List of famous pairs
The following is a list of famous pairs. See also list of twins and Twin cities.Pairs are human beings unless otherwise noted. Pairs are actual persons (living or dead), places, or things, unless identified otherwise.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
A
- Aachen & Aix-la-Chapelle (geographical; juxtapositions) (German and French names for the same town)
- Abbott & Costello (colleagues; entertainers)
- Abelard & Heloise (couples)
- Abercrombie & Fitch (commercial partners)
- Adam & Eve (Biblical; couples)
- Addison & Steele (colleagues; writers)
- Adenine & thymine (scientific; complementary) (DNA base pair)
- Albireo (astronomical; juxtapositions) (the double star Beta Cygnus)
- Alcock & Brown (colleagues; aviators)
- John Alden & Priscilla (couples) A real couple (but Priscilla's memorable line, "Why don't you speak for yourself, John?"" is the fictional creation of Longfellow)
- Allemande left & Grand right and left (sequences) (frequently paired square dance maneuvers]]
- American Falls & Horseshoe Falls (geographical; juxtapositions)
- Amoeba & Paramecium (complementary) Prototypical protozoans studied in elementary biology classes
- Amos & Andy (fictional; companions)
- animus & anima (conceptual)
- Antony & Cleopatra (couples)
- Anna & the King of Siam (colleagues) (Anna Leonowens and King Mongkut )''
- Apples and oranges (proverbial/idiomatic; conceptual; opposing; food)
- Fred & Adele Astaire (colleagues; entertainers; siblings)
- Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers (colleagues; entertainers)
- Atlas & Gazetteer (equipment; complementary)
B
- The Babbitt & the Bromide
- Battledore & Shuttlecock (equipment; complementary)
- Bacon & eggs (proverbial/idiomatic; complementary; food)
- Bambi & Thumper (fictional; companions)
- Barnes & Noble (commercial partnership)
- Barnum & Bailey (commercial partnership)
- Baskin & Robbins (commercial partners)
- Bass & treble (conceptual; technical; antitheses)
- Bathroom & W.C (proverbial/idiomatic; complementary) (British usage) The two essential hygienic plumbing facilities.
- Batman and Robin (fictional; colleagues)
- Beany & Cecil (fictional; companions; animated cartoons; television)
- Beavis & Butthead (fictional; companions)
- Bed and breakfast (proverbial/idiomatic)
- Ben & Jerry (commercial partners)
- Benjamin Britten & Peter Pears (colleagues; couples)
- Bert & Ernie (fictional; companions; puppets; television) Creations of Jim Henson, possibly named after characters in It's a Wonderful Life
- Big-endian & Little-endian (fictional; opposing factions) Creations of Jonathan Swift. Satirized homoousia & homoiousia, q.v. Also: (technical; conceptual; opposing) computer science terms
- Bill and Ben, The Flowerpot Men (fictional; companions)
- Bill & Ted (fictional; companions)
- Black & Decker (commercial partners)
- Black & white (proverbial/idiomatic; conceptual; opposing)
- Block & tackle (equipment; complementary)
- Boardwalk & Park Place (complementary; juxtapositions)
- Bolsheviks & Mensheviks (opposing factions)
- Bonnie & Clyde (colleagues; couples; criminals)
- Bootsie and Snudge
- Bosnia & Herzegovina (geographical; juxtapositions)
- Brace & bit (equipment; complementary)
- Brahms & Wagner (idols of opposing musical factions in Vienna during the 1870s)
- Bread & butter (proverbial/idiomatic; complementary; food)
- Bread & Roses (Proverbial of womens' labor issues, from slogan of the 1912 Lawrence, Massachusetts strikers)
- Brighton & Hove - also Brighton & Hove Albion (geographical; juxtapositions)
- Charlie Brown & Snoopy (fictional; companions; comic strip) Creations of Charles M. Schulz
- "Daddy" Browning & "Peaches" Heenan (couples; scandalous)
- Robert Browning & Elizabeth Barrett (couples)
- Bow & Arrow (equipment; complementary)
- Bubble & Squeak (proverbial/idiomatic; complementary; food) (dish made from leftover potatoes and cabbage)
- Buck & Bubbles (colleagues; entertainers)
- Burke & Hare (colleagues; criminals)
- George Burns & Gracie Allen (colleagues; entertainers; couples)
- Aaron Burr & Alexander Hamilton (rivals/opponents)
- Buster Brown & Tige (fictional; companions; comic strip) Creations of Richard F. Outcault
C
- Caesar & Cleopatra (couples)
- Cain & Abel (mythological/legendary; Biblical; siblings; rivals/opponents)
- Calvin and Hobbes (fictional; companions;comic strips) Creations of Bill Watterson
- Carriage return & Line feed (technical; complementary) Standard line break in Digital OSes, CP/M, MS-DOS, and Windows
- Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid (colleagues; companions; criminals) (Subject of motion picture Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid)
- Castor & Pollux (astronomical; juxtapositions); also (mythological/legendary; twins) The twin stars in Gemini; see also Dioscuri; see also Leda and the Swan.
