History Main / PlanetOfSteves

* Chapter 2 of ''VideoGame/{{Deltarune}}'' introduces the Addisons, embodiments of internet ads. They all have different colored skins, but otherwise share the same name, face, clothing and pose.

** A similar, English-language variant: A woman has 15 children. She goes to speak with a government official, who tells her, "I’ll need all your children’s names." She says, "This one’s my oldest - he is Terry." He says, "OK, and who’s next?" She tells him, "Well, this one; he is Terry also." The official continues one by one through the oldest four, all boys named Terry. Then he is introduced to the eldest girl, named Terri. "All right," says the official, "I’m seeing a pattern here. Are they ''all'' named Terri?" The woman says, “Well, yes, it makes it easier. When it is time to get them out of bed and ready for school, I yell, 'Terry!' When it's time for dinner, I just yell 'Terry!' and they all comes running. And if I need to stop ths kid running into the street, I just yell 'Terry' and all of them stops. It’s the smartest idea I ever had, naming them all Terry." The official asks, "But what if you just want '''one''' kid to come, and not the whole bunch?" The woman says, "Then I call them by their last names!"

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheTick'', the Tick befriends a microscopic race of people living on a meteorite who are all named ''Ricardo''. Their arch-enemies were their evil counterparts, the people of the tiny planet ''Anne'', who are poised to help Canada conquer the Earth. The Biography for Ricardo enemy lampshaded the confusing aspect of the trope noting that conversations about other people were completely incomprehensible but that in every other way their society was a [[NoPoverty socialist utopia without want or poverty]] and that the Ricardo are too afraid to take on individual names in fear of a butterfly effect wrecking their utopia.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheTick'', the Tick befriends a microscopic race of people living on a meteorite who are all named ''Ricardo''. Their arch-enemies were their evil counterparts, the people of the tiny planet ''Anne'', who are poised to help Canada conquer the Earth.

* In [[Literature/TheCenturyTrilogy Fall Of Giants]], which opens early in the twentieth century, we meet working-class Welsh teen William Williams and his father, David. A discussion ensues of how common the names William, David, and Williams are in their community and how everybody ends up being called by various nicknames to distinguish them.

* In a ShoutOut to ''VideoGame/{{Earthbound}}'', the Temmie Village in ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'' is populated by Temmies, and every one of them is called Temmie. [[spoiler:Except for [[OddNameOut Bob]].]]

* ''Series/{{Newhart}}'': "Hi, I'm Larry, this is my brother Darryl and this is my other brother Darryl" repeated as a CatchPhrase every time they appeared. A later episode revealed that one had his named changed ''to'' Darryl to avoid confusion. He used to be named Larry.

** In the [[Anime/PokemonTheSeriesBlackAndWhite Unova region]], there's an identical family of Battle Club owners, all named Don George. And there's an identical family of cruise ship guides called Porters.

* In ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'':

** In the Unova region, there's an identical family of Battle Club owners, all named Don George.

Most certainly TruthInTelevision, as the Real Life section shows.

* ''Film/Barbie2023'': As seen in the second trailer, everyone in Barbieland is named either Barbie or Ken.
* In ''Film/MyBigFatGreekWedding'', almost every family in the Portucalos clan has three children, always named Anita, Diane and Nick. There are also a few extra Nicks scattered in the cousins -- save for one Nicky.

* 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.

