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'''Marklar Leader:''' No, not at all. Hey, Marklar!
'''Marklar:''' Yes, Marklar?
'''Marklar Leader:''' You see?
|''[[South Park]]'': "Starvin' Marvin in Space"}}
Sometimes, you just don't need names. Why bother remembering all those names? Just call everyone the same thing! This rarely seems to cause any confusion, at least for you. Outsiders, not so much.
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This tends to happen in [[Science Fiction]] and [[Fantasy]], not so much in other genres, unless it's [[Played for Laughs]] (which many examples below are).
Opposite of the [[One Steve Limit]]. See also [[Pokémon-Speak]]. [[
Most certainly [[Truth in Television]], as the Real Life section shows.
{{examples}}
== [[Advertising]] ==
* A recent{{when}} advert in the UK for Warburton's bread gave the ''entire population of Britain'' the surname Warburton. The commentary on the football match featured in the ad was...special.
* Hormel's commercial{{when}} for [[Mystery Meat|SPAM luncheon meat]] shows a classroom where the teacher and all the students are eggs. The teacher is roll calling, and you see everyone's name is "egg."
==
* In the ''[[Tokyo Mew Mew]]'' <s>English dub</s> [[Macekre]], the girls that torment Retasu (er, [[Cultural Translation|Bridget]]) are all named Becky; collectively, the Three Beckys. Note that the girls had [[No Name Given]] in the original.
* A plot point in ''[[Rave Master]]'': Haru confuses the first [[Big Bad]], Gale, with his [[Disappeared Dad]], Gale.
* The head writer of ''[[Gundam Wing]]'' apparently really likes the name Catherine, because in the span of the series and the side-stories he's written, we've been introduced to five of them: Katrina Peacecraft (Relena's mother), Quatrina Winner (Quatre's mother), Catherine Bloom, Kathy Po (Sally's daughter), and Quatrina Winner II (Quatre's younger sister).
* In ''[[Pokémon]]'' all nurses are named Nurse Joy, and all police officers are named Officer Jenny.
* There is a group of ''[[Digimon]]'' called Chaosmon. Not all of them look the same, not all have the same abilities and not all of them are even related but they are all called Chaosmon, except for the biggest one, which is called [[Monster Lord|UltimateChaosmon]].
** To some extent, every Digimon has this trope. None of them have names beyond their species name, are widely known to everyone by said species names and treat them as their actual names, and some species names even apply to multiple species/subspecies (see: [http://wikimon.net/Greymon Greymon], [http://wikimon.net/Greymon_(Black) Greymon] and [http://wikimon.net/Greymon_(2010_Anime_Version) Greymon]). Furthering this is how there seems to be a tendency for large groups of the same species to live together, such as the Pyocomon village featured in the fourth episode of ''[[Digimon Adventure]]''. The exception is the ''[[Digimon V-Tamer 01]]'' canon, where the majority of plot-relevant Digimon have their own proper names.
* In ''[[
== [[Comic Books]] ==
* ''[[The Smurfs]]'' had names, but they would randomly replace nouns and verbs with "[[Smurfing|smurf]]". "We're going smurfing on the River Smurf today."
** Which, of course, results in all sorts of parodies, such as the one where Hefty Smurf took Smurfette to Smurfer's Lane where he smurfed her smurf, while she smurfed him quite smurfishly, all the while been watched by Brainy Smurf who was smurfing his smurf as he watched, the mothersmurfer.
** This gets even better in the original French, which can gramatically distinguish between "le schtroumpf", "la schtroumpf", "un schtroumpf", "une schtroumpf" and "[[Les Schtroumpfs]]". Not to mention all forms of the verb "schtroumpfer" ("to smurf")
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** Actually this trope is played straight in the books: Smurfs who don't have a specific name are named just "Smurf". "I picked Smurf's bottle smurfer/smurf screwer" "Poor Smurf !" "Vote for Smurf"...
** In their animated debut, ''The Smurfs and the Magic Flute,'' Pee Wee tries talking to them in their own dialect, randomly replacing words with "smurf." He can't do it right, and they misunderstand everything he says.
* In ''[[The Tick (animation)]]'', the Tick befriends a microscopic race of people living on a meteorite who are all named ''Ricardo''. Theie arch-enemies with their evil counterparts, the people of the tiny planet ''Anne'', who are poised to help Canada conquer the Earth.
