Siblings of the same name

Just wondered how common it was to have siblings of the same name. I have
just come across 2 brothers called Thomas XXX b 1823 and Thomas Wilkinson
XXX b 1828 who are both alive at the 1851 census . They both have the same

Jenny M Benson...

You may know that this doesn't apply in this case, but it can happen
that the a widower with a son named Thomas marries a widow with a son
named Thomas and her child takes on the husband's surname.

Fenny...

My Mother's uncle William was brought up by an aunt & uncle after his
mother died. They subsequently had a son called William. Different
surnames, but it must have been confusing at tea time.

parents.

Jeff...

What was the last name?

John Firth...

Eshelby. Wilkinson was grandmother's maiden name. Mother's maiden name was
Atkinson which was used for the first child, Ralph Atkinson Eshelby

Margolotta...

My late-great uncle Mike's elder son has three sons - all called Merlin. That
could *REALLY* make things difficult for an amateur genealogist in a century
or so...*

The most famous instance is that of George Foreman - 5 sons and 3 daughters
*all* called George.

*Though I can't see 'Merlin Balfour' being that common a name...

A. Gwilliam...

The most notorious example is probably the German House of Reuss. All
of the men were named Heinrich, and so had to be distinguished by Roman
numerals. Every so often they would restart with "I", and off they'd
go again.

As if that weren't bad enough, the family also followed the common
habit of German ruling families of having more than one ruling line, so
you also have to give the name of the relevant line when distinguishing
between individuals.

Possibly the only example of a monarchy where consecutive rulers
wouldn't necessarily have consecutive numbers to distinguish them by.

S Viemeister...

I have quite a few examples of that in my family! Mostly in Sutherland and
Ross-shire.