in my school, there were two daniels: Big daniel and small daniel.

I still go by my nickname (used by parents and friends). Well, in third grade, there was somebody else that had that same nickname as their first name. I had to revert to using my real name. It confused me to no end, and I've used my real name in school from then on.

Neopie Has the name Jacob (Last name), well, i know a Noah (Same last name) and a Jacob.

Played straight by this Troper's lacrosse team. 30+ people, and there are no repeated names.

This Troper twice encountered amusing solutions to this. In elementary school, there were a proliferation of Chrises, and thus they would be referred to to by Chris and their last initial--Chris N. for instance. The trouble was, This Troper's best friend's last name was Propst, and he thus quickly became known as Crispy (Chris P.) Then, in high school, our class had two Kyles (who happened to largely hang out together, meaning you couldn't tell based on context which one was being discussed.) This was remedied by dubbing one of them Kiwi, after an embarrassing incident he apparently suffered with one in sixth grade...

This troper had the same problem with Chrises (Chrisi? how do you pluralize 'Chris'?) in high school. Throught various classes, I knew about 10 people with the name Chris. Made worse by the fact that there was one group of three or four Chris's with whom this Troper was close friends, and most of them had siblings that made use of last names slightly impractical.

Scarily enough

This Troper had four Chrises in his high school class. Only one was called by his name, the rest by their nicknames.

This is actually a pretty good laugh when you thing about chrises being a homophone to crisi (crisises). A bad pun, yeah, but it's useful when you know a few.

This is your resident GrammarNazi speaking. The plural of "Chris" is "Chrises", pronounced of course "Chris is". The plural of "crisis" is "crises", pronounced "cry-sees". Not a homophone. Only Latin words ending in -us take the -i plural.

This troper had four people named Alex in her middle school band. Luckily, each of us played a different instrument, so we were Alex-Trumpet, Alex-Flute, Alex-Drums, and I don't remember what the last one played. It was quite amusing and very confusing.

This troper attended elementary school in the same year as two Brian Rs. He attended a small middle school in the same year as a Sam M, a Sam N, and a Sam O. He attended a small high school in the same year as an Eric, an Erik, and an Erick. He attended a summer conservatory with three Sara(h)s, although one of them went by her middle name to avoid confusion. He is a Peter L, and is now in a small college in the same year as another Peter L.

When this troper was the second grade, there was a Steven Orlando and a Stephen Key. One went by nickname ''and'' initial - Stevie O. The other, instead of an initial, became Stephen Key, as his last name was only one syllable anyway. This troper wonders if this is how Charlie Brown attained FullNameBasis - another Charlie B. in his class?

Both subverted and played straight with this troper. Both he and his father have the same first name, but different middle names due to the family tradition that a namesake is chosen from the genealogy. So he grew up answering to his middle name while his father answered to the first. However, in his sci-fi group the tradition has been that everybody gets a nickname after doing something noteworthy that tends to be highly unique except for the ROTC cadets, which all have variations of the same one. In this troper's case, it's a common houseplant except My Name Spelt With An S.

In high school, this troper's art teacher was Thomas IV with no middle name, and went by Tom. His son, Thomas V, was given the middle name of Clay specifically as a built-in nickname.

This troper thinks ''WaysideSchool'' had it easy: there were three Erics and an Erik in his fourth-grade class.

There were a LOT of Davids in this troper's school district. In first grade, there was David L, who was little, David B, who was big, and David M, who was medium. We used to use last initials, but by high school it became standard practice to refer to them by last name. This extended to some non-David individuals; for example, an Aaron was never once referred to by his first name.

This troper, besides being one of many Matthews in grade school (and one of three guys with the same first AND last name his freshman year at college, distinguished by Old, Big, and Little), currently has THREE Ryans on his project team at work.

This troper shared his first (Michael) and last name and middle initial with another person from his high school graduating class. At college he'd occasionally get email for a professor with the same first and last name. At his current job? Yup, there's another person with the same first and last name in this building and around 20 scattered throughout the company. No matter where he goes, there's always another him.

This troper was in the same year as another Thomas A while in elementary, middle, and high school. We both decided to call him Tommy and me Thomas.

This troper used to think Megan was a relatively unique name... until, of course, I got to high school. There are ''three'' of them besides me, and one of them spells her name differently.

This troper deal with four different Matts on a daily basis in his last year of high school. Simple solution? Use their last names instead. A few of them were already known by this to begin with.

This troper's engineering college class included an ungodly number of Matts. They each got a disambiguating nickname, some of which were: "Chris-Matt" (long story), "Drunk Matt", "Angry Matt", "Matt-away" (a ''portmanteau'' of his first and last names), and "The Other White Matt". (This troper's own name is fairly common, but one of the bonuses of being one of a handful of women in a male-dominated major is that first-name collisions are vanishingly rare.)

This troper has a friend named Danielle and a boss named Daniel - only the boss is French, so they're both pronounced dan-YELL. For this reason, the boss is usually Dan.

This troper felt bad for one professor, teaching his very first term, having to deal with a Laura, Lauren, and Laurel all in the same class (and sitting in the same area).

Hah. Meet this troper's elementary school class. Or rather, meet Lauren, Lauren, Laura, Leila and Lorna!

This troper knows at least seven Davids, including four sets of brothers named David and Benjamin, three of which went to the same church. Being named "Mary", this troper is more often than not referred to by her full name, but since her last name is "Lin" this just causes many to think that her first name is either Marilyn or Mary Lynn.

In this troper's class, there were two boys with the name Thomas, so the teacher decided the call them "S" and "K" (the initials of their respective last names). Unfortunately, there were also two boys who shared another first name, but their last names also ended in S and K... things became easier when one of them moved away.

@/{{Seanette}} recalls sitting near a classmate in high school chemistry named Jeannette (very likeable person), which caused our teacher some confusion. She also found herself in several different grade levels (small town) in a classroom that had two Tammy M's.

One of this troper's middle school classes had three girls named Jennifer. The teacher used the old last initials trick, but a substitute teacher taking roll call had to be asked "Which one?" when she got to the first Jennifer.

