Name's the Same/Real vs. Fictional

A

 * There's an evil organization in the Marvel Universe called AIM, no relation to the Internet service. This can lead to very funny reactions when your friends who don't read comics find sentences in your fan-fics like "We suspect AIM of involvement in the deaths of the astronauts."
 * Then there's the conservative media watchdog group AIM (Accuracy In Media).
 * And a Romanian copy of the AK-47.
 * Or AiM, a stage name of seiyuu/singer Ai Maeda.
 * Steve Austin: A bionic superman, or a beer-swillin', finger-gesturin' toughest SOB on the planet?

B

 * Barbie: A famous doll, or a Nazi war criminal known as "The Butcher"?
 * Sam(uel) Beckett: Hero of Quantum Leap or famous playwright?
 * Probably meant as an Homage, and lampshaded several times on the show.
 * In addition, one of the shows that ran opposite Quantum Leap during its run was China Beach, which ALSO had a regular character named Sam Beckett.
 * Mary Bell: when you hear this name what little girl do you think of? Is she an insane British Enfant Terrible Serial Killer that liked to torture and murder toddlers in the 60's or a sweet Italian Magical Girl cartoon character from the early 90's that likes using flowers to fight evil.
 * Big O: A mecha series? A character in a Shel Silverstein book? A stadium in Montreal? An Ohio orange juice reference? A tire store? Or something else entirely?
 * Or maybe one of Zack Ryder's Broskis?
 * Ryan Bingham: The award-winning singer/songwriter, or George Clooney's character in Up in the Air? Coincidentally, non-fictional Ryan Bingham won an Academy Award for songwriting the same year George Clooney was nominated for playing fictional Ryan Bingham in Up in the Air.
 * David Letterman did a Top Ten List with a guy named James Bond.
 * A minor character in Shakespeare's Richard III is referred to as Sir James Blunt. The real person the character is based on was actually named James Blount.
 * James Blunt the musician/soldier was also born James Blount.
 * Blondie: A punk rock band known for their song Heart of Glass, Blondie the mother of a certain Baby Dumpling, a mysterious gunslinger with a poncho, and a certain dictator's dog.
 * Michael Bolton: A disgruntled software engineer shared his name with a no-talent ass-clown (those are the engineer's words, of course).
 * A Troy Bolton was beaten to death by ex-fugitive Raymond Ross, as told on the Discovery Channel's I Almost Got Away with It.
 * Baseball player Milton Bradley is not to be confused with the board game company Milton-Bradley.
 * Or with Go player Milton Bradley.
 * Not to mention Paul O'Neil, the baseball player, or maybe the former Treasury Secretary.
 * Adam Brody of Stargate Universe is not Adam Brody the actor.
 * Although the comic character never got to kick the football, there have been a Chicago Bears defensive back, a New Orleans Saints running back, a Washington Redskins wide receiver, and a USC offensive lineman named Charlie Brown.
 * Charlie Brown is also the civilian identity of DC Comics supervillain Kite Man, which raises some questions about that round-headed kid who struggles with the Kite-Eating Tree.
 * "Who walks in the classroom, cool and slow?/ Who calls the English teacher "Daddy-O'?"
 * Charlie Brown's is also a steakhouse chain.
 * There's also an Australian technology journalist working for the Nine Network named Charlie Brown, and there was yet another who worked on the development of Portal.
 * Then there's Charles Brown, a blues musician best known for penning the holiday classic "Merry Christmas, Baby".
 * If he's in professional wrestling, he's from out of town.
 * In Evelyn Waugh's Vile Bodies, the fictitious Prime Minister of the UK is named Sir James Brown. One can assume that his political platform was one of getting down.
 * Even funnier when the real Prime Minister of Great Britain between 2007-2010 was James Brown, but he went by his middle name, Gordon. Presumably to avoid the obvious jokes...
 * James Brown is also the name of the guy who did hairstyling for The Brood.
 * Still another James Brown has worked as a sportscaster and pregame announcer for Fox and CBS.
 * Jim Brown played American football for the Cleveland Browns before turning to acting (The Dirty Dozen, Ice Station Zebra, The Running Man.)
 * Joe Buck is the name of a baseball and football announcer for the FOX network, as well as the protagonist in Midnight Cowboy.
 * There's also a psychobilly musician named Joe Buck.
 * Kate Bush: a beautiful and amazingly talented but notoriously reclusive British singer with her own unique style of music or a character who met a nasty end on Gundam.

