Adaptation Name Change in Fan Works.
Works with their own pages:
Other
The Amazing World of Gumball- Kedabory's Elmore Chronicles: Both instances due to Adaptational Gender Identity:
- Richard Watterson to Daphne Watterson
- Steve Small to Sybil Small
- Medicated:
- The girls all have different surnames to reflect their different upbringings; Anne's is Plantar (instead of Boonchuy), Sasha's is Vors (instead of Waybright), and Marcy's is Leviathan (instead of Wu).
- Domino 2 is named Charlie2 after Charlie Bigbottom the spider, because Anne hadn't met Domino when she adopted her.
- Dæmorphing:
- The Dust from His Dark Materials is usually called hrala, occasionally Rusakov particles, and rarely spirit-motes or the Kolumatiy, but the only time it's called "dust" is at the end of Prometheus in Chains, where Jake uses it as a description rather than a name.
- The process that separates humans from their daemons is called severing instead of incision.
- In canon, there's nothing to suggest that Gafinilan-Estrif-Valad isn't his real name, but it's revealed in Shattered that he made up his last two names to fit in with the Great Gardens' military; his real name is Gafinilan of Theresh.
- In The Word of Your Body duology, Jake is called Jude, a Sobriquet Sex Switch of his deadname "Judith". Downplayed with Rachel, who used to be called Reuben, but chose her canon name when she transitioned.
- In Aquaman: Monster, Arthur's son, traditionally called Arthur Jr., is named Tommy here after Tom Curry.
- 5 Years Later: The name of the planet Klyntar from Marvel comics is changed to "Tomron".
- Ben 10: Reincario:
- Minitaur from the reboot is renamed to Megataur, though also due to Megataur being quite different and stronger than before.
- Eye Guy is changed to Oculus, and this is explained In-Universe: seeing the fact that Ben 23 (usually ascribing very uncreative names to his transformations, such as Freezelizard for Arctiguana and Plug Man for Feedback) ascribed Eye Guy to his Opticoid form, Ben figures Eye Guy needed a more creative name.
- Played with in BlazBlue Alternative: Remnant. Penny's name here, in contrast to RWBY where it was an A.I.-cronym, is actually an alias/nickname (though she treats it like her actual name) to help hide her true identity as Kappa-10, the 10th Murakumo unit.
- In The Bridge, Spacegodzilla is named Xenilla (the author personally thinks Spacegodzilla is a stupid name).
- Cave Dancers Pretty Cure downplays this; Daisy Wheel Doozer's name is altered to Daisywheel.
- A Game of Cat and Cat:
- Kazuya's surname is changed from "Suou" to "Kawamoto".
- Julius reveals that Belmont is actually their clan name rather than their legal names, and his actual legal surname is Velthomer.
- In Code Prime, Drift's Minicon partner Slipstream is renamed Safeguard, due to the Decepticon Seeker Slipstream being present in the story.
- Cycles Upon Cycles: In this StarCraft / Mass Effect crossover the Reapers are now named the Harvesters to differentiate them from the Starcraft unit.
- Earth's Alien History:
- Diana's code name is "Power Woman" rather than "Wonder Woman".
- The SSV Normandy is now known as the ECS Thunder Child.
- Melissa Shield gets a minor one in The Echo Ranger. In that story she is given the middle name Kimberly, as part of her connection to her ancestor Kimberly Ann Hart.
- In An Extraordinary Journey, Helo and Sharon Agathon’s daughter is named Hope rather than Hera, representing how their contact with the SGC gave the Colonials and the Cylons new hope for the future, particularly after Sharon received asylum and protection from her harsh treatment on Pegasus.
- In Flip a Coin, Mon-El agrees to go by Larry when posing as a human, and asks for it to be shortened to Lar, his name in the comics but not in the show.
- Interdimensional Cartoon Discussion and Support Group: According to their VA, Avi Roque, in canon, Raine's palisman is named Fiddlesticks. Here, it's name is Melody.
- I Wanna be the Troll: The Guy, being a trans girl in this fic, changes her name to The Girl.
- JoJo New Universe:
- Many characters from My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, such as the Mane Six, have their pony names changed to human ones to reflect them being humans in the world of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. Instead, their pony names become nicknames given to them by their respective friends and families.
- This also happens to Johnny Joestar and Gyro Zeppeli. Johnny is now George Joestar III, the younger son of Joseph Joestar and Suzi Q. Meanwhile, Gyro's nickname is his actual birth name here rather than his birth name being Julius Caesar like in the manga. In-universe, it's explained that Caesar intended to give him his canon birth name, but Applejack vetoed it, leading to the couple settling for Gyro.
- Downplayed with Hol Horse, whose full name is revealed to be Hol Horse Zeppeli here when the Stardust Crusaders discover he's one of Caesar and Applejack's sons.
- The Phantom Thieves of Heart now call themselves Strike Back, as a team of Stand-using Phantom Thieves.
- J-WITCH Series: In canon, the Thunder Demon Chi is found aboard an Expy of the Titanic called the Oceanic. Here, it's very specifically the actual Titanic.
- Khaos Omega usually does this with characters whose canon names would be unusual in some worlds. Occasionally a part of a canon name is ignored because that part doesn't have the problem (included are three Galaxy Angel girls in siblings Milfeulle and Apricot keeping the Sakuraba surname when changing their first names to Maranda and Arielle, and Lily C Sherbet keeping her first name untouched in becoming Lily Cielena Stewart; Chitose Karasuma, whose surname has the same immunity to the problem behind Khaos deploying this trope as the siblings, chose to instead join Anise Azeat and Natsume Izayoi in not changing her name at all).