** A [[Borderline Example]], an episode of the animated series mentioned a Raygun that would change its target into "A gas-station attendant named Ray". A similar "Tommygun" is also mentioned.
** The animated series loved this
* In ''[[The Sandman]]'' story "A game of you" Wilkinson reveals his parents had called all their children "Wilkinson."
** "It was hardest on the girls."
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* In ''[[Judge Dredd]]'', everyone in Fargoville is named Eustace in honour of the first Chief Judge.
==
* In ''[[The Ben Chatham Adventures]]'', all Russians are named Ivan.
* ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Abridged Series]]'': The Rare Hunters are all named Steve, [[Justified Trope|because]] Marik's mind-control powers only work on guys named Steve, or people whose middle name is Steve. Or last name, presumably.
** It also works on girls named Steve, although those are understandably rare. Téa is one of them since Marik forced her (and Joey) to legally change their names to Steve.
** Also from ''Yugioh Abridged'':
{{quote|'''Spirit of the Millennium Ring:''' Actually, we're both called Bakura.
'''Yami:''' What? But that's just confusing! Not to mention highly unlikely.
'''Spirit:''' Oh, just wait until Season 5 when there's ''three'' of me running around. Even the ''fans'' have trouble keeping up with that one! }}
== [[Film]] ==
* The aliens (Red (evil) and Black (good) Lectroids) in the film ''[[The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension]]'' all chose the cove rname 'John'. Yes, even the women.
** Justified in the film; supposedly the English name "John" was either the translation or transliteration of a title the Lectroids used to address each other, analogous to, say, the English "Mr." or "Mrs./Miss".
*** Better comparison: the Japanese suffix "-san", which is technically androgynous.
* In the [[Olsen Twins]] vehicle ''[[Our Lips Are Sealed]]'', the school clique that calls themselves "the individualists" is made up entirely of identical girls named Sheila.
** Partially subverted because one of them is really called Erica.
* ''[[Inside Man]]'' had a gang of bank robbers who were all named with variations of "Steve." Of course, they were ''trying'' to confuse people.
* On ''[[Blazing Saddles]]'' all the people of Rock Ridge appear to have the surname Johnson. Of course, this being some hick western town and, furthermore, this being [[Mel Brooks]], it likely just means that everyone is related.
** Also, a few of the bridge crew aboard ''[[Spaceballs|Spaceball
*** A few?
{{quote|'''Dark Helmet:''' Who made that man a gunner?
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'''Entire Bridge Crew:''' '''Yo!'''
'''Dark Helmet:''' I knew it! I'm surrounded by Assholes! Keep firing, Assholes! }}
* Does anybody remember ''[[No Soap, Radio]]''? They had a spoof 1950s horror movie called ''The Day Everyone's Name Became Al'', in which the change was caused by aliens attempting to cause chaos on Earth.
* The [[Mix-and-Match Critters|Monkeybirds]] in ''[[Mirror Mask]]'' are named all named Bob, [[Odd Name Out|except for one]], whose name is Malcolm.
* ''[[Heathers]]'':
* In ''[[Finding Nemo]]'', Marlin proposes to Coral that instead of naming their children, they should just call half Marlin Jr. and half Coral Jr.
** To be fair, they did have ''hundreds'' of eggs. How many baby names can you think of?
* The weird and disturbing world that results when John Malkovich goes inside his own head in ''[[Being John Malkovich]]''
* ''[[Igor]]'', in which [[The Igor]] is seen as some type of caste, and they are all named Igor.
* In ''[[
** [[Don't Explain the Joke|It's a
* ''[[The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain]]'' is set in a Welsh town where all of the men are named Morgan, Jones, Thomas, Williams, or Davies. This has led to everyone being given nicknames (e.g., Morgan the Goat, Davies the School) to differentiate. Of course, there's ''also'' a pair of twins. Their names are "Thomas Twp" and "Thomas Twp Too." No one can tell them apart.
** [[Truth in Television|That's... pretty much Wales for you]]. The rural bits, at least.
* Alluded to in ''[[Babe]]''
* An arguable example happens in ''[[Zulu]]'', where the Welsh unit at Roarke's Drift has several men with the same surname, who use parts of their serial numbers to differentiate themselves.
* In ''[[My Big Fat Greek Wedding]]'', every family in the Portucalos clan has three children, always named Anita, Diane and
* Early on in ''[[Bubble Boy]]'', Jimmy hitch-hikes on a bus full of religious cultists whose male members are all named "Todd" and whose female members are all named "Loraine."