[[folder:Real Life]]
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_common_surnames_in_Asia#China In China,]] the most common last name is Wang, followed by Li, and then Zhang. That's 270 million people in China alone with one of the above, or about 1 person in 5.
* 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)
** ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'' 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.
** The real reason is that George Foreman never knew his father, and wanted to be damned sure his children knew where they came from.
* When we say John Sidney [=McCain=], are we talking about John Sidney [=McCain=], brother of UsefulNotes/WorldWarI veteran Henry Pinckney [=McCain=]; Henry's son Admiral John Sidney [=McCain=], Sr, UsefulNotes/WorldWarII veteran and US Naval Academy graduate; ''his'' son Admiral John Sidney [=McCain=], Jr, also a World War II and UsefulNotes/VietnamWar veteran and US Naval Academy graduate; ''his'' son [[UsefulNotes/JohnMcCain John Sidney McCain III]], the former Senator from Arizona and Republican Presidential candidate (and US Naval Academy graduate and Vietnam War veteran/POW); or ''his'' son, John Sidney [=McCain=] IV, US Naval Academy graduate and [[UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror Iraq War]] veteran?
** Less confusing if you know that unlike his predecessors, John [=McCain=] IV is a Marine, not a Sailor/Naval Aviator.
* When future Music/SexPistols manager Malcolm [=McLaren=] met future Sex Pistols Johnny Rotten and John Simon Ritchie (better known as Sid Vicious), who hung out with a gang of ''other'' kids named Johnny, he assumed that they had adopted the names as a gesture of solidarity, in much same way in ''Film/AClockworkOrange''-like gesture. Actually, they really all ''did'' have the same name.
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luther_Blissett_%28nom_de_plume%29 Luther Blisset]] is a legendary example from ol' Europa...
* More TruthInTelevision: All baptized male Sikhs are supposed to take the surname "Singh" (lion), and all females "Kaur" (princess). This started out as a way of concealing their caste of origin when Sikhism took a stand against the caste system. Nowadays, due to the confusion of having hundreds of Singhs in the phone book, most Sikhs officially go by an additional surname.
* Similarly, at one point it became fashionable for black rights activists to assume the surname "X" in place of the "slave name" given to their ancestors by white slaveowners, the most famous being UsefulNotes/MalcolmX.
* Prog Rock group Music/DreamTheater would have been a FiveManBand containing two Johns (Myung and Petrucci) and two Kevins (Moore and Labrie) but the singer chose to use his middle name of James instead.
** In addition, both their original and current drummers are named Michael (Portnoy and Mangini), leading to some rather amusing comment threads arguing that "Mike is better than Mike."
** Music/SymphonyX has them beat though, with three Michael's (Romeo, Pinnella, and Lepond)
* Music/MichaelJackson's children are named Prince Michael Jackson, Paris Michael Jackson, and Prince 'Blanket' Michael Jackson II.
** The name "Michael" has consistently made America's TopTenList of boys' names since TheForties.
* 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, a practice that may have been inspired by the American tradition of naming ''slaves'' after their masters. [[SeriousBusiness This eventually led to the formation of an organization]] called the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Society_for_the_Prevention_of_Calling_Sleeping_Car_Porters_%22George%22 Society for the Prevention of Calling Sleeping Car Porters "George,"]] which at its height counted [[UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfWindsor King George V]] and [[Creator/BabeRuth George Herman "Babe" Ruth]] as members. (The organization was somewhat tongue-in-cheek, but it did legitimately stand up for the dignity of the porters as real individual people rather than manifestations of the Pullman Company -- [[FairForItsDay a big deal in those days]].)
* Hawaiian Pidgin, Hawaii's English-based Creole, uses the word/phrase "Da Kine" as a sort of 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. (Translation: Hingway and Hingin are [[BuffySpeak Thing-wee and Thing-ing]] respectively.)
** Similarly, in Guyanese creole English, many things are referred to as "ting" (thing), and people may give directions saying "turn suh" (turn so). Usually hand gestures tell what it is they are talking about.
** 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.
** The universal placeholder word in Hungarian is "izé" (thing, stuff etc.) it also exists in adjective "izés", verb "izél" and who knows what else forms, common part of the local BuffySpeak.
** The Brazilian state of Minas Gerais is known for using "trem" (train) as a placeholder for everything, including actual railroad vehicles.
* In the 2009 UsefulNotes/FormulaOne season, the Red Bull drivers (including those of its feeder team Toro Rosso) were Sebastian[[note]]Vettel[[/note]], Sébastien[[note]]Bourdais[[/note]], Sébastien[[note]]Buemi[[/note]] and [[OddNameOut Mark (plus Jaime)]]. And when Sébastien Bourdais was removed from the team, he was initially touted to be replaced by another Sébastien[[note]]Loeb[[/note]] before settling with Jaime Alguersuari.
* The [[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 [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Steve 1000 Steves with Ph.Ds]] support the Theory of Evolution.