- A Man of Iron:
- When Jon Snow takes on a superhero identity, the role is that of War Machine, but the name he takes up is Centurion instead. Also, the author was incensed when the show revealed that his birth name was Aegon, so changed it to Jaehaerys.
- A minor example, but Dany names her black dragon Drogan instead of Drogon, since instead of just being named in honor of Drogo's memory, she's also honoring her protector Logan.
- The War of the Five Kings is instead the War of the Five Crowns, since while Balon Greyjoy hasn't made a move yet, a fifth contender has (albeit inadvertently) come forward in the form of Jane Seaworth, whom Thor declares a Queen.
- The organization known as "the Council" is essentially the story's version of SHIELD.
- The Marvelous World Of DC
- In the comics, Raven's real name is Rachel Roth. Here, it's Raven Buttenholm, because her mother died giving birth to her and entrusted her to Hellboy to raise as her own.
- Zatanna's last name is Zatar, not Zatara.
- In Neither a Bird nor a Plane, it's Deku!:
- Kal-El is raised as Izuku Midoriya rather than Clark Kent and the author plans on having him take up Superman as his Hero Name rather than Deku, despite the title.
- Dick Grayson, who goes by Nightwing in the comics after graduating from being Robin, instead becomes Renegade due to the distinct lack of Superman in the story and the corresponding Flamebird and Nightwing legend to inspire him.
- Heino Okata is a Japanese Teen Idol superhero named Most Excellent Super Bat whose costume is a pastiche of Superman and Batman in the comics. Again, due to the distinct lack of Superman in the story's history, he instead goes by Most Excellent Wonder Bat with a matching Wonder Wagon, the closest anyone on Earth has to a Batmobile aside from Batman himself.
- New Tamaran: A few minor ones.
- The Star Sapphires are instead called the Violet Lanterns (probably because "Star Sapphire" and "Starfire" sound too similar).
- Aquaman is never referred to as Arthur Curry, but by his Atlantean name Orin. Likewise, his son isn't called Arthur Jr but Orin II.
- Since Nightstar is the Princess of New Tamaran, her name isn't Mar'i Grayson but Mar'i Kara Kommand'r.
- The Kim Possible/Heroes crossover "The Not-So-Average Girl
" gives various Kim Possible characters more realistic names, such as Kim and Ron’s surnames in this adaptation being ‘Pierce’ and ‘Sinclair’ rather than ‘Possible’ and ‘Stoppable’. - In the Arrowverse/The Hunger Games crossover The Odds, Dinah never married Quentin, so Laurel and Sara are not legally acknowledged as his daughters. Therefore, they take their mother's last name instead, calling themselves Laurel Drake and Sara Drake.
- Paradoxus:
- Isis, Diaspro's homeworld, is renamed as Gemsler to better fit the kingdom's Gemstone Assault magic.
- The Bloomix transformation, whose name is openly disliked by the fandom, is called Armix in this fic. The explanation for the canonical name is that it was a spur of the moment due to the Winx not knowing it already existed under a different name.
- Pokémon Crossing: Several Animal Crossing characters get different names than in canon. Some names are changed to nicknames.
- K.K. Slider's legal name is Totakeke (his Japanese name), while his English name is his stage name.
- Isabelle is known as Shizue, her Japanese name.
- Sable's last name is Nook, due to her marriage to Tom Nook.
- The kappa family are known as the Kobayashis. While Leila and Leilani keep their names, Kapp'n and Grams have their names changed to Kaisho and Kanako.
- The superhero villagers get new names (their canon names are names of characters they play on a sentai show): Kid Cat is Ichiro Mochizuki, Agent S is Hatsuko Fujiwara, Big Top is Kenzo Izuri, Rocket is Clover Hart and Filly is Kohaku Chiba.
- Sprinkle's real name is Laurie Coldstone, while Puddles is known as Pamela Boonchuy.
- The Pokémon: The Series/Beast Wars crossover Pokémon Wars: Transformers has the Maximals and Predacons land on the Pokémon World rather than Prehistoric Earth and thus use Pokémon as their disguise forms instead. While Optimus Primal and Megatron, now a Blastoise and Feraligator, respectively, retain their Legacy Character namesakes, the other Transformers are given new code names to match their new appearances:
- Cheetor becomes a Houndoom and is renamed Blaze-Hound.
- Rhinox becomes an Aggron and is renamed Aggronix.
- Rattrap becomes a Raichu and is renamed Shockrat.
- Dinobot becomes a Charizard and is renamed Chari-Tron.
- Waspinator becomes a Bedrill and is renamed Bee-Driller.
- Terrorsaur becomes an Aerodactyl and is renamed Aerosaur.
- Tarantulus becomes an Ariados and is renamed Ariadox.
- Scorponock becomes a Scizor and is renamed Scizornex.
- RWBY Zero renamed Weiss Schnee's mother from Willow to Crystal. (She had never appeared in canon at the time, but her name was known thanks to production leaks.)
- Stuart only ever went by Stuart in 3Below and it was implied to be his actual name. In the There Was Once an Avenger From Krypton series, Stuart is just an alias he uses on Earth. His real name is Tiu'ars.