@/DarkInsanity13 encounters the aversion of this trope ''constantly''. She often complains of knowing "too many damn Kevins" (one of them being her best friend), but finds herself being in the same class as two (or more) Matts, Emmas, Chris', Megans, Davids, Dans, Erics, Victorias, Scotts, Amandas, Sams (female, not male, strangely), Kayla...there was the odd occasion when a couple of them had the same first initial for their last name, but none the less it drives this troper crazy when she can't refer to someone by just their first name. Thankfully, this troper has an uncommon first name and has only come across one or two people with the same name in her school (all of which were in different grades/courses).

Voodoo Master's middle school class has, currently, a Meghann and a Megan (I think that's how you spell their names). There's some minor difficulty, since they're in the same classes. Throughout his entire school, however, there was once ''four'' Jakes at once, only one of which he was friends with. Now that two of them have left, it's gotten considerably easier.

This Troper's dad was in the pub one afternoon when someone walked in and said "Hello Dave". At which point seven Daves said "Hello" back.

This troper's wedding party (groomsmen, ushers, etc)? Three Stephens, two Johns, and a Jack.

This Troper had four guys called Joonas ('s' is part of the name, not a plural or something) on her class for six years. They all got nicknames based on their surnames.

Ah, the adventures of Tall John, Crack John, Big John, and Talented John! All great, unique, likable guys who hung out together.

@/{{Nomic}} hed two highschool teachers named Jouko. The other one was always called by his last name. Infact a lot of time this troper forgot it wasn't his first name.

In school @/{{ThatWackyGerman}} shared his name with 3 other guys.

My group of friends in school was like Catch-22: Two Pauls, two Rosses, two Paddys, two Bobs, Darragh/Darren (Darragh is pronounced "Darra" so it's easy to confuse the two). Also had two guys in primary school - they were unrelated but had identical first, middle and surnames; got nicknames based on hair colour.

In a bunk of around 20 people, the four campers named Josh got together and gave each other numbers - Josh 1, Josh 2, etc to which they stuck to for the rest of the summer. I was Josh 3.

This troper had no fewer than ''nine'' Ashleys and ''seven'' Amandas in her graduating class of just over 100 people.

This troper's name is Christie. There is a girl named Kristie in her tutor group at college (names pronounced the same). Borderline example: the same group also includes an Emma, an Emilie and an Emelia.

Throughout elementary/middle school, there were at least 2-3 Marys in my grade at a time, including myself. All of our last names began with S. On top of that, there were 3 Seans, 3-4 Nicks, two Megans and a Maegan, and a handful of Kates of all kinds. Oh, and there were two Marys in the school office- a Mary S., and a Mary R. Why yes I did go to a Catholic school.

This troper's younger brother's elementary school class originally was to contain two pairs of twins, both named "Amrit" and "Simrit." This was averted after the kindergarten teacher learned of it and threatened to quit.

When this troper moved to a new town, the first thing out of his classmates' mouths when he introduced himself was "At least he's not a Jason". Turns out that class (which consisted of no more than 30 people) already has ''four'' Jasons.

This troper's name is Alex, which tends to be an uncommon name... For a girl. Her seventh grade math class had ''four'' other people named Alex, but they were all boys except her. This kind of thing happens in pretty much all of her classes to this day. It gets ''old''.

Had a Suzanna, Suziyana and Fuziana in the same class one year. Yeah, that got old fast.

This troper shared his name with another Nicholas in primary school. The bad thing was that both of us had the same initials, so there wasn't exactly any way to give us different nicknames. We didn't socialise much, him being a jerk and all, so the trouble was averted...

...until this year, when my Art teacher uses the same nickname to refer to both me and Nicola, meaning that, when both of us are in the same room, we have no idea who he's referring to.

This troper is from New Jersey and named Jeff. In his second year of college (near Philly) he met another guy named Jeff from Texas (not that that odd I know). Jeff #1 and Jeff #2 later discovered they have the same middle name as well! Then the Jeffs met a third Jeff from around Philly (and does not go to the same school as Jeff #1 and Jeff #2) who ALSO has the same middle name as Jeff #1 and Jeff #2!! Needless to say, no one ever really calls any of the three Jeffs "Jeff." The Universe loves to play tricks on us I suppose. Also this troper is kind of annoyed when people still call him by his last name even when the other two Jeffs are miles away.

This troper is almost always the only Jeff anywhere he goes. The exceptions were when he used to work with a guy also named Jeff and the boss never used our last names when calling for us, and senior year of high school when somehow 5 Jeff's ended up in several classes together.

This troper, one of four James in his college class, was also one of four in high school. His dad is a James as well. There really needs to be some sort of cull.

@/{{Noir-Okami}} had various Katies and Taylors.

Averted and appearing straight in this troper's life: Back home, his family constantly got mail in Spanish meant for a Padilla family, and his mother worked in a hospital where there was a Dr. Padilla, but he personally went almost 20 years without meeting a single other person named ''Paul''. He's not from a small town, and went to at least 4 different schools before college. Paul doesn't seem like it'd be that uncommon a name, and yet...

This troper has four Jennifers in her class. Jen D, Jen D, Jen L, and Jen X. That's all the Jennifers in the grade. Yippee.

This troper's name is Daniel. When he was in high school, both assistant principals were named Daniel. One of his classmates for several years there was named Daniel. In college, he has a classmate named Ryan and a roommate named Ryan.

This troper knows four Daniels--all of whom speak Spanish and know each other. One is Daniel (pronounced in English as he is the only American), one is Daniel (pronounced in Spanish), one is Danny, and the other is Lemus (Also Spanish as it's his last name)

Every year for several years in a row, there was a different name in excess in this troper's circle of acquaintances. First it was the Matts, then the Bens, then the Petes, and later the Christophers.

This Troper currently has two Nicks, two Johns, two Jills, two Evans, and two Devins (one male, one female) all living in in my hall at college. One of those names is mine. I'll let you guess which.

Both of my coworkers in the same project are named Dima (Dmitry). The customer refers to them as "Dima 1" and "Dima 2" in the order in which they joined.

@/{{Regiment}} (Matt) has a friend (Matt) with a friend (Matt). We have a mutual friend (Mike) and ''his'' friend (Matt). Sometimes this gets confusing... but not as bad as when this troper worked for a Mat that sounded like him over the phone. He got at least one call from another employee, and it took about five minutes until he realized that the employee wanted Mat, not Matt.