- Cavaliers & Roundheads (opposing factions)
- Cav & Pag (complementary) (Cavalleria Rusticana and I_Pagliacci, short operas frequently performed together)
- Cease & desist (proverbial/idiomatic) (Legal idiom)
- Chalk & Cheese (proverbial/idiomatic; rivals/opponents) British phrase, "as different as chalk and cheese"
- Chang & Eng (twins) The eponymous "Siamese twins"
- Chas 'n Dave
- Cheech & Chong (colleagues; entertainers)
- Cherubim & Seraphim (Biblical; complementary) Frequently paired; the two lowest orders of angels.
- Christopher Columbus & Queen Isabel (colleagues)
- Click & Clack (colleagues; entertainers) ("the Tappet brothers") (Tom and Ray Magliosi)
- Coat & tie (proverbial/idiomatic; equipment; complementary) (The two required articles constituting formal dress)
- Conservative & Labour (opposing factions)
- Corned beef & Cabbage (proverbial/idiomatic; complementary; food) Proverbial lower-class Irish entree
- Emily Cox & Henry Rathvon (colleagues) (crossword puzzle authors)
- Crips & Bloods
- Pierre & Marie Curie (colleagues; couples; scientists)
- Currier & Ives (commercial partners) (lithographers)
- Cut & Paste (technical; complementary)
- Cyril & Methodius
- cytosine & thymine (complementary) (DNA base pair)
D
- Dallas & Fort Worth (geographical; juxtapositions; twin cities)
- Dalziel & Pascoe (fictional; colleagues; detectives) Creations of Reginald Hill
- Damon & Pythias (mythological/legendary; companions)
- Danger Mouse & Penfold
- David & Goliath (mythological/legendary; Biblical; rivals/opponents)
- Death & Taxes (proverbial/idiomatic; complementary) (proverbial pairing of two inevitabilities)
- Democrat & Republican (opposing factions)
- Dick & Jane (fictional; siblings) (in the Scott, Foresman primary readers, very widely used in the U. S.)
- Big Diomede Island & Little Diomede Island (geographical)
- The Dioscuri (mythological/legendary; twins; rivals/opponents)
- The Big Dipper & the Little Dipper (astronomical; complementary)
- Dodge & Plymouth (corporate twin automobile marques; same company, same chassis, different model names and body styles)
- Drum and bugle corps (equipment; complementary) Marching band musical complement.
E
- Eckert & Mauchly (colleagues; also commercial partners)
- Elsie and Elmer (fictional; couples; mascots) Cows, trademark of Borden dairy circa 1938 on.