* Music/TheyMightBeGiants are John and John, and their backup band is (or at least was) The Band of Dans. Four of them.
** During the filming of the TMBG documentary ''Gigantic'', it was only 3 Dans, leading to this exchange:
--->'''John Linnell''': A full house. But we still can't beat a four of a kind.\\
'''John Flansbergh''': ''The Ramones''!
** In the past, they also worked with [[Literature/CompleteWorldKnowledge 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 occured in Denmark: the regal names of every Danish King from 1513 to 1972 alternated between Christian and Frederick (Frederik in Danish). The only reason why there isn't a Christian XI on the throne today is because Denmark is currently ruled by a Queen: Margrethe II, i.e. Margaret.[[labelnote:*]]Margaret I ruled 1375-1412, and was the first monarch of the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalmar_Union Kalmar Union]], the union of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, so yes, comparisons to Queen Elizabeth are appropriate.[[/labelnote]]
** However, the Queen's son? Crown Prince Frederi(c)k. And Prince Frederick's son? Prince Christian.
* {{Averted}} -- UsefulNotes/QueenVictoria apparently wanted her son, christened Albert Edward, to reign under that name, and reportedly had the idea that all future kings would be "Albert [Second Name]" thereafter. (Albert, of course, was the name of her beloved husband.) Prince Bertie (as he was universally known in the family) was rather uncomfortable with this, in large part because despite his disagreements with the man he loved and respected his father greatly. By the time he took the throne, the Prince of Wales was of the opinion that far from honouring his father, his mother's plan would cheapen the name "Albert" -- far better, he thought, to reserve the name for the singular Prince Consort. He therefore opted to instead call himself [[TheEdwardianEra Edward VII]], and the idea of interminable British kings named "Albert [Whatever]" quickly died out.
* While there are many surnames in Korea, the top 5 make up 45%, with a majority of them being Kim or Lee. [[note]]North Korea's Kim dynasty have a family name which in Western terms is as unremarkable as "Smith" or "Jones".[[/note]]
** The most common one is simply "Y", commonly transliterated as Yee/Yi/Lee/etc.
* Similarly, about 40% of all Vietnamese people have the surname Nguyễn. This is in large part because when numerous royal dynasties were overthrown over the centuries, those on the losing side would often change their surnames to Nguyễn to avoid violent retribution from the victors.
** This means that, even though just over one percent of people in [[{{UsefulNotes/Australia}} Melbourne]] are Vietnamese, Nguyen is the second most common surname in the city's phone book. Nguyen is also in the top 100 surnames in France and the United States and top ten in Australia.
* {{Averted}} by the Kingdom of the Franks: the people living there weren't all named Frank.
** [[IncrediblyLamePun Bad jokes]] aside, fully ''19'' [[UsefulNotes/LEtatCestMoi Kings of France]] were named Louis (Louis I-XVIII plus Louis Philippe I), and this doesn't count other variations of the name, such as the original Frankish version: Chlodowig (Clovis, the first King of the Franks).
** If they weren't a Louis, they were probably a Charles (they got up to 10 of those, starting with UsefulNotes/{{Charlemagne}}) or a Henry (or ''Henri'' in French -- they only ever got to four or five of these depending on how you count, but that's more than the other names). At one point they had a SuccessionCrisis that's actually called [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_the_Three_Henrys the War of the Three Henrys]].
** Also, while there haven't been any kings by that name, during the First Republic, 5 of the 13 people to serve in the Directory had François as one of their names.
* 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 last was Benedict XVI, but Benedict X is now considered an antipope), sixteen named Gregory, and twenty-one named John (the last being John XXIII- [[SequelNumberSnarl it's complicated]]). The earliest popes used their given names; by the Middle Ages, it had become customary to choose a regnal name, which often was picked to honor a predecessor.
* 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.
* The six rulers of the UsefulNotes/RomanEmpire from the Julio-Claudian dynasty:
** Gaius UsefulNotes/JuliusCaesar
** Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus (usually known to literature as ''Caesar UsefulNotes/{{Augustus}}'' or spoken as "Augustus Caesar" in modern usage)
** Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus ("Tiberius Caesar")
** Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (best known by the nickname ''UsefulNotes/{{Caligula}}'')
** Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus ("UsefulNotes/{{Claudius}}" the title character of Series/IClaudius)
** Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus ("UsefulNotes/{{Nero}}", again without the Caesar")
** In the Roman aristocracy, people didn't really have names as understood today, but instead used a record of their family tree, consisting of their clan, their family, and in many cases the names of branches and sub-branches within the family, sometimes with the addition of a [[YouAreNumberSix number to tell siblings apart]]. Men did have a personal name as well, of which there were about twelve from which a father could choose for his sons. During the imperial era, the high society of Rome was actually a planet of Agrippa, Lucius, Gaius, Marcus, Tiberius, and Titus. Titles were also often adopted as official names. For example, "Augustus" was a title that could be translated as "the Illustrious One" or, more simply, "venerable". Soon after, it became customary for ''all'' Roman Emperors to adopt Caesar and Augustus to their name. Names were also dropped as readily as they were adopted: by the end of his life, Augustus had only kept Caesar from his original name (Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus). At the end of his life, he was officially Imperator Caesar Divi Filius Augustus.