In an online game, @/RedRajah's character refers to her brother (an NPC) as "Proper Pedro" as opposed to the fellow player who's running a character with the same name, AKA "Other Pedro". And yes, it's a homage to when ''Series/DoctorWho'' did it.

When this troper studied the Russian language in university (this happened in Norway, not too far from the Russian border), at one point there were two immigrant women from Russia attending classes, looking for easy credits by studying something already familiar to them. Both were named Ljudmila, and one of the professors took to calling them Ljudmila pervaja ("first") and Ljudmila vtoraja ("second") to differentiate between them. The funny thing is, one was a blonde ethnic Russian, the other was a "mongoloid" Nenets with black hair, yellow-brown skin and "almond eyes". Seemed more obvious to call them "svetlaja" (light) and "tjomnaja" (dark) instead.

Welcome to the group! Oh, what's that, your name's Chris? Uh-oh. Pick up a nickname at the door and say hi to Toph, Toast, Bitch and Scum. We also have three Jesses, but you'll have to learn to tell them apart by yourself.

When I started college, I joined a residential program--sort of like a geeky, school-run fraternity. They already had a Will Black (named that way for his tendency to wear black) and a Will White (named for his tendency to not be Will Black), so I was dubbed "Will Gray." My immediate reaction, of course, was "I stand between the candle and the star?"

Jonathan, Johnny, Jono, John and Jay. No confusion.

@/{{Zemyla}}'s sister knows too damn many people named Matt. We refer to them with nicknames, such as Bunny and Pineapple. Of course, this is partly because she seems to know every college-aged person in the city.

This troper had another student in his middle school classes that had nearly the same full name, except for a couple of letters that made no difference on the pronunciation. And of course, whenever our names were called we'd both answer.

EVERY Asian girl this troper went to high school with was named Jen, Jenny or Jennifer or some variant thereof.

When this troper was at school there were three Victorias who were in the same group of friends and who answered to Vicky, Tor, and Tory respectively. Other name duplicates, eg the half a dozen Rachels, were refered to by their full names.

Also, this troper's sister has two friends both named Bobby. Since they're different genders, they're generally referred to as Bobby-girl and Bobby-boy.

Taken to the extreme in my English class, where we had two people who had the same first and the same last name. And one other person who shared the same first name, just for confusion. There was also an amazing proliferation of Catherines, many of whom somehow ended up in alphabetical order. Some of them also had nicknames, but those aren't much help when Kate, Katie, and Kat are all sitting right next to each other...

This troper and his college roomie, both named Dave, visitted the house of three guys, two of which were named Dave. The one non-Dave answered the phone ... and it was for Dave. "Hey, Dave?" "What?" times four echoed forth, followed by four voices all exclaiming "Dont. Just. Say. Dave!"

Everyone, ''everyone'' in this troper's town is Ashley, Amanda, Caitlin (various spellings), Jennifer, Nicole, James, Anthony, Justin, Christopher, or Matthew. Scarily, they all look the same, dress the same, and act the same, too. She lives in a town of depraved clone people, and wonders if visitors are driven crazy with constant deja vu.

This Troper's previous workplace had 4 Tims. His current one has 4 Toms.

This troper had Ashley, Ashley, and Ashleigh in elementary and Ashley, Ashlie, and Ashley ( no repeats) in middle school as well as 2 Christinas, a Christian and a Kristen, and a number of Christophers and Jessicas. Not too mention many of this troper's relatives don't have an original thought in their brains when it comes to names. She doesn't even want to get into that.

This troper's third grade class had four boys named Chris, two of whom shared the same last initial. The teacher never even tried to be specific when she called on a Chris, and would be irritated when they all answered at once.

My class in preschool had 20 students, 9 of whom were male, 5 of whom, myself included, were named "Matthew". That's an even one quarter of the class, and ''over'' half the boys in the class. Nearly the entire first full-length day of class was spent trying to figure out what to call everybody. It didn't help that one of us (the Matthews) didn't have a middle name, and my own middle name (Alan) was already taken as the first name of one of the 4 non-Matthews in the male side of the class.

This troper has had 3 different instances of One Steve Limit during his lifetime:

In second grade, he had 3 classmates named "Jose Martinez." No middle name or nickname to fall back on. So our teacher dubbed them "Jose 1," "Jose 2," and "Freddy." The jury is still out as to why "Jose 3" couldn't be used, or where the heck "Freddy" came from.

Fast forward to freshman year of college, Japanese class. In a class of less than thirty students, seven (5 male, 2 female) had the last name "Lee." It gets better: 5 had the same first initial "J," of which 4 had the same middle initial "H," of which 2 had the exact same full name (Joseph Hyun Lee). Needless to say, addressing any of the seven "Lee-sans" didn't work very well in that class...

Although this troper was fortunate to not be one of the "Lee-sans," he couldn't escape the confusion of "Pham-san" and "Phan-san."

At working adult age a few years ago, this troper had two supervisors in the same department with the name "Sharon." Sharon G. Sharon K. G. Oh dear...

My various experiences with multiple names:

In second grade there were two Michael M's in our class. The teacher used that as justification for making us all write full first and last names on every assignment.

At a summer camp, there were such various characters as Tall Dan, Counselor Dan, Tan Dan, and my personal favorite Oblivious Dan. The latter kept his nickname even when there no longer was an abundance of Dans.

At present, the two females I'm attempting to get to know better are both Jennifers. And my favorite sister is too. So they're one-n Jen, two-n Jenn, and sister Jennifer.

In 7th grade, there were: John M, John 'ugly' M, John A. O.; Marina M and Marina C; Alex 'Rufi', Alex García O, Alex García L; Willy G and Willy M; George A, George B, George G; Christina M and Christina G; Claire B and Claire G; Nerea C and Nerea M; Rose O, Rose G and Rose L. THAT without getting into those who had their last names or middle names repeated.

This troper's freshman (college) class had so many Jessicas in it that why had to give them all descriptors so people could identify which specific one they were talking to or about. We had Little Jessica (she's 4'11"), Hypoglycemic Jessica, Jesika with a "K", Jessica with a Southern accent, Black Jessica, and a couple others I can no longer recall.

At this troper's old high school, there were a surprising number of boys named Ashley and girls named Rebecca.