- In A Whole New Tale: Kaila's Revenge, Roy is renamed Jarren because the author thinks Roy is a stupid name.
- Yin-Yang:
- The Evil Warriors are instead called the Outcasts. This is due to the name better fitting their nature as a Ragtag Bunch of Misfits and because the author found their original name too generic.
- In all other Masters of the Universe media, Adora is her birth name. Here, it's her adoptive name, with her birth name instead being Galatea.
- God Save the Esteem, one of the few canon rewrites to adapt the Bizarro Episode "Depth Takes a Holiday," changes Guy Fawkes Day to Bonfire Night. The author is from the U.K. and has stated his annoyance about the show getting the name "wrong".
- Superman's name in But Doctor, I Am Pagliacci isn't Clark Kent or Kal-El. His birth name is Kelex, though he prefers that everyone call him Lex.
- Dusk to Dawn and Our Own League shared verse:
- To reduce the excess of "MAR- mom names," as per Word of God, some characters' mothers have non-canon names, e.g. Selina Kyle's mother's name is changed from Maria to Isabella, and Wally West's is changed from Mary to April.
- Anarky's first name, Lonnie, is short for "Dillon" in Batman: Anarchy for All, which is not so in DC canon.
- Samuel Bradley is changed to Samson Bradley, but it's a minor alteration since both are better known by the nickname "Slam."
- Raven's real name, Rachel Roth, becomes Raquel Ryu since her ethnicity is changed from Caucasian to Filipino.
- Wonder Girl's full name is Donna Hinckley Stacy Troy in the comics. With her parentage revealed in Teen Titans: Witch-Hunt, her name is Donna Isabelle Cale Troy.
- Donna Milton, Circe's public identity, becomes Beatrix "Trixie" Miltion to differentiate from the other Donna.
- Hawkgirl's secret identity, Shiera Sanders-Hall, is changed to Sierra Sanders-Hall.
- Earth-27:
- Artemis of Bana-Mighdall is changed to Andraste to avoid confusion with the Greek goddess (the author said it didn't make sense for her being named after her given that the Egyptian Bana-Mighdall didn't worship the Greek Gods like normal Amazons) and Artemis Crock aka Tigress.
- Some of the cast of Just Imagine... Stan Lee Creating the DC Universe were brought in to honor Stan Lee after his passing, namely Wayne Williams and Maria Mendoza. Of course, since the setting already had the classic Batman and Wonder Woman running around, Wayne and Maria's respective codenames were changed to Hellbat and Maravilla. Additionally, "Maria Mendoza" isn't her real name in this universe, but an alias with her real name being "Menodora".
- Daughter of Fire and Steel: In DC canon, Doomsday doesn't have a name outside his Appropriated Appellation. Here, his name before his mutations was Terrax.
- Here There Be Monsters: Mary Marvel's foster mother, who remained unnamed in the original Pre-Crisis comics, is given a full name: Edith Bromfield.
- In New Beginnings (Smallville), Kara Zor-El and Lara Lor-Van are renamed Kara-El and Lara-El, respectively.
- TITANOMACH:
- The Last City is named Sanctuary instead, as they are not the last human settlement after the Collapse; the story mentions the existence of other independent Vanguards across Earth, as well as separate nations, such as the Germanic Empire, and Felwinter's own empire.
- A downplayed example with the Traveler; her title remains Traveler of Galaxies, but she has a proper name of her own: Almaral.
- Masako X's Dragon Ball What Ifs:
- Inverted in What If Gine Went With Goku to Earth?, where since Gine (Goku's mother) was there to tell everyone Goku's real name, Kakarot, he never receives the name Goku in this timeline.
- Played straight in What If Goku Landed At Capsule Corp, where Goku is found and adopted by the Briefs Family instead of Grandpa Gohan, he's named Boxer instead to fit into the family's Theme Naming. Likewise, his son Gohan now goes by Longjohn to maintain the family name theme.
- Aurora's mother is usually referred to as "Leah". In Fairytales, she is "Analiese".
- Downplayed in Girlfrenemies. Apple White's name is a shortened version of her full name "Apolline White".
- In Daughters Of The Wicked Witch, the canon Baobhan Sith is rendered as the alternate spelling Baobhan Sidhe, with the author's notes citing this as personal preference.
- Fire Emblem: Three Houses: Fifth Path: Not a character but a type of magic. Due to being easily confused with the similarly named Dark Magic, Black Magic's name was changed to Elemental Magic.
- Everyday Craziness in Pontypandy:
- Sam Jones becomes Sam Peyton. According to the wiki, this was simply a preference by the writer.
- Due to Adaptational Gender Identity, Ellie Phillips to Briar Phillips.
Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends
- It's mentioned in the series that Goo's name is actually just that. Frankie Rules downplays this trope by having Goo's name as short for "Gunilla".
- In the Frozen Continuation Fic What About Witch Queen? royal family of Isles is called von Schwalbe, so prince Hans Westerguard is renamed to Hans von Schwalbe, although he's given the title "graf von Westerguard" and Westerguard is an island he rules.
- In The Royal Reunion, Agnarr and Iduna are named "Gaspar" and "Malin" because the story predates their names being canonized.