C

 * John Cage: Employer of Ally McBeal, avant-garde composer, or Mortal Kombat fighter "Johnny"?
 * John Carpenter is a famous movie director. He's also the alias of the alien Klaatu in the original 1951 version of The Day the Earth Stood Still, as well as the first contestant to earn the top prize on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?.
 * Is James Carter the 39th President of the United States or a loud-mouthed LA cop from Rush Hour?
 * Or is he an old-time blues singer who contributed the song "Po' Lazarus" to the soundtrack of O Brother, Where Art Thou??
 * Or is he an awesome jazz saxophonist?
 * John Casey: Badass NSA agent from Chuck, American author, or mathematician behind Casey's theorem?
 * Calypso: An amputated green sea turtle in the National Aquarium in Baltimore or the organizer of a demolition derby whom grants a wish made by whoever won it?
 * Could be a Spider-Man villainess or Greek sea goddess.
 * Or the name of Jacques Cousteau's research vessel.
 * Naomi Campbell is not a supermodel. She is quite super, though. And rather beautiful. (The show does refer to the confusion - once, in one of those "yeah yeah, Never Heard That One Before, can we get on with our lives now"-type scenes.)
 * Princess Celestia from My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic actually shares her name with a popular astronomy software.
 * Nick Charles was one half of the husband-and-wife sleuthing team in The Thin Man series, as well as a sportscaster for CNN.
 * A minor character in Tom Clancy's The Sum of All Fears is FBI Special Agent Bill Clinton.
 * Speaking of Clancy, his Jack Ryan character shares a name with an Illinois politician who was forced to withdraw from the 2004 U.S. Senate race in the wake of a sex scandal.
 * Michael Collins is the name of an astronaut, one of Deathlok's alter egos, and General Michael Collins of the Irish Republican Army.
 * Sarah Connor: Mother of the future human resistance leader, or German pop singer?
 * David Copperfield: |Dickensian hero or professional illusionist?
 * A common Sitcom gag involves characters going to see a Copperfield performance, and getting the one other than they were expecting.
 * Alice Cullen, quirky vampire or murdered nurse.
 * Edward Cullen is a sparkly vampire. Edward (Peter) Cullen is a Roman Catholic Bishop. And Peter Cullen is Optimus Prime.
 * A National Guardsman firefighter changed his legal name to Optimus Prime.
 * Arthur Currie, the brilliant Canadian general of World War I, should not be confused with Arthur Curry, Aquaman.

D

 * Matt Dillon: Movie actor, Dodge City marshal, or software developer?
 * Is Frank Drake a reluctant vampire hunter from a 1970s Marvel Comics series or an astronomer famous for his ideas about extraterrestrial life? Even their Wikipedia pages have redirects!

E

 * Michael Emerson (a.k.a. Benjamin Linus) is also the name of the head physician in Whose Life Is It Anyway?
 * Mike Evans was a co-creator of the TV series Good Times. Michael Evans was the name of the younger son on that series. However, the real-life Evans was not the basis for the fictional Evans. According to The Other Wiki, the series was actually based on the childhood of the series' other co-creator, Eric Monte.

G

 * Jorge Garcia: actor from Lost or geeky 9-year-old?
 * Robert Garcia: Democratic representative and martial artist.
 * Kurt Godel: Logician who showed the limits of proof, or Mahou Sensei Negima villain?
 * Is Golden Harvest a film company that's produced many Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan movies or a My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic character with an All There in the Script name?
 * Speaking of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, Lauren Faust never sold her soul to the devil, and bears no relation to the Real Life 16th century scholar Johann Faust.
 * When you say Archie Goodwin, do you mean the assistant of Nero Wolfe, or the comic book writer and editor?
 * James Gordon: Gotham City police commissioner or Canadian folk singer?
 * There was also a Jim Gordon who worked as a session drummer for numerous rock albums in the '60s and '70s, later became a member of Eric Clapton's band Derek and the Dominos, and still later became a schizophrenic who stabbed his mother to death.
 * There is a real disc jockey named Meg Griffin. One has to wonder how she feels about having to share the name with possibly possibly the biggest Butt Monkey in the history of cartoons.
 * Sergei Gurlukovich, the former GRU colonel from Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, is one letter off from Sergei Gorlukovich, the Russian soccer player. In the Japanese version of MGS, his name was actually pronounced Gorlukovich, so it's possible they changed his spelling on purpose.