This troper have had enough with meeting Daniels. She has an older brother, a crapload of classmates, and the most awkward: ''an ex-boyfriend'' by that name.

In one workgroup, we had seven Roberts. Out of 15 people.

Been there, had that problem myself. One place I worked, I was one of ''five'' Matts - eventually yelling that name meant that you just needed an extra pair of hands. I recently had a coworker named Mike; and it seemed like EVERYONE we had to call had someone named Mike working there. One distributor commented that "Every supply house needs a Mike, a Matt, and a Frank working there." When I was at college, the limited name pool got worse; one class included three Amys and ''four'' Steves. One of the RAs said she could just about round up her floor by yelling for "Amy, Tonya, Jennifer, and Sharon."

In high school, this troper went by her middle name, Ellen. There was another Ellen *my next door neighbor, oddly enough* in the Spanish class we shared. We were Ellen A and Ellen B, due to last names. Fast forward to now. This troper's gone back to her first name, Travis... and one of the guys who works with me is also a Travis. We greet each other with "Hey, Travis, it's Travis!" ... We're easily amused.

This troper is the secretary at her church. Running the place (more or less) is the congregation council, which consists of twelve people. At present, four of them are named Debbie, and two are named Betty.

In the same church's Vacation Bible School, three of the teenagers helping in one classroom were named Katelyn, and all went by the nickname Katie.

This troper and her best friend are both named Jessica. To the rest of our group, troper is Peanut Butter (or PB) and friend is Chicken. There were also far too many Chris's (several sharing last initials, two of whom had homophonic last names!), Ashleys, Brittanys, and Bobby's in our high school for troper's comfort. In college, there are three other Jessicas on the same floor of my dorm, and five Travis's on my boyfriend's.

This troper is named Kate; one of her closest friends is named Kat. Apart from classes and the like, we are rarely found apart from each other; we often finish each others' sentences; we have vaguely similar appearances (same hair and eye color, and glasses); we have been declared twins separated at birth by most of our other friends. Everyone this troper knows, including herself, has gotten our names wrong at least once. Confusion has been known to occur.

This troper was - not being terribly original in the process - one of several Matts at his high school. It was usually pretty easy to distinguish between us, though - if we were in the same class, the teachers called us by our last names, except in cases where the teacher liked one of us over another (i.e., my English teacher called me plain "Matt" and the other by his full name; my history teacher just used last names with everyone). Even beyond that: I was one of like two Matts that ever got involved in the theater program. Every other Matt was a stereotypical JerkJock. After playing the second ''PhoenixWrightAceAttorney'' game in which Engarde turns out to be a CompleteMonster, it got to the point where I was thoroughly surprised when I met other Matts who were genuinely nice guys. I'm kinda horrible myself.

As a Michael, this troper had to deal with this a lot (and is now going to dispense with the third person because otherwise things would end up kind of confusing): For one, my father is also a Michael, so in the family he was Mike and I was Mikey (which stuck to the point that most people who know me through my sister still think of me as Mikey because that's what she always called me). Then, however, a younger cousin who was ''also'' Mikey started visiting us often enough that there could be confusion, so we had Mike, Mikey, and Little Mikey. In college one of my two roommates was a Mike, so there was Crazy Mike and Normal Mike (I was the former, despite initially suggesting Evil Mike). Finally, I've worked with other Mikes and had to use initials, but oddly none of these other Mikes tend to be employed at the same place (or at least in the same section of a store) as me for long.

This troper calls himself Michael because, as you've so ably demonstrated, every other Michael takes a derivative nickname to avoid confusion, leaving my actual name free for me to claim. I was once in a student society with Big Mike, Small Mike, Makka, Michèl and Mike The Machine. Nope, no Michaels yet, I'll take that.

@/{{Aela}}'s brother is Jake, as are both the kid she's tutoring and one of her friends. She also knows an obscene number of Johns, has nicknamed her brother's two best friends Proper Alex and Other Alex, and is rather stunned by the number of Megans, Matts, Caitlins, Mikes, Rachels, Erics, Nicoles, and Ashleys at her school. She's only violated the One Michaela Limit once, which was a shock to even her. That eventually worked itself out to "Michaela-with-a-C" and "Mikaela-with-a-K."

And ''then'' there was the time that the above troper decided to go by "Mike", which lasted all of about two days because her father, an uncle, seemingly half of her classmates, and several friends were there first.

This Troper's grade 8 PE class had five people named Michael, including the teacher. Thankfully, two of the student-Michaels already went by nicknames, so we called them Michael, Mike, Jones, J-Roc and Mr. Kern.

This troper knows a John nicknamed Jack (since there are no Jacks), and a Robert nicknamed Atticus.

This troper's grandmother has an unusual first name (Phyllida) and a common middle name (Mary.) When she was evacuated during the war, it turned out there was already another evacuee child called Phyllida in the house, and everyone began to call her by her middle name despite it being a much more common name. She's now in her 80s and has gone by "Mary" ever since.

@/ManJusticeLeague, noting the irony with regard to the Trope Namer, knows about fifteen Stevens, five of whom have been known to congregate, and two of whom live within a block of each other and have ''matching sisters''. Yes, that's right. Steven and Karen are three years apart... in both families. And they always know which one you're talking to.

This Troper's family has a cat named Phoenix. Not too long after the family adopted him, she got into the AceAttorney series. While fangirling about Phoenix-the-lawyer meeting "an adorable eight year old who happens to be a powerful spirit medium" to a friend, said friend responded "for a minute there, I thought you were talking about your ''cat''".

@/RayAyanami's first name is Raymond. He tends to feel rivalries with other people named Raymond, even if he's never met them yet. Said other Rays being...quite different from him, to say the least, doesn't help.

This troper's current class has two guys with the (over here) normal name "Juho". Very distinct nicknames are used, expect by teachers, who just look at the one they ask a question.

Where this troper works at her college, there is a joke that we need to recruit incoming freshmen named Steven/Stephen to work for us, lest we have fewer Steve's than the same group at another university in the state.

This troper was one of four Toms in the same class in highschool, three of us next to each other on the register. Luckily, we had pretty distinctive surnames: [=McGinley=], Roderick, Shackson, Streeter.

I know three people named Scott. They are all dicks.