- Downplayed In Desert Gold as Edward and Alphonse Elric are Race Lifted as half-Ishvalan through their mother Trisha. Their birth names are Zahir and Imad of the Elrikhs. Trisha was named Hadiya of the Elrikhs. They all use Naturalized Names amongst non-Ishvalans.
- Invoked in the AU fic “An Alternate Life”, which depicts a world where the Manhattan Clan and Demona are human and Elisa is the gargoyle. While the would-have-been gargoyles are still known by their canon names (Goliath has the full name of Goliath Mason and Dominique Destine earns 'Demona' as a nickname), Broadway and Lexington go by their nicknames as their birth names are ‘Brock’ and ‘Lewis’.
- In Godzilla Neo, the MUTOs are called Shinomura, which was the name of a different kaiju that appeared in a tie-in comic of the MonsterVerse.
Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi / The Untamed
- call it what you want has Jin Ling named Jiang Ling rather than Jin Ling, as his parents aren't married.
- In The Dreams of Youth, Lan Zhan (courtesy name Wangji) becomes Tang Zhan, as he's taken on his mother's surname. He also gives himself a new courtesy name, Zhengyan.
- Forget-me-not (don't leave me behind) gives us not Lan Zhan/Wangji, but Yue Zhan/Wangji, as he is using his mother's surname.
- No Matter What You Are renames Mo Xuanyu, who becomes Mo Lian.
- The Red Earth: Nie Mingjue becomes Wen Mingjue, as he's born into the Wen family.
- In The Great Ace Detective, Iris Wilson is now Henrietta van Zieks, having been raised by her birth father Klint van Ziek instead of Herlock Sholmes.
- In Daphne Greengrass and the Boy Who Lived, Dumbledore's Army is instead called "the Order of the Lightning Bolt" after a remark Daphne made during the summer at Grimmauld Place.
- In A Different Dursley Family, Vernon and Petunia name their son "Ryan" instead of "Dudley."
- Luna's Hubby was written before Luna's parents' canon names were revealed in Deathly Hallows and Pottermore, so in this fic they're named Larry and Selene instead of Xenophilius and Pandora.
- A Thing of Vikings:
- In the books Snotlout’s mother is named Freda, here her name is Serena.
- "Camicazi" gets adapted to the more realistic name of "Camilla", with the same shortened nickname of "Cami."
- In You Are Mine, Frollo takes in Esmeralda and names her "Agnes". This name is her birth name in the original book. Agnes is still called "La Esmeralda", but only as an alias when she dances at the Festival of Fools.
- In the rebooted universe of Stars, Eyes of Heaven following JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Eyes of Heaven, Noriaki Kakyoin is now Tenmei Kakyoin. This counts as a Mythology Gag to Araki's original name for Kakyoin before the editors misread the kanji.
- Jurassic What If...?: In Episode 5, the Indominus rex, which has been made two decades earlier and with John Hammond's authorisation, but is otherwise the same creature, is instead named the Diabolus rex.
- Since Ryuko was raised by Ragyo in Natural Selection, her last name is Kiryuin instead of Matoi.
- Downplayed in the Hyrule Warriors inspired fic In Sotto Voce. In the fanfic, Ruto's name is short for "Rutella".
- The Pride That Never Was is based on developmental aspects of the second film. It uses older names for everyone but Kovu:
- Kiara is called "Shani".
- Zira is renamed "Bianca".
- Vitani is named "Shetani".
- Heroverse: Due to each of the Loud Siblings being orphans adopted by different families, while all of them keep their first names, their last names are changed.
- Lori and Leni both have the last name Lavigne, as they both know they are sisters and are in the same family.
- Luna's last name is now Morrison as she was adopted by Chunk.
- Luan's last name is now DiAngelo.
- Lynn's last name is Ortega, but as of now, it's unknown how she got it.
- Lincoln's last name is McBride as he was adopted by Howard and Harold.
- Lucy goes by the title "Sister Lucy" due to being raised in a sanctum.
- Lana is the only one whose name has changed entirely, now being La'Nah, though sounding similar to her canon one.
- Lola's last name is now Yates.
- Lisa doesn't have a last name, as according to Word of God, she was never adopted.
- Lily is the only one who averts this by keeping her full name from Canon.
- The Mandela Magazine: Mark Heathcliff and Cesar Torres from Mandela Catalogue are instead introduced as Mark Woodvalley and Cesar Castle.
- In Earth 27 M, MoiraMacTaggert-Xavier's maiden name is MacTaggert as opposed to Kinross and using her ex-husband's last name as in the comics.
- Anthea from Sixes and Sevens is based on Victoria Starr from Agents of Atlas, but her name was changed because the author felt the original would be too out of place for 1940s Greece.
- In canon, Felix Fathom’s father is named as “Colt” the first time he’s mentioned. Miraculous: Tales of Lady Monarch and Chat Noir gives him the forename “Frederick”. (This isn’t a case of Outdated by Canon, since the character was named in the show months before he appeared in this fic).
- Miraculous: Tales of Royal Fortune and Matagot: Lê Chiến Kim's family name is changed to Lee-Ature, implied to be from his adoptive fathers.
- In Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid, Kanna's father is named Kimun Kamui; in Just a Child, his name is now Seiryu.
- In Make a Man Out of You, Mulan's surname is written as its traditional "Hua", instead of the Cantonese "Fa" that Disney went with.
