Overused and Underused Character Names on Soaps

[Faulkner]

There was that woman who put Brad in the cage on Y&R named Lisa, but agree it’s underused. I wonder if that’s a name writers stayed away from because Eileen’s portrayal was so iconic.

[All My Shadows]

By the same token, I love when mom’s maiden name becomes the kid’s first name. Shayne Lewis comes to me right now, but there are others.

[kalbir]

 

Abby Newman, Fenmore Baldwin, Summer Newman to add to your list. Reed Hellstrom has his grandmother's maiden name as his first name.

[Markjeh]

 

On ATWT we also had Julie Wendall and Julia Larrabee.

[edgeofnik]

 

That's right - Lisa with the 'lioness hair' as I used to call her but she didn't last. It's hard to believe ATWT was #1 for 20 seasons and Eileen Fulton was the face/driver of a lot of that success, which would make other shows - especially the P&G ones - steer away from Lisa. 

 

@kalbir I never picked up on "Abby" as "Abbott" before, but now it makes sense. It's ironic considering Ashley knew her bio origins. 

 

 

[jam6242]

Selena Cross (played by Margaret Mason) was on Return to Peyton Place in the 70s (though the name was taken from the Peyton Place novels).

[SoapDope]

In the 1970's Leslie Brooks named her baby by Lance Prentiss: Brooks Prentiss. 

[robbwolff]

There was also Lisa Grady on Another World. Otherwise, I can't think of any other Lisa on a soap.

[~bl~]

Some names I'd expect to be used a lot because they are popular for babies. Michael was one of the top in the US for guys for decades. I wonder how soap names compare to real life naming trends, (years ago there was an article --maybe it was TVGuide about television and naming trends. There was a mention about how the name Alan-Michael became an actual name for boys, and that it was the only hyphenated male name with some popularity...) 

[Soaplovers]

 

When Dark Shadows was in the development stage... Victoria Winters originally name was going to be Sheila March... but it was changed because the creators thought it sounded too modern and they wanted something more regal/old fashion.... so they decided on Victoria Winters (Vicki for modern day use and Victoria for travels to the past).

[soapfan770]

 

It's actually a very common theme on Y&R, B&B, and other soaps to do that. I was almost surprised when Ridge and Brooke had their son RJ together they didn't name him Logan Forrester(Bridget would later use the name for her son). 

 

One common name for girls that I've rarely seen on soaps that I know of is Melissa. Other than Melissa Horton on Days I can't think of any off the top of my head. Dustin is an underused name for male characters, as I can only think of Dusty on ATWT. 

 

The John Abbott and John Silva situation was interesting but actually very realistic to real life. I remember one class I had in middle school three kids (1 boy, two girls) all went by Alex. 

[robbwolff]

There was also that debacle of a character Jensen Buchanan played on General Hospital: Melissa Bedford. Also, Missy Palmer Matthews on Another World, and years later Melissa Needham on AW.

[SoapDope]

There was also Melissa Agretti on Falcon Crest played by Ana Alicia

[SteelCity]

I feel like Bobbie Spencer on GH might be the one ever.

[dragonflies]

Nora is underused, was there another Nora Besides the one on OLTL?