Hey, I'm named Scott! (Take that, datamining!) Possibly a subversion though (wait, no, it isn't), because I seem to end up ''collecting'' nicknames. I don't meet a lot of Scotts, unless they are ''Scots''. Other people apparently do though, which is just another reason I get new nicknames. Due to a bunch of roleplaying game mishaps including as much as both a town and a planet named Steve and populated by the same name, I commonly end up using that as my name. Of course, all of this is willfully mocked in what I work on. Scott is a ussually stupid name anyway... it's actually cuter as a girls name. ~Veritas

This troper has either gotten involved with or just crushed on many fellas named Joe for some reason, and has a friend who has dated two Chrises, and two Michaels.

If your name is Emily, those trope is averted ''hard''. It has been the most popular girls name for about a decade (only recently being unseated by Emma and Isabella), but even in her twenties this troper comes across Emilys her age on a regular basis. Her college dorm floor her freshman year had at least 4 Emilys on her floor. And every twentysomething Emily's parents insist that the name just wasn't popular when they named her, but they all somehow got the same idea.

This troper's first name is Charles. That's also the first name of my late grandfather, uncle and half brother. His grandfather went by Charles, his uncle goes by Bill, his half brother goes by Charlie and the troper goes by Eric.

This troper has never been in a class where she is the only Carolina. currently there are three or four so when attendance is taken it goes something like "did the teacher meant me?" and every name is answered by two or more people. My brother's high school class had about 5 Felipes. My two elder sisters both share their first name (Maria) so people call and ask for "Maria" (usually banks and stores and the likes) and one has to play 20 questions to figure out who they mean. same with my brother and father. both Luis.he went by felipe to avoid this. and my cousin is called Pedro,like his father. my uncle and grandfather are called Joel. and mine and my siblings names are so common one inevitably has friends by the same name. so they must be distinguished by either saying "my friend/sister/brother (name)" or using full names. Though I mostly call siblings by nicknames.

This troper's cousin Jennifer was once dating a guy named Justin, while her brother Justin was dating a girl named Jennifer. It was very confusing.

This troper's group of friends have all (bar one exception) dated or hooked up with someone called Dave/David (in honestly, often the same one). This troper has also been with two Chris's. To add to the confusion, he dated someone with his own name (Michael), and one of the Chris's he dated also has two other ex's called Michael. To finish off, the mother of one friend of this troper has been married three times, each time to a man called John.

'Sarah-Not-You' became a catchphrase in this troper's sixth grade class.

This Troper's name is Chynna. Try to find someone else in the state of Virginia with the same name. Go on. I dare you.

I know a lot of people of different ages named Ryan and Lauren. There's Ryan and Lauren & Ryan (siblings + boyfriend), Loren and ''Brian'' (older cousin/spouse), Ryan (younger cousin), Ryan (babysitter's son), Ryan (classmate), three Laurens in Girl scouts, probably two more at church, and another Lauren who was a friend's sister. Strangely, the ''parents'' of the siblings + boyfriend group and friend's-sister-Lauren have similar names: Sandy and Richard/Randy. There's also Kristen (cousin, AKA Krissy) and Kristen (roommate), plus Krissy's husband Chris(topher).

This Troper's drama club in high school contained three Taylors, two of them with the same surname. They became Big Taylor, Little Taylor, and Girl Taylor, or occasionally Taylor Senior, Taylor Junior, and Girl Taylor.

Played straight by @/NinjaSteve being the only Steve he knows. Also subverted, however, in that he knows several people named "Dustin" and many more (himself included) with the name "Robert" somewhere in their name.

@/AdamS went to a youth camp where literally a ''third'' of the girls were named Kate, Kat, Cate, K/Catherine, or some derivative thereof. (Which was lampshaded in a skit put on by the staff.)

In this tropers high school class there were four boys called Henrik. It didn't help that Henrik Henriksson and Henrik Hermansson were inseparable best buddies.

My fencing club has far too many people called Michael. On a slightly different note, starting with my maternal grandfather, all of my male-line ancestors as far back as I've traced were called John Mackay. My uncle broke the trend by being called Iain... which is the Gaelic form of John.

One of this troper's classes has six Rachels.

We had a Meghan overload in my school. Almost all of them went by their last names, though.

Not as large a group as some of the above stories, but my family includes two Sues (one generation apart), plus a close family friend is named Sue as well. When my cousin Sue was a preschooler, she tried to work this out -- OK, her name was "Sue", one of her aunts was "Sue" but she's "Aunt Sue", there's a third "Sue" ... but I (my cousin) only see her at parties, so she must be "Party Sue"! Gotta love toddler logic. And we still use the "Party Sue" term on occasion ....

I usually have it played straight with my own first name (Bryce), which is currently rare enough that people who call it usually are looking for me. However, I once had a high school Spanish class with a fellow Bryce, and I once worked at a ballpark with yet another Bryce, and both times it was quite jarring for ALL Bryces involved whenever the name was called.

I used to be in a gaming group where I was the third person to join named Chris. The first one had left by then, but the second was still known as Toc, short for 'the other Chris', and use of the nickname grew to the point where he had friends that had no involvement with gaming calling him that.

This Troper's second period class has two boys named Aaron, who are both friends are both troublemakers, which has led to quite a few "Aarons! See me after class!" We also have Curly-hair Zach and Man-bangs Zach as well as a Tasha, a Sasha, and a Dasha.

This Troper was one of 3 Joshes in elementary school, the ''only'' one in his small private middle/high school, and one of many at college. 3 months in and he's still getting used to it...

@/{{Kaizykat}} is one of the many "Kaitlin"s at her school. In her small group of friends (ten people) she's one of three that have the name. In her freshmen year, her and another Caitlin (Who is also one of her good friends) were in the same Spanish class. During that class, she was known as "Kaitlin with a K" and her friend, "Caitlin with a C". Half the time they both responded, and the other half neither of the responded. She'd use a nickname, but she was so used to being the only Kaitlin in her class that she wouldn't respond to anything but Kaitlin. Also, make sure you have the correct spelling.

I have a cat named Robin. The partner has a friend named Robin. I had a cat named Sam and (still have) a friend named Sam. So there's Boy-Robin and Cat-Robin. And Boy-Sam and Kitty-Sam. The partner's nickname is Kitti. I've actually said "Hey Sam. No, not you Kitty. No, not you, Kitti. Boy-Sam. Not Kitty-Sam. Not Kitty-boy."