* In coastal fishing villages, especially in northeast Scotland, where often there were very few last names, the name of a boat would be used to distinguish them. Example: The town of Cullen in NE Scotland has a few major surnames, Gardiner, West, Mair and Wood. So, John Wood, captain of the Ocean Crest, would be distinguished from the others by being known as "Johnny Widd the Ocean Crest (Johnny Wood of the Ocean Crest.)" Similarly, an Alec Gardiner owning the boat "Rosenburg" would be "Alec the Rosenburg."
* The aristocratic German Reuss family, hereditary rulers of the small state of the same name, have called all their male members "Heinrich" since at least 1200. They use a system of numbers to tell each other apart.
* Everyone's named Glenn in Gothenburg. Not really, but it is a common first name on the west coast of Sweden, and even more common in Gothenburg. In the early 80s the soccer team IFK Göteborg had four players named Glenn[[note]]Hysén, Strömberg, Schiller and Holm[[/note]]. Since then it has been a common (often SelfDeprecating) joke. For example, a 6 foot long nile crocodile that was found in a greenhouse in Oxie(Malmö) was later moved to Gothenburg and named [[GratuitousEnglish Old]] Glenn.
* Medieval English royals were usually named Edward, Richard, Henry, or sometimes (but almost never for heirs apparent) John. This makes for confusing reading. The adoption of Roman numeral identifiers is a direct consequence of this tendency. At one point during the 1300s, there were five consecutive generations of heirs named Edward (I, II, III, III's son Edward of Woodstock, and grandson Edward of Angouleme). The House of Lancaster featured three monarchs all named Henry, and the three surviving York brothers all had sons named Edward (V, of Warwick, and of Middleham), alive at the same time. Fate seems to have had a hand in this; England very nearly had a King Alphonso, at one point. There was a 300-year period where, except for two short-lived Richards, every single king was named Henry or Edward-with a total of six of each.
* The House of Hohenzollern (electors of Brandenburg, [[UsefulNotes/PrussianKings kings of Prussia]], eventually [[UsefulNotes/ImperialGermany emperors of Germany]]). From 1640 to 1918, every single reigning Hohenzollern was named Friedrich, Wilhelm, or [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs Friedrich Wilhelm]].
* Japanese ship names can be this sometimes. While it is normal in all cultures to recycle ship names once an old ship is retired, in Japan it is common for ships to share the same name at the same time and even operate in the same fleets. For example, in their infamous whaling fleet, all three of the identical harpoon ships are known as the Yushin Maru.
* In the early 20th century it was common among American Catholics of various ethnicities to baptize all male babies "Joseph _______" with the intention they would always go by their middle name. When they got into the Army, a lot of them became "Joe", and in [=WW2=] Joe was so commonplace it became a generic nickname for American soldiers, which is why there is Franchise/GIJoe.
* There were a hell of a lot of Byzantine emperors called Constantine (or some variation on Constantine). Eleven, to be precise.
* All the cast members of the TV Land sitcom ''Teachers'' have a first name with "Kate" as a root (Caitlin Barlow, Katy Colloton, Cate Freedman, Kate Lambert, Katie O'Brien, and Kathryn Renée Thomas).
* In the [[UsefulNotes/TheMafia American Mafia]], a large number of mobsters share the same name and can only be distinguished by a nickname, such as Gaspipe, Sonny Black, Vinny the Chin, Big Paul, etc. They get their nicknames in many ways: their physical appearance, their occupation, where they live, a trait associated with them, the weapon they use when committing crimes, etc.
* In [[{{UsefulNotes/Indonesia}} Bali]], the people are named according to birth order (there are four names used in succession, the fifth repeats the first one, and so on) or caste, so many people have the same names.
* At one point in the Unix hacker community, it became evident that there were quite a lot of Erics floating around, far more than could be accounted for by mere statistical deviation (and if you believe this, you're probably not a statistician, but that's okay). Thus was born the [[http://www.catb.org/~esr/ecsl/ Eric Conspiracy.]]
* The House of Barcelona, during the 11th and 13th centuries, can be a naming nightmare for historians, for there are at least seven Counts called Ramon Berenguer and at least three more called Berenguer Ramon. Especially at the beginning of this time period, you have Berenguer Ramon I fathering Ramon Berenguer I, who then fathers both Ramon Berenguer II and Berenguer Ramon II, so at one point there were at least two potentials heirs to the County (and eventual Counts) that had the exact same names but in a different permutation.
[[/folder]]

