a Monster Clown on The Further Adventures of SuperTed
 * Wally--Gator and the drummer for the Sundance Kids (1973's Butch Cassidy)
 * Peter--Potamus, Puck and Perfect
 * Two Sgt. Blasts--from Wacky Races and the Private Oyl segment of 1981's The Popeye & Olive Comedy Show
 * Larry--a member of the Clue Club and one of The Robonic Stooges
 * Clyde--the leader of the Ant Hill Mob from Wacky Races, the orange ghost from Pac-Man, and Rawhide Clyde from the Crazy Claws segment of The Kwicky Koala Show
 * Dee Dee--Sykes from Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels, a friend of Popeye Jr. on Popeye and Son and Dexter's dim-witted sister
 * Penny--the chubette friend from The Pebbles & Bamm-Bamm Show, Bubba McCoy's wife on Where's Huddles?, and the Chief's secretary on Super Secret Secret Squirrel. Penelope Pitstop may also count as Pvt. Meekley from Wacky Races calls her Penny.
 * The Huckleberry Hound Show had permutations of the Dalton Brothers in a couple of episodes--they would be pared down to three (Dirty, Dastardly and Dinky) for Laff-a-Lympics.
 * The face is the same: The Gruesomes on season six of The Flintstones were retooled as the Creeplys for Laff-A-Lympics.
 * Dinky Dalton (Huckleberry Hound, Laff-a-Lympics) and Dinky Dog (The All-New Popeye Hour)
 * Two Ant Hill Mobs: A gang of insect bikers in the Atom Ant cartoon "Bully for Atom Ant", and the mobsters from Wacky Races and The Perils of Penelope Pitstop.
 * Two King Klongs: The giant gorilla Dick Dastardly hypnotizes in the Wacky Races episode "Real Gone Ape," and the wrestler Bananas the Gorilla becomes in the Help! It's The Hair Bear Bunch! episode "King Klong Vs. The Masked Marvel."
 * Blubber--Luke's bear on Wacky Races and the crybaby on Posse Impossible.
 * Tom--Chan and Cat (ostensibly from the H-B 1975 reboot).
 * Alan--the stud puppy from Josie and the Pussy Cats and the groovy shades-wearing Gadgeteer Genius of The Chan Clan.
 * Scooter--the youngest of the Chan Clan and the penguin on The Skatebirds.
 * Henry--the janitor on The Jetsons, Corry's pal on Jeannie, and the eldest of the Chan Clan.
 * Klunk--the assistant in the Magilla Gorilla cartoon "Mad Scientist" and the imperfect inventor of Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines.
 * Curly--O'Neal of The Harlem Globetrotters and Howard of The Robonic Stooges, although it is most likely a case of both figures being actual people to start with.
 * The Donald Duck short "Trick or Treat" features a character named Witch Hazel, as do the Bugs Bunny shorts "Bewitched Bunny" and "Broomstick Bunny". Although they were two different characters created by two different studios (Disney and Warner Bros., respectively), June Foray provided the voices for both witches.
 * Yet another Witch Hazel character appeared in the Little Lulu print comics.
 * Hey Arnold! and Recess both had a Stinky Peterson. Somewhat awkward with the two shows being quite similar and even sharing a number of voice actors. And while it was live-action, The Red Green Show also had a Stinky Peterson.
 * Similarly, Hey Arnold and Atlantis the Lost Empire featured nasty blond females named Helga.
 * In 1966, around the time the second incarnation of the Doctor on The BBC's Doctor Who was traveling about, Rankin/Bass Productions' King Kong cartoon series on ABC Saturday mornings had a villain named Doctor Who.
 * Two evil organizations called "M.A.D.": The agents on Tom of T.H.U.M.B. (segment of the 1966 King Kong cartoon--acronym meaning "Maladjusted, Anti-social and Darn mean") and the agents of Inspector Gadget (acronym meaning either "Mean And Dirty" or "Malevolent Agency of Destruction", not to mention Penny's derogatory version).
 * The kingdom on King Leonardo and His Short Subjects was Bongo Congo. In the 1990s Donkey Kong Country, it was Congo Bongo.
 * In an odd form of recycling, this time by a writer, Zagras the Wizard goes from being Keeper of the Comets (in the episode "The Cosmic Comet") in He-Man and the Masters of the Universe to a wizard in The 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo.
 * They had a writer in common, Tom Ruegger.
 * Thomas the Tank Engine and Theodore Tugboat, both shows about talking vehicles with a similar structure, had a few cases of this. One interesting case is that both have a regular character named Emily, one a friendly great ocean tug, the other a Scottish steam locomotive.
 * Within the same series, The Smurfs had two Smurf characters going by the name of Nosey: the real Smurf version who appeared in "The Lost City Of Yore", who was named simply because he was nosy, and the Gargamel-posing-as-a-Smurf version who appeared in "The Mr. Smurf Contest", who was named because of the nose.
 * There's Luna, an anthropomorphic moon. Then there's Luna, a winged unicorn sentenced to imprisonment for a thousand years on the moon. Try not to think too hard about it.
 * Luna is the Latin name for our Moon, so its actually a pretty popular name for moon-related character.
 * Also from My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic, there's a background pony named Rose (not a Fan Nickname, but actually called Rose onscreen). There's a popular Doctor Who companion named Rose. Given the popularity of "Doctor Whoof", a background pony that bares a resemblance to David Tennant and spawned a ton of crossover fanworks, its kinda surprising the Pony Rose isn't seen more in said fanworks.
 * Another example from "My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic" is Spike. There's a dinosaur called Spike in "The Land Before Time".
 * X-Men: Evolution and Rugrats both have characters called Spike as well. The X Man spells his name with a Y though.
 * Both The Fox and the Hound (film) and The Plague Dogs feature foxes named Tod which is the proper term for an adult male fox.
 * Is Mrs. Potts a teapot or Bob the Builder's neighbor?
 * Both the Classic Disney Shorts and Famous Studios feature ducklings named Huey.
 * A pair of characters named Max: The Grinch's forlorn dog and the none-too-bright second to the Chief Blue Meanie.
 * All the Pennys listed in the Hanna-Barbera tab above and Inspector Gadget's cute (and smart) little niece.