Keanu Reeves and His Intriguing Connection to the Name “John”

You can’t name your child Keanu Reeves and not expect them to turn out pretty cool. If you were writing a detective novel and named the protagonist that, publishers might ask you to change it, deeming it too fictional. It’s no surprise that he’s achieved such an impressive career—he definitely had a unique advantage from the get-go.

This trend continues with the names of his characters. While “Thomas Anderson” may not stand out, “Neo” certainly does. In Dangerous Liaisons, he embodies a French noble with the elaborate name of ‘Le Chevalier Raphael Danceny,’ and he even lends his voice to the fictional stuntman Duke Kaboom in Toy Story 4. However, there’s one notably simple name that the Canadian superstar seems to be stuck with.

On the Keanu Reeves subreddit—because of course there’s one—an anonymous user raised an interesting question: “Why does he play so many characters named John/Jon?” At first glance, this might seem like amusing banter, but a closer look at his extensive filmography reveals a quirky pattern.

Throughout his career, Reeves has portrayed characters with variations of the name ‘Jonathan’ in 11 films. If you include the two times he played characters named ‘Jack’ in movies and TV shows, along with Johnny Silverhand from the video game Cyberpunk 2077, that totals 14 instances. It could even be 15 if you count Jack Traven from Speed in the first Sonic the Hedgehog movie, but that’s up for debate.

The first time he took on a name in this vein was in Kathryn Bigelow’s homoerotic surfing classic Point Break, where he plays Johnny Utah alongside Patrick Swayze’s character. The “John Wick” character certainly boosts the count; Reeves has donned the suit of this skilled hitman across four films, plus a cameo in the recent spin-off Ballerina. He also played Jonathan Harker in Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and a version of the character Don John in Kenneth Branagh’s adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing. There’s also Jack Traven, who famously dealt with the ‘Bus That Couldn’t Slow Down’, and another Jack in the holiday TV movie Babes in Toyland.

Why this recurring theme for Keanu? Hollywood screenwriters may have a tendency to recycle names, possibly opting for the familiar ‘John’ when crafting action heroes. After all, you have iconic characters like John McClane from Die Hard, John Rambo from First Blood, and John Matrix from Commando. Given that Reeves often takes on such tough roles, it seems that a plethora of ‘Johns’ was inevitable. There’s also a chance that the actor simply enjoys the name; coming from an unusual first name, perhaps a common one holds a certain appeal.

With Reeves showing no signs of slowing down, his collection of characters named ‘John’ could keep growing. He has expressed interest in reprising his role as John Constantine, and the popularity of the Wick franchise suggests there’s plenty more to come. Keep an eye out!