Overused and Underused Character Names on Soaps

[antmunoz]

Judith McConnell was Valerie Conway on ATWT. 

[amybrickwallace]

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)

[Bill Bauer]

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

 

There was Donna Craig from DOOL

[Paul Raven]

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.

[Dr Neil Curtis]

Was Y&R the only soap to have two Characters (unrelated) with the same name (John Abbott and John Silva) on the air at the same time?

[juppiter]

 

And they are always boring!

[robbwolff]

 

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

[amybrickwallace]

 

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[SFK]

 

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.

[amybrickwallace]

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

[Paul Raven]

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

 

[amybrickwallace]

 

Thanks!! I edited the post to add that.

[YRfan23]

Chris Brooks and Chris “Cricket” Blair

[amybrickwallace]

 

And, as just mentioned, Amy Lewis and Amy Wilson.

[YRfan23]

Also for Y&R

Diane Jenkins and Diane Westin