One Steve Limit: Difference between revisions

* And then there's James Robinson's ''[[Starman (comics)|Starman]]'' series....

* In ''[[Y: The Last Man]]'' Yorick sleeps with a woman with the same name as his fiancee Beth. As a result Beth II (or Other Beth) has a child she names Beth Junior. Eventually all three meet up in Paris.

Beth 2: "I know it would have probably been easier if I'd named her Betty or Elizabeth, but I've never gotten along with chicks who go by the variations, have you?" }}

* Jason Todd (the second Robin) shares a first name with Jason Garrick (the first [[Flash]]), Jason Bard (private investigator and occasional love interest to Barbara Gordon) and Jason Blood (the demon [[Etrigan]]), among others.

* The main character of ''[[Groundhog Day]]'' is named Phil and of course there's the groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil. Phil, with the typical [[Bill Murray]] [[Typecasting]], loathes the rodent even more because of this fact.

* ''[[My Big Fat Greek Wedding]]'' has a funny scene in which the father introduces the extended family. Just about everyone's name is a variation of Anita or Nick.

* In ''[[Horton Hears a Who]]'', Morton mentions that Vlad is after Horton. Horton inquires as to whether he means Vlad the Vulture, or Vlad the bunny who gives out cookies.

* In ''[[Goodfellas]]'', Karen's narration at her wedding reception mentions the abundance of Peters, Pauls and Maries among the guests.

* Played VERY straight in the 2006 film ''[[Inside Man]]'' starring [[Denzel Washington]] and Clive Owen. The main plot of the movie involves a bank heist, led by Owen's character. To confuse the police, victims and any potential witnesses, the members of the heist crew call each other differing variants of "Steve": Stevie, Steve-Oh, etc. The rather amazing thing is how smoothly they work despite this.

* ''[[American Beauty]]'':

* Sister Bridget cruelly enforces this in ''The Magdalene Sisters''. When Rose introduces herself she says they already have a Rose and has everyone call her by her middle name Patricia. Crispina's real name is Harriett so we could assume there was another Harriett in the laundry as well.

* Averted in ''[[Slumdog Millionaire]]'' where Jamal searches the name Latika in the phone listings and gets over 3000 results. Even when he searches Salim K Malik he gets six results.

** Not only did Erics feature in many sketches, but the Fish License sketch featured Eric Praline talking to Eric the Postal Clerk about a license for his pet halibut, Eric, in addition to the license he has for his cat, Eric, his dog, Eric, and his fruit-bat, Eric. When Eric refuses to give Eric a license for Eric, Eric asks for a license for Eric the half a bee, whom Eric asks Eric the orchestra leader to sing about.

* In one episode of ''Lead Balloon'', self-centred misanthrope Rick Spleen gets a part as Eddie in a series called "All About Eddie"; one of his friends asks if he's sure that he is the Eddie the series is all about.

'''Rick:''' ''(on phone to director)'' So yeah, are there two people called Eddie, or...? }}

* In the original UK version of ''Touching Evil'', the main character's name is David Creegan, and the first episode of the second series features a character named David Laney. In the US remake, Laney's first name was changed to Stephen.

*** Austin St. John who plays Jason Lee Scott was born Jason Geiger.

* ''[[Burn Notice]]'':

'''Samantha:''' He was talking about me. }}

* In-universe example on ''Remember WENN'': Betty has to give feedback to a writer who has named both the hero and villain of her script "John." This is especially confusing because it's on radio.

* Extreme metal band Dimmu Borgir once had three Stians: Stian Thoresen (vocals, better known as Shagrath), Stian Arnesen (bass, better known as Nagash) and Stian Aarstad (keyboards, no stage name).

* The Mike Doughty song "[http://www.mikedoughty.com/music/lyrics/96 27 Jennifers]" plays with this trope:

Sixteen Jenns, ten Jennies and then there was her.'' }}

** This is almost certainly based on a real phenomenon - witness [http://www.absurdnotions.org/F1990.html this college newspaper comic from 1990]...

* In ''[[Order of the Stick]]'', when Roy announces that he's here to get revenge for the murder of his father's master, Fyron, the villain asks him to be more specific, [[But for Me It Was Tuesday|since he's killed five people named Fyron in that town alone]].

** Certain "nameless" titles can also have this problem, as [[Evil Twin|Nale]] learned while looking for a new wizard:

'''[[Evil Twin|Nale]]:''' Another one? [[Oh My Gods|Good gods]], man, that's eleven so far who Must Not Be Named. Not To mention the four [[He Who Must Not Be Seen|Who Must Not Be Looked At]], the two Who Must Not Be Spoken To, and the one Who Must Not Be Toilet-Trained!<br />

'''[[Psychopathic Manchild|Thog]]:''' [[Simpleton Voice|thog got to use a mop!]] }}

** Red Tornado is also John Smith. (Though he rarely goes by this name even off duty.)

** A minor example, from the ''Justice League Unlimited'' episode "The Once and Future Thing" part I:

'''[[Green Lantern|John Stewart]]''': I am John. This is my friend [[Wonder Woman|Diana]] and, er--<br />

'''[[Batman]]''' (grimly): Bruce. }}

** Yet another aversion: There are two Larrys: the bald guy that isn't Homer who can usually be seen at Moe's, and Mr. Burns's illegitimate son from "Burns, Baby Burns".