H

 * Scott Hall: Pro wrestler once known as Razor Ramon, or Monarch Henchman #1?
 * Roy Harper: Speedy. Arsenal. Red Arrow or English folk singer?
 * Overworked Chicago psychologist Bob Hartley is not the same as Stanley Cup-winning hockey coach Bob Hartley.
 * Richard Haydn, the actor who played Max Detweiler in the film adaptation of The Sound of Music, should not be confused with Richard Hayden, David Spade's character from Tommy Boy.
 * Michael Hayes: Title character of a short-lived TV series with David Caruso, or a member of the Fabulous Freebirds?
 * Housepets has The Adventures of Spot, a Show Within a Show comic. In real life, The Adventures of Spot is a British children's animated show from the 80s that's based on a series of children lift-the-flap books by Eric Hill. And on the topic of Eric Hill, there's a news anchor named Erica Hill, too.
 * Kouta Hirano: Author of Hellsing or a Gun Otaku that can mow down hordes of zombies?
 * People searching for information on the hogwort, no matter how carefully they specify their search parameters, will get mostly Harry Potter sites.
 * In a particularly meta case, Chieko Honda was a voice actress, and apparently one of her roles was a ghost with the same name in an episode of Ah! My Goddess. The manga chapters on which that episode was based come early enough that it's unlikely (but not impossible) the actress's career had begun yet when the ghost was named.
 * Anthony Hope: author of The Prisoner of Zenda or optimistic, lovesick sailor from Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street?
 * Ryan Howard: a first baseman with the Philadelphia Phillies, and a character on The Office.
 * Is Victor Hugo an author or a mean, beaten-up car?

I

 * General Ike, leading allied multinational forces against a destructive madman. Is this Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance or Dwight D. Eisenhower?
 * Ike's crowd cheer in the English version of Super Smash Bros. Brawl plays with this a bit. "We like Ike" indeed.
 * Also, Ike was the name of a powerful hurricane, which resulted in many jokes in the Smash Bros. community during September 2008.
 * Kanae Ito is a minor character in Amagami. Kanae Ito is a prominent anime voice actress. The fictional one, though, is voiced by Yuki Matsuoka.

J

 * A minor character in Charles Dickens's Bleak House is named Michael Jackson.
 * As is a character in P. G. Wodehouse's Psmith books.
 * As is the real General Sir Mike Jackson.
 * Hugh Jass the one-off Simpsons character, and Hugh Jarse the programmer for 1980s British software house Bug-Byte.
 * Billie Jean: A character in an eponymous Michael Jackson song, and a Las Vegas hoarder found dead under clutter piled to the ceiling. Not to be confused in any case with Billie Jean King - which was actually something that concerned producer Quincy Jones quite a bit, to the point that the song almost didn't get released.
 * Arthur Jensen is a UC-Berkeley sociology professor (in)famous for his arguments in favor of a genetic and racial basis for human intelligence. He's also the guy who told Howard Beale about Corporate Cosmology.
 * Avery Johnson: Former NBA player and current coach of the New Jersey Nets or a Marine Sergeant Major for the UNSC?
 * Boris Johnson is Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Boris Johnson is also head of the Democratic League and a major character in Norman Spinrad's science fiction novel Agent of Chaos; in fact, the first two words in the book are his name (Agent of Chaos was published three years after the politician's birth).
 * Kevin Johnson: Former NBA player and Mayor of Sacramento, or Michael's alias on Lost? (The show has a large number of characters and aliases named intentionally after real people or fictional characters. This one seems to be unintentional.)
 * Helen Fielding's fictional character Bridget Jones should not be confused with the Bridget Jones who was a writer and occasional actress on Mystery Science Theater 3000 (and eventual wife of fellow MSTer Michael J. Nelson.)
 * Davy Jones is a singer with The Monkees; a turn-of-the century baseball player; the real name of the singer whose stage name is David Bowie; a villainous undead pirate in the Pirates of the Caribbean films; and the personification of the sea in nautical folklore.
 * The undead pirate was inspired by the folklore character, and Bowie changed his name because of the Monkees singer.
 * There's also a recurring character with the name in the Bloody Jack novels.
 * Mike Jones once said on a Missy Elliott song that he "can't be cloned". He probably never met the pro wrestler known as Virgil and Vincent, whose real name is also Mike Jones. To add to that...Mike Jones is also the name of a character from StarTropics.
 * Tom Jones is the stage name of a Welsh pop singer as well as the eponymous protagonist of Henry Fielding's novel. This wouldn't be an example, as the singer took his name from the book, except that a third Tom Jones wrote The Fantasticks and other musicals with composer Harvey Schmidt.