- England & Wales (geographical; juxtapositions)
- ENQ & ACK (technical; complementary)
- Evan & Jaron
- Exchange & Mart
- Edison & Swan (rivals/opponents and commercial partners)
F
- Douglas Fairbanks & Mary Pickford (colleagues; entertainers)
- Basil Fawlty & Sybil (fictitious)
- Ferrante & Teicher (colleagues; entertainers) (duo-pianists)
- Fife & Drum (equipment; complementary) Traditional military instrumental pair
- Fight or flight (proverbial/idiomatic; opposing)
- Fish & chips (proverbial/idiomatic; complementary; food)
- Flanders & Swann (colleagues; entertainers)
- Flannigan & Allen
- Flotsam & Jetsam (proverbial/idiomatic)
- Fools & Horses
- Fortnum & Mason (commercial partners)
- French & Saunders
- Friend or foe (proverbial/idiomatic; opposing)
- Frodo Baggins & Sam Gamgee (fictional; companions)
- Funk & Wagnalls (commercial partners)
G
- Gallagher & Shean (colleagues; entertainers)
- George & Ira Gershwin (colleagues; siblings; songwriters)
- Gilbert & George (colleagues; entertainers; couples) (performance artists)
- Gilbert & Sullivan (colleagues; songwriters)
- Gin & tonic (proverbial/idiomatic; complementary; beverages)
- Gin & Vermouth (proverbial/idiomatic; complementary; beverages)
- Goofus & Gallant (fictional; rivals/opponents)
- Gog & Magog
- Great Pyramid & Sphinx (juxtapositions) Ancient Egyptian monuments of Giza
- Guanine and cytosine (scientific; complementary) (other DNA base pair)
- Gumby & Pokey (fictional; companions)
- The Globe & Mail
- Goodson & Todman (colleagues) (television game-show producers)
H
- h and Chi Persei (astronomical; juxtapositions)
- Hagar & Helga
- Hero & Leander (mythological/legendary; couples)
- Hale & Dorr (commercial partners) (Boston law firm)
- Hale & Pace
- ham and eggs (proverbial/idiomatic; complementary; food)
- Hansel & Gretel (mythological/legendary; siblings)
- Warren G. Harding & Nan Britton (couples; scandalous)
- Harlequin & Pierrot (fictional; archetypes; complementary)
- Harry and David (commercial partners) Pioneering mail-order food merchant (pears, Fruit-of-the-Month club)
- Harvard & Radcliffe (institutions; complementary)
- Harvard & Yale (institutions; rivals)
- Hatfields and McCoys [1] (rivals/opponents)
- Heaven & Earth (proverbial/idiomatic; opposing)
- Heaven & Hell (proverbial/idiomatic; opposing)
- Edmund Hillary & Tenzing Norgay (colleagues)
- Hiroshima & Nagasaki (geographical) (First, and to date only, targets of nuclear attack)
- Hobbs & Sutcliffe
- Hollywood & Vine (geographical; intersections)
- Homer & Jethro (colleagues; entertainers)
- Homer & Marge (fictional; couples)
- Sherlock Holmes & Dr. Watson (fictional; colleagues; companions)
- Sherlock Holmes & Professor Moriarty (fictional; rivals/opponents)
- homoousia & homoiousia (concepts; opposing)
- Horn & Hardart (commercial partners)
- Rock Hudson & Doris Day (colleagues; entertainers; movies) (fictional; couples) Played couples in battle-of-the-sexes comedies such as Pillow Talk
- Huntley & Brinkley (colleagues)
I
- The Iliad & the Odyssey (literary; complementary)
- Incubus & Succubus
- Iztaccihuatl &Popocatepetl (geographical; juxtapositions) (Mexican volcanos)
J
- Jack & Jill (proverbial/idiomatic; fictional; companions)
- Jarndyce & Jarndyce (fictional; commercial partners) (law firm in Charles Dickens' novel, Bleak House)
- Agents Jay and Kay (fictional; colleagues)
- Jeeves & Wooster (fictional; companions)
- Thomas Jefferson & Sally Hemings (couples; scandalous)
- Jekyll & Hyde (fictional)
- Johnson & Johnson (commercial partners)
- Joseph & Mary (Biblical; couples)
- The Jukes & the Kallikaks (conceptual; opposing)
- Jules et Jim (fictional; companions)
- Juno & the Peacock; see also Aesop, Alfred Hitchcock, Sean O'Casey (fictional; couples)
K
- Kermit & Miss Piggy (fictional; companions)
- Kernighan & Ritchie (colleagues) Computer scientists
- Nancy Kerrigan & Tonya Harding (rivals; opponents; athletes) Figure-skaters. Famous because of Harding's 1994 participation in a conspiracy to disable Kerrigan.