In my private middle school, there were 4 Alexes. Most of them were addressed by their surname if there was any chance of confusion... except for Alex-as-in-Alexandra. By eighth grade, she had resigned herself to not looking up when somebody in the hallway called "Alex!"

This troper's old circle of friends (and himself) were known as... Dan, Other Dan, Simon and Other Simon.

This troper claims that people who have trouble with this around her have no one to blame but themselves. This troper ATTEMPTED to go by her full name, Alexandria, once she entered high school to finally end the confusion once and for all. However, everyone insists upon calling her Alex because a whole ten letters is just too much. (Neither can she can by her household nickname, Ali, because in her drama class there is another Ali and an Allie.)

Several years ago in middle school, this troper's class of twenty had two Nathans, three Megans, three Zacks, a Melissa and Marisa.

This troper was preparing her 2009 NaNoWriMo novel and decided to switch the name of one of the father characters from "Mark" to "Max", which she had named him in a previous project with his character. This was before she realized one of the other characters was also named Max... halfway through the month.

She also had a friend who shared his first and last name with another person in her graduating class, the only difference being their middle initials. On Facebook, there were no initials to distinguish between them, and her friend got tagged in a video of the other James streaking in the high school parking lot. Needless to say, he had to clarify to many people the next day that he was NOT the James that went streaking...

This troper had two Maxes in her NaNoWriMo too! They were both really minor characters though so I changed one of them to Ewan without an issue.

This troper went through the first twenty-three years of his life without encountering another Carl. Now one or two Carls have begun to appear, throwing this one for a ''complete'' loop. How Mike, Chris and Steve possibly keep things straight I'll never know...

This troper has seen a classroom, on a technical school, with four Jessicas.

Tropers.{{Igordebraga}} only twice had another "Igor" in his class (Kindergarten and High School). But while he was part of a swimming team, once it had three Igors, him, another guy and ''the coach''. In College, he's the only one in ''his'' class - there is one three periods above him, and another four above. And while in a class for a different major, there was an homonymous - and the teacher noted how rare it was to have two guys named Igor.

This troper's first semester 9th grade English class had four Daniels. FOUR. We called one Shif (a shortening of his last name), one Dan, one Danny, and one Daniel.

Averted hard at this troper's workplace. There's a Steve and a Steven, and their desks are right next to each other.

This troper hangs out with a bunch of people who are so used to talking either to a Chris or a James that it's now obligatory to greet anyone with "Hi Chris" and shout "Bye James" when someone leaves. So we all use nicknames.

I don't share my first name (Natasha) with anyone I know. However, I know someone with my last name (unrelated) at school. This normally doesn't pose much of a problem...except in our macroeconomics class, where everyone else (who all have unique last names) gets called by their first names, whereas we are both "Miss Lastname" instead of "Natasha" and "Kayla".

@/{{Katsuhagi}} has never met someone her age with the same first name, but her elementary school was full of this. Of most note where the three Hannahs, who included a nice red-haired girl, a HotAmazon who turned out to be my ClosetKey (she more or less always has a halo and heavenly choir in my mental imge of her) and a girl who was the personification of KidsAreCruel and whose face I've literally ''blocked out of my memory'' due to the unspeakable crap she put me through.

Once I ended up on a lunch with four people with the same relatively rare name, me being the only one with a different name. They went on to make jokes about it for the next two hours.

This troper being a Chris naturally went through school with at least one Chris in every class, and going through 3 Chris' as best friends. Since leaving school I have not worked with a single Chris and am no longer friends with any Chris' (discounting one who I have on facebook who I used to be at school with). I am currently back at college to get me the qualifications for University and there is not a single Chris in any of my classes.

Actually, other than two Rebeccas, I can't think of any repeating names in any of my classes. Even the two Rebeccas, one goes by Becky, the other by Becca anyway, which is useful as they are in the same class. The same class also nearly had two Beth's, but now has none as one went in the other group when the class split and the other was a bitch so got kicked out.

Highly unlikely to be averted by me, seeing as my first names--both of them--are rare. It's not impossible, of course, but chances are slim.

This Troper had the same first name AND last initial of a girl in her Kindergarten class. I kept getting worksheets the other girl had done that I know I didn't do. The girl was dumb as a post, so she had all the answers wrong. She frequently pretended to know how to read. (I knew how to read, so I could tell she was faking.) And she tore up my ducky.

This Troper did a story where two characters were both named Elizabeth. One went by Liz, one went by Beth and the two were as different as night and day. (But, DarkIsNotEvil!)

The fact that there were four other people with @/JET73L's middle name (not an EmbarrassingMiddleName, but it had embarassing history, and it was the one the troper was stuck using thanks to the first being a family name) and two others with the troper's first name ''in the same grade'' (in a school of only three or four hundred kids) was most of what finally got the troper's parents to start using a first-and-middle-initial nickname (at the troper's request). In a painfully straight example, the troper's parent's second cousin and their spouse named their kid ''exactly'' what the troper was supposed to be named a couple of months before the troper's birth. Cue scrambling for a new name.

Moved into a flat with 3 others, one of whom has the same first name as me. As such I was dubbed "Lenny", because another flatmate wanted to be able to legitimately use the phrase: "Can Lenny have it?"

Enforced (not averted) in this troper's high-school MagicTheGathering group, which has developed a rule: Whenever someone joins the group who has the same first name as an existing member, he or she has to get a nickname. Currently, there are two instances of this: two Jons (one simply goes by Jonny) and two Ethans (the newer one was ultimately named Bob, which stands for "Brother Of Ben", after his older brother who introduced him to the group).

This troper's last name is Robinson. Her father had to sign an affidavit, on purchasing his first house, that he was not the man of the same first and last name who had defrauded the provincial government of Saskatchewan of thousands of dollars. Meanwhile, every year in elementary school this troper had at least one classmate who shared her first name, and she knows at least ten people who have her brother's first name. If you want to friend either of them on Facebook you have to know exactly who you're looking for. In the crowning moment of aversion of this trope, she briefly roomed with a guy who had the same first name as her brother and was also named Robinson.