* Finnish cult film ''[[Calamari Union]]'' has fifteen people named Frank (and one named Pekka, who doesn't fit in) trying to accomplish the same goal - namely, moving from a lower-class neighborhood to an upper-class one in another side of town. They work briefly together, but go in their separate ways very quickly, and they are distinctly different characters.
* In
== [[Literature]] ==
* In ''[[The Bald Soprano]]'', Mr. Smith brings up an old family friend, Bobby Watson, who died some years ago and left behind his children Bobby Watson and Bobby Watson, and his widow, Bobby Watson. Mrs. Bobby Watson has recently decided to remarry one of Bobby Watson's relatives, Bobby Watson. [[Brother-Sister Incest|Or so we sort of maybe think]].
* ''[[The Phantom Tollbooth]]'' goes the Pokemon route: In Digitopolis all the mathematical figures are called what they are. "Dodecahedron" seems to be the character's only name. One wonders what they do if there's more than one dodecahedron walking around...
* ''Lizard Music'' by [[Daniel Pinkwater]] features a race of giant intelligent lizards, all of whom are named either Reynold or Helena.
* ''[[Discworld]]'' has a clan of [[The Igor|Igors]]. They're not all named
** Lampshaded with Vimes' comment: "Igor and Igor say hi, Igor."
** And they can tell when you're talking about the wrong Igor. "Not Igor, thur, I'm ''Igor.''"
** Another Discworld example is a short incidental regarding a Klatchian ruler who (rather dyslexically) wished that everything he touched would turn to Glod. He very quickly found out what happens when a dwarf of indeterminate temper is suddenly dragged away from his home and replicated repeatedly (viz. he becomes a very grumpy dwarf). To this day people living in that city are short of stature and temper.
** ''[[
** Another Discworld sort-of example would be the Nac Mac Feegle from ''[[
{{quote|"Well, Not-as-big-as-Medium-Sized-Jock-but-bigger-than-Wee-Jock, I can--"
"That's No'-as-big-as-Medium-Sized-Jock-but-bigger-than-Wee-Jock-''Jock'', mistress," said Not-as-big-as-Medium-Sized-Jock-but-bigger-than-Wee-Jock-Jock. "Ye were one Jock short," he added helpfully. }}
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** Not to mention, in every generation of the family, all boys are named either Aureliano or Jose Arcadio. There's one Jose Aureliano, too, just to mix it up on you.
** For added fun [[Anachronic Order|the story isn't chronological]] do you can't keep in mind who's who based on age either. Yes it is deliberately confusing, why do you ask?
* In Jack L. Chalker's ''[[Quintara Marathon]]'' series, there is an entire alien race named Durquist. Not only is the race referred to as Durquist, but each individual's name is Durquist as well. When one of the main characters asks their Durquist friend how the race can tell each other apart (they all look the same, too) the Durquist responds to the effect of "we just can."
* In ''[[The Troublesome Offspring of Cardinal Guzman]]'' Dionysius ends up with a very dedicated fan club, and names the resulting children either Dionysius or Anica (for boys and girls) though at least they get a number. When his mother visited and saw a tiny newborn baby and found that he was about to be named Dionysius the 19th she was not amused. {{spoiler|readers of the first book should not get too attached to Anica}}.
* In ''[[Montmorency]]'', all the servants at Bargles are called Sam.
* In Pierre Burton's children's book
* In ''[[Anne of Green Gables|Anne Of Avonlea]]'', Miss Lavender has a servant girl called Charlotta the Fourth. This is because her three older sisters had all worked for Miss Lavender before her; the oldest was named Charlotta, and Miss Lavender got in the habit of calling them all by that name.
** [[Truth in Television]]: in Victorian England, for example, many households reused the same name for a succession of servants in the same position because they didn't want to bother remembering their real names.
* In Charles Stross's ''[[Saturn's Children]]'', the main character is 'instantiated' from a line of robots,
* In ''[[The Areas of My Expertise]]'', Arizona has a tradition of appointing a ringtail cat to a public office. By an odd coincidence, all the ringtails are named John McCain. When the real John McCain refused to be photographed eating a traditional bowl of chili with the ringtail McCain, he was described as having "a bad, anti-ringtail attitude".
* ''[[The Gone-Away World]]'' has a circus troupe who are mostly all named K. They "use one signifier to encourage random reassessment of the nature of our relationships."
