I was curious about Mr. Locke when I was listening to an old album by Spirit, entitled, oddly enough, Spirit. So I did a quick search on the Google and found that there are several men named John Locke.
The first was a philosopher who had a theory that men are born with their minds clear of any preconceived notions. Something he called Tabula Rasa, or Clean Slate. Yeah, the same as the episode.

The next was our own John Locke who landed on the island with a group of others who happened to be flying overhead when a magnetic force brought down their plane. Upon landing, our John Locke and everyone else that was on board Oceanic Flight 815 started with a Clean Slate.

The third name I noticed was also John Locke who was a member of the group Spirit. A 60's rock band who did a rather interesting song entitled "Uncle Jack." Since this program seems to deal with "Spirit"ual things and John Lockis especially concerned with these things, it makes one wonder if the writers didn't have this same John Lcke in mind when naming the character.

So after finding these I was intrigued enough to wonder if there are any other characters in the show whose names correspond to real or fictitious people outside of this series.

If you have any info on this subject please feel free to add.