Isn't that weird that there are people who share the same names as real celebrities and fictional characters?

Question

I know that there are some people in the world who share the same full names (given name and surname) as real-life celebrities and fictional characters. Whenever I check in the books, magazines, and newspapers, I sometimes wonder how can people share the same names as celebrities and characters by coincidence. Here are some examples:

1.) There are two men who share the same name as the "Beat It" singer: a Michael Jackson who is a beer maker and another MJ who was someone that I looked at on my old yearbook (and no, I never knew him).
2.) A weather forcaster named Jennifer Lopez (correct?).
3.) Some real-life person named Lisa Simpson, who is also a main character on "The Simpsons".
4.) I looked at some newspaper article that mentioned some girl who is named Jessica Simpson, but she's not a famous pop singer just like the real JS.

Can you believe that people like the above four share the same names as celebrities and characters? Can you give me more examples of such people?

Answer 1

I knew a guy named Howard Johnson -- like the hotels and motels. When most people are named, the celebrities have not yet become famous, so it is totally coincidental.

Answer 2

It's not really that much of a coincidence, really. Some celebrity names are pretty common, first and last, so there are bound to be other people with the same names. Also, think about how many non-celebrities have the same name.
Along both lines--
I was in second grade with a kid named Michael Jackson.
When I was in high school, one of those supermarket tabloids ran a story about a woman who found out that her neighbor had had an affiar with her dead husband, so she made a meatloaf with his ashes in it and fed it to the lady. The meatloaf-maker in the story had the same name as me.

Answer 3

well the name Michael is a popular first name, and the last name Jackson is pretty popular at all, so I'm sure there are many Michael Jackson's other than MJ and the same for the other names. I don't think that it's weird at all especially because some people will name their children after famous people anyone, one of my friend's names is Michael Jordan E., and I'm sure that if his last name was Jordan, he would have just been Michael Jordan. And Im sure that there are some Michael Jackson's that are named after the Michael Jackson king of pop.

Answer 4

Yes I can believe. I went to elementary school with a kid that had the name "Ronald McDonald." Why he didn't go by "Ron" or "Ronnie" or use his middle name always amazed me.

Another one I always liked was Jean Simmons....the actress...and Gene Simmons, the guy with the tongue in the rock band Kiss.

But if you think about it....how many names are there really? With all the millions of people in the country and most names being pretty common ones, I am not at all surprised by these coincidences.

Answer 5

In my hometown there was the Jackson family who had a Jermaine and a Latoya.

We had a girl named Tina Turner at my school. I have a cousin whose first and middle names are Armad Rashad.

Let's not forget: we had four James Browns. We even had an Adams Family (snap snap).

Answer 6

Actually yea I know about all those, and it's pretty weird but also kinda cool. One time in In Touch magazine they said that there is a person who has the name Matt Damon, and he said that peole often ask him if he's the real one.

Answer 7

I don't see anything amazing about it at all. Before those names were were given to tv characters or celebrities, they were just ordinary names.

Answer 8

LOL wow,I watched something on the news,and there was someone named Kylie Minogue,just like the singer lol!!!

Answer 9

I think that is freaky!!
Maybe they had the same first or last name and they changed their other name.

Answer 10

There is someone named Harry potter!! he was a war vetern.