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* [[Umberto Eco]]'s novel ''Baudolino'' features a community of female, satyr-like creatures, who consider themselves the followers of Hypatia of Alexandria and are all named Hypatia in her honor.
* Romance novelist Victoria Alexander is married to a man named Charles. So whenever there's a widow in any of her books, what does she name their late husband? Charles.
* There's the planet of Dawn Grays in
* The Marra of ''[[The Madness Season]]'' are all known by others as simply "Marra".
** Sometimes with a suffix attached, if the embodied want to distinguish between them. The Marra always know.
== [[Live-Action TV]] ==
* ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'' has the Q, who are all named Q. The first Q we met had an affair with Q, and they had a child, Q. This makes for some confusing family trees, as well as a hole in the popular [[Fanon]] theory that Trelane, the Squire of Gothos from the original series, is a Q.
** [[Justified Trope|Justified]] as the Q are omniscient, so they know who they are talking about.
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'''Bruce 4:''' "What if we call you Bruce, just to keep it clear?" }}
** There's also Whicker Island, where everyone was Alan Whicker, except (maybe) for Father Pierre.
** [[John Cleese]]'s character in the Fish Licence sketch owns numerous pets called Eric, and claimed that he was emulating Kemal Ataturk who owned an entire menagerie called Abdul. (The other character in the
* ''[[Mister Rogers' Neighborhood]]'' featured Planet Purple, a planet where everything was purple, including the people, who were named Paul if they were male and Pauline if they were female. (To make things even ''duller,'' everyone spoke in the same monotone voice.)
* During the ''[[Blackadder]]'' episode ''Head'', the royal jailer is "Ploppy, son of Ploppy" and last meal cook is "Mrs. Ploppy"; Blackadder assumes they're related, but they say it's pure coincidence. Then he discovers that the executioner is his manservant Baldrick, who offers to change his name to Ploppy "if it'll make things easier". Blackadder declines, but for the rest of the episodes the Ploppy the Jailer refers to him as "Young Ploppy".
* Used as a running gag in ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]'' episode "Night of the Blood Beast". In the movie, the characters say the name "Steve" a disproportionate number of times, so Mike and the Bots assume that everyone in the film is named Steve. An example of their riffing:
{{quote|'''Servo''': And the Steves are there!
'''Crow''': Steve One, you go that way! Steve Two, come with me! }}
** ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]''{{'}}s later seasons introduced the questionably omniscient, questionably bodiless Observers; each one is Observer. When Servo is invited to join them because he performed well on a standardized test, he has trouble getting used to the naming convention.
** Another example from [[Mystery Science Theater 3000]] occurs during the viewing of ''[[Fugitive Alien]]'', with the name Ken. Within the film, there are genuinely two characters named Ken, and this is lampshaded ("...a young boy, whose name was also Ken.") Joel and the 'bots just decide to pretend that everyone is named Ken.
* ''[[Nebulous]]'' features an [[Alternate Universe]] where everything is spelt different. Literally - every word is spelt "D-I-F-F-E-R-E-N-T". One of the characters laments that dictionaries are "worse than useless" in this world.
* Played for a laugh in an episode of ''[[
** Justified in that what was happening was that 4077th (apparently because of regulations or standing orders) required the local population to present an ID to get medical care. The result was that everybody who wanted treatment was showing up with the same ID card that was being passed around, made out to "Kim Luk".
** Also in ''M*
* ''[[The Adventures of Pete and Pete]]'' features the main character, Pete, and his younger brother, Pete. Their mom wanted the names to rhyme. (Fans usually refer to them as "big Pete" and "little Pete".)
* In an episode of ''[[3rd Rock from the Sun]]'', Harry ended up in the circus as "Hargo the Alien". In his act, he explains that "Hargo" is his full name because the beings of his world have [[Only One Name]] and then adds that this is unfortunate because Hargo is such a common name on his planet.
** In another episode, the replacement Commander of the mission, fed up with trying to remember names, exclaims "ENOUGH! From now on, you'll all be known as Tommy." It didn't really take though.