In this troper's first year of college, she roomed with two girls named Alyssa and Marissa, this troper's name is Melissa. In order to avoid confusion, we all quickly developed nicknames.

The editor of my college paper already had the same name as me, so I went by my last name.

In Tropers/{{Thnikkafan}}'s SpiritOfTheCentury game has a character named Samson, a character named Sarah, and a character named Sam. It's great fun for both the GM and everyone else.

When this troper's father was in the army, his class at boot camp included two twin brothers, John Carter Smith and John

@/{{Mike}} is yet another Michael. As is typical with Michaels, he has run into confusion before, with a particularly notable instance being his eighth grade soccer team (nope, not the same Michael with the eighth grade PE class problem above), containing: Michael (nicknamed Hershey due to a similar-sounding last name), Michael ("Mike"), Michael ("Mikey"), Michael ("Other Mike"), and Coach Michael. Having someone run out with "A message for Michael" was always fun.

This troper once went to a party with FIVE Katie's in attendance. Since all of them went by the same name with no nicknames (yet different spellings) the party was a mess of Katie confusion.

This troper has a very common first name, an average of two kids with that name in each of her classes. I cannot name how many times I've gotton another person's grades instead of mine because of this.

Played somewhat for laughs in my family as each generation names their first son after their father so the two names alternate (the only difference is the middle name) since that side of the family is small; every male has the same name.

There was once a Nicholas and a Nicolas in my class. We tried the last initial thing, but eventually we ended up just pronouncing the 'h' in Nicholas.

This troper used to be known almost exclusively by my middle name. However, during some homeschooling years, I ended up in the same slot as another boy who had the same name AND surname. I started using my proper first name to stop the school from mixing up our assignments. Since graduating from said school, I have since starting using either/or in random instances of One Steve Limit (I go by middle name if there is someone with the same first name and vice versa). Of course, that doesn't stop me from accidently responding to BOTH names.

Currently on the Fora, there are two tropers named Ray. One is radioactive. And i-it's not like the other hates him or anything!

@/{{Pikachukid}} works in a workplace that's divided into [[strike:four]] five areas, without walls in between (except for Cabinetmaking, but that's largely ignored). This workplace has a Chris in each area (plus a supervisor by that name), three Amandas, two Daniels, two Darrens, two Melissas, two Julies and a couple of Rays too (although one is actually the workplace manager). Despite the problems inherent with this, nobody seems to bother thinking about nicknames, although I personally get around it by calling my namesakes (the other Chrises) by their surnames (although the supervisor Chris is FirstNameBasis), and calling one Darren "DT", with the other almost universally called "Dazza". The only one with a consistent nickname used throughout the workplace is one of the Daniels, who is only ever known as "Yoshi".

In this troper's video production class there was room for confusion with 3 classmates. Not because they shared a name, but rather because their names were all practically the same by a few letters (their names were Kevin, Jevin, and Trevan). It was fun when 2 of them anchored. I jokingly suggested adding a Devin or Evan to the class and my teacher said he wouldn't allow it out of sheer confusion.

This troper went to high school with two Annas, one Ana and two Mark Lesters. What happened was one Anna gained a nickname based on the size of her chin, the other Anna kept being called Anna (or we'd use their initials) and Ana insisted on being called by her initials. The Mark Lesters got called by their surnames, or nicknames derived from them.

We also had two Angelas, but that was less confusing since one of them goes by Gela and the other one was called Angela only by teachers who didn't know she goes by Lara (reasons unknown, since you can't derive Lara from even her full name).

This troper knows three brothers whose names are all Paul [Something]. Their parents (and teachers who've handled more than one) call them by their second names, but they all go by Paul among their friends, who typically don't know about the Paul thing. It gets awkward when you call their house to speak to one of them. #QUOTE#"Hello, may I speak to Paul please?" #QUOTE#"Paul who?" #QUOTE#"Uh... sorry, wrong number!"

Played straight with this troper, who has never met anyone with his first name (Norman), besides his father and his grandfather. He's the only Norman in his grade, and possibly his entire high school.

In this troper's 8th grade English class, there was a Zach, A Zack, 2 Kyles, three Kenzies, 2 Emilies and an Emilee. The Kenzies and Emilies were also in almost every other class I had that year.

Averted hard by @/AirshipCanon's hometown. When Blizzard's Real ID was to go into effect, I laughed- because there was a 50% chance to find me with both my first and last name, and 50% chance to find a Cop.

This troper went to school with a couple of guys named Jack who typically wound up in the same class. They were disambiguated by last initial: Jack C. and Jack E. This worked well until the arrival of a girl named Jackie...

This troper has an uncle whose wife is named Lynn-Karen and whose best friend is named Lynn. Then Lynn married a woman named Karen. Confusion ensued.

This troper's real name is Jacob. When he went to a camp for the first time, there was another kid in the same group named Jacob. Fortunately, the other Jacob decided to use the nickname Jacoby (probably after Jacoby Ellsbury of the Red Sox).

This troper knows three Steves, and it's especially confusing as they're possibly the first, second and fourth most important men in his life. His father, his mother's partner and his friend's boyfriend.

This troper's real full name (Douglas Richard Burgess) is the same as his father's, and his grandfather's. Family reunions are horrendously confusing; we usually go be Doug Senior, Doug Junior, and I'm either Douglas or Doug 3.

My grandfather on my mother's side is named Robert Miller. His second son is Robert Miller. ''His'' first son is Robert Miller.

My mother's maiden name is Miller, making her full name prior to marriage Sandra Kay Miller. Now married, her name is Sandra Kay Burgess. Not so bad, until you realize that my father's sister's maiden name was Sandra Kay Burgess as well.

I also know no less than four Zach/Zacks, and the friend of one's brother is also Douglas. His last name is Bowler and his middle name is Robert. Initials don't even work there. Incidentally, two of those Zachs are ex-boyfriends of mine.

The names Tyler and Ryan are also shared by more than one person I know. And several Codys. And two Jeremy Haynes.

In this troper's elementary school there were five boys named Alexandr and a girl named Alexandra. They all went by diminutive 'Sasha' (common diminutive for this name in Russia). We prefered to call them by their last names.

This troper had two people with the same name at his school ( I was one of them ). At one point, we even had three. But thankfully, we cleared the mess up by calling the second one 'Bob' and the third 'Jack'.