* ''[[Sealab 2021]]'' had Debbie and "Black Debbie," who in her first appearance protested her nickname and pointed out the other wasn't called "White Debbie." Some fans call Debbie "White Debbie" for this reason.

'''Quinn''': ''[looooong pause]'' No. }}

* Similarly, ''[[Code Monkeys]]'' has Black Steve, who was probably called that to differentiate himself from Gameavision's original owner Steve Wozniak, but he continues to be called that even after Wozniak sells the company to Mr. Larrity in the first episode.

**** And Dai Li is just a different transliteration of the exact same Chinese characters for Ty Lee's name!

*** The whole thing is [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] in "Sokka's Master":

** On a semi-related note, The Dai Li's Government Conspiracy was upheld by placing several women who called themselves "Joo Dee" to watch over suspicious citizens. [[Justified Trope|Justified]] in this case because they were all brainwashed into the identity anyway.

* There are two "Estellas" in ''[[The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest]]'': Estella Scheele, a one-off antagonist seen in "In the Realm of the Condor," and Estella Velasquez, Jessie's mother. And they're both redheads, too.

* In ''[[The Fairly Odd Parents]]'' episode "Genie Meanie Minie Mo," Timmy's [[Hypnotize the Princess|wish for]] [[Rich Bitch|Trixie Tang]] to fall in love with him backfires when she ends up giving kisses to everyone in the country whose name is Timmy Turner, with him the very last one on the list.

** In the storybook ''Too Many Turners,'' Timmy wishes that he had lots of brother and sisters, but after he sees how much trouble all those siblings are, he calls out for Cosmo and Wanda to get rid of them, resulting in this scene:

"Never mind," Timmy said, sighing. }}

* One episode of ''[[Mighty Max]]'' has the protagonist, Max(well), compete with another Max(imilian) who might actually be [[The Chosen One]]. (Aside from the name, they were born within five minutes of each other.)

* ''[[Aqua Teen Hunger Force]]'':

'''Carl Brain''': (beat) I am Carl Brain. }}

* ''[[Danny Phantom]]'' plays with this a bit with Danny's "Dani-with-an-I" [[Opposite Sex Clone]], Danielle. So, for at least two episodes we had both Daniel "Danny" Phantom and Danielle "Dani" Phantom.

* Marie of Roumania (sic) was born in Germany and became queen of Yugoslavia. On the other hand, her mother, Marie of ''Edinburgh'', ruled Romania. [[Hilarity Ensues]].

* George Foreman named all five of his sons George (George Jr and George III to VI), and one of his five daughters Georgetta.

* The Romans were pretty bad about breaking this rule. But the Julio-Claudian dynasty took the cake.

** The famous Julius Caesar shared his full name ([[Gaius Julius Caesar]]) with his father, grandfather, and quite a lot of other relatives, among them his great nephew known as Augustus. This makes their history just a little confusing sometimes.

* Have you tried to read a history book about the Hundred Years War? There are about a dozen different guys that are named Charles (Charles VI and VII, Charles of Anjou, of Aragon, Charles le Mauvais, etc)...which makes it kinda difficult to follow.

* Dave Gorman and his friend (also named Dave) had a drunken bet going. Namely that there was another "Dave Gorman" an assistant manager for Fife. So they travelled several hundred miles from London to Fife to meet him. When they got there, they asked the manager if he knew any other Dave Gormans. "No. Well, wait, my Dad is also Dave Gorman. Oh yeah, and my son is Dave Gorman too." Dave Gorman (the original) happened to be a stand up comedian...so he travelled internationally to find other Dave Gormans and then he made his own show called [[wikipedia:Are You Dave Gorman%3F|"Are You Dave Gorman?]]

** Dave Gorman's friend... "Dave" Danny Wallace?

* Mr & Mrs. Kelly Hildebrandt. They met when she looked up people with her last name on Facebook.

* Early in the station's life, [[UPN]] ran an ad campaign based on the fact that three of their exclusive shows starred people named Richard: ''Platypus Man'' with Richard Jeni, ''Marker'' with Richard Grieco, and ''Legend'' with Richard Dean Anderson. How successful was this ad campaign? Note that none of the three shows have a page at this time.

** Also on UPN was Star Trek Voyager, which had Robert Beltran, Robert Duncan McNeill, and Robert Picardo as part of the cast. Reportedly they went by Rob, Robert and Bob respectively to keep things straight.

* [[Harrison Ford]] was worried that he shared the same name as a silent movie star, but his fame as since eclipsed that of the original Harrison Ford.

* When citing a list of [[The Presidents|United States presidents]] that only gives last names, presidents with similar names will often be differentiated with nicknames and variations. For instance, referring to "Roosevelt" often means ''[[Teddy Roosevelt|Theodore]]'' [[Teddy Roosevelt|Roosevelt]], whereas one who is referring to ''[[Franklin D Roosevelt|Franklin Delano]]'' [[Franklin D Roosevelt|Roosevelt]] will refer to him as [[Fun with Acronyms|FDR]]. More recently, simply saying "George Bush" would tend to refer to [[George W. Bush|the more recent one]] by default (though many will call him "George W. Bush" specifically anyway), while someone referring specifically to George Bush ''senior'' would likely call him [[George HW Bush|"George H.W. Bush"]].