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Overused and Underused Character Names on Soaps

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On 7/27/2018 at 9:01 AM, robbwolff said:

Actually, as I mentioned above, Dark Shadows used Valerie Collins. That was in 1970-71 as I recollect. Angelique (played by Lara Parker) showed up at Collinwood in 1840 and told folks that her name was Valerie.

Judith McConnell was Valerie Conway on ATWT

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What about Rafe? That seems to be one of the major go-to names if you are casting a Latino character (Ken Meeker and Brian Gaskill excepted). 

 

Rafe Garretson (OLTL)

Rafe Castillo (SB)

Rafe Kovich (PC)

Rafe Kovich, Jr. (GH)

Rafe Hernandez (DAYS)

Rafe Torres (Y&R)

Rafe Rivera (GL)

  • Member
On 7/21/2018 at 8:34 AM, Franko said:

Alex had a kind of vogue in the early '90s -- Ms. Spaulding (GL), Ms. Olanov (OLTL) and Mr. Masters (Loving). Am I missing one?

It wasn’t in the 90s, but Alex Bowden on GL

On 7/21/2018 at 11:49 PM, DaytimeFan said:

The only "Donna" I can think of is AW's Donna Love.

 

Bobbie, Jill, Erica, Lisa, Iris, Dorian - all iconic signature character names. 

 

It's the men's names that are so repetitive with "Jack" being the worst offender. Every soap has one or two.

 

There was Donna Craig from DOOL

  • Member

Bobbie was used on EON 

Jill was not used once Y&R's Jill became a long running iconic character. 

AW used Erica for a minor character in the 80's and B&B had Sheila's daughter.

A few Lisa's over the years Y&R and AW most prominently

Dorian remained untouched.

Marlena is another iconic name but SFT did use it for a secondary character around 1980.

Has Marlene ever been used?

Elaine is another name never attached to a major character.

  • Member
On 4/4/2019 at 9:43 PM, amybrickwallace said:

What about Rafe? That seems to be one of the major go-to names if you are casting a Latino character (Ken Meeker and Brian Gaskill excepted). 

 

Rafe Garretson (OLTL)

Rafe Castillo (SB)

Rafe Kovich (PC)

Rafe Kovich, Jr. (GH)

Rafe Hernandez (DAYS)

Rafe Torres (Y&R)

Rafe Rivera (GL)

 

And they are always boring!

  • Member
On 4/5/2019 at 12:50 AM, Paul Raven said:

Bobbie was used on EON 

Jill was not used once Y&R's Jill became a long running iconic character. 

AW used Erica for a minor character in the 80's and B&B had Sheila's daughter.

A few Lisa's over the years Y&R and AW most prominently

Dorian remained untouched.

Marlena is another iconic name but SFT did use it for a secondary character around 1980.

Has Marlene ever been used?

Elaine is another name never attached to a major character.

 

There was also Jillian Coleridge on Ryan's Hope. The character was referred to as Jill at times.

  • Member
On 4/5/2019 at 12:50 AM, Paul Raven said:

Dorian remained untouched.

 

It interested me how Dorian became an oft-used name for black male sitcom characters in the '90s/'00s. Certainly more in the vein of Dorian Harewood than Dorian Lord.

And later on OLTL, Dorian had a young black male aide also name Dorian.

  • 2 weeks later...
  • Member

How about Amy?

 

Amy Parker Tyler - AMC

Amy Lin - ATWT

Amy Stallings - ATWT

Amy the realtor - B&B

Amy Cooper - DAYS

Amy Jennings - DS

Amy Berry - EDGE

Amy Vining - GH

Amy Driscoll - GH

Amy Russell - LOL

Amy Gifford - L&F/FRFP

Amy Harris - PC

Amy Morse - RH

Amy Perkins Wallace - SB

Amy Ames Kincaid - TSS

Amy Kaslo Carson - SFT

Amy Nielsen - SUN

Amy Snowden - WTHI

Amy Lewis - Y&R

Amy Wilson - Y&R

Edited by amybrickwallace

  • Member

Days had Amy Cooper played by Liz Keifer.

 

On Y&R Bill Bell re-used names quite a bit.

Let's see

Derek Thurston and Derek,Cricket's rapist

Brad Elliot, Brad Carlton

Sharon Collins, Dr Sharon Reaves, Sharon the teen runaway involved with Rose DeVille

Molly,pregnant teen and Molly,Sheila's mother

Amy Lewis, Amy Wilson

Neil Fenmore, Neil Winters

George Curtis (Chris' rapist) George Packard Chancellor boss, George Rawlins

Jack Curtis, Jack Abbott

David Mallory, David Kimball, David Chow

Michael Scott. Michael Crawford, Michael Baldwin

 

And surnames

Brandon Collins, Sharon Collins

Ellen Winters, Neil/Malcom Winters

Suzanne Lynch, Robert Lynch

 

I'm sure there are many more

 

  • Member
11 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

Days had Amy Cooper played by Liz Keifer.

 

On Y&R Bill Bell re-used names quite a bit.

Let's see

Derek Thurston and Derek,Cricket's rapist

Brad Elliot, Brad Carlton

Sharon Collins, Dr Sharon Reaves, Sharon the teen runaway involved with Rose DeVille

Molly,pregnant teen and Molly,Sheila's mother

Amy Lewis, Amy Wilson

Neil Fenmore, Neil Winters

George Curtis (Chris' rapist) George Packard Chancellor boss, George Rawlins

Jack Curtis, Jack Abbott

David Mallory, David Kimball, David Chow

Michael Scott. Michael Crawford, Michael Baldwin

 

And surnames

Brandon Collins, Sharon Collins

Ellen Winters, Neil/Malcom Winters

Suzanne Lynch, Robert Lynch

 

I'm sure there are many more

 

Chris Brooks and Chris “Cricket” Blair

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