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Adaptation Name Change

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Zelda: Penny, Alice, Eliot, and Janet, you are all late.
Margo: Actually, it's Margo.
Zelda: This time.

This is when a character or group has a name change between adaptations (for example, Alice Andrews in the books becomes Alice Allen in The Movie and then Annie Adams in The Series). The change can be applied to their first name, last name or both; that also includes super alter egos.

The key to this trope is that between adaptations, the character must clearly be the same. If they are a Suspiciously Similar Substitute or a Composite Character, then this trope does not apply.

This can sometimes be an Enforced Trope. Production studios retain a team of lawyers whose job it is to ensure that every name in every work is shared either by many people or by no people in the area that the work is being produced, a process known as "clearance". This is to avoid a lawsuit: if there's exactly one person named Darkness von Gothick, you're just begging for him to sue you for portraying him as a villain. But names that are common in one place and time might be rarer in another, resulting in a name being cleared for use when The Movie was filmed in Hollywood fifty years ago but not when The Series is filmed in Vancouver today.

This is also very common in foreign adaptations, where names are changed to either reflect the local culture or to give the show its own identity. It may also accompany a Race Lift, Adaptational Nationality change, Gender Flip, or Adaptational Gender Identity, with a character's name reflecting their new ethnicity or gender (usually).

This trope only applies when the adaptation is in the same language as the original. When a character's name changes in a translation, that's Dub Name Change. If a character didn't originally have any name then they're Named by the Adaptation. If it's Based on a True Story, see Roman à Clef. If it's to avoid confusion with a more famous character or person that shares the name, it overlaps with Renamed to Avoid Association. If it's the title of the work itself that changes its name, that's Adaptation Title Change.


Examples:

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    Anime and Manga 
  • The character of Inspector Japp is renamed in Agatha Christie's Great Detectives Poirot and Marple as Inspector Sharpe.
  • In Baby Felix and Friends, Martin the Martian (a bit-player from the Felix the Cat (Joe Oriolo) TV Felix the Cat cartoons) had his name changed to Marty, likely to keep people from confusing him with Marvin the Martian.
  • In the first anime of Berserk, Dante and Errol are renamed Dan and Earl.
  • In the Japanese version of Digimon Adventure, the Digivolution/Evolution from Champion/Adult to Ultimate/Perfect is called "Super Evolution". In Digimon Tamers, it is called "Matrix Evolution". In Digimon Data Squad, it is "Perfect Evolution".
  • Final Fantasy: Unlimited:
    • The Gun Dragon is the anime’s equivalent to Bahamut.
    • The Sword Dragon is the anime’s equivalent to the Mist Dragon.
  • In the Animated Adaptation of The Fruit of Evolution, the name of the leader of Telbert's Adventurer's Guild is changed from the novel's "Gatthur Krut" to "Guscle Clute".
  • In Fullmetal Alchemist the true identity of Fuhrer King Bradley is Wrath. In the 2003 anime, he is Pride instead, as the manga version of Pride had not yet been revealed and Wrath in that version was a character created specifically for the anime.
  • While the titular protagonist of the manga Mars went only by that name, God Mars gives him the Earth name, Takeru Myoujin.
  • Georgie!: In the anime, the surname of Georgie's family was spelled "Batman"Proof, but the Discotek Media subtitles spell it as "Buttman". Probably because "Batman" would remind viewers of the Caped Crusader while "Bateman" would remind them of, well...
  • The manga adaptation of God Mazinger changes Kaoru's family name from Hino to Asahi, as she's not Yamato's little sister in this continuity.
  • I Want to Eat Your Pancreas: Sakura's diary. In the novel, it's called the Disease Coexistence Journal. In the animated film adaptation, it's called Living with Dying.
  • Kamen Rider Kuuga: Downplayed. In the Kamen Rider Agito TV series, the protagonist was named Tetsuya Sawaki but suffered Easy Amnesia and was discovered with a driver's license for Shoichi Tsugami, which lead to him adopting the name and keeping it even after he'd recovered his memories (as seen when he returned 18 years later in Kamen Rider Zi-O). In the Kuuga manga "Shoichi Tsugami" is his real name from the very start, and the amnesia plotline never happens. This also affects his sister Yukina, whose surname changes from Sawaki to Tsugami.
  • The King of Fighters: Destiny:
    • Episode 5 states that Geese Howard's birth name was something else (likely German in origin), but that he no longer remembers what it was.
    • The Women Fighters Team is renamed the Queens Team, with a bit of Lampshade Hanging about how uninspired the original name was.
  • Kirby: Right Back at Ya!: The characters Lololo, Lalala, and Nightmare from the original Kirby games had their names changed to "Fololo", "Falala", and "eNeME", respectively. This does not happen in the original, however, so this also counts as a Dub Name Change.
  • Lupin III:
    • A flashback chapter of the manga gives Lupin's rival the name of "Heitaro Zenigata", while the anime always calls him "Koichi Zenigata."
    • Another manga chapter dealt with a pair of twin sisters named Linda and Rachika. The anime episode that adapted this story renamed the twins Anita and Latika.
  • Since Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha INNOCENT has a more mundane setting than the rest of the Nanoha series, various formerly Artificial Human characters with Only One Name were given family names:
    • The Wolkenritter (minus Zafira) and Reinforce Eins now bear the Yagami family name.
    • Stern, Levi, and Dearche from the Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's Portable games are now known as Stern Starks, Levi Russell, and Dearche K. Claudia.
    • Rynith becomes Rynith Lanster, Foreshadowing the reveal that she's Teana's older sister in this universe.
    • The Numbers that didn't undergo Face-Heel Turns in the main series gain the family name Scaglietti and their names are changed from Italian numbers to their Japanese equivalents (Uno is Ichika, Due is Nino, Tre is Mitsuki, Quattro is Shiina, and Sette is Nanao).
    • Fate is something of a weird example, due to the fact the change is that there wasn't a change. Since the circumstances leading to her adoption never took place, her last name remains as Testarossa rather than becoming Testarossa-Harlaown.
    • Quint Nakajima gains the maiden name Scaglietti as a result of her being Jail's sister.
    • The bonus chapter published in a pamphlet for Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Detonation gave Iris the last name of Sevenfield (presumably based off of her real name in canon, "IR-S07"). By extension, this would also change the last name of her "father" Phil Maxwell, who is mentioned in the chapter but goes unnamed.
  • Persia, the Magic Fairy:
    • In the original manga Persia Ga Suki, Persia was raised by a zoologist named Dr. Yasogami. In the anime, he was a scientist named Dr. Goken Muroi.
    • Dr. Yasogami had two sons named Akira and Fudo (Akira Fudo?). In the anime this was changed to the grandsons Riki and Gaku Muroi.
  • Pokémon has lots of them, helped by the fact that some characters can be given any name by the player. Here are the most notable examples:
  • The Rebuild of Evangelion movies introduce changes to the names of some characters from the original Neon Genesis Evangelion series. Asuka's family name is changed from Soryu to Shikinami, for example, and it turns out that with Yui Ikari her maiden name was actually Ayanami, unlike in the first series where Gendo was the one who changed his name (from Rokubungi).
  • Science Ninja Team Gatchaman: Joe's backstory has him born as George (or "Johji") Asakura. His parents were Galactor operatives who were killed trying to escape the organization; Dr. Nanbu rescued the young boy, renamed him Joe to hide him from Galactor, and raised him as his own. Through all the animated series, he is referred to and addressed as Joe, but in the 2013 live-action adaptation, he is again George/Johji Asakura.
  • Sgt. Frog:
    • In the manga, Earth is referred to as "Pokopen", whereas in the anime, it is "Pekopon". "Pokopen" is a derogatory word Japanese used to describe China during the Sino-Japanese Wars (literally "worthless"), and has since been banned from TV programs by the mass communications authority in Japan. In the Chinese subs, it is replaced by "Blue Planet".
    • Mustsumi Hojou's full name is never said in the anime. His radio identity uses the "Mutsumi" name from the manga, but everyone outside of work calls him "Saburo", a nickname that doesn't exist in the manga.
    • Many of Kululu's inventions have different names in the anime.
  • The title character in Mach Go Go Go is named Go Mifune, but the '97 remake refers to him as Go Hibiki. Of course, the English version is a whole other different story.
  • In the upcoming manga series Unico: Awakening, a re-imagining of Osamu Tezuka's Unico series. Chao the cat ("Katy" in the English dub of the 1981 movie) has been renamed to "Chloe". According to Samuel Sattin, it's a mixture of her English and Japanese names.
  • The Wonderful Adventures of Nils': The animated adaptation drops the Numerical Theme Naming of the geese and gives them more typical Swedish names such as Ingrid, Gunner, Gustav, Siri and Lasse.
  • In the original manga version of Yu-Gi-Oh!, the card game introduced into an early chapter that later on becomes the main focus of the series was called "Magic & Wizards". The two anime adaptations renamed it "Duel Monsters", albeit the former adaptation kept the "M&W" logo on the card backs.

    Comic Strips 
  • Garfield began as a small-town newspaper strip called Jon, which ran from 1976 until Garfield entered syndication in 1978. While Garfield and Jon kept their names, the dog character was renamed from Spot to Odie, likely because of the presence of other dog characters named Spot.

