In 19th century Britain when a child died in infancy it was common for the next child of the same gender to be given the same name. However I have a case where the parents appear to have named two boys the same even though the first one was still alive, and there were several intervening boys.
Of course I cannot be absolutely certain that a) the first one didn’t die, or b) that they’re different parents, but I am 95% sure that’s what happened - I have the death of the first one many years later, and the parents names are not that common.
Has anyone else come across this situation? If it really is extremely unusual then I think I have to conclude they must be different sets of parents.