- The Gunslinger Hero: Flintlock:
- Izumi’s hero name has been changed from the canon name of “Deku” to “The Gunslinger Hero: Flintlock”. She still responds to Deku from Katsuki, though he’s the only one that is allowed to call her that.
- Because of Snipe being adopted by Inko’s family, and knowing Inko’s maiden name, we know that Snipe’s legal name in this story’s universe is Han Akatani.
- In Locked In Digital, some of the students use different hero names than canon.
- Aoyama chooses Cavalier instead of Can't Stop Twinkling.
- Momo is Genesis instead of Creati.
- Mina goes by Xeno rather than Pinky.
- Kyoka chooses Ear Jacked rather than Earphone Jack.
- Izuku takes the name Revenant rather than Deku.
- In What's in a Hoard?, several students have different hero names than canon.
- Izuku takes the name Defiant rather than Deku.
- Toru is Spectrum instead of Invisible Girl.
- Mina goes by Queen rather than Pinky.
- Aoyama chooses Soleil instead of Can't Stop Twinkling.
- Todoroki uses Flashpoint instead of just going by Shoto.
- Kyoka is changed to Heartjack rather than Earphone Jack.
- Lastly, Bakugo and Pony get Named by the Adaptation and go by Ground Zero and Stampede respectively.
- In The Saint and the Sinner, Mineta's hero name is Grape Shot instead of Grape Juice.
- A few heroes-in-training in Sheep Go to Heaven have this.
- Izuku's hero name is now Argali, which is the type of wild sheep that he can turn into.
- Tokage and Tsuburaba are a mix of this and Named by the Adaptation, since the chapter they picked their hero name came out before their canon names (or in Tsuburaba's case, no name at all) were revealed. Tokage's hero name is Queen Tyrant Lizard instead of Lizardy, while Tsuburaba's is Air Barrier.
- In Oyasumi Midoriya, Izuku and Bakugou use different Hero names than in canon: Izuku uses Morning Cloak, whilst Bakugou uses Minefield.
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
- Downplayed in Delusions. Prior to her ascension, Luna was a mule named Philomena. She gave herself a Meaningful Rename upon ascending into an alicorn. Her sister Celestia later named her pet phoenix after Luna's original name.
- In The Elements of Friendship, an Alternate Universe Fic, Princess Luna becomes Queen Selena.
- Bixels and Tulliok's Grand Galloping 20s series reimagines the cast as humans living in 1920s rural America, so most of their names are changed to fit in more with the (mostly) realistic setting and the cultures they stem from. Their original names occasionally show up as nicknames or aliases. Twilight Sparkle becomes Thea Sullivan, Applejack becomes April-Jacqueline, Rainbow Dash becomes Wígmuŋke, Fluttershy becomes Félicie, and Pinkie Pie becomes Rosita Piedra.
- Pony POV Series:
- Trixie Lulamoon became Trixie Midsummernight.
- Twilight Sparkle's mother Twilight Velvet became Starlight Sparkle.
- In A World, Reflected, all of the human inhabitants of the Equestria Girls world have human names instead of sharing the names of their pony counterparts, and Canterlot High School is changed to John F. Kennedy Academy.
- Bloodlines (The SOC Puppet) predates the official confirmation of Naruto's parents. As a result, the Fourth Hokage is named "Arashi Kazama" instead of "Minato Namikaze", while Naruto's mother is an OC named "Haruka Uzumaki" instead of the canonical "Kushina Uzumaki".
- Son of the Sannin:
- Tsunade has her grandfather's surname Senju instead of Only One Name. Jiraya also takes on that name after they marry.
- Shizune uses her uncle's surname "Kato", which changes to Uchiha after she marries Shisui.
- Karin and Haku also bear their clan names (Uzumaki and Yuki respectively) as surnames instead of Only One Name.
- The Genin teams of Naruto's graduating class are all named after their specialties instead of sharing the name of their Jonin sensei or being assigned a number, so Team 10 (the only one to have identical members to canon) is instead called Tactical Squad.
- The Wave mission isn't covered by Naruto and his team, but instead by Zabuza, who is being forced to work for Konoha as a Boxed Crook. As a result, the Great Naruto Bridge is instead the Great Zabuza Bridge.
- Naruto and his peers are called the Konoha 15 instead of the Konoha 11 since there were an additional three students in his graduating class and Sasuke never defects.
- Downplayed with Karui, who mentions that she does have a last name but never gives it since Kumo ninja forgo their use outside of legal documentation to represent how their first loyalty is to the village.
- EVA Sessions: Someplace Vast and Dry:
- Rei's surname is Ikari rather than Ayanami, as she is raised as (one of) Gendo and Yui's daughter(s)
- The Angels from the original series are here called Messengers, and described as advanced versions of the otherwise-primitive eldritch abominations collectively referred to as the Others.
- Averted with Misato, who retains her late biological father Dr. Katsuragi's surname, despite being adopted by Gendo and Yui.
- In The One I Love Is... Kaworu was renamed Kaoru due to the author turning him into a girl.
- When She Smiles (Fresh C): Due to this story being finished four years before her getting a canon name, Sakura Suzuhara is called Mari.
- Junior Officers changes Shellington Sea Otter to Oliver Quincy Shellington.
- Gonjiki Yasha – Meiji Onmyōji Tales: Due to its Meiji era setting, all characters save for a few are given surnames, have the kanji in their names changed or flat-out given new names (that still sound similar to their canonical counterparts) to fit the cultural atmosphere. One such example comes from Abe no Seimei himself who becomes Abekawa Haruaki, keeping Seimei as a Pen Name.
