Basic Trope: Two characters who share a surname are revealed to be related.
- Straight: Kathryn and Megan both have the surname Martinez. It is later revealed that Megan is Kathryn's estranged cousin.
- Exaggerated: All the Martinezes met in the story are Kathryn and Megan's long-lost relatives.
- Downplayed: It turns out that Kathryn and Megan are distantly related.
- Justified: The shared surname is rare and/or has a unique characteristic such that it couldn't have had multiple independent origins.
- Inverted:
- Kathryn's friend Jason meets her cousin Megan and assumes her surname is also Martinez.
- Kathryn Martinez and Megan Ramirez are sisters. Jason doesn't realize they're related until they tell him.
- Subverted: Upon learning Megan is Kathryn's long-lost cousin, Jason is shocked. They then reveal that they were joking.
- Double Subverted: It is later revealed, however, that Megan is Kathryn's long-lost sister.
- Parodied: Upon meeting someone named Martinez, Kathryn mentally figures out how they must be related.
- Zig-Zagged: ???
- Averted: Nobody who shares a surname is revealed to be related to one another.
- Enforced: Megan's surname was initially Ramirez, but the editors wanted to clearly foreshadow her relation to Kathryn, so it is changed to Martinez as well.
- Lampshaded: "Duh, of course Megan and Kathryn are related; they have the same surname!"
- Invoked: ???
- Exploited: Megan uses their identical surnames to claim relation to Kathryn, even if it's not true.
- Defied: Megan and Kathryn dismiss the possibility of being related just because they share a surname.
- Discussed: "You know, if this were a movie, Kathryn might just be your sister!"
- Conversed: "Characters in movies never share names unless they're related."
- Implied: Kathryn mentions her father's name is Alberto. When we see Megan's birth certificate, her father's name is Alberto Martinez. However, their relationship is never clarified.
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