    Films — Animated 
  • Mr. and Mrs. Dearly from The Hundred and One Dalmatians were changed to Roger and Anita Radcliffe for Disney's 101 Dalmatians. Later adaptations give them the given names from the movie and the surname from the book. Also, Saul Badun becomes Horace, and Lt. Tib becomes Sgt. Tibbs (with that particular cat also getting a sex change in the process).
  • Princess Jasmine in Aladdin was named "Badroulbadour" in the original tale. Interestingly, Disney was not the first to use that name. Aladdin's princess was first called "Jasmine" in an 1952 film called Aladdin and His Lamp.
  • Diane Foxington in The Bad Guys was named Ellen in the original book series.
  • The film adaptation of Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham renamed Cassandra Cain "Kai Li Cain."
  • Some examples from Big Hero 6:
    • Hiro's last name is changed from "Takachiho" to "Hamada".
    • Wasabi no Ginger's name is shortened to just "Wasabi". It's a nickname in the movie.
    • In the comics, GoGo's name is Leiko Tanaka, though the character is Race Lifted from Japanese to Korean-American which means it's unlikely that her name is the same. Similarly, due to her Race Lift from Japanese to Latina, it's a safe bet that "Aiko Miyazaki" isn't the movie Honey Lemon's real name, either.
    • The Big Bad of the film, Yokai, is based on the Marvel villain Lord Deathstrike. He also has a new civilian name, Robert Callaghan.
  • The Captain Underpants books gave Professor Poopypants the already unfortunate full name "Pippy Pee-Pee Poopypants". The creators of Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie somehow went one step further, and gave him the even more unfortunate name of "Pee Pee Diarrheastein Poopypants Esquire".
  • Mr. Bobo in Coraline is renamed Alexander Sergei Bobinsky (and is made a Fake Russian).
  • Banzai and Ed from The Lion King are renamed Azizi and Kamari in the 2019 remake. This is due to their original names not meshing with the African setting. (Although Banzai actually is Swahili for "lurk," despite also being a Japanese war cry. With Ed, of course, not fitting in is kind of the joke.)
  • While not exactly the same character, Anna from Frozen is based off Gerda from The Snow Queen. She was even named that in earlier scripts, while Kristoff was named "Kai," the original Gerda's best friend. (The original Kai's role in the story is split between Elsa and Kristoff, who also correspond to the Snow Queen and the Robber Girl, respectively.) The names "Gerda" and "Kai" are instead given to two minor servants in the castle as a Mythology Gag. Meanwhile, Sven is based on Bae from the original story.
  • J.Lo from The True Meaning of Smekday, became Oh in the film adaptation, Home (2015). The actual J. Lo is part of the voice cast as a Casting Gag.
  • In Horton Hears a Who!, the main antagonist is called Sour Kangaroo. In the Chuck Jones cartoon, she's Jane Kangaroo. The 2008 film makes her No Name Given, occasionally referred to as "the Kangaroo" or similar.
  • Valhallarama from How to Steal a Dragon's Jewel is renamed Valka in How to Train Your Dragon 2. Also, Snotface Snotlout becomes Snotlout Jorgenson in the How to Train Your Dragon films.
  • Ralph Bakshi's animated The Lord of the Rings film adaptation has an infamously bizarre example. At some point in the production, the studio apparently recommended changing Saruman's name to "Aruman" so that viewers wouldn't confuse him with the similarly-named Sauron. But this decision evidently wasn't fully communicated to the script editors or the voice actors...resulting in the characters alternating between calling him "Saruman" and "Aruman" with no apparent rhyme or reason. His name is ultimately given as "Saruman" in the end credits, making it all the more strange.
  • Marvel Rising: Secret Warriors sees Spider-Gwen called Ghost-Spider instead of Spider-Woman. In a piece of Ret-Canon, Marvel: A Fresh Start would see Gwen take up the "Ghost-Spider" codename.
  • Mulan: In the original legends, the titular character's full name is Hua Mulan. However, in the Disney adaptation, her family name is Fa, the Cantonese equivalent.
  • NIMONA (2023): In the webcomic, Ballister was known as Blackheart as he was an established villain when Nimona met him. Here, he's still going by his more knightly name Boldheart, as he was just recently framed for regicide.
  • The puppet master, called Mangiafuoco (Fire-Eater) in The Adventures of Pinocchio is renamed "Stromboli" in Disney's Pinocchio. Also, Pinocchio's friend with Toxic Friend Influence is called Lucignolo in the book, which different translations render as either "Lampwick" or "Candlewick" –- the Disney film opts for Lampwick.
  • Prince Harelip from The Princess and the Goblin becomes Prince Froglip in the animated adaptation because of "harelip" referring to an actual deformity and naming the villain something like that wouldn't have been in good taste.
  • In Quest for Camelot, based very loosely on Vera Chapman's retelling of the legend of Lynette and Gareth, The King's Damosel, Lynette becomes Kayley and the composite of Gareth and Chapman's Original Character Lucius becomes Garrett.
  • Downplayed in Rise of the Guardians, none of the four Guardians seem to have their book names, at least not officially. In The Guardians of Childhood, Santa Claus is named Nicholas St. North, the Sandman is Sanderson ManSnoozy, the Easter Bunny is E. Aster Bunnymund, and the Tooth Fairy is Toothiana. In the film, Santa is only ever called "North", with no explanation for why he's "North" instead of Santa Claus, the Sandman is called "the Sandman" or "Sandy", while Bunnymund and Toothiana are, rather awkwardly, only ever called "Bunny" and "Tooth". Strangely, behind-the-scenes material sees the filmmakers openly using the book names and even the voice actors being captioned with them, but no official material ever does.
  • Mrs. Frisby to Mrs. Brisby in The Secret of NIMH, due to the Frisbee (the toy)'s name being trademarked.
  • A 1995 adaptation of The Snow Queen renames Gerda and Kai as Ellie and Tom.
  • The '80s English dub of the classic 1957 Russian film based on The Snow Queen renames Gerda and Kai as Yvette and John (though the original '50s dub keeps the original names).
  • Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse: Instead of being a man named Otto Octavius, Doctor Octopus is a woman named Olivia "Liv" Octavius. It's implied that a male Otto exists in the universe of Peter B. Parker, though.
  • In The Swan Princess, all the characters with old-fashioned Germanic names in Swan Lake have their names changed to more modern, Anglo-sounding ones. Pince Siegfried becomes Prince Derek, his friend Benno becomes Bromley, his tutor Wolfgang becomes Lord Rogers, Baron von Rothbart becomes simply Rothbart, and his daughter Odile becomes his servant Bridget. Also Derek's mother and Odette's father are Named by the Adaptation as Queen Uberta and King William.
  • Moxy from UglyDolls was originally named "Gorgeous" in the original toyline. The name "Moxy" was originally given to Ox's younger sister, who doesn't appear to be in the movie's storyline.
  • Sir Brian Neville-Smythe from The Dragon Knight books had his first name changed to Orrin in The Flight of Dragons, presumably because "Brian" is a pretty mundane name in a fantasy setting.
  • In the Scamp comic strip that followed on from Lady and the Tramp, Scamp's siblings were (eventually) named as Fluffy, Ruffy and Scooter. In Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure, they're Annette, Collette, and Danielle.