* ''Film/Barbie2023'': Except for [[OddNameOut Midge and Allan]], everyone in Barbieland is named either Barbie or Ken.

* The Mr. Saturns of ''VideoGame/EarthBound'' and ''VideoGame/Mother3.'' They're all named Mr. Saturn, unsurprisingly, except for one who works at the hospital in Saturn Valley... he's '''Dr.''' Saturn.

* In the ''Series/TheGoldenGirls'' Season 3 Episode 9 "A Visit from Little Sven," Rose breaks down the Svens she's related to:

* Koreans only have a small handful of last names, a majority of them being Kim or Lee. [[note]]North Korea's Kim dynasty have a family name which in Western terms is as unremarkable as "Smith" or "Jones".[[/note]]

** There are many surnames but the top 5 make up 45%. There are many surnames, but in Western countries there are more because of racial and cultural mixing and also because of language rules. There are 250 surnames, which could be considered a lot.

* 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. [[SeriousBusiness This eventually led to the formation of an organization]] called the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Society_for_the_Prevention_of_Calling_Sleeping_Car_Porters_%22George%22 Society for the Prevention of Calling Sleeping Car Porters "George,"]] which at its height counted [[UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfWindsor King George V]] and [[Creator/BabeRuth George Herman "Babe" Ruth]] as members. (The organization was somewhat tongue-in-cheek, but it did legitimately stand up for the dignity of the porters as real individual people rather than manifestations of the Pullman Company -- [[FairForItsDay a big deal in those days]].)

** A more subtle example: especially in the early episodes, virtually any minor male character would be named "Kevin." WordOfGod (specifically Matt Stone) even noted that they would throw it in all the time just because he thinks of it as generic. Also, just about all of the main boys' mothers was named "Carol" at some point before being {{retcon}}ned into the names that stuck.

* In ''VideoGame/PopfulMail'' for the UsefulNotes/SegaCD, one of the reptillian Gaw creatures explains that Gaw have no personal names. True to Creator/WorkingDesigns' [[{{Woolseyism}} style]], he follows it up by saying "It's hell when you're being paged..."
* ''VideoGame/RuneScape'' has a town named Pollnivneach, a FantasyCounterpartCulture of the Middle East. Almost every person in town is named "Ali", including a woman (She insists it's short for "Alisha") an "Ali Cat", and two camels, which makes locating a missing person named Ali a bit frustrating. [[spoiler:Though at the end of the quest the player character figures out that the Ali you were sent to find didn't exist, and it was all a marketing ploy by the quest-giver to drive the gangs out of Pollnivneach. After the quest ends, all the NPC's names change to their real names.]]
* The Giant Intelligent Friendly Talking Spiders that appear in the ''VideoGame/{{Exile}}''/''VideoGame/{{Avernum}}'' series (and in ''VideoGame/{{Nethergate}}'' too, probably) are all named Spider. ''Exile 3''/''Avernum 3'' makes a "riddle" from this -- a guard spider won't let you see the chief spider unless you know him already, in which case you should know his name. Of course, you have a pretty good idea already, and whether you were using ''Exile 3''[='=]s type-the-keyword-in interface or ''Avernum 3''[='=]s fixed dialogue options you could immediately guess correctly.

* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}''

* The [[VideoGame/CosmicOsmo Osmos of the Osmoian System]] are all named some variation on "Osmo". Captain Osmo, Cosmic Osmo, Señor Osmollo, Princess Osmorella, Professor Elvis Osmostein...

* In ''VideoGame/TheConduit'' and [[VideoGame/{{Conduit2}} 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.

* Broadly, any game that allows the player to rename large portions of the cast has the potential to be this.
* In ''VideoGame/TheBardsTale'', you are sent to find a man named Bodb. After speaking to a couple Bodbs, one tells you you need Magic Bodb. Magic Bodb says you need the other Magic Bodb, as he only does party tricks and you want the one with real spells.

* Due to being clones, Oscar Mike and the rest of the Mike clones from ''VideoGame/{{Battleborn}}'' are all named Mike in one form or another. For example, info from his lore challenges reveals that the leaders of the Mike clones are named King Mike and Queen Mike. Additionally, the Mike clones settled in the past on a planet which they aptly named Planet Mike, so basically a literal interpretation of this trope.
* PlayedForLaughs in ''VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon'': A pair of Team Skull Grunts got their clothes mixed up, so one of them suggests writing their names on them to avoid further confusion. The other one replies back that it's pointless because they're all named "Grunt."
* {{Lampshaded}} in ''VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeonExplorers of Sky''. When the protagonists arrive in Shaymin Village, one of the Shaymin says that they're [[ADogNamedDog all named Shaymin]].
* 4chan in ''VideoGame/BoxxyQuestTheGatheringStorm'', naturally. All of its inhabitants are named Anonymous, and all of the Anons are identical. (Except for [[TheSmurfettePrinciple the lone Femanon]], who is pink instead of green).
* ''VideoGame/AHatInTime'' has the Mafia of Cooks, a gang of large burly men that are all physically identical (with their leader being the only one who looks different) and all of whom refer to themselves solely as [[ThirdPersonPerson Mafia]].

* In ''VideoGame/{{Blaseball}}'', this has happened twice:
** At the end of season 3, due to developer error, everyone on the LA/Unlimited Tacos was renamed Wyatt Mason. An ARG-like event on Twitter partially "localized" them back to normal, but there are still numerous players with the first name Wyatt or the last name Mason.
** In Season 14, every team that built "Psychoacoustics" into their stadium received a new player called Wyatt Mason, Wyatt Mason II, Wyatt Mason III, Wyatt Mason IV, etc. These players then canceled each other out when they played each other, both turning into "static" and being removed from the game. (It's not clear whether or not this is actually them dying.)
* Chapter 2 of ''VideoGame/{{Deltarune}}'' introduces the Addisons, embodiments of internet ads. They all have different colored skins, but otherwise share the same name, face, clothing and pose.
* Every kerbal in ''VideoGame/KerbalSpaceProgram'' has the last name Kerman.

* In ''[=RRRrrr!!!=]'', everyone in the Clean Hair tribe is called Pierre ([[GenderBlenderName even the women]]).

* British comedian Dave Gorman drunkenly bet his then-flatmate Danny Wallace that he'd be able to meet 54 [[note]]the number of cards in a deck, plus two jokers[[/note]] other Dave Gormans after idly mentioning he'd read of another in East Fife. Outcomes included a number of stage shows, a book and a BBC 2 TV series. [[http://www.davegorman.com/projects_are_you_dave_gorman.html More information here]].