This is a tale of three Spikes. One is a cartoon dog. The next is Spike on Buffy, played by James Marsters. The last is Spike on Press Gang. Both those last two are characters for whom Spike is a nickname. Spike on Press Gang takes his nickname from the cartoon dog. The characters real name is James. Dexter Fletcher, who plays him, is English but his Spike is American. James Marsters is American, but his Spike is English. That Spike’s real name is William. The cartoon dog was created by a guy named William.