* ''[[Newhart]]: "Hi, I'm Larry, this is my brother
* Dr. Kelso from ''[[Scrubs]]'', instead of bothering to learn the hospital's new intern's names, dubbed all the men "Daves" and all the girls "Debbies"- except for one of them who actually ''was'' named Debbie, whom Kelso renamed [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efndBfXHPxs Slagathor out of fairness to the others. ]
* The name "Jones" is particularly common in Wales. This was spoofed in a ''[[Hale And Pace]]'' sketch where two Welsh miners named Jones are on their way to work, and greets everyone they meet with a "Good Morning, Jones the [insert character trait or status here]". When they get there, Jones the Boss tells them that there's been an accident, but that everyone has been accounted for except Jones the Not Accounted For. Jones the Miner and Jones the Miner tells Jones The Boss that they saw him alive just now, and Jones the Boss is relieved because he "had given him up for Jones the Dead."
* On an episode of ''[[The West Wing]]'', the entire speechwriting staff quits in protest of Will's hiring and instant promotion to Deputy. He thus has to rewrite an entire day's worth of speeches for, apparently, everyone in the federal government. His only help: four interns, three of whom are named Lauren.
* Nearing the fourth season finale, ''[[Angel]]'' featured a hell dimension of spider-like demons in which no one has a name (though the important people can be named according to their professional titles, such as "High Priest" or "Name Keeper"). In fact, one of them actively mocks humans' weakness of everyone having names.
** It wasn't that the spider-demons didn't have names, but it was that giving away their names as freely as humans weakened them. And weakened Jasmine, the season's big bad. Angel's trip to the dimension was to retrieve Jasmine's true name so she might be brought down to their level.
* For the 2010 April Fool's Day episode of ''[[The Price Is Right]]'', every audience member was named Pat.
* Taken literally on the TV version of ''[[Weird Science (TV series)|Weird Science]]''. One set of recurring characters is a race of porcine aliens all named Steve who try to convince Lisa to be their new queen.
* In
* The show ''[[Kids in The Hall]]'' had a sketch where
** And then there are the thirty Helens. They all agree. (Or they all agree to disagree.)
== [[Music]] ==
* [[The Arrogant Worms]] have described [[Canada, Eh?|Northern Ontario]] as "eighty billion kilometres long. There are thirteen people who live there. All of whom are named Frank. Even the girl." This is not [[Truth in Television]], obviously, but some people would tell you it's exaggeration rather than an outright lie.
* "I'm Henery
* [[Devo]] has Bob 1 and Bob 2.
* In the ''Philadelphia Chickens'' album by [[Sandra Boynton]], the song "Fifteen Animals" is narrated by a young boy who owns said fifteen animals and is "giving each one a special name"
== [[Newspaper Comics]] ==
* One ''[[Dilbert]]'' strip had the Pointy-Haired boss announcing that their company would put everybody in a wide salary band and eliminate job position names. When Dilbert asks what job title they'll use, the boss responds, "You'll all be named Beverly."
* An old ''[[The New Yorker|New Yorker]]'' cartoon showed a class photo of a bunch of smiling kindergartners with a completely frazzled and exhausted teacher in the middle. The caption reads: "Right to left: Jennifer, Jennifer, Jason, Jennifer, Jason, Jennifer, Jennifer, Jason, Jason, Jason, Jennifer, Miss Alice Nelson, Jennifer, Jason...."
== [[Radio]] ==
* ''[[I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue]]'': In Hastings Humphrey Littleton related that in 1066 Hastings had been invaded by King William and his 9,000 Normans after one of the most confusing roll calls in history.
* Wales is a Planet Of Joneses in ''[[The Very World of Milton Jones]]''. It's a very common surname there in [[Real Life]] as well.
== [[Theatre]] ==
* In ''[[The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)|The Complete Works of William Shakespeare]]'' members of the Reduced Shakespeare Company play with this trope, referring to house technicians and multiple audience volunteers as "Bob" to keep things simple.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20130624201210/http://www.davegorman.com/projects_are_you_dave_gorman.html Are you Dave Gorman?]
==
* Presumably for branding reasons, when Milton Bradley's vintage ''Magic Mary'' line of paper dolls was expanded, the new girls all had names that could be shortened to "Mary", including Mary-Ann, Mary-Jane and Mary-Lou (thus sold as "Magic Mary Ann" etc.).
== [[Video Games]] ==
* The Mr. Saturns of ''[[EarthBound]]''. They're all named Mr. Saturn, unsurprisingly, except for one named Dr. Saturn who works at the hospital in Saturn Valley.
* The Sega CD game ''[[Popful Mail]]'' has one of the reptilian Gaw creatures explains that Gaw have no personal names. True to [[Working Designs]]' [[Woolseyism|style]], he follows it up by saying "It's hell when you're being paged..."
