Is there a clean way of cleaning up duplicate entries in MySQL?

UPDATE names n1
  JOIN names n2 ON (n1.id < n2.id AND n1.name = n2.name)
  JOIN child_table c ON (n2.id = c.id)
SET c.name_id = n1.id
ORDER BY n1.id DESC;

DELETE FROM n2
  USING names n1 JOIN names n2 ON (n1.id < n2.id AND n1.name = n2.name);

update dependent_table set name_id = <id you want to keep> where name_id in (
    select id from names where name = 'foo' and id != <id you want to keep>)