    Literature 
  • Aliens (Steve Perry Trilogy), based on a series of miniseries Dark Horse Comics did, sees a bit of this.
    • The original comics, published between Aliens and Alien³, used Newt and Hicks. The books, published after 3, saw the Suspiciously Similar Substitutes named Billie and Wilks.
    • Mitch sees his last name change from "Butler" to "Bueller".
  • In the Edutain4Kids Digital Book of Animal Soccer World, Wabuu is renamed to Dingo, after the original cartoon's creators. It's worth mentioning that at some point in the past, the cover for a Wabuu book was shown on the site, which was never released. Whether this means that Dingo is a separate character from Wabuu, or that ASW's Wabuu had his name changed after the Wabuu book was cancelled is unclear.
  • Isaac Asimov:
  • Isaac Asimov and Robert Silverberg:
    • Nightfall (1990):
      • A note on the copyright page explains that the following events are a true story, so names will be changed to protect the innocent. Character-wise, this means Beenay, Sheerin, and Theremon have the same names, but everyone else is either a new character or named differently.
      • The planet's original name is Lagash, but for this novelization, the planet is named Kalgash.
      • In the original Novelette, the suns were given Greek letters as names, such as Alpha, Beta, and Gamma. In this adaptation, the suns are given unique names that still imply their numerical relationship; Onos, Dovim, Trey, Tano, and Patru, and Sitha.
      • The religion's original name is simply the Cult with their Book of Revelations, but for this adaptation, they become the Apostles of Flame while their book retains the original name.
    • The Positronic Man: While expanding from "The Bicentennial Man", some of the names change, although they're supposed to represent the same characters.
    • George Martin is called George Charney here, keeping his father's last name instead of his mother's. In turn, this means the Feingold law firm becomes Feingold and Charney instead of Feingold and Martin.
    • When meeting representatives of US Robots for the first time, robopsychologist Merton Mansky is replaced by robopsychologist Merwin Mansky.
  • Carrie: The gym teacher is originally named Rita Desjardin in the novel. In the 1976 film, it's changed to Miss Collins and in the 1988 musical, it's Miss Gardiner. In the 2002 film, it's slightly changed to Miss Desjarden. However, it remains unchanged in the 2013 film. While Donna and Mary Lila Grace Thibodeau are changed to Cora and Rhonda Wilson, Freddy Holt is changed to Ernest Holt, and George Chizmar is changed to George Dawson, Ruth Gogan's first name is changed to "Erika".
  • Many of the French stories, especially the ones by Madame d'Aulnoy, appearing in Andrew Lang's Fairy Books feature name changes. (Many of the stories are adaptations rather than direct translations.) Examples include:
    • The Yellow Dwarf: Toutebelle (d'Aulnoy) is called Bellissima (Lang).
    • The Little Good Mouse: Joliette (d'Aulnoy) is called Delicia (Lang).
    • The Blue Bird: Florine (d'Aulnoy) is called Fiordelisa (Lang), while her stepsister Truitonne (d'Aulnoy) is called Turritella (Lang). and the fairy Soussio (d'Aulnoy) is renamed Mazilla (Lang).
    • The Golden Branch: Torticoli (d'Aulnoy) is renamed Curlicue (Lang) and Trognon (d'Aulnoy) is renamed Cabbage-Stalk. Trognon's acquired name, Radiant, is changed to Sunbeam, while Torticoli's acquired name, Peerless, remains the same.
    • d'Aulnoy's characters were frequently subject to these in English retellings. Many Victorian retellings call Toutebelle All-Fair (a translation of her name). Many female characters had their names Latinized, like Florine being changed to Florina.
    • Other changes are included in French stories not by Madame d'Aulnoy:
      • Prince Narcissus and the Princess Potentilla: Narcissus' original name was Romarin, and Potentilla's original name was Pimprenelle.
      • Prince Featherhead and the Princess Celandine: Featherhead's original name was Muguet, and Celandine's original name was Zaza.
      • An Impossible Enchantment: The princess, Graziella, is called Galantine in the original version, her mother Mutinosa was called Mutine, and her husband Blondel was called Blondin.
      • The Blue Parrot: The protagonist Lino is called Grisdelin in the original version, while his wife Hermosa is called Charmante. The names of the villains, Ismenor and Riquette, remain the same.
      • Cinderella: The elder stepsister's name is changed from Javotte to Charlotte.
  • Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Some of the names got changed in the transition from the webcomic to the book. Ann Heffley became Susan Heffley, Uncle Freddie became Uncle Charlie, the Smedley family became the Snella family, Piper and Lori Matthews became Holly and Heather Hills, and Darnell Washington (the first kid who touched the Cheese) became Darren Walsh.
  • Doctor Who Novelisations:
    • The novelisation of "The Abominable Snowmen" changed most of the names of the Buddhist monks due to the writers bungling the research so horribly, with the exception of the Meaningful Name pair of Rinpoche and Padmasambhava.
    • The novelisation of "The Web of Fear" turns Julius Silverstein into Emil Julius, to turn him into a generic Asshole Victim rather than a mean-spirited anti-Semitic caricature.
  • The Enchanted Files: A couple of characters from "Clean as a Whistle" are given different names in Diary of a Mad Brownie / Cursed.
    • Jamie Carhart is renamed to Alex Carhart.
    • In the original story, the brownie is bound to the MacDougal family. In the novel, the family name is McGonagall.
    • Jamie's cat Mr. Bumpo is renamed Bubbles.
  • Multiple names were changed in the 2020 reprint of The Jewel Kingdom. Twitter becomes Pip because his old name is unintentionally funny in a way it wouldn't be in 1997. Armoral becomes Armstrong, the spelling of Queen Jemma is changed to Gemma (possibly as a reference to a real person), and the Darklings are now the Dreadlings as part of a series-wide removal of the Dark Is Evil trope.
  • Little Women:
    • In the original book, Jo and Beth's nicknames are short for "Josephine" and "Elizabeth." In Bethany C. Morrow's YA retelling So Many Beginnings, which re-envisions the Marches as a black family living in the Freedpeople's Colony of Roanoke Island, their full names are "Joanna" and "Bethlehem," while Amy's name becomes a nickname for "Amethyst."
    • In the 2019 graphic novel Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy, in which the Marches are a blended family living in modern-day Brooklyn, Meg is short for Megan instead of Margaret, and Mrs. March is also renamed from Margaret to Maddie. (Since she's Meg's stepmother in this version, it wouldn't make sense for Meg to be named after her.)
    • In Hena Khan's middle-grade retelling More to the Story, which revolves around a modern-day Pakistani-American family, all the characters' names are changed. Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy are renamed Maryam, Jameela (nicknamed Jam), Bizma, and Aleeza, their surname is changed from March to Mirza, and Laurie is renamed Ali.
  • In the MASH sequel novels, written after the TV show, "Radar" O'Reilly, previously Named by the Adaptation as Walter Eugene O'Reilly, is instead named J. Robespierre O'Reilly.
  • Monster of the Year: The 2020 revised edition does this with a few characters.
    • Skip Toomaloo is renamed Eddie Toomaloo, with "Skip" as a nickname.
    • Kevver Smith becomes Kevver Washington.
    • Michael's mother's business is changed from "Adams Billboard and Outdoor Advertising" to "Adams Billboard and Sign Advertising".
  • The storybook version of the pilot to My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic refers to Princess Luna as "Selena". This was her name in the development but was changed for legal reasons. Lauren Faust suspected the storybook writer didn't get the memo.
  • The Mysterious Chronicles Of Oz tweaks the names of the lands in Oz. Munchkin Country is "the Land of Sky Blue Waters", Gillikin Country is "the Land of Purple Mountains", Winkie Country is the "Golden West", and Quadling Country is the "Rosewood Meadows".
  • Quantum Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner features a number of name changes from the original video games. Terrence E. Beck becomes William van Beck, Serph Sheffield becomes Shin Minase, and Heat O'Brien becomes Kaz Homura. The latter two cases also count as Race Lift.
  • In Red Dwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers, the captain of the Dwarf is "a large woman who had the misfortune to be born with the surname Kirk", rather than Frank Hollister from the TV series. The character who has Frank Todhunter's role from the pilot (the officer who refuses to take Rimmer's complaints about Lister calling him a smeghead seriously on the grounds that "But Rimmer, you are a smeghead") is named Petrovich, although there's a suggestion Rimmer might know and hate a Christopher Todhunter.
  • The "real" Dorothy's surname is spelled "Gael" in Was. When the fictionalized Baum decided to write a story based on her, he named his character "Dorothy Gale".
  • In addition to providing names for the Wicked Witches of the East and West, Wicked changes Glinda's name to Galinda, which she later shortens to Glinda.
  • The peculiar Worlds of Power novelisation of Metal Gear gives Solid Snake's real name as Justin Halley, long before Metal Gear Solid revealed it as "David".
  • The novelization of X-Men: The Last Stand calls Jean Grey's deceased childhood friend Annie Malcolm instead of Annie Richardson.