K

 * Aleksandr Kerensky: Prime minister of the Russian Provisional Government, or General of the Star League?
 * Yu-Na Kim: Olympic figure skater, or a baseball-playing schoolgirl?
 * Kimba: A white lion cub who's the king of a jungle, or a rural town in Southern Australia?
 * Jason King: NHL player, or flamboyant novelist/detective?
 * James Kirk: Starship captain or US Navy captain or actor or diploma mill scammer?

L

 * LBX: Little Battler eXperience, the toys featured in Danball Senki or Little Blue boX, a Japanese band. Interestingly, the latter sang openings for Danball Senki PSP game and anime.
 * Jake Long: Miami Dolphins offensive lineman or the titular American Dragon?
 * The concept was given a humorous Lampshade Hanging by voice actor Troy Baker, when he described his try-outs for Tales of Vesperia - specifically, The Hero Yuri Lowell: "Yeah, how bad a sign is it when they start naming characters after actors? 'Hey, I wanna read for this guy. What's his name?' 'Um...Vic Migna.'"

M

 * Alex Mack: girl with weird powers caused by exposure to GC-161, or the Cleveland Browns' first pick in the 2009 NFL draft?
 * Vladimir Makarov was apparently also the name of a deceased Soviet-era soccer player.
 * Stanley Marsh is the Only Sane Man from South Park. His girlfriend's name is Wendy. Stanley Marsh III (whose father was Stanley Marsh II, and who has a son named Stanley Marsh IV) is an artist and philanthropist. His wife's name is Wendy.
 * Stan's Father Randy, has the same name as a well known retired MLB Ump.
 * James Marshall: President of the US played by Harrison Ford in Air Force One (though you might not remember that), or children's book author?
 * Steve Martin is the name of both a famous comedian and actor and the main character, played by Raymond Burr, from the American version of the original Godzilla. By the time Godzilla 1985 came out, the comedian had become rather famous, and the character was only ever referred to as "Steven" or "Mr. Martin", but never by his full name.
 * A different Steve Martin sang lead for '60s pop group The Left Banke ("Walk Away, Renée"; "Pretty Ballerina").
 * George Mason ... Founding Father and namesake of a university who sacrificed himself to save LA from a nuke.
 * Hiroya Matsumoto is the name of Special Duty Combat Unit Shinesman's lead character, as well as the name of MagiYellow's actor in Mahou Sentai Magiranger. Doubles as Hilarious in Hindsight when you notice both shows are Sentai: the former an Affectionate Parody of the genre, the latter a proper Super Sentai.
 * Scott McCloud is the Space Angel, protagonist of the scifi cartoon of the same name that ran from 1962 to 1964. Except when he is the comic book writer and theorist, the creator of Zot!
 * John McIntyre is a retired NHL player, a political blogger, and a fictional surgeon on not one, but two TV shows. And UN secretary general in Wrongfully Accused.
 * Ronald McDonald was also the name of a Mall Santa at the Lake Forest Park Town Center in Washington State, and was charged with and plead guilty to child rape.
 * George Michael: a young man who has a crush on his cousin or a British singer?
 * Or a sports broadcaster.
 * Ichiro Mihara is either the president of the Piffle Company, or the vice president of Arika. At least two fans of Arika have made note of this.
 * The classic Western film High Noon has a villain named Frank Miller. It's just a coincidence, since the film was made while Frank Miller the comics author wasn't even born, but the film's theme song about "shooting Frank Miller dead" is quite entertaining regardless.
 * Haruka Minami, who is either Minami-ke's hot, motherly onee-sama or a Yaoi Shotacon author.
 * There's Michael Myers, a crazed serial killer who was institutionalized for the murder of his sister and her boyfriend when he was six, then there's Mike Myers, who is best known for Wayne's World, Shrek, and the Austin Powers series.
 * A different Mike Myers was a Major League reliever from 1995 to 2007, winning one World Series as a member of the 2004 Red Sox.
 * Before Jack (okay, John) Napier wanted to know if you'd ever danced with the Devil by the pale moonlight, he invented algorithms.