* ''[[RuneScape]]'' has a town named Pollnivneach, a [[Fantasy Counterpart Culture]] of the Middle East. Every person in town is named "Ali", including a woman (She insists it's short for "Alice") and an "Ali Cat".
* [[Super Mario|Bros. Mario, meet Yoshi, Yoshi, Yoshi, Yoshi, and, of course, Yoshi.]] Subverted because the ''species'' is "Yoshi" with only the green Yoshi of [[Super Mario World (video game)|Super Mario World]] fame having that as his name, though it's more likely a title. [[Super Mario RPG]] featured a purple Yoshi with studs named Boshi.
* The Giant Intelligent Friendly Talking Spiders that appear in the ''[[Exile]]''/''[[Avernum]]'' series (and in ''[[Nethergate]]'' too, probably) are all named Spider. ''Exile 3''/''Avernum 3'' makes a "riddle" from
** Averted by the Friendly, Happy Roaches in ''Exile 3''/''Avernum 3'', though, as they have more descriptive names like Filth Spreader.
* Vault 108 from ''[[Fallout]] 3'' is infested with clones of some guy named Gary. Well, [[Verbal Tic Name|that might be his name, but it's all any of the clones can say]]. The original is presumably dead, and could presumably say things other than his name. Presumably.
** In the add-on pack Operation Anchorage you find Gary 18 in the outcasts base.
** [[Memetic Mutation|Hahaha, GAA-RY!!]]
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* In ''[[The Conduit]]'' and [[Conduit 2|its sequel]], there's nothing to prevent multiple online users from having the same screen name. Seeing as the default name is "Mr. Ford" and many players are too busy shooting things to think up a unique name, you'll end up not knowing exactly who gunned you down half the time. Interestingly, "Sr. Ford" is a slight variation that pops up extremely often.
** Yeah, [[Frisky Dingo|his ass is everywhere]].
* The Mafia of Cooks in ''[[A Hat in Time]]'' refer to each other [[Third Person Person|and themselves]] as "Mafia".
== [[Web Animation]] ==
* The ''[[Weebl and Bob]]'' flash vid "Dan" features an alien race that uses the name "Dan De Zille" (the name of their ruler) for everything on their planet. Like many Planet of Steves examples, they don't find this at all confusing.
== [[Web
* The word "Cirbozoid" in ''[[Starslip Crisis]]''. Just... [https://web.archive.org/web/20101128235449/http://starslip.com/2007/06/12/starslip-number-538/ see it for yourselves.]
* [http://mountaincomics.com/2009/03/09/mountain-time-13/ Mountain Time] has Paul Island which, as you might have guessed, is inhabited only by dudes named Paul.
* Every year, Dave Davenport of ''[[Narbonic]]'' attends a meeting of the Dave Conspiracy. All the attendees wear name tags saying "Hello My Name Is Dave."
** To explain a bit further, each and every one really is named Dave, and if a Dave should ever be expelled from the Conspiracy, he will lose the
* Oddly enough, ''[[All Over the House]]'' also contains a 'Dave' reference, in [http://www.alloverthehouse.net/?p=77 The Army of Daves] (recruiting now!); which Emily thinks is fictional.
* Gav is a major demographic in ''[[Schlock Mercenary]]'' ever since he {{spoiler|cloned himself several hundred million times just before the original got killed.}}
* ''[[The Order of the Stick]]'' plays this as a throwaway gag in [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0777.html #777], also managing to riff on [[I Am Spartacus]] at the same time. As in, all the [[Gladiator Games|anonymous gladiators]] in the arena are named Spartacus, and they all know which one is being addressed during role call.
{{quote|"Spartacus."
"Here."
"Spartacus."
"Here."
"Spartacus."
"Here."
"Spartacus."
"He's in the loo."}}
* The "Entire language consists of a single word" version in ''[[Blade of Toshubi]]''.{{context}}
== [[Web Original]] ==
* In ''[[Somewhere Else]]'', everyone is [http://www.sir-toby.com/extend-a-story/story-1/code/read.php?episode=87121 Someone Else]. Doing something else, of course.