    Pinball 

    Radio 

    Theatre 
  • And Then There Were None: The stage adaptation of the book changes General MacArthur's name to General MacKenzie, because at the time of the play's release in 1943, the real-life General Douglas MacArthur was an important figure in the Allied forces of WWII.
  • Annie Get Your Gun: Annie has three little sisters named Jessie, Nellie, and Minnie and a little brother named Jake, and she mentions three other sisters named Sal, Lou, and Rose. In real life, her six sisters were named Mary Jane, Lidia, Elizabeth, Sarah Ellen, Catherine (who died in infancy) and Hulda, and her brother was named John. Their surname is also portrayed as "Oakley," when really it was "Mosey" (or "Moses") – "Oakley" was just Annie's stage name.
  • Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure: In The Musical version, Princess Joanna has been renamed "Princess Mary." (On the cast album, she is "Sarah.")
  • Billy Budd: In the opera, the HMS Bellipotent of the book becomes the Indomitable, which was its name in the novel's early drafts.
  • Cabaret: The play, based on the Berlin Stories by Christopher Isherwood, changes the main character's name from Isherwood himself to Cliff Bradshaw.
  • Carousel: The play changes the name of most of the characters of Liliom along with the setting.
    • Julie (who merely acquired the last name Jordan) and her daughter Louise got to keep their original names, but Liliom became Billy Bigelow, Mrs. Muskat became Mrs. Mullin, Ficsur/"The Sparrow" became Jigger and the Beta Couple of Marie and Wolf Berkowitz became Carrie and Enoch Snow.
    • The name change for the Beta Couple also removes an inconvenient subplot, of the Christian Marie marrying the Jewish Wolf.
  • Darkness at Noon: The play adapted from the book changes the name of Arlova (Rubashov's doomed secretary) to Luba Loschenko.
  • Don Juan: In the various versions of the play, while the title character's name has been consistent (apart from localizations by country: e.g. "Don Giovanni" in Italy), most of the other stock characters have had different names in different retellings. For example, the Don's comic servant is called Catalinón in the original play El Burlador de Sevilla, Sganarelle in Molière's Dom Juan, Pasquariello in Giuseppe Gazzaniga's opera Don Giovanni Tenorino, and most famously, Leporello in Mozart's opera Don Giovanni.
  • Dracula: In the 1920s stage adaptation, Mina Weston is the equivalent of the novel's Lucy Westenra, while Lucy Seward is the equivalent of the novel's Mina Murray.
  • Frozen: In the Braodway musical, the trolls are called "Hidden Folk".
  • Grease: When it went from Chicago to Broadway, Danny's second-in-command went from being called "Miller" to "Kenickie" (while the original greaser that had the latter name was cut). This change stuck with all later adaptations, to the point where the original "Kenickie" was in turn renamed "Miller" with the 40th anniversary revival of the Chicago version.
  • I Can Get It For You Wholesale: In The Musical, Teddy Ast is renamed Teddy Asch.
  • In Italian opera based on source material from other languages, it's common practice for the characters' names to be changed to their Italian equivalents. For example, when Scénes de la vie de bohéme became La Bohème, Rodolphe, Marcel and Musette became "Rodolfo," "Marcello" and "Musetta." This even applies to historical figures: Donizetti's Tudor-themed operas feature the likes of "Anna Bolena," "Enrico VIII," and their daughter "Elisabetta I." And in some cases, the characters receive completely new names, as in the above-cited La Traviata.
  • Jekyll & Hyde: Jekyll's fiancee was originally named Lisa Carew, but then renamed to Emma Carew. There have been so many changes and updates made to the show that new productions alternate between the two names depending on which version they're following.
  • Legally Blonde: Several of the characters are given last names different from their film counterparts. For example, Emmett Richmond becomes Emmett Forrest, and Enid Wexler becomes Enid Hoopes. In terms of full renames, Enrique Salvatore (the pool cleaner) becomes Nikos Argitakos, and his lover Chuck becomes Carlos. The UPS guy is named Kyle in the show.
  • Little Shop of Horrors: Seymour's last name in the film is "Krelboyne," the sadistic dentist's name is "Dr. Phoebus Farb," and the killer plant is named "Audrey Jr". The play changes those names to "Krelborn," "Dr. Orin Scrivello," and "Audrey II".
  • The Marriage of Figaro: In Mozart's play, most of the characters' names are simply given Italian forms in place of their French forms from the original play: Suzanne becomes Susanna, Chérubin becomes Cherubino, etc. But two characters get full name changes: Fanchette becomes Barbarina and the judge Don Guzman becomes Don Curzio. Figaro's birth name, revealed in Act III, is also changed from Emmanuel to Raffaello.
  • The Matchmaker: Dolly tries to divert Horace from his marriage plans by inventing on the spot a young woman named Ernestina who's in love with him; when he asks her surname, Dolly doesn't have time to be creative so she claims the young woman's name is Simple and covers it by saying she's "like her name: simple, domestic, practical". The musical adaptation, Hello, Dolly!, is a bit more cynical about what Horace finds attractive in a woman, and in this version the young lady's name is said to be Ernestina Money.
  • Mean Girls: The Musical changes Janis Ian's surname to Sarkisian.
  • Merrily We Roll Along: Along with the Setting Update, every character from the original play had his or her name changed for the musical, though much of the original characterizations remained.
  • The Most Happy Fella: The Heroine is called Rosabella until the final scene when she reveals that her real name is Amy. In the original play, They Knew What They Wanted, Amy was never renamed Rosabella or anything else.
  • Native Son: In the play adaptation, Bigger's girlfriend Bessie is renamed Clara, and the circumstances of her death are changed.
  • La Nona: Some Peruvian takes on the play change Chicho's name to Tito due to the former's resemblance to a slang word that means tits and Aunt Anyula's name to Ángela for no reason other than drive home that the character is very religious.
  • The Nutcracker: In most productions, the protagonist goes from Marie to Clara (and, due to Adaptation Displacement, stayed that way in pretty much every other adaptation of the story). That's a bit of a Mythology Gag, since Marie had a doll named Clara in the book. Some productions, like George Balanchine's famous version for the New York City Ballet, do change her name back to Marie, though. Interestingly, the ballet's co-creator, Marius Petipa, had a daughter named Marie who was a famous dancer herself; some suggest that the change was to make clear that she wasn't playing the leadnote .
  • Prince Kaguya: In the source material, the bamboo cutter who finds Kaguya is called Sanuki no Miyatsuko. The musical renames him Maru.
  • Secondhand Lions: In the musical, Princess Jasmine was renamed Samira, likely to avoid confusion or copyright conflict with Princess Jasmine from Disney's Aladdin, whose stage adaptation also debuted at The 5th Avenue Theatre.
  • Sister Act: The musical changes Deloris Van Cartier to being a stage name with her original name now being Doris Wilson. Her gangster ex-boyfriend Vince has been renamed Curtis.
  • The Sound of Music: All of the Von Trapp children were renamed for the musical. Rupert, Agathe, Maria, Werner, Hedwig, Johanna and Martina became Liesl, Friedrich, Louisa, Kurt, Brigitta, Marta and Gretl.
  • Starlight Express: It renames Hashamoto to Nintendo for the "new" West End production in 1994. In the 2012 UK tour, Ashley the Smoking Car was renamed to Duvay the Sleeper because smoking cars are no longer common on trains. Apart from a slight change of lyrics to reflect her new function, the character is the same.
  • La Traviata: Adapted from La dame aux camelias (itself a Roman à Clef), it changes the name of every character: just to name the three leads, Marguerite Gautier becomes Violetta Valéry, Armand Duval becomes Alfredo Germont, and his father Monsieur Duval becomes Giorgio Germont. English- and French-language productions will occasionally change the names back, though.
  • A Very Potter Musical:
    • The prop department accidentally wrote Thomas Riddle's name as "Thoms Riddle" on the Riddle family gravestone. They rolled with it.
    • Aurors are referred to as Wizard Cops.
    • Albus Potter's middle name is Scarfy instead of Severus.
  • Wicked:
    • Glinda's name is changed somewhat in the musical. In the book the closest she has to a surname is "Arduenna", with "Arduenna" being her mother's clan. But the play uses her father's name instead, making her "Galinda Upland". Son of a Witch later canonized "Galinda Upland" as her name.
    • Also, by means of Composite Character, the Tin Woodman goes from Nick Chopper to Boq.

    Toys 
  • Compared to previous incarnations of My Little Pony (which were always toys first, adaptations later) My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic is treated like the main continuity. The toyline has become somewhat infamous for using different names for some of the minor characters in the show (among other problems):
    • One of the show's first antagonists, Trixie, got a toy in the blind bag series... named Lulamoon. Most fans ignored this outside of a few jokes, but later toys updated her name to be Trixie Lulamoon.
    • There's a background pony who's been referred to twice on screen as "Rose" and has a toy named "Roseluck". The name "Roseluck" hasn't been used in the show yet, but it's easy to believe Rose is short for that.
    • One of Rose's friends is named Daisy in the show. She has a toy named Flower Wishes. The jury is still out on that one.
    • Then there's Bon Bon. The toyline makes her most official name Sweetie Drops, despite the previously-released Gameloft game calling her Bon Bon in text and even voiced dialogue. Even afterwards, different sources switch between calling her Sweetie Drops and Bon Bon with no discernible rhyme or reason. The episode "Slice of Life" revealed that Sweetie Drops is her real name, while Bon Bon is her civilian alias. She is a secret agent.
    • The people in charge of names in the toyline seem to be in love with the word "Dazzle" since it seems to be added to a number of show characters who received toys. Such as Mrs. Cup "Dazzle" Cake, Diamond "Dazzle" Tiara and most nonsensically, Daring "Dazzle" Do.
    • Other Dazzle-less name changes include Twist-a-loonote , Snipsy Snaps and Snailsquirmnote  and Sweetie Babsnote .
  • The War Doctor is always referred to in the Doctor Who toy lines as "The Other Doctor" because 'War' was considered to be too violent by the UK toy watchdogs.
  • Likewise, ToyBiz's Generation X toyline changed Orphan-Maker's name to "The Protector" because his real name was deemed too violent.
  • ToyBiz's X-Men line changed Holocaust's name to Dark Nemesis, for obvious reasons (though prior to becoming Holocaust, the character was known as Nemesis). The Nemesis name was subsequently used for other merchandise, such as the Hero Clix game and Hasbro's Marvel Legends Build-A-Figure of the character.
  • ToyBiz's Silver Surfer action figure line renamed Nova "Super Nova" to avoid confusion with the then-current Frankie Raye version of Nova, who was also featured in the line.
  • Hasbro's toy line for the first Iron Man movie included a black, heavily-armed Iron Man armor called the "Stealth Operations Suit." Despite the name, it was clearly meant to be a War Machine figure, with the bio even specifying that the suit was piloted by Rhodey instead of Tony. Presumably, the name was changed to avoid stepping on anyone's toes in case the sequel went with a different design for the War Machine armor.
  • Recent incarnations of the Transformers franchise have renamed Slag because the word is a derogatory term for women in English-speaking countries outside the US. Transformers: Animated gave him Snarl's name, but with Transformers: Fall of Cybertron featuring all five Dinobots, he got renamed "Slug", which has since stuck.
    • Additionally, there's been many an instance where the trademark to a character's name expired, forcing them to use an alternative name until they could get it back. For instance, Trailbreaker's been called "Trailcutter", Hot Rod has been called "Hot Shot" at times (if not Rodimus Prime, or just Rodimus), and Motormaster's been "Motorbreath".