- All renamings of characters who are not the protagonists are references to famous late-modern authors – there are Ozaki Momiji, Kunikida Yamakaze and Hagiwara Sakura, etc.
- Hiromasa gets the no between his names sliced off and Kohaku's rename is a combination of both his original and new name into Hakuzōsu Kohaku.
- Yaobikuni has her name unchanged but explained in-universe to be a nickname. Likewise, Aoandon is a Pen Name and Kamikui appears to keep his name, but it's in fact also a nickname – his surname is Tanizaki.
- The only aversion is Kagura who keeps her name in its entirety, not altered or changed into a pseudonym.
- In There's No One Like You, Terra Snapdragon is renamed Tara due to it being a Modern AU Fic where such names would be out of place.
Persona Franchise
- In Antonym, Haru's first Phantom Thief name is Cavelier instead of Beauty Thief, courtesy of Ryuji being the one to suggest it rather than Morgana.
- Hours 'Verse:
- After his Heel–Face Turn, Akechi changes his code name from Crow to Ace.
- Kasumi goes by Angel instead of Violet. After reclaiming her true identity as Sumire and maxing out her Confidant with Akira, she changes it to Violet like in canon.
- Sophia's codename is changed from the rather on-the-nose Sophie to the more subtle Pixel.
- The masters of the Jails are renamed from "Monarchs" to "Wardens" to maintain the prison theme. They go back to Monarchs after the Phantom Thieves learn more about them and conclude that they are both rulers of their Jails and trapped by their roles.
- In the Persona 5 Adult Confidant AU, because Goro Akechi is now Masayoshi Shido's father, rather than his illegitimate son like in canon, Goro's full name is instead Goro Shido.
- Downplayed in Everything Changes (Milkyway Scribbles). Ash's name is short for "Ashton".
- Rebuild of Pocket Monsters: The Animation:
- Leaf's counterpart is given the name "Sayako" because she didn't have a confirmed name at the time.
- Daisy uses her The Electric Tale of Pikachu name Satsuki instead of her game canon name of "Nanami".
- The 1990s Dark Fic Pokémon Master provides a downplayed example. It coined the fanon that Ash's name is short for "Ashura". It's also shown that "Misty" is short for "Mistaria".
- To make up for Miyamoto's lack of a Dub Name Change, Team Rocket Roots shortens her name to "Miya".
- Power Rangers Clockwork: In the original Skyrim mod Clockwork, the two characters who lived in the castle were named Lahar and Lamashtu/Shadow. In the fanfic, they are renamed Asgaut and Brynja Velothi as a result of changing the story's setting to Norway.
- Project Powerpuff: Declassified: Professor Utonium's real name is "Thomas Lewis Upton". "Utonium" is a code name.
- In the Robotboy fanfic Human After All, Lola's name is short for "Yolanda Mbola".
- Can One Change Fix All of RWBY?: The Maidens' counterparts in this video are called "Witches," having originally been created by Salem instead of Ozma.
- Fixing RWBY:
- Although Team SSSN still has the same team name, it's pronounced "season" instead of being pronounced identically to their leader Sun's name is.
- In the Volume 5 rewrite, Branwen bandit Shay D. Mann is renamed Shiloh Mann.
- It's also eventually revealed that Vernal's real name is Lily.
- Finally, the Atlesian Humongous Mecha in Argus is renamed from the Colossus to the Crusader to better fit Atlesian Theme Naming.
- Remnants: Ghira and Kali Belladonna are now named Ghira and Kali Shanti. They're Blake's godparents, not her biological parents, so they don't share a surname with her.
- RWBY: Scars:
- Blake's real name is "Hozuki Blake"; "Belladonna" was her Code Name while working with Adam. Blake hides her real name both because her parents are well-known Faunus and she doesn't want people learning about her past. This also means that her parents also share this name-change.
- Downplayed with a few characters whose names are changed to fit Eastern name order. For example, Yang Xiao Long is now Xiao Long Yang.
- You and Me (and Everyone in Between): Penny's surname is "Ironwood" instead of "Polendina", because she's James Ironwood's daughter.
- RWBY ABRG: Both Sun Wukong and Blake Belladonna's names are Meaningful Renames, though their original names aren't mentioned.
- Subverted in RWBY Abridged, where Blake claims initially that she has no name and just refers to herself as "Cat Girl". But it's later revealed that her name is still Blake, she just stopped using it, likely because of her Dark and Troubled Past.
- Vale's Underground:
- Cinder Fall has her name changed. "Cinder" is only a nickname, and her real name is Kenna Carter.
- Similarly, "Salem" is also a nickname, and her real name is Emily Carter.
- Glynda's last name is changed from "Goodwitch" to "Goodridge." As the author notes, no one in real life has the surname "Goodwitch" and it's less believable than "Ozpin."
- Dove Bronzewing becomes Dave Bronzewing.
- Flynt's last name is pronounced the same, but its spelling is changed from "Coal" to "Cole."
- Notably averted with Neon Katt. The writer planned for that to just be a nickname, but after some digging, they found that it could plausibly be a real person's legal name.
- In SlifofinaDragon's Sengoku Basara fanfics, one of Date Masamune and Sanada Yukimura's son Masa's friends Hikaru has his surname changed from Honda to Honba in misakiyu's illustrations.