* ''[[Fenspace]]'' has [http://fenspace.net/index.php5?title=Julian_Friez Julian Friez] -- all the many instances of him. The original Julian was the subject/victim of a bizarre [[Cloning Blues|replication machine]] created by [[Mad Scientist|"The Professor"]], which has three simple controls -- buttons marked [[Slices, Dices, and Makes Julienne Fries|"Slice", "Dice" and "Make Julian Friez"]]. Pushing the third and providing the machine with about 200 pounds of biomass to work from produces a clone of Mr. Friez, complete with all his memories and personality traits up to the moment the Professor used him as a template. Entirely too many people in Fenspace have wanted to make Julian Friez, and as a result there is an uncertain but large number of him both on and off Earth.
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* The [[Welcome to Marklar|former trope title]] comes from the ''[[South Park]]'' episode "Starvin' Marvin in Space", which introduced the Marklar. All named Marklar, and they replaced all nouns with Marklar.
{{quote|'''Stan:'''Wait, wait. I think I can explain this whole thing. Marklar, these Marklars want to change your Marklar. They don't want this Marklar or any of his Marklars to live here because it's bad for their Marklar. They use Marklar to try and force Marklars to believe their Marklar. If you let them stay here, they will build Marklars and Marklars. They will take all of your Marklars and replace them with Marklars. These Marklars have no good Marklars to live on Marklars so they must come here to Marklar. Please, let these Marklars stay where they can grow and prosper without any Marklars, Marklars or Marklars.
'''Marklar:''' Your Marklar are wise, young Marklar. }}
* Implied in ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]''.
{{quote|'''Piandao:''' "Try Lee; there a million Lee's"}}
** And in Ba Sing Se, all the tour guides are named Joo Dee. This is only one of their many creepy aspects.
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*** And an episode with a [[Chain of Deals]] involved getting [[Alpha Bitch|Ashley A]]'s diary back from her kindergarden-age sister Brittany. When Spinelli says "Which one of you is Brittany?", of course, a group of toddlers resembling all the Ashleys step forward, and she has to specify "Um ... Brittany A?"
* In ''[[King of the Hill]]'' Luanne once unwittingly joined an all-woman [[Cult]] masquerading as a sorority where all the members were named Jane.
* The Debbies from the short-lived ''[[The Oblongs]]''.
* A "U.S. Acres" short from
* ''[[The Backyardigans]]'' had a space episode, "Mission to Mars", with a song and dance routine explaining how "Boinga" could mean a thousand things in Mars. Similar thing with "Ugh" in "Cave Party", but in "Caveman's Best Friend" it didn't even got a song since it was downgraded to, according to that episode, what cave people shout when they're really happy.
* In an episode of "[[Phineas and Ferb]]," An older Candace travels back in time to bust her brothers and succeeds. When she travels back (forward again), she finds herself in a [[Bad Future]] where everyone is named Joe. This is because Dr. Doofenshmirtz, now the [[Evil Overlord]] of the world, doesn't want to bother to remember anyone's name.
* In ''[[Family Guy]]'' "Road to Germany", Half of Mort Goldman's relatives in a synagogue are named Mort Goldman when Brian and Stewie are looking for him.
* In ''[[Codename: Kids Next Door]]'', there is a tribe living inside the sofa whose names are all Dave
* ''[[Chowder]]'' has the Arborians, and gets quite a few [[Overly Long Gags]] out of it.
{{quote|"This is my wife Arbora, my son Arbor Jr., my brother Arbor, his wife Arbora…"}}
* In the ''[[Futurama]]'' episode ''Fry Am The Egg Man,'' there's a planet where all the inhabitants are named Angus.
* In an episode of ''[[Sabrina the Animated Series]]'' one of Sabrina's spells backfires and she arrives home to find that the town has been renamed "Sabrinaville" and everyone in the town is called Sabrina - even the boys.
* One of the ''[[Robbie the Reindeer]]'' specials featured a band of midget Vikings, all named Magnus.
== [[Other Media]] ==
* There's a joke about a black woman with five sons named Leroy...
** The UK has a similar one about a [[Chav]] with five sons named Noel...
*** For those who do not know of the joke, if she wants to call them all at once, she just has to yell out "Leroy!/Noel!", but if she wants a particular one {{spoiler|[[Really Gets Around|she uses their last names]]}}.
** And one about a guy who named all his cats "Cat"; what's the point of giving 'em names when none come when they're called?
== [[Real Life]] ==
* Roughly one-third of China has the last name
** Though the gist may be true, the numbers are off. For starters there are 1.2 billion Chinese, so we would start with 400 million.