- Keuffel & Esser (commercial partners) (slide rule manufacturer)
- Kruder & Dorfmeister
L
- Lady & The Tramp (fictional; couples)
- Lancelot & Guinevere (mythological/legendary; couples)
- Laurel & Hardy (colleagues; entertainers; animated cartoon)
- The Law & the Prophets
- Lea & Perrins (commercial partners)
- Leda & the Swan (mythological/legendary; couples)
- Leicestershire & Rutland (geographical; juxtapositions)
- Left & right (conceptual; opposing)
- Leopold & Loeb (colleagues; criminals)
- Lewis & Clark (fictional; colleagues)
- Lennon & McCartney (colleagues; songwriters)
- Lineweaver & Burk
- Lindwall & Miller
- Little & Large
- Live or die (conceptual; antitheses)
- Lone Ranger & Tonto (fictional; colleagues)
- Lucy & Desi (colleagues; couples; rivals/opponents; commercial partners; entertainers)
- Alfred Lunt & Lynn Fontanne (colleagues; couples; entertainers; theatre)
M
- Aimee Semple McPherson & Kenneth G. Ormiston (couples; scandalous)
- Mad dogs & Englishmen (proverbial/idiomatic; complementary; title) Noel Coward song title, referring to creatures that "go out in the mid-day sun" in tropical climes; also motion picture title, name of singing group, name of advertising agency.
- M & M's
- Large Magellanic Cloud & Small Magellanic Cloud (astronomical; juxtapositions)
- Mahler & Bruckner (complementary) Symphonic composers who are frequently paired and seem to appeal to similar musical tastes.
- Mainyu & Mazda (mythological/legendary; conceptual; rivals/opponents)
- Marks & Spencer (commercial partners)
- Marx & Engels (colleagues)
- Mary & her little lamb (fictional; companions) (Sarah Josepha Hale's nursery poem, "Mary had a Little Lamb")
- Mason & Dixon (colleagues)
- Masters & Johnson (colleagues; scientists)
- Mexicali & Calexico (geographical; juxtapositions; twin cities)
- Michaelis & Menten (colleagues; scientists)
- Michelson & Morley (colleagues; scientists)
- Mills & Boon (commercial partners) British publisher of romance novels.
- Wilbur Mills & Fanne Foxe (couples; scandalous) (Senator caught with stripper, in the "tidal basin" incident)
- Mississippi-Missouri (geographical; juxtapositions) Conjoined river systems
- Mizar & Alcor (astronomical; juxtapositions) (the "horse and rider")
- Modesty Blaise & Willie Garvin
- The Monitor & the Merrimack (rivals/opponents)
- Mom and pop (conceptual; complementary)
- Morecambe & Wise (colleagues; entertainers; comedians)
- Mork & Mindy (fictional; companions; television)
- Morse & Lewis
- Motherhood & apple pie (proverbial/idiomatic; complementary) The two primary undisputed American values
- Mum and dad (conceptual; complementary)
- Mutt & Jeff (fictional; companions; comic strip) Creations of Harry Conway "Bud" Fisher; it was the first well-known daily comic strip. Hence also (idiomatic/proverbial) for any tall-short pair of men.