- In Empath: The Luckiest Smurf, Gutsy from Sony Pictures' The Smurfs film series becomes Duncan McSmurf with an Adaptation Dye-Job (brown sideburns instead of ginger, and green plaid instead of blue). He's still referred to In-Universe as Gutsy by a few characters, mostly as a nickname or an Insult of Endearment by Hefty.
- In Chasing Dragons, Davos takes the surname of Blacksail instead of Seaworth.
- Rickon Stark's direwolf pup was originally named Shaggy Dog in A Song of Ice and Fire. But in Robb Returns, Ned tells Rickon to take some time to think about his pup's name, so he eventually decides on Fleetfoot instead.
- It's mentioned in Single Parents Night that Sonic has an Embarrassing First Name. In the games (which the AU is predominantly based on), his name is just "Sonic".
- Sonic and Donna changes Madonna's name to "Donna Fairview".
- Double Subverted in Sonic Mania: The Novelization. Eggman initially names the Hard Boiled Heavies the names they have in the original game, but they find the names stupid and give themselves "cooler names":
- Heavy Rider becomes Knight Rider.
- Heavy Shinobi becomes Frostblade.
- Heavy Magician becomes Spellbinder.
- Heavy Gunner becomes Blaster Master.
- Heavy King becomes Metal King.
- As Peter Parker was Spared by the Adaptation, Miles Morales doesn't take up the Spider-Man name in Ultimate Rewrite, nor does he use the One-Steve Limit enforced rename from Ultimate Spider-Man (2012), Kid Arachnid. Instead he ultimately takes up the name Scarlet Spider.
- By the Sea: In turning some of the Clone Troopers into merfolk whose sole language is Mando'a, some characters who have names in English have been translated into that language- Echo becomes Eyayah and Fives becomes Rayshe'a, and in a minor example more to obfuscate his name away from the homophonous English word, Wolffe is renamed to Wolv. Rex is actually a nickname for Marekar ("navigator"). The story also goes with the fan interpretation that "Cody" is a corruption or mispronunciation of "Kote" ("glory"), and as the scenes written from his perspective show, Cody's real name is in fact Kote. Obi-Wan's full name, however, remains unchanged, and goes completely unremarked upon despite the setting change to what is apparently mundane 1940s America.
- Ill Met by Moonlight:
- Blue Pearl here is referred to as "Iris", as she is a vampire and not "a pearl" like in-canon.
- "Blue Diamond" is simply named "Blue" or "the Blue Lady." This makes sense, as here she is a vampire and not a sentient alien space-rock.
- No One Said Life Was Gonna Be Fair: Several gems have more human-sounding names. For example, Malachite's name is "Mallory", but most just call her "Mal", and Stevonnie is renamed "Stephanie".
- In Tithing Love, Claire's dog is named "Pilot" instead of his Canon Name "Koro".
- Swear Not By The Moon:
- The Dark Kingdom is called Diadem here. Some people in Corona call it the Dark Kingdom, but it's not its official name.
- Zhan Tiri is named Zahn Tiri in this fic.
- In Ask the Famous 8!, Percy’s legal name was revealed to be “Claire”. No one knows about this in-universe, however.
- The Stories of Sodor:
- Lady is named 'Kate' in this universe.
- City of Truro's real name is Montgomery.
- Diesel’s real name is Bruce.
- Gordon's Hill is originally called the Preston Incline (after the owner of the Wellsworth and Suddery Railway) before Gordon gets stuck on it.
- The third season episode "Extension" reveals that Pug is named Paul.
- "Nationalisation" shows that Sixteen is Glen and Jinty is Justin. In the former's case, this makes Sixteen a completely separate character from Sheffield, which was confirmed in "Modernization" when Samson confirmed Glen and Sheffield are twins.
- Although it has since been taken down, the preview for the fourth season episode "Imposter" revealed that Cuthbert (an original character created by Sodor Workshops) is not the character's real name, but the preview ended before it's revealed, and viewers are encouraged to guess his real name. "Imposter" was eventually scrapped and replaced by "Robbery", which reveals Cuthbert's real name: Johnny Cuba.
- The fourth season premiere "Diesel", which was released early for April Fools 2020, reveals that Diesel's real name is Bruce, and Old Slow Coach is Maggie.
- The episode 'Mountain' reveals that Lord Harry is simply named 'Harry' in this series.
- Diesel 10 is renamed Joshua.
- BoCo's real name is Bob.
- Bulgy's real name is Rupert.
- Inverted with Falcon and Stuart, who keep their names when they're transferred to the Skarloey Railway, instead of being changed to Sir Handel and Peter Sam.
- She's Not So Famous: Downplayed.
- Blaineley goes by Millie in this fic, but this is derived from her canon birth name, Mildred. As the fic is pre-canon, she hasn't changed her name yet. Her surname, Andrews, is taken from her full canon name, Blaineley Stacy Andrews O'Halloran.
- Chris's last name is Pike, though his mother's is McLean-Pike, implying he takes a different parent's surname when he gets older.
- In TDWT Reducks Redux, Team Chris is Really Really Really Really Hot is instead called Team Chris is Really Really Really Ugly. This change is caused by Izzy and her dislike for Chris' bullying of Ezekiel, since the canon name was created by the series' resident Loony Fan Sierra.