N

 * There's Willie Nelson the country singer and Willie Nelson the onion-spider monster from Aqua Teen Hunger Force. The latter introduces himself to the Aqua Teens saying that he's not the Willie Nelson, but that his name is Willie Nelson.
 * Alfred Newman was a legendary Hollywood composer who created the 20th Century-Fox Fanfare and scored countless films from the 1930s to the '60s. Alfred E. Neuman, on the other hand, was a legendary "What, Me Worry?" mascot for Mad.
 * Ninjaman: Ally of the Kakurangers? Or Reggae artist?
 * Ed Norton is the name of an actor from such films as Fight Club and The Incredible Hulk, as well as Art Carney's character from The Honeymooners. Carney says he got "To the moon, Alice!" jokes all the time, especially before he became famous (though it was Ralph's catchphrase in The Honeymooners, Norton never said it).
 * There's also an "Ed Norton Music" that turns up in the credits of such programs as The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Taxi. Not sure whether it's named for a real person or just an homage to the Carney character.

O

 * Miles O'Brien: Starfleet engineer on Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, or longtime Science, technology and aerospace corespondent on CNN?
 * Fittingly enough, the news anchor hosted a web series about space travel.

P

 * Pandora is either a dangerous jungle moon of planet Polyphemus or a small, potato-shaped moon of Saturn.
 * I thought Pandora was the woman with the box from that myth?
 * And I thought Pandora was that cool online music site that introduces you to new music based on your existing favorites?
 * And Adrian Mole's paramour.
 * And the resident Cloudcuckoolander from Skins. Her surname's even Moon.
 * Linda Park: Wally West's reporter wife or the actress who portrayed Hoshi Sato? Her name plays a big role in why some people want her to play the comic book Linda if they make a Flash movie.
 * Charles Parker: jazz legend or character in the Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries?
 * General Nick Parker is not to be confused with Captain Nick Parker.
 * For that matter, the International Security Assistance Force said General Parker is Deputy Commander of should not be confused with the Independent State Allied Forces.
 * Peter Parker: Neurotic New York superhero or former head of British Rail? (Hint: only one of them got knighted, so far).
 * This is a voice actor, and he has a name; his name is Robert Paulsen. The first victim of Project Mayhem was Robert Paulson.
 * Max Payne was also the Liberal party candidate for the 1984 Chesterfield by-election.
 * There was a WCW pro wrestler in the 90s who used the name Maxx Payne; he eventually filed a lawsuit with Rockstar Games over the name.
 * Maxx Payne would later become known as Man Mountain Rock.
 * In the movie Captain Clegg, the town doctor's name is Pepper. Just like the soft drink.
 * Also, Peter Cushing's character in that movie is named Dr. Blyss (because they couldn't get the rights to call him "Dr. Syn"). In his spoken word piece "Circus", Tom Waits makes reference to another doctor of the same name.
 * The protagonist in British author John Christopher's Sword of the Spirits trilogy is named Luke Perry. They were published when the actor of the same name was five years old.
 * Then there's Matthew Perry, a murder victim in the low-budget 1985 drama Belizaire The Cajun. He shares his name with both an 1850s naval officer and a 1990s sitcom star.
 * Mike Peters is money and he doesn't even know it. He's also the cartoonist of Mother Goose and Grimm and lead singer of The Alarm.
 * There's Jonathan Pryce, the actor, and then there's John Price, the SAS operator.