    Video Games 
  • Word of God is that Alice from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland has the surname "Pleasance". In American McGee's Alice her name is "Alice Liddell". Both surnames are lifted from the girl who inspired Alice (Alice Pleasance Liddell).
  • Baldur's Gate III: One of the 5e barbarian subclasses, Path of the Totem Warrior, appears in this game as "Wildheart". While some of the features retain their original functionality, all of the base Bestial Hearts (previously Totem Spirits) at level 3 now receive their own special actions, while many of the Animal Aspects at level 6 have been redesigned, with five additions which did not appear in the original tabletop rules. Some of these changes have made their way into the playtest rules for D&D One.
  • Between the 3DS release of Fairune 2 and its Switch release in Fairune Collection, the second region of the game was renamed from Snowy Fields to White Lands.
  • In Final Fantasy VI Brave New World, Cyan's wife and child Elayne and Owain are named Scarlet and Hunter or Violet depending on which version you play.
  • In Fredbear and Friends, Mangle is renamed to Endocluster, perhaps to reflect either its different-than-canon behaviour or because the man on the phone named it himself, not knowing what the kids at the Pizzeria used to call it.
  • In Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup, Slytherin's Keeper is named Kevin Bletchley. In the novels his name is Miles Bletchley.
  • LEGO Adaptation Game:
  • Mario Party:
    • Mario Party: The Top 100: The minigame Toadstool Titan returns from Mario Party 3 under the new name of "Mush Pit".
    • Mario Party Superstars:
      • The minigame Shell Shocked returns from both Mario Party 2 and The Top 100, but is now called "Tread Carefully".
      • Just like in Top 100, the minigame Mush Pit is a remake of a minigame from Mario Party 3 originally known as Toadstool Titan.
      • The minigame Money Belt from Mario Party 6 returns under the new name of "X-Ray Payday" to avoid confusion with the similarly named "Money Belts" from Mario Party 4, which also appears in this game.
      • The main menu takes place at Village Square, the town that also served as the main menu of Mario Party, which was originally called Mushroom Village.
  • Ultimate Spider-Woman is called "Spider-Girl" in Lego Marvel's Avengers, even though she never used that name in the comics.
  • In The Punisher (THQ), Jigsaw's real name is John Saint rather than Billy Russo.
  • Ratchet & Clank contains a recurring city on Kerwan called Metropolis, which was renamed Aleero City in the reimagining.
  • To reflect a change in background and personality in the character, Del Cottonwood from Shadowgate 64: Trials of the Four Towers has been renamed Del Thornburrow in the new version of Beyond Shadowgate.
  • Shrek SuperSlam inexplicably renames the Big Bad Wolf to Huff n Puff Wolf.
  • When Amy Rose originally appeared in the Japanese Sonic the Hedgehog Shogakukan manga, she did not have a surname and her name was also occasionally spelled as "Eimy" (she even wears a blouse with the letter "E" on it in the first issue). Her name was standardized when she appeared in Sonic the Hedgehog CD the following year. She was also given the nickname "Rosy the Rascal", which did not last long, thought the name would later be given to an Evil Counterpart in the Archie comic series.
  • Spider-Man (PS4)
    • The game sees Miles Morales's dad, Jefferson, still use his birth last name of "Davis" whereas in the comics, Jeff took Rio's last name to get away from his Dark and Troubled Past and his criminal brother, Aaron.
    • In the comics, Dr. Morgan Michaels was merely an anglicized alias used by Michael Morbius. Here, it's apparently his real name.
    • Granted, we never learned the true name of the Triad member who'd become Mr. Negative, just that he'd pulled a Dead Person Impersonation on the real Martin Li, someone who was intended to be sold into slavery. Here, by virtue of being a Composite Character, Martin Li really is Mr. Negative's true name.
    • Spider-Man: Miles Morales shortens the Tinkerer's first name from "Phineas" to merely "Phin" due to the character being made into a girl.
  • In the Spyro Reignited Trilogy:
    • Bombo in Scorch had his name changed to "Bob."
    • In the original french translation, Moneybags was named "Gros-sous" (Big-cash), in the remaster his french name became "Richard" for unknown reasons.
  • Street Fighter had three of these happen simultaneously in such a way that it was essentially a name triangle. M. Bison went from the boxer to the imposing dictator in red; Vega went from the imposing dictator in red to the flamboyant matador; and Balrog went from the flamboyant matador to the boxer. Bison in particular was changed thanks to the trademark of Mike Tyson since the name would have been flagged for copyright, and the other two were essentially spun around with him for stylistic purposes. However, since it may be difficult to tell who's who because of this, they're also referred to as simply Dictator, Claw, and Boxer.
  • X-Men Legends changed Magma's real name from Amara Aquilla to Alison Crestmere, which was the fake name she had been tricked into thinking was real for a time in the comics.

    Visual Novels 
  • The Great Ace Attorney has a few examples to mix up the plot lines from Sherlock Holmes.
    • Dr. Grimesby Roylott is revealed to be Nikolina Pavlova, a Russian runaway who just pretended to be a Briton.
    • Charles Augustus Milverton becomes Ashley Milverton, alias Eggert Benedict.
    • The Professor is the duology's equivalent to Rodger Baskerville, aka Jack Stapleton. Although initially set up as Genshin Asogi, it's revealed that the Professor's real identity is Prosecutor Klint van Zieks.
    • There's also an in-universe example with Dr. John Watson/Wilson. It's revealed that the real name of Sherlock's partner was Yujin Mikotoba, but was mistakenly confused for the victim of the first case of the duology.

    Webcomics 
  • In the Bravoman web comic, Black Beraboh/Bravoman becomes Anti-Bravoman.
  • Darths & Droids renames Luke Skywalker to Adam Lars. Obi Wan then told him his real name was Luke Amidala. He now goes by the pseudonym Luke Starkiller. "Skywalker", for the record, has yet to be uttered once in the entire run of the comic.
    • The black-vested smuggler who's partners with Chewbacca is, of course, called Greedo. The green-skinned alien is called Han Solo and owns the Millenium Falcon until Greedo shoots him. So Greedo shot first, only Greedo was actually the character Star Wars fans know as Han... (And, as above, "Greedo" then claims to be Han [who, conveniently, is a shapeshifter] in order to claim the Falcon.)
      • Also, Lando Calrissian, his parole officer, knows him as Freddo. It's implied he adopts aliases in alphabetical order and Han was a happy coincidence for him.
      • A later story arc has him go by "Xasha". Rey (see below) notes that, the last time she saw him, he called himself Vittorio.
      • Some angry gangs show up referring to "Xasha" as "Sergio" and "Umberto", and it's mentioned that "Sergio" is responsible (or at least being blamed for) the death of one "Taleggio"; it's not hard to imagine he used that name for a while too. Before the end of the arc, he's already switched to "Yanni".
      • Han later gets another switch to "Zeppo", and then later kills a stormtrooper that the GM hadn't given a name to. He interprets this as him now having no name at all. When Kylo mentions that "Han Solo" the identity thief disappears, No-name refers to a previous name shift to "Ignazio".
    • Leia isn't a princess, she's named Princess Organa. Like Adam/Luke, her real name is still Leia, but it was changed to stop Vader from finding her.
    • Rey is now Rey Solo and is Han Solo's daughter, apparently from the time period he was still calling himself Han.
    • Rather than Ben Solo, Kylo Ren's real name is Greedo Solo (son of the "Han Solo" that "Greedo" shot in the comic). Why the identity thief was using the same name for a while is unexplained.
  • In Finding Your Roots, most characters and towns that are named in Pokémon Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire have slightly different names, to drive home that this isn't the same Hoenn; there are no humans in this world. Examples for characters include Roxa instead of Roxy and Watts instead of Wattson; examples for towns include Slateshore instead of Slateport and Dewfish Island instead of Dewford Town.
  • Vixen: NYC: Vixen went by Mari McCabe (or Mari Jiwe McCabe) in the comics, adopting "McCabe" after fleeing to the United States. Since this version of her is American, there was no need to take on a new name, so she is named Mari Jiwe.
  • Yellow Brick Ramble changes Jack Pumpkinhead's last name to match Tip's new last name, making him Jack Tryfle.

    Web Original 
  • The Adventures of Jamie Watson and Sherlock Holmes: Jamie from John, Jemma from James, Jennifer from... G. The list goes on.
  • All About Meep renames Bundles Snuggles Stuff, Pita Mirage, and Specs Reads-a-Lot to Nunya Business, Pita Repeata, and Specs "Smarty" Eats-a-Lot.
  • Banditale, an Undertale/Crash Bandicoot Crossover: Evil Crash (who takes the role as the First Fallen) is named "Nega" in this AU.
  • Dark Secrets of Garry's Mod: The SCP Foundation is renamed as Magyar Lénykutató Portál (Hungarian Creature Research Portal).
  • Emma Approved:
    • George Knightley's first name was changed to Alex, perhaps to avoid confusion with George Wickham from The Lizzie Bennet Diaries produced by the same team.
    • Miss Hetty Bates became Maddie Bates.
  • Friendship is Witchcraft is an Abridged Series-esque parody of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
    • Shining Armor is renamed "Francis Sparkle". He is also Twilight's adopted brother instead of a blood-related one.
    • Princess Luna is renamed "Princess Molestia", as a counterpart to her sister Celestia's name. When she went off to space camp she decided to name herself "Luna", but no one calls her that.
    • A very subtle name change occurs with "Cadance", who is renamed "Cadence". Her full name is more obvious. It's "Cadence Notevil Goodpony" in Friendship Is Witchcraft but "Mi Amore Cadenza" in the original series. Cadence has an identical twin sister named "Cadance" who appears after Twilight leaves Cadence to die in a cave for trying to marry her brother.
  • For The Grossery Gang webseries, the characters were given more personality-filled names, rather than the food-based names their toys have.
    • Putrid Pizza became Pizza Face.
    • Shoccoli became Doc Broc.
    • Dodgey Donut became Rocky.
    • Sticky Soda became Sparkles.
    • Rotten Egg became Egghead.
    • Grub Sub became Meathead.
    • Sewer Glove became Fingers.
    • Flat Battery became Surge.
    • Blue Spew Cheese became Stinky.
    • Squished Banana became Ricardo.
  • The Lizzie Bennet Diaries does this due to it being a Setting Update of Pride and Prejudice.
    • For starters, Elizabeth Bennet is now exclusively called Lizzie, although Elizabeth is still her full name.
    • Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy is now just William Darcy.
    • Mr. Charles Bingley became Bing Lee and his sister became Caroline Lee. They both got a Race Lift to boot.
    • Charlotte Lucas became Charlotte Lu and also got a Race Lift.
    • Mr. Collins is now Ricky Collins
    • Georgiana Darcy is Gigi Darcy, although her full name is still Georgiana.
    • Colonel Fitzwilliam is now Fitz Williams, also going hand-in-hand with a Race Lift.
  • Most of the characters in Lovely Little Losers can't be directly mapped to characters from Love's Labour's Lost, but those who can have all had their names altered.
    • King Ferdinand has become Freddie Kingston (and had a Gender Flip).
    • Rosaline has become Rosa Jones.
    • Costard has become Costa McClure.
    • Jaquenetta has become Jaquie Manders (and had a Race Lift).
    • Moth the page has become Paige Moth (and had a Gender Flip).
    • Boyet has gained a first name, Fred, and a nickname, "Vegan Fred."
  • The Abridged Series Major League Pony changes Celestia and Luna's names to Sunbutt and Moonbutt respectively. Subverted at the end of the second episode, where it's revealed that that's just what Twilight calls them, while somehow not realizing what her teacher and ruler's real name is.
  • Invoked in My Little Pony: Totally Legit Recap, when Thorax is first introduced the narrator mentions that his name doesn't quiet suit the character's... timid personality and says he should be named Steve or something. Sure enough, Thorax is referred to as Steve by every character for the rest of the series, including his mother. His brother Pharynx has his name changed to Frank because it's too bothersome to pronounce and it's not even bug-related.
  • Projection Quest changes Browbeat into Aspirant, after his talk with Po showed him that his power has more potential than he initially believed.
  • Scootertrix the Abridged:
  • SpongeBob SquarePants is frequently named "Spingebill" in YouTube Poop titles. Originally, this was done to avoid copyright takedowns from ViacomCBS. While this was ultimately ineffective, poopers have nonetheless stuck with the name for Rule of Funny.
  • To Belong started out as Non/Disney crossover videos. To get around copyright issues, the animated series obviously needed to use new character designs and names. For example, Anya from Anastasia ended up becoming Isaia.
  • Most characters from TOME had their names changed from the original TTA.
    • Kirbopher15 became Kirbopher.
    • Nailock became Nylocke.
    • White Queen became Whyti.
    • Grounder became Granda.
    • Racoon became Rockoon.
    • BlingBling became Doubling.
    • Tamerlisa became Anneva.
    • Ruri became Kizuna.
    • Tormentros became Thorment.
    • Hamstar became Hyprelynx.
    • Thunder256 became Elescope.
    • And lastly, Voltarius became Tigerlilly. (Although since Voltarius and Tigerlilly also have different roles, it is debatable if this counts as a name change or a new character altogether.

