I had the same thing happen to me. I had twins and both had imaginary friends. I had them both turn their imaginary friends real when they became teens and changed their names. I travel to high school with my sims and when I was traveling back home, I noticed that the older twin had two of the Penni's (the pegacorn as a teen) that she could travel with: one was the one living with us and the other was bald and had max relationship. I ignored that, but then a week later the bald version turned up at high school. I panic right click destroyed her because it freaked me out (I was hoping I imagined it before). Then that same day after they got home, the other twin got a call from a bald version of Kimmi (krafty kid as a teen) who looked exactly like that copy of Penni. If she turns up at high school like Penni did, I'll see if she's invisible to everyone else. I didn't even check with Penni, just panic deleted. I also did look in the list of households to see if I could find them and never did. I scoured the list and never found them, neither as their own household nor as part of someone else's.
I have mccc and ui cheats in my game, so I do have mods.