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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/47679
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/47679
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Any time you get two or more people in a group (or a family) with the same name, they are almost immediately given a nickname or some extra appellation so everyone knows who is being talked about.

As an example which I used [in a different answer](https://writing.stackexchange.com/questions/5470/do-i-correctly-utilize-my-naming-adjective-concept-in-this-book/5473#5473):

Take an Italian neighborhood with five friends all named Joseph. One will go by Joey D (for his last name). The second is Joe the Hammer, because he's a carpenter. The third is called Joey Goombatz because he picked up the nickname in second grade and nobody has ever called him anything else. Number four is called Joe Kings after some ridiculous incident at the old Kings Plaza mall, and when the fifth Joseph moved into the neighborhood the guys heard his father calling him Jo-Jo, and it stuck.

In a family with five cousins/uncles/brothers named Joseph, you might have Pepe, Pippino, Zio Pippino, Pippo, and Giuseppe.

"John" in and of itself is so common a name that it's almost inevitable that one John will run into another, and they will have to use some distinguisher. I have known a Tall John and Short John, a Gimpy John to separate him from Tattooed John and Curly John (his hair), and John Jay.

Original score: 18