SELECT COUNT(DISTINCT [name]) from several tables

After the clarification, use:

  SELECT x.name, COUNT(x.[name])
    FROM (SELECT [name]
            FROM [MyTable]
          UNION ALL
          SELECT [name]
            FROM [MyTable2]
          UNION ALL
          SELECT [name]
            FROM [MyTable3]) x
GROUP BY x.name

If I understand correctly, use:

  SELECT x.name, COUNT(DISTINCT x.[name])
    FROM (SELECT [name]
            FROM [MyTable]
          UNION ALL
          SELECT [name]
            FROM [MyTable2]
          UNION ALL
          SELECT [name]
            FROM [MyTable3]) x
GROUP BY x.name

UNION will remove duplicates; UNION ALL will not, and is faster for it.

EDIT: Had to change after seeing recent comment.

Does this give you what you want? This gives a count for each person after combining the rows from all tables.

SELECT [NAME], COUNT(*) as TheCount
FROM
    (
     SELECT [Name] FROM [MyTable1]
     UNION ALL
     SELECT [Name] FROM [MyTable2]
     UNION ALL
     SELECT [Name] FROM [MyTable3]
     ) AS [TheNames]
GROUP BY [NAME]