- Mutt & Jeff (colleagues; spies)
- Fox Mulder and Dana Scully (fictional; colleagues; television)
N
- Napoleon & Josephine (couples)
- Nature or nuture (proverbial/idiomatic; opposing)
- Neanderthals & Cro-Magnons
- Evelyn Nesbit & Stanford White (couples; scandalous)
- Newfoundland & Labrador (geographical; juxtapositions)
- Nancy & Sluggo (fictional; companions; comic strip) (Creations of Ernie Bushmiller)
O
- One Man & His Dog
- Oranges and lemons (proverbial/idiomatic; complementary) (Nursery rhyme)
- Orkney & Shetland (geographical; juxtapositions)
- Orthanc & Minas Morgul (Tolkien's (fictional; geographical; juxtapositions; rivals/opponents) Two Towers)
- Orthoclase & Plagioclase (complementary) (minerals found together in feldspar)
- Othello & Desdemona (fictional; couples; theatre) (creations of William Shakespeare)
- The Owl & the Pussycat (fictional; couples)
P
- Pat and Patachon
- Pelleas et Melisande (mythological/legendary; couples)
- Marks & Spencer (commercial partners)
- Penn & Teller (colleagues; entertainers; illusionists)
- Penrod & Sam (fictional; companions) Creations of Booth Tarkington
- Peter Pan & Wendy (fictional; companions) Creations of J. M. Barrie
- Philemon & Baucis (mythological/legendary; couples)
- Phobos & Deimos (astronomical; juxtapositions) Satellites of Mars
- Piston & Cylinder (equipment; complementary)
- Pinky & the Brain
- Plankton & Nekton
- Plug & Socket (equipment; complementary)
- Pompeii & Herculaneum (geographical; juxtapositions) Adjacent cities destroyed in the A. D. 79 eruption of Mount Vesuvius
- Porgy & Bess (fictional; couples) Title of and character in DuBose Heyward's novel, on which the Gershwin opera was based
- Press & Journal
- Posh & Becks
- Procter & Gamble (commercial partners)
- Proton & neutron (scientific; complementary)
- Pyramus & Thisbe (fictional; couples)
- Punch & Judy (fictional; archetypes; couples; rivals/opponents)
- Pupienus & Balbinus
Q
- Strange & Charm Quarks (complementary)
- Quisp & Quake
R
- Pierre-Esprit Radisson & Médard des Groseilliers
- Rand & McNally (commercial partners)
- The Raw & the Cooked
- Redgrave & Pinsent (colleagues; athletes)
- Reeves & Mortimer
- Regis & Kathie Lee (colleagues; entertainers; television)
- Ren & Stimpy (fictional; colleagues; animated cartoon)
- Rhode Island & Providence Plantations (geographical; juxtapositions) (Rhode Island's official name)
- Rod & reel (equipment; complementary)
- Rodgers & Hammerstein (colleagues; songwriters)
- Roy Rogers & Dale Evans (colleagues; couples; entertainers; singers; motion pictures)
- Rolls & Royce (commercial partners)
- Romeo & Juliet (fictional; couples) Creations of William Shakespeare
- Romulus & Remus (mythological/legendary; siblings)
- Rosencrantz & Guildenstern (fictional; companions) Creations of William Shakespeare
- Le Rouge & le Noir (conceptual; opposing; famous title) Stendhal's novel; red army uniforms vs. black church robes
- Rowan & Martin (colleagues; entertainers; comedians; television)
- Ruler & compass (technical; equipment; complementary) The two instruments whose use is permitted in formal geometrical constructions.
- Russell & Whitehead (colleagues; mathematicians)
- Ruth & Naomi (mythological/legendary; Biblical; companions)
- Rwanda & Burundi (geographical; juxtapositions)
S
- St. Kitts & Nevis (geographical; juxtapositions)
- St. Pierre & Miquelon (geographical; juxtapositions)
- St. Vincent & the Grenadines (geographical; juxtapositions)
- Salt & pepper (proverbial/idiomatic; complementary; food)
- Samson & Delilah (mythological/legendary; Biblical; couples)
- San Diego & Tijuana (geographical; juxtapositions; twin cities)
- Sao Tome & Principe (geographical; juxtapositions; twin cities)
- Scylla & Charybdis (See also Scylla & Charybdis) (mythological/legendary)
- Sears & Roebuck (commercial partners)
- Sellar & Yeatman (colleagues; authors; humorists) Authors of 1066 and All That
- Shave & a haircut (proverbial/idiomatic; complementary)
- Skull & Bones (proverbial/idiomatic; complementary) Name of Yale secret society.
- Skull & Crossbones (proverbial/idiomatic; complementary) Symbol of death, piracy, and poison.