    Western Animation 
  • The Koopalings in The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World. In this case, when the former of the two shows aired, Nintendo of America hadn't yet given them official names.
    • Larry became "Cheatsy"
    • Morton became "Big Mouth"
    • Wendy became "Kootie Pie"
    • Iggy became "Hop"
    • Roy became "Bully".
    • Lemmy became "Hip".
    • Ludwig became "Kooky".
  • The Adventures of Tintin (1991): In the original comic book of King Ottokar's Sceptre, the Syldavian king was King Muskar XII. In the animated adaptation, he is known as King Ottokar XII.
  • All the main characters in Around the World with Willy Fog: Phileas Fogg becomes Willy Fog, Passeport becomes Rigodon, Aouda becomes Romy, Inspector Fix becomes Inspector Dix.
  • The Attack of the Killer Tomatoes! animated series features Professor Mortimer Gangreen, the main antagonist of the original film's sequels, as the Big Bad, but his name is changed to Dr. Putrid T. Gangreen. In addition, Greg Colburn and Greta Attenbaum, two characters from the original 1978 film, appear under the names Floyd Bridgework and Mary Jo Nagamininashy.
  • The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes:
    • Michael Korvac's lover has her name changed from Carina to Corrina, though it's presumably still pronounced the same.
    • Captain Marvel's real name is Geheneris Hala´son Mahr Vehl rather than the shorter Mar-Vell, much like in the Ultimate Marvel comics.
  • In The Avengers: United They Stand, The Falcon's nephew is called Andrew rather than Jim or Jody.
  • Avengers Assemble:
    • Like the Ultimate Spider-Man entry below, the show changes Yelena Belova's codename to Crimson Widow so that there aren't two characters called "Black Widow" in the same series.
    • Similarly, the Secret Wars season briefly adapts part of Jason Aaron's Thor run, where Jane Foster became the new Thor after lifting Mjolnir. To avoid having two Thors in the cast, the show had Jane take on the name Thunderstrike after being given an enchanted mace by Odin (allowing the original Thor to keep Mjolnir).
    • Black Panther's grandfather is named T'Chanda rather than Azzuri (or Azzuri). In Fantastic Four Unlimited #1 (March 1993) by Roy Thomas (scripts) and Herb Trimpe (art), T'Challa's grandfather's name is Chanda. Recently, the Wakanda miniseries says that T'Chanda (or Chanda) is his real name and that Azzari (or Azzuri) is his regnal name.
  • The Batman
    • When the show decided to adapt Ellen Yindel from Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and gave her Race Lift to make her Asian, they also changed her name to "Ellen Yin".
    • The members of the Terrible Trio in the comics were named Warren Lawford (Fox), Gunther Hardwick (Shark), and Armand Lydecker (Vulture). They're renamed, respectively, David, Justin, and Amber.
  • Batman: The Brave and the Bold:
  • In Beware the Batman, Magpie's real name is "Margaret Sorrow" rather than "Margaret Pye", likely to avoid the corniness of the original Meaningful Name. (It's still meaningful ["One for sorrow..."], just a touch more subtle.)
  • Captain Atom is renamed from "Nathaniel Adam" to "Nathaniel Adams" (note the "s") in Justice League Unlimited, Batman: The Brave and the Bold and Young Justice (2010). Greg Weisman, original co-writer of the "Nathaniel Adam" version of the character and partially responsible for both of those last two examples, notes that the "correct" version always felt artificial.
  • Captain N: The Game Master changes the name of Pit from Kid Icarus to... Kid Icarus.
  • Carmen Sandiego: Played with, in the previous incarnations, Carmen's name really is "Carmen Sandiego". In this incarnation, she was an unnamed baby found by V.I.L.E., who was raised under the code name of "Black Sheep". When she ran away, she chose for herself the name Carmen Sandiego from the brand of the hat of her outfit.
  • Castlevania:
    • Dracula introduces himself as "Vlad Dracula Ţepeş", while in the Japanese dub this is "Dracula Vlad Ţepeş", the official order in Japan. The English version of Symphony of the Night had it as "Vlad Ţepeş Dracula".note 
    • A bit of an unusual recursive example with Trevor Belmont: he is still known by that name in the Japanese version of the series, despite the source character being known as "Ralph C. Belmont" in the original Japanese games.
  • Catscratch is an adaptation of Gear. It changed Mr. Black's name to Mr. Blik.
  • Challenge of the GoBots gave some of the GoBots different names from the ones their toys had.
    • Baron Von Joy is referred to as Professor Von Joy.
    • Herr Fiend is referred to as Dr. Go.
    • Tux is called Stretch in the cartoon.
  • DC Animated Universe:
    • Batman: The Animated Series:
      • Blackgate Penitentiary is renamed Stonegate.
      • Killer Croc's last name is changed from "Jones" to "Morgan".
      • Werewolf Anthony Lupus is given the slightly less blatant Werewolf Theme Naming Anthony Romulus.
    • Superman: The Animated Series:
      • The series changed the name of Weather Wizard's brother from Clyde to Ben.
      • Kara Zor-El is renamed "Kara In-Ze". This was due to Executive Meddling. At the time DC had a mandate that Superman was the last Kryptonian left. This meant that Supergirl was Exiled from Continuity (and is why Matrix and Linda Danvers were created). To get around this, the makers of Superman The Animated Series simply gave Kara a new last name (which actually was her mother's maiden name) and said she wasn't from Krypton, but a sister planet that also ended up destroyed. Kara In-Ze was otherwise used interchangeably with Kara Zor-El, besides the fact she was Superman's adopted cousin rather than his biological one.
      • The episode "Two's a Crowd" was based loosely on the "Doc Parasite" storyline in the comics, except that the scientist Parasite absorbed was named Earl Garver rather than Torval Freeman (and had a Race Lift from black to white).
      • In the pilot, Lara's father is named Sul-Van rather than Lor-Van, which in turn makes Lara's maiden name Lara Sul-Van.
    • Batman Beyond featured the animated debut of lesser-known Batman villain Spellbinder, but changed his first name from "Delbert" to "Ira".
    • Static Shock:
      • Hotstreak's real name went from Martin "Biz Money B" Scaponi to Francis "F-Stop" Stone.
      • D-Struct's real name was changed from Damon Briggs to Derek "D.B." Barnett.
      • Rubberband Man went from Karmon Stringer to Adam Evans, though he still uses Stringer as a nickname and alias.
      • Nina Crocker/Timezone is loosely based on Sara Quinones/Flashback, though she is curiously called Flashback in her episode's end credits.
      • This continuity's version of the Blood Syndicate are instead called the Night Breed.
    • Justice League:
      • Professor Ivo's first name was changed from "Anthony" to "Arthur".
      • As noted above, Captain Atom's real last name is modified from "Adam" to "Adams".
  • DC Super Hero Girls:
    • Zatanna's name is "Zee," with Zatanna being her superhero codename. In the comics, "Zatanna" is her real name, while "Zee" is a nickname.
    • Raven is introduced as "Rachel." In the comics, her name is just "Raven", but she sometimes uses "Rachel Roth" (with "Roth" being her mother's surname) as a civilian name.
    • In the comics, Harley Quinn owns a pair of male pet hyenas named Bud and Lou. In the cartoon, she instead owns a pair of female hyenas named Lucy and Ethel.
    • The worst neighborhood in Metropolis is now called Sinister Slum instead of Suicide Slum, likely for the same reason the "Suicide Squad" is never actually called that in other DC adaptations aimed at children.
  • DuckTales (2007):
    • Gizmoduck's real name is changed from Fenton Crackshell to Fenton Crackshell-Cabrera.
    • Dewey's full name here is "Dewford," while in the comics it's "Deuteronomy." Word of God says that the original became too hard for Tony Anselmo to say as Donald, but that "Deuteronomy" is his middle name. Though Season 2 would retcon his middle name to "Dingus".
    • Louie goes from "Louis" to "Llewellyn," which he considers an Embarrassing First Name.
    • Dijon is renamed Faris D'jinn in order to be more authentically Arabic. It also foreshadows the fact that he's the descendant of a genie.
    • Lena is based on Minima De Spell, to the extent that she's Magica's niece who befriends Webby, but has a different name. According to the writers this was to make it more surprising when she revealed the relation, although it might also be because unlike Minima, Lena is not literally Magica's niece.
    • In this incarnation, "Flintheart Glomgold" isn't actually his birth name, which was (and still technically is, because he forgot to ever get the paperwork done to officiate the name change) Duke Baloney.
    • In Darkwing Duck, Negaduck's real name was never mentioned, but heavily implied to be Drake Mallard by the virtue of being his Alternate Self. Here, he is not an alternate Drake Mallard, but an actor named Jim Starling, who used to play Darkwing Duck in a TV show before going insane after his role was recast in a movie.
    • "Bombie the Zombie" has been renamed "The Bombie".
    • The F.O.W.L. "Eggmen" are now known as "Eggheads", to showcase their membership is gender neutral.