R

 * Eric Raymond: open-source software advocate or Jem and the Holograms villain?
 * Robby Reed is a goofy teenager with an alien rotary dial. Robert Reed was a man named Brady. This is mentioned in H-E-R-O, where the warden of the prison an adult Robby is staying in mentions with amusement that he shares a name with the actor who played Mike Brady; Robby says he's heard it before. A third Robert Reed is a science-fiction writer.
 * Richard Rider: A space-faring superhero, or the author of the Stockholm Syndrome trilogy?
 * Robbie Robertson is a guitarist and songwriter formerly with The Band, as well as editor at the Daily Bugle.
 * Jerry Robinson: Chicago orthodontist, comics artist and creator of The Joker, or '80s NFL linebacker?
 * Steve Rogers: Superhero in a red, white, and blue uniform; or baseball pitcher in a red, white, and blue uniform?
 * Ruby Rose: actress/VJ who's been tapped to play Batwoman, or cartoon protagonist character? (Either way, in October 2018 McAfee said "No other celebrity was more likely to land users on websites that carry viruses or malware", so don't Google her.)
 * Marco Rossi is not only the name of two fictional characters (one of them being a playable character in the Metal Slug video games, the other the protagonist of the anime series 3000 Leagues in Search of Mother), it is also named of several Italian people (including two football players and sexologist), since "Marco" and "Rossi" are both common Italian names.
 * Andrew Ryan: Objectivist Big Bad of BioShock (series), or a television critic for The Globe and Mail?

S

 * Chris Sanders, one of the creators of Lilo and Stitch, shares a name with a certain teen girl Gamer Chick played by Jennette McCurdy in the movie Best Player.
 * Sebastian Shaw: Mutant or Anakin Skywalker?
 * Same could be applied to Hawke.
 * Brooke Shields could be the actress, socialite and one-time supermodel or an unseen character who is being saved from drowning by Jeff Spicoli.
 * The Brooke Shields from Fast Times at Ridgemont High was actually named after one of Cameron Crowe's classmates.
 * Oh, it's Kei Shindou! Are you a Seiyuu who used to be a Cosplay Otaku Girl, or that girl from the Ef series?
 * Mona Simpson, mother of Homer, shares her name with the biological sister of Steve Jobs.
 * Kevin Smith: is he an actor/director/producer/writer or a knife-throwing assassin?
 * Or possibly the god of war?
 * Nah, he's the Detroit Lions' only good player.
 * No, silly, he's an American high school tennis player.
 * Roger Smith is a main character of The Big O, an alien living with a CIA agent's family, and the voice of Chris Redfield. And the former president of General Motors.
 * Fantasy novel Fall of the Kings by Ellen Kushner has a minor character named Will Smith. But he's not the actor, obviously. Nor the defensive lineman for the New Orleans Saints.
 * Jon Snow is one of the main characters of A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones and a British newsreader, a fact that the British newspapers got a lot of comic mileage out of when Game of Thrones premiered.
 * In Eraserhead, Jack Nance plays a man named Henry Spencer. Henry's infant child, played by a bizarre puppet, was given the nickname "Spike" by Nance. That means that the Eraserhead baby is Spike Spencer.
 * Try to talk about Dr Spock the pediatrician without people making Star Trek jokes.
 * The Sega Homestar Star Projector.
 * Tony Stark is Iron Man. Another Tony Stark played Chris in Night of Horror, a movie that was so ineptly produced you'd seriously think it was made in a cave! With a box of scraps!
 * Lucky Starr: Hero of a series of Isaac Asimov novels, or '60s Australian singer who recorded the original version of "I've Been Everywhere"?
 * April Stewart: Character on The Funky Phantom, or voice actress on South Park?
 * John Stewart is a Green Lantern. Jon Stewart hosts a comedy news show. Jonathan Stewart is a running back for the Carolina Panthers. A different John Stewart altogether wrote the song "Daydream Believer". None of them should be confused with John Stuart Mill.
 * Green Lantern is good for this, actually. There's also an astronaut named Guy Gardner. And, had an editor at National not thought it was a bit too on-the-nose, Alan Scott would have been named Alan Ladd (in reference to Aladdin, not to the actor who would debut a few years later. It's a good thing they decided against this, because at the end of the decade the real Alan Ladd got his own comic.).
 * Bill Finger, the in-house co-creator of the Golden Age Green Lantern, used to tell the story that way. But after he died, Martin Nodell, who came up with the idea freelance and pitched it to DC, said he just flipped through the New York phone book with a pin that landed on "Alan" and "Scott". It's possible Finger tried to talk him into changing it (and was talked out of the change by the editor). All the same, Alan Scott ended up with two middle names: "Wellington", from a Golden Age story in which he thwarts a latter-day Napoleon, and "Ladd", because Roy Thomas forgot the first story and remembered the Finger anecdote.
 * 1958 Boris Karloff film The Haunted Strangler had the murder of a woman named Martha Stewart as a major plot point.
 * Stephen Stills plays in a band with either Scott Pilgrim or David Crosby and Graham Nash.
 * Samuel Sullivan: Crazy carnival leader or ex-mayor of Vancouver?
 * Walter Sullivan, the name of the Antichrist-like Big Bad of Silent Hill 4: The Room, is ironically also the name of a Roman Catholic bishop.
 * Michael Symon is a chef featured on the American version of a Japanese TV show. Mikey Simon is an American actor on a Japanese TV show.