- Siegfried & Roy (colleagues; entertainers)
- Silk & Satin (proverbial pairing of two lustrous, luxurious fabrics)
- Simon & Garfunkel (colleagues; entertainers)
- Simon & Schuster (commercial partners)
- Sirius & Sirius B (astronomical; juxtapositions) (binary star system)
- Siskel & Ebert (colleagues) (Print and television movies reviewers) (Siskel 1946-1999)(Ebert& Roeper aren't really a "famous pair" yet)
- Slap & Tickle
- John Smith & Pocahontas (couples)
- Smith & Jones (fictional; colleagues)
- Smith & Wesson (commercial partners) (gunmakers)
- Smoke & mirrors (proverbial/idiomatic) The illusionist's elements
- Smothers Brothers (colleagues; entertainers)
- King Solomon & the Queen of Sheba (mythological/legendary; Biblical; couples)
- Somerville and Ross
- Sonny & Cher (colleagues; entertainers; couples)
- Sooty & Sweep
- Square & compass (symbols; juxtapositions) (Masonic emblem)
- Stalagmites & Stalactites (conceptual; complementary; opposing)
- Starsky & Hutch (fictional; colleagues)
- Steptoe and Son (fictional; companions)
- Strauss & Howe
T
- Tarzan & Jane (fictional; couples)
- Tex & Jinx (colleagues; entertainers)
- Thelma & Louise (fictional; companions)
- Thunder & lightning (proverbial/idiomatic; complementary)
- Strom Thurmond & Essie Butler (couples; scandalous) Biological parents of mixed-race Essie Mae Washington-Williams
- Tintin & Snowy (fictional; companions)
- Titanic & Britannic (twin White Star ships that both met tragic fates)
- Tom & Jerry (fictional; rivals/opponents; animated cartoon); also (proverbial/idiomatic).
- Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn (fictional; companions)
- Tool & Die (equipment; complementary)
- Tonsils & Adenoids (anatomical; juxtapositions) (Customarily removed together; routine surgical procedure for children in the U. S. in the 1940s and 1950s).
- Torvill & Dean (colleagues; entertainers) (figure skaters)
- Trinidad & Tobago (geographical; juxtapositions)
- Tristan & Isolde (fictional; couples)
- Trylon & Perisphere (juxtapositions) Iconic monuments of the 1939 New York World's Fair
- Trueman & Statham
- Turks & Caicos (geographical; juxtapositions)
- Town Mouse & Country Mouse
- Tracy & Hepburn (colleagues; entertainers; couples)
- Tudors & Stuarts
- Tweedledum & Tweedledee (idiomatic/proverbial; complementary) Proverbial for an trivial difference; originally creations of John Byrom, referring to musical controversy; also (fictional; twins) creations of Lewis Carroll in Through the Looking-Glass
- Tyne & Wear (geographical; juxtapositions)
U
- Uday & Qusay (siblings)
- Ulna & Radius (juxtapositions; complementary)
- Uranium-235 & Uranium-238 (complementary) (Almost inseparable isotopes)
V
- Van & Schenck
- Victoria & Albert (couples)
W
- Wallace & Gromit (fictional; companions)
- Wayne & Garth (fictional; companions)
- Wayne & Shuster (colleagues; entertainers)
- Watson & Crick (colleagues; scientists)
- Weber & Fields (colleagues; entertainers)
- Whigs & Tories
- Wilbur & Orville Wright (colleagues; siblings)
- Nero Wolfe & Archie Goodwin (fictional; colleagues; detectives) Creations of Rex Stout
- The Woodies, Woodbridge and Woodforde tennis players
- Woodward & Bernstein (colleagues; journalists)
- Peg Woffington & Christie Johnstone
- One and Two World Trade Center, New York (geographical; juxtapositions)
X
- Xerxes & Esther (mythological/legendary; Biblical; rivals/opponents)
- Xylem & Phloem (technical; complementary) Botanical circulatory elements
Y
- Yin & Yang (conceptual; complementary and opposing)
- York & Lancaster (rivals/opponents)
Z
- Zager & Evans
- Zenith & Nadir (concepts; opposing)
- Zeno & Chrysippus (see also Stoicism)
- Zero & One (concepts; opposing; complementary)
- Zeus & Ganymede (mythological; couples)