Throughout the years, everyone has one name. That's Megatron, that's Jetfire, that's Thundercracker. But what if (like humans) there were Cybertronians with the same name? Like there's one Seaspray, then there's another Seaspray who's completely different. How would you like this if it happened? (If it didn't already). I wouldn't mind either way.
Well it happened in universe with Beast Wars. Megatron is not THE Megatron in his continuity. I wouldn't have a problem with it, that way we can incorporate more characters from different continuities instead of the definitive character of the name, like having Armada and RID Hot Shot. Two different characters and depictions with the same name. Though the toyline would get a bit confusing though.... Son: "mommy I wanted Smokescreen" Mom: "That is Smokescreen, sweetie." Son:"no Mom this is orange crane Smokescreen, I wanted cool sports car Smokescreen." Mom:
The two IDW ongoings, More Than Meets the Eye and Robots in Disguise, have played with this idea a little. Prowl mistook the Predator Skydive with the Aerialbot Skydive when investigating his murder. And there was another Prowl that had his named changed to Dent to avoid being confused for the aforementioned. And there are currently two Tankors runnning around, one being G1 Octane (renamed), and the other being Beast Machines Tankor.
Not counting continuity-differing characters (there have been a ton of different versions of all the characters you mentioned), there have also been cases where characters have had issues over having the same name. Swoop and Divebomb's feud over the name Divebomb in the UK comics made for a great story.
Yeah, IDW did it. I like the idea of "Megatron, Autobot accountant," but I figure most of the other Megatrons would have changed their names. Kinda like how there aren't really any Hitlers out there any more.
Well i think Divebomb and Swoop both had the same name once. Edit just noticed Aernaroth mentioned this lol.
In the G1 toy line there are a few guy with the same name. Ransack comes to mind. In IDW Star-scream says 'That's not the first person named Tankor who's yelled at me today' Cause Octane is now called Tankor and BW-Tankor were both yelling at him. In beast wars toy line there was more than one Silverbolt and there was optimus minor and optimus primal. Does that count? It's happen a few times. I'm not really sure anyone cares or minds. I'd prefer if they used new names, it's hardly like we've run out of words. But it doesn't bug me.