A few years ago, this troper was at a college summer program where every other girl seemed to be named Lauren. At one point, someone shouted the name trying to get one girl's attention, and a dozen different girls responded. We resorted to nicknaming two friends of mine Big Lauren (who wasn't fat, just tall) and Little Lauren. And then the two started competing over one guy, sparking the War of the Laurens. Weirdly enough, the war was won by a third party... Naomi.

This troper's name is Taylor, and one of her best friends is named Taylor, too, so one of her friends remedied this by calling troper!Taylor Bojangles and nottroper!Taylor Sprinkles. Coindicentally, there's another Taylor in Bojangles' gym class.

This troper has suffered from the effects of this a lot, but the most egregious example was in his high school Calculus I class. He was one of four Alexes; coincidentally we also were all male, all sophomores, and all some type of Asian-American. Usually people call him by his last name, which is much more unique.

This troper has two good guy friends from college, both named Dave. To differentiate them, we nicknamed them Frodo and Sam. "Frodo" went back to being Dave, but "Sam" stuck, and we still call him that. Additionally, she attended Catholic school, which resulted in 80% of the boys being named Matt, Mike or John.

This troper's group of friends has too many guy's whose names start with B. As such, the (admittedly absent-minded) girls in the group kept calling us by the wrong name and finally decided to rename us with stereotypical upper-crust British names. The troper now gets called "Nigel."

This troper always hated her name (Ashleigh) growing up, because it's just "Ashley" spelled differently, and Ashley was among the most popular girls' names in the '90s (even though it's actually a guys' name), so I was always "the other Ashleigh/Ashley" because for all of elementary school, there was always more than one Ashleigh/Ashley in each of my classes. Thank God I'm in college now, because even though I'm sure my school has tons of Ashleys running around, I never have classes with another girl (or guy) with my name.

This troper has dated 3 and a half girls named Emily. To avoid confusion, I've given them all nicknames.

This troper's group of friends includes two girls named Malin. They also happen to be about the same height and weight, and were born during the same month. We have taken to calling one of them "Malin Jr.", simply because she's 20 days younger than the other.

This troper's brother is named after their father. My Dad goes by Jack while my brother goes by John--except for when we're with my Dad's family when they call my dad John and my brother Jack.

This troper's name is Kellie, her mother is Karen, has an aunt named Krissy, and has cousins named Karen, Katie, and Kayla. All of us except for Kristen share the same last name. In addition, all of us except for Krissy, share the same last name. AND my mother had always plan on naming her daughter Kaitlyn and the only reason she didn't name me that was because my cousin Katie was born 15 months before me and my mother decided to avoid confusion.

The really strange part is that this is all coincidence. My mom and aunt (sisters) aren't even blood relatives to my cousins (who are on my father side).

This troper has two friends named Maggie V. Both have last names that are five letters long and very similar letters in it.

In this troper's high school we had around 10 Amanda's in the marching band. Many got nicknames like Fiffy (because her spot always started on the fifty yard line...ever year!), or Twich (she doesn't even need sugar to be a spaz), or by last name, insturment, status in band (e.g. Drum Major), or other important characteristics.

Also, for some strange reason we've had many percussionists named Nick. It's just this really strange phenomenon. My friend's mother actually just had a baby that she named Nick and I keep telling her she has to make him a percussionist.

To solve the dilemma of having two girls named Emily in art class, this troper was referred to as Em^2 (pronounced Em-squared, of course) because she was born after the other Emily. Even after the other Emily left the class, the teacher and students still stuck with the Em^2 nickname for a while.

Very much averted. This troper has ''never'' been the only one with her first name in her class. She's found a solution to that a long time ago.

Also, in high school, this troper went to school with a pair of twins (who, obviously, had the same last name), one of whom shared a first name with two other guys in the class, another guy whose last name was similar enough to theirs to cause confusion and two girls who were not related but had the same last name. Some of the teachers had trouble remembering which two of them were related.

This Troper knows total of 9 steves on FB and 2 more in RL. Included in this are her and her bff's roommates. Also, two of them have last names 1 letter apart.

Last year, this troper's homeroom had two Ashley's, two Lindsay's, and two Jessica's. Thankfully, a Jessica moved back to her home school, a Lindsay dropped out, and whenever we want to address one of the Ashley's, we use their last names.

This Troper's class has three Johns, two Dans and two Adams. Luckily with the Johns and Adams, everbody, teachers included are on a LastNameBasis, and one of the Dans has a nickname, so we get by. Unfortunately, one of the Johns has a brother, who we are also all on LastNameBasis, so we just call him mini-LastName

Edgy here. I used to be David but since I met my would-be wife, I have been known as Dave. This is because her mother's long-time boyfriend (because they will never get married) is named David.

This troper knows 5 people named Justin: her dead dad, Justin Wade; her brother, Justin Tyler(said dad's son); her aunt's husband, Justin Serra; her brother's son, Justin Foster (with a different father than Justin Wade); & her current boyfriend, Justin Jerome. I've had to nickname my boyfriend to avoid any confusion with my brother. Oh, & my former boyfriend shared the name 'Ben' with one of my uncles. I also know 2 Laurens, 2 Beckys (though one spells it Beccy), 2 Alyssas (though one spells it Alyessa), & at least 2 girls at my school with my name, Melissa.

I remember at one point, there were about three boys named Jacob Smith going to my school district, and two of them ended up in the same classroom in elementary school. As for my own writing, I enforce this rule really hard. I won't name two characters names that are even from the same family of names, no matter how dissimilar they sound. I won't have a Giovanni and an Ivan; I won't have a Matvei and a Matthias; and I won't have a Kir and a Cyrus. I do this so that two characters don't have the same moniker or nickname.

I remember having a geography class that had two Jessicas... This wouldn't be notable except for the fact that they had the same last name and were first cousins (I have no idea how the hell that worked out...)

I have a brother-in-law named Aaron and one of my best friends is a girl named Erin. The two names are pronouced the same.

I've had alot of trouble with this one. My first name is Rebekah, and for most of my life there has been at least one Rebecca in almost every class I was in. When I moved at the age of sixteen, I started going by my middle name, Liana and the first person I met after the move was named Leanne! Also, my cousin got married a few years ago to a woman named Debbie, which also happened to be the same name as his sister.