*** Actually, Zhang is the third most common last name in China. Li is the most common. Zhang is still the most common worldwide though.
** The most common first name in the world, counting variations, is Mohammed. How many Mohammed Zhangs are there? Just
* George Foreman and his five sons are named George: George Jr., George III, George IV, George V, and George VI. He even has a daughter named Georgetta. (He has four other daughters)
** ''[[King of the Hill]]'' took a jab at this on the episode guest-starring George Foreman, where he mentions that George was the only name he could think of for his sons due to too many blows to the head.
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* [[Michael Jackson]]'s children are named Prince Michael Jackson, Paris Michael Jackson, and Prince 'Blanket' Michael Jackson II
* There's a story that a London club in the 19th century called all their waiters Charlie, so that people wouldn't get distracted from the food trying to remember their names.
* Similarly, during the late 19th and early 20th centuries it was common for the (mostly black) sleeping car porters on American trains to be called "George", regardless of their actual name, in honor of George Pullman, whose company had manufactured most of said cars. This eventually
* Hawaiian Pidgin, Hawaii's English-based Creole, utilizes the word/phrase "Da Kine" as a sort of [[Metasyntactic Variable|universal placeholder]]. It can take the role of any noun, verb, adverb, or adjective, and its meaning usually (but not always) derived from context or body language. Because no other English dialects contain words that function this way (though the above-mentioned "smurf" comes close), outsiders often struggle with this, and locals have been known to use it to deliberately confuse and frustrate non-native speakers.
** It's not unheard of for "da kine" to be used several times in the same sentence, each instance having a different meaning from the others. "I went to da kine with da kine fo' get some da kine, but da line stay so long he got all da kine and we left." (In context, it was "I went to Foodland with Marc to get some ice cream, but the line was so long he got frustrated and we left")
** Scots uses two words with a similar meaning, Hingway and Hingin - Hingway being any noun, proper noun, or verb, and Hingin being any present participle or adjective.
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** In Tagalog, the words "kuwan" and "ano" serve a similar purpose, both being roughly equivalent to "that thing"/"the whatchamacallit" when used for that purpose.
* In the 2009 Formula One Grand Prix, the Red Bull drivers are Sebastian, Sebastian, Sebastian and [[Odd Name Out|Mark]].
* The [https://web.archive.org/web/20130921214804/http://www.jimsmithsociety.com/ Jim Smith Society].
* A group of bandits called the Five Joaquins, who were famous in the 19th century for their Robin Hood act in California, were known as such because, well, they were five dudes named Joaquin. One of them, Joaquin Murrieta, you may have heard of: he was the inspiration behind the story of Zorro.
* More than [[wikipedia:Project Steve|1000 Steves with Ph.Ds]] support the Theory of Evolution.
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** In the past, they also worked with [[Complete World Knowledge|The Deranged Millionaire]]
* [[Powderfinger]] had John Collins on bass and Jon Coghill on drums, but within the band, and within the fanbase, they were nicknamed JC and Cogsy, respectively.
* An interesting variant on the trope
** However, the Queen's son? Crown Prince Frederi(c)k. And Prince Frederick's son? Prince Christian.
* Koreans only have a small handful of last names, a majority of them being Kim or Lee.
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* The Ptolemaic Dynasty of Egypt was not very imaginative in coming up with king names, all 14 (or 15, depending on which historian you ask) of its kings being named Ptolemy.
** And most of its queens were named Cleopatra. The famous one is Cleopatra VII.
* Out of the 265 popes of the Roman Catholic Church, there have been twelve that have taken the name Pius, thirteen each named Leo or Innocent, fourteen Clements, fifteen Benedicts (the
* While not as impressive as the other examples, Devo's got two guitar-players named Bob, each of whom is the brother of a founding member. They go by Bob 1 and Bob 2.
* It's impossible to tell what pets are really thinking ... but if we could, it's likely that an awful lot of cats would identify themselves as "Kitty", dogs as "Here Boy", etc.
* Greece, being a majorly Christian country, has a notion of naming people after religious figures and it is statistically impossible to live in Greece without knowing a single Maria variation or a Nicholas variation. This makes Name Days extra fun. There is also a tradition of parents naming their eldest child after their parents so cousins will often have the same names which makes Name Days even more fun.
* In coastal fishing villages,
* "7.62" is the name of over a dozen separate firearms cartridges by many separate countries.
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[[Category:Naming Conventions]]
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