T

 * Chiaki Takahashi is the captain of the softball club in Sket Dance. Chiaki Takahashi is a voice actress who is not in SKET Dance.
 * The hero of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington rails against the evils of villainous political boss... James Taylor.
 * There have been three famous musicians called James Taylor; the one who was a member of John Mayall's Bluesbreakers before going solo, another who (as J.T. Taylor) was lead singer of Kool and the Gang, and another one about 20 years later, who in an interview said he'd got fed up with people asking why he'd "changed his style".
 * Jim Taylor of the Green Packers was the NFL leading rusher in 1962, the only time that Jim Brown (see above) did not lead the league between 1957 and 1965.
 * Also, James Arnold Taylor, a.k.a. Tidus.
 * Mick Taylor is a former guitarist for The Rolling Stones as well as the serial killer villain in Wolf Creek.
 * Sean Thornton is a character in The Quiet Man who knows how to use his fists. Shawn Thornton is a Boston Bruins player for whom the same description applies.
 * There's also a Welsh footballer named Sean Thornton.
 * Kate Todd, either an NCIS agent or a Canadian actress.
 * The Silent Hill verse has a Toluca Lake, which is also the name of district and lake in Los Angeles.
 * In Anne Rice's 1993 novel Lasher, there is a character named Stuart Townsend. In the 2002 movie adaptation of her book Queen of the Damned, actor Stuart Townsend plays the vampire Lestat. Freaky.
 * The movie character Tron serves a similar purpose to the BASIC command TRON, but was named as an abbreviation of "electronic".
 * Also, there is a member of the Canadian legislature named Kevin Flynn.
 * There's also a French politician named Georges Tron.
 * Timmy Turner: 10 year old boy with fairies or a surfing film director?

W

 * Wang Yao: personification of China or Hong Kong-based quantum physicist?
 * Elizabeth Warren is the Assistant to President Obama. Another Elizabeth Warren is a Funny Foreigner in Softenni.
 * Jagged Alliance mercenary Vicky Waters shares a name with a real life Atlanta reporter.
 * Janet Weiss is both the name of the former drummer of Sleater-Kinney and a slut.
 * Billy West: famous voice actor? or an action game hero better known as "Bayou Billy"?
 * Actor Michael Weston once played the client of the week on Burn Notice, the main character of which is named Michael Westen.
 * Looking for someone to play Michael Williams in your film adaptation of Henry V? Who better than... er, Michael Williams?
 * Windam is either the name of a Earth Alliance mass-produced mobile suit from Gundam Seed Destiny (GAT-04 Windam), a Rune God, or, up until the introduction of Toyota's Lexus brand back into Japan, the Japanese market name for the Lexus ES sedan (sold as the Toyota Windam).
 * It should be noted that many character and place names in Rayearth come from car brands. Lantis anyone?
 * Windows: An operating system or a radio operator?
 * By a funny coincidence, there's also a character whose nickname happens to be Mac.
 * Shelley Winters is both a mid-20th-century blonde actress (the mother in The Night of the Hunter) and a red-haired webcomic protagonist.

Y

 * Adam Young refers to both a singer and the Antichrist.

Z

 * Steve Zizzou: New York lawyer or documentary filmmaker? (As mentioned in the film's credits)

Unsorted

 * Is it any coincidence that Bill Henry and Lance Jagger, Those Two Guys responsible for Aaron Bacon's death while running North Star Expeditions, have the same first names as Bill Rizer and Lance Bean, the core protagonists of the Contra series? Add to the fact that they were even in the military earlier in life.
 * Bones does not create anime.
 * Narnia: a series of books or the old name of the city of Nera?
 * Nietzsche: Nihilist philosopher or a cute mermaid?