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A lot of characters have had their names changed from the books:
- In the novels the sentient ice demons from The North are known interchangeably as "White Walkers" or "The Others", whereas the corpses they reanimate and command are Wights. In the show, The Others are exclusively known as White Walkers, with the zombies either being lumped under the same name, or simply called "the dead". The former case was probably to avoid allusions to Lost, and the latter because "Wight" is both an uncommon word and a homonym with "White", which would likely have just confused people.
- Robert Arryn is renamed Robin after his In-Universe Nickname "Sweetrobin" from the books to avoid confusion with Robert Baratheon.
- House Frey have several cases of this. Elmar becomes Waldron, and Derwa, Waldra and Walda seem to be an adaptation of Arwyn Frey, whilst Arwaya Frey is either an Adaptation Name Change or an Original Character.
- Asha Greyjoy is renamed Yara to avoid confusion with Osha the wildling.
- Two minor characters named Grazdan in the book are renamed Greizhen and Razdal in the show in an apparent effort to enforce the One-Steve Limit. The books note that many Ghiscari are named after their founder, Grazdan the Great.
- The Three-Eyed Raven is a Three-Eyed Crow in the books, which is an Adaptational Species Change in truth, but he was also a crow of another sort in the novels.
- Gilly's baby is named Sam in the show, but has yet to be formally named in the books due to a wildling taboo against naming children under two, though his caregiver Val takes to calling him "Monster" affectionately.
- The Meereenese child eaten by Drogon in "The Children" is Hazzea in the books, but Zalla in the show.
- The Unsullied murdered in "The Wars To Come" is called White Rat rather than Stalwart Shield. In the books, many Unsullied reclaim their birth names or take new ones instead of retaining their vermin names as Grey Worm does, but the show never goes into this.
- In the books, the term "warg" is reserved for those who bond with wolves; those who bond with other animals are "skinchangers." The show calls everyone wargs and even uses the term as a verb.
- Jojen refers to "green dreams" and "greenseers" in the books but "the Sight" in the show.
- The name "R'hllor" appears a single time, and in High Valyrian dialogue—otherwise, he's the Lord of Light.
- Azor Ahai, the religion's messiah, is called "the Lord's Chosen".
- Arya's shellfish peddler persona is named Lanna rather than Cat of the Canals, after her mother. This change even gets a Visual Pun Mythology Gag when a cat crosses her path
◊. - In another added example of One-Steve Limit to avoid confusion with Walder Frey, Hodor's real name is Walder in the books and Wylis in the show.
- Shae's Affectionate Nickname for Tyrion is "my lion," instead of "my giant."
- Dolorous Edd is just "Edd" until Season 6.
- Inverted by the undead creature created from Gregor Clegane, who's referred to as "Robert Strong" in the books but retains his original name in the show.
- For whatever reason, the ruler of the Iron Islands sits the "Salt Throne" rather than the "Seastone Chair" that would be more in keeping with both the books and the show's own "Histories & Lore" segments from Season 2.
- Lacking his Red Right Hand and Eyepatch of Power, Euron Greyjoy is never called "Crow's Eye" on the show.
- In a preview chapter, there's an actress called "Lady Stork", which some readers mistook for a Braavosi mondegreen of "Lady Stark" given the context of the play being performed. In the show, it's "Lady Crane" and her role is vastly expanded.
- Whether or not they serve the same role, in the show the White Walkers' leader is called "the Night King" (singular) while the legendary figure of the books is called "the Night's King" (possessive).
- House Bolton's maester was named Tybald in the books but Wolkan in the show.
