Message: "T.V. Twins" - Behind the Name

[Opinions] T.V. Twins

by Zachlyn

11/6/2009, 2:47 PM

So I was watching House of Payne yesterday because one of the characters was giving birth and I just had to learn the babies' names. Well, what seemed like forever they finally revealed the boy and girl: Jayden and Hayden. I felt let down. Then I got to thinking what other twins have been named on T.V. What do you think of them? Can you come with others?

Alexander and Nicholas (Full House)
Erica and Jack (Friends)
Benjamin and Jennifer (Little House on the Prairie)
Nelson and Winnie (The Cosby Show)

#twins

Replies

- Cristina_es

11/7/2009, 9:35 PM

Love Alexander and Nicholas.

The rest aren't my style. :)

- Ranchie

11/7/2009, 2:47 PM

Alexander and Nicholas do go together and they are cute names.
Erica and Jack go together but I don't care either way about them.
Benjamin and Jennifer are two of my favorite names. I love that set.
I hate Nelson and Winnie.
Zachary and Cody are an okay set name.
Pheobe is okay but I absolutly hate the name Ursula.
Brandon and Brenda are okay.
I hate how they called him Frank Junior Junior, Leslie is cute on a girl, Chandler is okay too.
Philip and Lillian. I never thought they went together when you said the full name. Though they were commonly called Phil and Lil. Which like with Jayden and Hayden is too much when siblings especially twins rhyme. I love the names Jayden and Hayden but not together. And I like Jayden on the girl and Hayden on the boy instead.
Annie and Tom are cute together.

Tia and Tamera Mowery- I know that's thier real names but the characters on Sister Sister were named that too. And the played Cameron and Alex in Twitches. And their names were also Apollo and Artimes (I'm sorry I can't spell it)
Fred and George from Harry Potter.

... Load Full Message

- Lily (Destry) +3

11/7/2009, 8:30 AM

Alexander and Nicholas go well together but they're quite boring. They were called Nicky and Alex as far as I can remember and I don't like Nicky for a boy at all.

Erica and Jack go well together but I don't particularly like them

Benjamin and Jennifer go well together but I don't like them much.

Nelson and Winnie don't go well together. I hope Winnie has a full name. Nelson is nice, though.

- zachlyn (guest) +2

11/7/2009, 10:54 AM

They were named Winnie and Nelson after Nelson Mandela and his wife, Winnie.

- Lily (guest) +1

11/7/2009, 1:35 PM

Yeah, I thought so which is why I think it makes such a horrible sibset. I mean I have absolutely nothing against Nelson Mandela and his wife, I think it's nice to name a child for him but as a sibset it's just silly. It's like Bill and Hillary or Barack and Michelle or something. Very obvious.

- Zachlyn

11/7/2009, 3:59 PM

I think Nelson Mandela had been released just before the twins were born.

- Anthroponomastics +9

11/7/2009, 6:16 AM

Little House on the Prairie...Jennifer?!

SOMEONE had their history wrong when they produced that series. There is no way in hell that an American would name their kid Jennifer back in the 1800s.

- Lily (Destry) +7

11/7/2009, 8:32 AM

I think she was named Jennifer because...(more)

Really? I always thought it was a very old name. Wasn't Jennie one of the most common names in the 1800s?

I think the reason why they named her Jennifer is because it was Michael Landon's favorite name, or at least one of his favorite names. According to a site he named several of his characters Jennifer or Jenny / Jennie and he himself had a daughter named Jennifer Rachel. I used to love Little House on the Prairie when I was a child and remember looking up some trivia on the internet once.

- Anthroponomastics +2

11/7/2009, 1:08 PM

Jennie was actually originally a nickname for Jane

It's one of those nicknames sprouted out of the Middle Ages. Why we have Jennet, Jenna, Jennette, Jenny...none of them are actually Jennifer. Jennifer's the Cornish form of Guinevere!

- Lily (guest) +1

11/7/2009, 1:39 PM

Couldn't she have had ancestors from there? I remember her saying that she named them after someone...well at least Benjamin.