  • In Flash Gordon (1996), "Flash" is the nickname of Alex Gordon (a Shout-Out to his creator, Alex Raymond). In the original comic strip, "Flash" is his actual name.
  • In A Flintstones Christmas Carol, Scrooge's nephew was renamed Ned, since there is already a Fred in the cast.
  • The Garbage Pail Kids Cartoon movie parody segment "Kinky Konk" featured an appearance by the card character Charred Chad/Fryin' Ryan, but he isn't referred to by either of his trading card names and is instead addressed as Guy Zilla, presumably to make the character he's a parody of more obvious.
  • G.I. Joe: Renegades has three cases:
    • As noted under film, Heavy Duty's name was changed to "Herschel Dalton", though otherwise, he's more in line with his original incarnation (an American soldier and Roadblock's cousin).
    • Due to going the route used in G.I. Joe: The Movie of him being Duke's brother, Vincent Falcone (Lt. Falcon) had his last name changed to "Hauser".
    • Of a minor sort, Stalker had "One" added to his codename.
  • In Happily Ever After Fairytales For Every Child, Snow White is race lifted as Native American and, since she doesn't have snow white skin in this version, is renamed "White Snow." Her biological mother, Morning Dove, named her "White Snow" because she was born on a snowy night and snow was on the window ledge near the birthing area.
  • While Harley Quinn still sees Poison Ivy named "Pamela Isley", her middle name in the series is "Candace", not "Lilian".
  • The Incredible Hulk (1982) changed Major Glenn Talbot's first name to Ned.
  • Iron Man: Armored Adventures:
    • Madame Masque's civilian name was changed to Whitney Frost to Whitney Stane as a result of becoming Obadiah Stane's daughter in this series. Doubly so, as the Masque of the comics was adopted and she was born "Giulietta Nefaria" — and thus was Count Nefaria's daughter.
    • Pepper Pott's real name is changed from Virginia to Patricia.
    • The Fixer's codename is modified to "Mr. Fix".
  • Iron Man: The Animated Series:
    • Tony's parents are named Walter and Martha Stark rather than Howard and Maria Stark, though one: the second season does retcon that Walter is a case of Middle Name Basis and his first name is indeed "Howard" and two, the 2011 S.H.I.E.L.D. series did Ret-Canon Walter as Howard's middle name.
    • While Tony's middle name isn't known in the show, the initial is "B", implying this in in play (in the comics, Tony's middle name is "Edward").
    • The doomed scientist who helped Tony build the Iron Man armor to escape captivity in his origin story had his name changed from Ho Yinsen to Wellington Yinsen.
    • The Scarlet Witch's surname is Frank, not Maximoff or Lehnsherr. This is probably a Mythology Gag to the idea floated in the seventies that her and Quicksilver's parents were Robert Frank/the Whizzer and his wife Madeline Joyce/Miss America. At the time of the series, the Magneto origin had been in place for a decade.
  • Although the French version of the 1995 Iznogoud cartoon kept the original names from the comics, the English translation changed several of them. Iznogoud's henchman Wa'at Alahf was re-named Adulahf Alot (still an ironic name for a Deadpan Snarker), while the neighbouring sultan was called Streetcar instead of Pullmankar (Pullman cars being less familiar to younger viewers thanks to the decline of long-distance rail travel), and many of the one-shot characters had their names changed, generally from one play on words to another (the Midas touch-afflicted recluse was called Ghoudas Gho'ld in the comics and Karat in the cartoon).
  • In the pilot of Kaeloo, Kaeloo's name was Kaelou. The character Moignon also retained his name in the English dub of the pilot, whereas the English dub of the actual series changed Moignon's name to Stumpy.
  • Marvel Rising: Secret Warriors changed Spider-Gwen/Spider-Woman to Ghost Spider for reasons of practicality. While her book was titled Spider-Gwen, she was obviously never called that in-universe, and since Jessica Drew was currently using the Spider-Woman name in the Marvel Universe proper, to avoid confusion, when the animated feature was announced, Gwen's code name was changed to Ghost Spider, and it became Ret-Canon in the comics.
  • Marvel's Spider-Man:
  • In The Marvel Super Heroes:
    • The adaptation of the first issue of The Incredible Hulk changed the villain Gargoyle's name to the Gorgon.
    • When the X-Men guest-starred, they were renamed the Allies for Peace.
  • While Mega Man's civilian name is usually Rock, the Mega Man: Fully Charged TV series has him called Aki.
  • The cartoon adaptation of Monster Allergy changes Patty and Tatty's names to Pattie (note the spelling) and Mattie, respectively. Also the way the name of the race of monsters with detachable body parts is spelled was changed from Sgnakuz to Snyakutz, in order to make the pronounciation more easy to foreign people.
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
    • Downplayed with Pinkie Pie. In G3 that was her full name. In G4 her full name is Pinkamena Diane Pie.
    • Twilight Sparkle is named after G3's Twilight Twinkle.
    • Tirac's name was changed to Tirek, a fanmade spelling.
  • Jill on the My Pet Monster cartoon series was named Melanie in the direct-to-video movie released previously.
  • Possibly due to the common slang meaning, Twink's name was changed to "Mister Glitters" in the reboot miniseries of Rainbow Brite.
  • As with The Series and the 2014 film, RoboCop: Alpha Commando sees Murphy's family renamed with Ellen's first name being changed to Susan and Jimmy's to Richie. The same series also sees Sgt. Reed's first name (which, depending on the movie, is either John or Warren) changed to Joe.
  • In Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated, Fred has different parents in this continuity. His father, Fred Jones, Sr., named him after himself, making him Fred Jones, Jr. It later turns out that Fred is actually the son of Brad Chiles and Judy Reeves, having been kidnapped by Jones as a baby. It's never revealed what Fred's original name was or if his parents even gave him one before he was kidnapped, but he briefly goes by Fred Chiles before going back to using Fred Jones until the Cosmic Retcon. The Cosmic Retcon also shows that in spite of not being kidnapped by Jones, Fred is still named Fred. One could interpret Brad and Judy choosing to name him after Jones, though Jones suggests their shared first name is a coincidence and we don't know if Brad & Judy still met & befriended Jones around the same time as the original timeline.
  • Silver Surfer: The Animated Series changed Mistress Death's name to Lady Chaos due to the Never Say "Die" trope.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog:
    • Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM):
      • The cartoon treated "Hedgehog" as Sonic's surname, making his full name Sonic Hedgehog. In the games, he has no given surname, with the "the Hedgehog" part of his name being merely a title.
      • In the official Sega of America backstory, Doctor Ivo Robotnik was the Superpowered Evil Side of kindly scientist Doctor Ovi Kintobor (though this was never mentioned in the games and not really canon). Here Doctor Robotnik (note the lack of "Ivo") was simply the pseudonym of an evil scientist whose real name was Julian.
      • Of the three of Sonic's "Animal Friends" from the Sega of America backstory that were retained for the cartoon, only Sally Acorn had her name unchanged (albeit with her last name never said on-screen):
      • Joe Sushi became Rotor Walrus.
      • Johnny Lightfoot became Bunnie Rabbot.
      • Played with in regards to Antoine. In the show's production bible, his last name was D'Coolette, which was never mentioned in the show's first season, but was mentioned in Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics) which had been in development at the same time as the show but due to Production Lead Time would debut months ahead of the first episode. However the second season of the cartoon would ignore this and instead use Depardieu as Antoine's surname.
    • In the video games, Sonic's name is just "Sonic". "The Hedgehog" is a title not a Species Surname and his surname (if he has one) is never given. In Sonic Boom, his name is "Sonic the Hedgehog". Yes, that means "the" is his middle name (and it gets poked fun at).
  • The Spectacular Spider-Man
    • Molten Man's civilian identity, Mark Raxton, is renamed Mark Allan (because he and Liz Allan are full siblings instead of stepsiblings).
    • Ned Leeds is Asian in the series, and is therefore renamed Ned Lee.
    • Kenny "King Kong" McFarlane from Ultimate Spider-Man is also Asian, and named Kenny Kong.
    • Silver Sable is Sable Manfredi instead of Silver Sablinova since she's Silvermane's daughter.
  • Spider-Man (1967)
    • The Lizard's real name is changed from Curt Connors to Curt Conner.
    • Jackson Brice's supervillain name is changed from Montana to Cowboy for some reason.
    • The episode "Captured by J. Jonah Jameson" adapts the first appearance of the Spider-Slayer robot, but changes the first name of the inventor Spencer Smythe to Henry.
    • Captain Stacy's first name is Ned rather than George.
  • In Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends:
  • Spider-Man: The Animated Series:
