UKH

Prompted by a discussion on another thread. A few examples, hopefully you can add some more.

Keir Starmer - Keir Hardy

Martin Luther King - Martin Luther

Neil Harvey Fairbrother - Neil Harvey

In reply to The New NickB:

Chris Eubank jnr named after his dad, although I dont think father / son was what you were after.

In reply to The New NickB:

Tyson Fury - Mike Tyson

In reply to The New NickB:

Kitt, the talking car on Knight Rider, and Eartha Kitt. 

In reply to The New NickB:

Winston Churchill and Winston Silcott possibly.

In reply to The New NickB:

Bob Dylan - Dylan Thomas

In reply to The New NickB:

Hayley Mills and Hayley Atwell. 

In reply to The New NickB:

Martina Navratilova and Martina Hingis

In reply to Blue Straggler:

On a similar theme, Wikipedia suggests that David Bowie took his name from Jim Bowie of Alamo fame.

I’m not 100% Mr Zimmerman and Mr Jones count, but I guess it’s my question, so I can define it how I like.

In reply to The New NickB:

Elton John - Long John Baldry

Captain Lawrence Oates , 6th Inniskilling Dragoons, became more famous as "Titus" Oates, named after the !8th century conspiracy theorist.

(Glad no-one has said "named for" yet)

In reply to The New NickB:

i'm pretty certain...

Marylin Manson named himself after Monroe and Charles

to cover both ends of the spectrum, 

In reply to The New NickB:

You mean you want the parents to have named the person? At birth? If at birth, then Martin Luther King Jr. doesn't quite count, although at the age of five I guess you can still say that it was his father who renamed him  

In reply to Tom Valentine:

with reference to another thread "Samuel Coleridge-Taylor"!

Ah, I hadn't checked the other thread since yesterday evening and I see that I am undone

I could add all of Jeff Tracey's sons

In reply to Blue Straggler:

I didn’t know that.

I suppose if you really want to take the idea to an extreme, Joe Lycett legally changing his name to Hugo Boss for a time would count.

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Following the theme, Bob Willis added the middle name Dylan after his hero. 
And Dennis Bergkamp named after Denis Law

In reply to The New NickB:

Louis XIV named after Louis XIII, XII,XI,X,IX,VIII,VII.VI,V,IV,III,II, & I

In reply to The New NickB:

Buzz Lightyear after Buzz Aldrin

In reply to The New NickB:

Engelbert Humperdinck and Engelbert Humperdinck

In reply to Trangia:

I just typed out Henry VIII etc. and then realized you had got there first!

In reply to The New NickB:

What about characters named after famous things?

The detective Norman Conquest and MI5 agent Harris Tweed

In reply to Gordon Stainforth:

Too late to the party on that one Gordon, mentioned it myself up thread.

I think at the time Bowie changed his name Jim Bowie was very famous due to the film “The Alamo” with John Wayne as Davy Crockett and Richard Widmark as Jim Bowie.

In reply to The New NickB:

Sorry, that's what comes of skim-reading a thread. Have duly deleted

I remember The Alamo was one of the first movies I ever saw, when I was about 10 years old ... but can't remember much about it, except that it had some evocative theme music. I remember around the same time we saw North West Frontier, which was much more memorable.

In reply to The New NickB:

Wynton Marsalis, the trumpeter and composer, is named after Wynton Kelly, the jazz pianist (who played with Miles for a while).

In reply to The New NickB:

Alessi Laurent-Marke is named after Alessi, the kitchenware brand, which I assume is in turn someone’s name

In reply to The New NickB:

I was named after the cross eyed lion in Daktari and I'll fight anyone who says either one of us is not famous...

In reply to The New NickB:

Friedrich Nietzsche, named after Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia

In reply to The New NickB:

I'm off topic a little here, but I learned yesterday that a) Mitch McConnell was present at MLK's I have a dream speech, and b) Samuel L Jackson was an usher at MLK's funeral.  I'm not sure which of these I found odder.

In reply to The New NickB:

One I stumbled in recently is that Cliff Richard is named after his musical hero Little Richard(and "cliff face", which suggested "Rock")

In reply to wercat:

What about characters named after famous things?

The detective Norman Conquest and MI5 agent Harris Tweed....

Seaman stains?

In reply to The New NickB:

Socrates the Brazilian footie player? (unless ancient Greek names are 10 a penny in Brazil)

In reply to Hillseeker:

Master Bates after the five finger shuffle

In reply to Andy Hardy:

It is actually his given name as well, I had to check. Great footballer, but always makes me think of the Monty Python sketch.

In reply to The New NickB:

Aristotle Onassis was presumably named after Aristotle. And his full name was apparently Aristotle Socrates Onassis. (No, I never knew that till I Googled a few seconds ago.)

In reply to Gordon Stainforth:

Isn't Aristotle simply a very popular name in Greece, similar to Jesus in Mexico and Brazil?

In reply to The New NickB:

Chubby Checker named after Fats Domino

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Maybe, but it's a bit telling that his second name is also a famous philosopher. Suggests an interest by parent/s in philosophy.

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Also, if you're named Jesus in Mexico or Brazil, I'd venture to suggest that you're named after Jesus. The number of people who want to name their children after JC is surely irrelevant to the derivation.

In reply to The New NickB:

I see that Elvis Costello (real name Declan McManus) was given the name Elvis (after Presley) by his manager.

In reply to Gordon Stainforth:

My middle name is Irrelevant  

In reply to Gordon Stainforth:

An apocryphal gospel relates the story of how Jesus came to be named. One of the wise men trod on a rake as he was approaching the manger. 'Jesus Christ!' he shouted in pain. Mary says 'That's a good name, we were going to call him Fred'.

In reply to The New NickB:

James Dean Bradfield - James Dean

In reply to Lankyman:

Ahharghhhhh Jim lad... the ol' Captain Pugwash urban myth. Roger the Cabin Boy? It was Master Mate and there never was a Seaman Stains. Also the cabin boy was called Tom and not Roger.

It was on the good ship Venus...

In reply to Boomer Doomer:

Never let the truth get in the way of a good story

In reply to The New NickB:

I was once told by an extremely unreliable source that Van Morrison picked Van for his pseudonym after Van Gogh, thinking his first name was Van. Probably not true and doesn't quite count