- Anthroponomastics

11/7/2009, 1:59 PM

I'm pretty sure that Jennifer wasn't even widely used in Cornwall until very recently...I mean, Dingle Foot's sister was named Jennifer, but that was an exception, and even then that was later on than the series took place.

- Solunastra +3

11/7/2009, 12:22 PM

I think Jennie might have been a nickname for Jane.

- Lily (guest) +2

11/7/2009, 1:38 PM

It was used on its own

In the top 30 in 1880, I believe. Yeah, I think it originally came from Jane not from Jennifer. Isn't there any chance she could have known about it, though? Ancestors or books? I remember that at least Benjamin was named for someone maybe Jennifer was too.

- Anthroponomastics +1

11/7/2009, 2:00 PM

I doubt it, but the book's possible. Jennifer probably became popular in America because of Jennifer Jones (b. 1919), although that wasn't even her real name.

- Lily (guest)

11/7/2009, 3:10 PM

When you click on Jennifer it says that there was a play in which a character was named Jennifer in 1906. Yeah, I guess it's extremely unlikely but still possible.

- zachlyn (guest)

11/7/2009, 7:30 AM

My dad had the same comment when the episode aired. I think they were going for the "What's popular today to keep the viewers interested" approach.

- Laura W +1

11/6/2009, 10:24 PM

Zack and Cody (Suite Life)
Brandon and Brenda (Beverly Hills 90210)
Frank Junior Junior, Leslie, Chandler (girl) (Friends - triplets)

This message was edited 11/6/2009, 10:24 PM

- zachlyn (guest)

11/6/2009, 11:18 PM

How could I forget Brandon and Brenda?! ;)

- Chrysanthemum (hayleyskye)

11/6/2009, 4:40 PM

I love Hayden for a boy. And I like Jaden for a girl. But not together. It's just stupid.

- Guinevere (vomiting) +2

11/6/2009, 3:36 PM

Jayden and Hayden are awful! The poor things. Dare I ask which was the girl and which the boy?

- zachlyn (guest) +1

11/6/2009, 4:59 PM

boy: Jayden
girl: Hayden

- Valkyrie (ICEyun)

11/6/2009, 7:17 PM

Ugh, Hayden on a girl!? Hideous in my opinion, ever worse on a girl...

- Treasa07

11/6/2009, 3:17 PM

i like it. i have a post down there about sibsets and jayden and hayden were one of my favorites.

- SarG +3

11/6/2009, 3:12 PM

Wow, thats actually quite freaky. I never watched full house so I didn't know this, but I have a 5 yr old, Alexander and am having twins in the new year, a boy and a girl, and we're thinking of naming the boy Nicholas. Weird.

Oh and Jayden and Hayden is just awful.

- Delphi_Blue

11/6/2009, 5:16 PM

Clearly Alexander and Nicholas sound great together ;)

- Sofia

11/6/2009, 4:13 PM

Alex and Nick seem to be quite common for brothers. Besides Full House there's also McLeod's Daughters and I've seen it in a couple of books as well as in real life.

- jennifer

11/6/2009, 3:53 PM

But I think tv has different rules for naming, so there I can forgive it. In real life it would be horrible.

- New_Chloe +4

11/6/2009, 3:02 PM

Hmm, the only ones I can think of are:

Phillip and Lillian from Rugrats
Phoebe and Ursula from Friends
Tom and Annie from The Edisons Twins

Love Nelson and Winnie!!

- Lily (Destry)

11/7/2009, 8:39 AM

AHHH Phoebe and Ursula...what an amazing sibset!

- Guinevere (vomiting) +2

11/6/2009, 3:37 PM

Phoebe and Ursula! I don't watch a lot of television but I remember hearing about this set somewhere. I like it a lot.

- jennifer +1

11/6/2009, 3:52 PM

Probably Friend or Mad About You. Ursula was a waitress played by Lisa Kudrow before Friends was on, and since they were on the same network, and in the same city, why not make them twins? Probably for more viewers during sweeps.

- zachlyn (guest)

11/6/2009, 5:03 PM

Actually, it was because Lisa Kudrow wasn't sure if Friends would go beyond the pilot and she didn't want to give up her Mad About You gig.

View Message

Replies