- Likewise, in the World Tour portion of the Total Shuffled Island Series, Team Amazon is renamed Team Universe while Team Chris Is Really Really Really Really Hot is renamed Team Chris Is Really Really Really Really Mean.
- Total Drama World Tour Deluxe: Team Chris is Really Really Really Really Hot is renamed to Team Minotaur here.
- Total Reordered Series: All three teams in World Tour have different names; Team Victory becomes "Team Conquest", Team Amazon "Team Valkyrie", and Team Chris is Really Really Really Really Hot is switched to "Evil".
- James Lake Junior in Becoming the Mask (Trollhunters) is nicknamed Jay-Jay instead of Jim ... because the Changeling who replaced Jay-Jay as a baby, and took his place as the story's protagonist, has claimed Jim as his name.
- In The Panda Chronicles, this is Downplayed; the youngest 4*Town boy's name is rendered as "Tae-young", rather than the canon spelling "Tae Young".
- In Luminosity, Bella and Edward name their daughter Elspeth, rather than Renesmee."You know," I said, "it really seems like there should be a way to portmanteau "Renée" and "Esme". The vowels are so similar. But there's just no way to put them together in a way that sounds like a name and not a Pokémon."
- Storyshift:
- The character known as Mettaton in the original game is instead named "Mettacrit", since he died in the backstory as part of being shifted into Chara's role, and never got to receive his robot body (as it's implied in Undertale that he was known by a different name as a ghost monster that he no longer uses). It's also a Punny Name referencing the website Metacritic like how Napstablook's name is a reference to the website Napster, giving them Family Theme Naming.
- In the preboot, the name appearing in place of the Fallen Human's was "Shifty"; since this wasn't the name of any of the canon characters, fans questioned if this might be a new character or something else. In the reboot, "Shifty" continues appearing as the name, but Frisk introduces themself to Papyrus with their real name and we already know the role of their ghostly narrator is filled by Mettaton AKA Mettacrit. Voltrathelively confirmed on the official Storyshift Tumblr that Frisk was always Shifty as sort of a nickname for them, the different name was just to throw off fans who know about the Bait-and-Switch with Frisk turning out to not be the character you name in Undertale. (For bonus points, earlier in the preboot's life when no one knew who would be in what role, having an unknown name there also helped preserve the surprise of who had Chara's role.)
- TS!Underswap, from the first demo, also renamed Mettaton to Mettacrit (since he does not have a robot body in this AU either) as a Shout-Out to Storyshiftnote , and gave Burgerpants the even more unfortunate nickname of Bugerpant. Napstablook will also be appearing as their alter ego named Sir Scratchalot.
- Nobledark Imperium:
- In baseline 40k, Inquisitor Kryptman's first name is Fidus; here, it's Boaz.
- A few of the original founding Legions have tweaked names, such as the Empire's Children (Emperor's Children, as the Warden was not interested in setting up the cult of personality his canon counterpart was and did not use the title of Emperor until relatively recently anyway) and the Void Wolves (Luna Wolves, renamed to reflect their origin among the spaceborne Migrant Fleet).
- Blood! Rusty AU: Inverted. Rusty was never taken in by ThunderClan. He joined BloodClan and was never given a Meaningful Rename.
- Bluefur's Choice: Mosskit died as a kit in Warriors canon. Here she lived to adulthood and received the warrior name Mosstail.
- Fire and Shadow is a Warriors AU where Rusty was taken in by ShadowClan instead of ThunderClan. His warrior name was "Firefang", not "Fireheart". But he still ends up becoming Firestar in the end.
- Warriors Kingdoms: The Prophecy Begins:
- Every cat is given a more human, vaguely Old English sounding name based on their original name. Examples include "Bluelianna Star" (Bluestar), "Nait Pault" (Nightpelt), "Braighttia Fluwr" (Brightflower), " Oeak Hahrte" (Oakheart), "Laitlte" (Littlepaw), and "Ravne" (Ravenpaw).
- Instead of ThunderClan, RiverClan, WindClan, and ShadowClan, there is the Kingdom of Thundria, the Kingdom of Rivier, the Kingdom of Wynnd, and the Kingdom of Shodawa.
- The titles are monarch (leader), captains of the guard (deputy), court healer (medicine cat), advisors (senior warrior), knights (warrior), squire (apprentice), and ladies of the court (queen). Only elders kept their name.
- Warriors Redux changes many characters names to either fit the fan-made "traditional naming scheme" or to be more appropriate. For example, Yellowfang is named Murkpelt, Lionheart is named Lionpelt, and Runningwind is named Teaselfoot. Ravenpaw is also given a warrior name of Raventhroat.
- Queen's Paninis: Number Seven and Number Thirteen had no names in canon, at least until Sena named Number Seven "Segiri." In the fic, after the events of Aionios, it turns out that they are named Meyneth (the Machina goddess) and Galea (the name the goddess had when she was mortal). Their mother named them in her honor.
- The SuperStarr Chronicles: Lila Cheney was renamed Delilah Chopra-Cheney. This is because this version of Lila has been given a Race Lift to British-Indian (She was white in the comics). And "Lila" is just a short form of "Delilah".
- In the Alternate Universe Fic The Princess and the Dragon, which despite its fantasy setting contains enough elements from Yu-Gi-Oh! canon to be considered an adaptation, Dark Marik is renamed Ishtar.