    • The Sinister Six was called the Insidious Six. Fox Kids censors felt that the word sinister sounded too menacing for a children's program (even though another Fox Kids program, X-Men: The Animated Series, had Mister Sinister as a villain).
    • Electro was renamed because the producers did not want to interfere with the continuity of James Cameron's proposed Spider-Man movie, in which the Sandman and Electro were supposed to be the villains. Although Sandman remained unseen in the series when Cameron's film fell through, Electro was belatedly introduced in the series' fifth season. Electro appears in the "Six Forgotten Warriors" storyline of season five; here his name is Rheinholt Schmidt (He's Red Skull's son in this series) instead of Max Dillon.
      • Cameron's film also would've changed Electro's name. The script had him called Carlton Strand instead of Max Dillon. Sandman was also called Boyd instead of Flint Marko.
    • Felicia Hardy's parents had their names changed: her father went from "Walter Hardy" to "John Hardesky" and Lydia Hardy had her first name changed to "Anastasia".
    • In the comics, The Kingpin's real name is Wilson Fisk. In the show, while Wilson is still his real first name, "Wilson Fisk" is actually an alias and his real last name is "Moriarty."
    • Variant with the Black Marvel. His real name is changed from Daniel Lyons to Omar Mosely, but Lyons did still exist in this universe as a separate character.
    • Abraham Erskine, the scientist who turned Steve Rogers into Captain America was renamed "Joseph Reinstein".
  • Spidey and His Amazing Friends: Miles Morales' superhero name is once again changed to avoid confusion about having two characters called Spider-Man: This time, his code name is changed to "Spin".
  • Strawberry Shortcake: The episode "Sleeping Beauty" had some characters' names changed. The titular character from Sleeping Beauty had her name changed to Princess Strawberry Rose, Prince Phillip had his name changed to Huckleberry, and Maleficent was just called the "Brambleberry Fairy".
  • In Street Fighter, the Delta Red members Keith, Lita and Matthew are instead called Burke, Celia and Rory.
  • Superfriends:
    • An early episode had Aquaman villain Black Manta dressed in brown and referred to only as Manta. However, this was reversed in the Challenge of the Superfriends season.
    • Darkseid's Parademons were referred to as "Paradrones" in order to placate the censors. Likewise, the Boom Tubes are called "Stargates".
  • In The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! and some other Mario adaptations, Bowser was called by his Japanese name, King Koopa, even though the games always used the name Bowser from day one.
  • The Swan Lake adaptation The Swan Princess replaces Prince Siegfried with Prince Derek, and Odile with Bridget.
  • Tak and the Power of Juju changed the names of some of the characters who originated from the video games.
    • Tlaloc is renamed Traloc.
    • The Mind Reader Juju is called Psychic Juju.
    • Dead Juju is renamed Party Juju.
    • The Dark Juju/Travis is renamed Darkness Juju.
  • Tarzan and Jane changes Tarzan's surname from Clayton to Greystoke, presumably to save explaining "No, his name is Clayton, the estate is Greystoke, and that's why he's 'Lord Greystoke'." The original surname is referenced by having a character loosely based on William Clayton named Clayton Greystoke.
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003) makes the Shredder an utrom named Ch'Rell who uses Oroku Saki as an alias.
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012) gives some characters different names than other continuities. For example, Mutagen Man's real name is Timothy; in the 80s cartoon, it was Seymour Gutz. The Rat King is Victor Falco; in the Archie comics, his name was Ha'ntaan. Also, in this show, Rahzar, Bebop, Rocksteady, Mona Lisa, and Mondo Gecko are only aliases (of Chris Bradford, Anton Zeck, Ivan Steranko, Y'Gythgba, and Jason respectively); previous continuities did not give them any other names. It is also revealed Karai is really Splinter's kidnapped daughter, Hamato Miwa, though even after learning this she proceeds to go primarily by Karai.
  • Teen Titans:
    • Beast Boy was referred to as "Changeling" during The New Teen Titans comics that the cartoon is based on. It wasn't until later that he returned to his original "Beast Boy." In the cartoon, he's always "Beast Boy," and never changes his codename.
    • The Fearsome Five are renamed "The H.I.V.E. Five," as they're all students of the H.I.V.E. Academy in this continuity.
  • Thomas & Friends: Sir Stephen Topham Hatt III's name is changed to "Sir Bertram Topham Hatt", notice the lack of a number too.
  • In Thunderbirds Are Go, Tin-Tin Kyrano is renamed Tanusha "Kayo" Kyrano.
  • In Thunder Cats 2011, Jackalman and Monkian are renamed Kaynar and Addicus, since the former are now their species names.
  • In Todd McFarlane's Spawn, Chapel from Youngblood (Image Comics) was renamed Jess Chapel. In the comics, his real name is Bruce Stinson, with "Chapel" merely serving as his superhero Code Name.
  • As in the movies, Transformers: Animated renamed the Triceratops Dinobot because his original name, Slag, is a British curse wordnote . Animated renamed him "Snarl" (who was the Stegosaur in G1, but wasn't included in Animated), and gave the change a meta-lampshading:
    Sari: You named him Snarl?
    Scrapper: I was gonna name him Slag, but I think he took it as an insult.
    • Similarly, The Transformers ended up doing this to Jetfire for legal reasons (long story short, his original toy was made by a rival company to both Hasbro and Takara, and they altered his appearance in the show so he didn't look like the toy). As such, he went to being called "Skyfire", but most series have used his original name.
  • The Mondo TV adaptation of The Trash Pack gave the Trashies simplified and "cuter" names over their gross ones in the toyline. Scum Gum is "Bubblz", Sour Snail is "Shelly" (both made female), Rotten Apple is "Pips", Putrid Pizza is "Cheezy", Stench Fries is "Frittes", Blow Fly is "Buzz", and Smelly Sock is "Patches".
  • Ultimate Spider-Man:
    • Luke Cage's parents' names are changed from "James and Esther Lucas" to "Walter and Amanda Cage". Between this and them calling their son "Luke", one expects this Luke Cage was always named that in this universe, while in the comics his birth name was "Carl Lucas".
    • In the comics, the Rhino's real name is Aleksei Sytsevich, with his original name, Alex O'Hirn, Retconned into being an alias. In the cartoon, Alex O'Hirn is his real name.
    • Arcade's amusement park is changed from Murderworld to Madland.
    • As with Spider-Man: Noir, the Green Goblin is just called the Goblin here.
    • To avoid the confusion of having two characters named "Spider-Man", Miles Morales temporarily changes his superhero name to Kid Arachnid while staying in Peter's dimension.
    • In the comics, Harry Osborn became an armored hero known as the American Son for a brief period. He eventually gets the armor in the show too, but is inexplicably called the Patrioteer instead.
    • In the comics, Mr. Negative's minions are called "Inner Demons". In "Return to the Spider-Verse, Part Three", he calls them "Dragons".
  • Voltron: Legendary Defender:
    • The show regularly mixes names from Voltron and its source material GoLion. Most of the characters have their Voltron names, except the pilot in black, who's named Takashi Shirogane (GoLion), usually shortened to "Shiro", instead of Sven Holgersson (Voltron). The names of Allura's race and the main antagonists are the Alteans and the Galra Empire (GoLion), respectively, rather than the Arusians and the Drule Empire (Voltron). Arus is still a planet — it's where the Castle of Lions was hidden for a long time — but not where Allura is from.
    • Pidge's real name was given as Darrel "Pidge" Stoker in the comics, while here, it's Pidge Gunderson. This turns out to be a double example, as it's eventually revealed that Pidge is actually a girl named Katie Holt.
    • Oddly enough for Shiro, the rename from Sven is also an example of Decomposite Character. There is a Sven, mullet and vaguely Swedish accent and all, but he's from a parallel universe.
  • When the Ant Hill Mob on Wacky Races were recruited for The Perils of Penelope Pitstop Ring-a-Ding was renamed Dum-Dum. The other Mob members' names on Wacky Races were never mentioned although they were labeled on model sheets and publicity drawings. Mac would become Pockets, Danny would become Yak-Yak, Rug Bug Benny would become Snoozy, Willy would become Zippy, and Kirby would become Softy. The Scooby-Doo! Team-Up would later avert this, revealing that the original Ant Hill Mob was in jail.
  • The cartoon series adaptation of Watership Down changed Hyzenthlay's name to Primrose. The show was aimed at a much younger audience than the book, so presumably they wanted characters' names to be easier to remember and pronounce. It's also possible that they just wanted a girlier sounding name.
  • The W.I.T.C.H. (2004) cartoon changes Will's full name from "Wilhelmina" to "Wilma". It's still an Embarrassing First Name regardless.
  • In X-Men: Evolution:
    • Toad's real name was changed from Mortimer Toynbee to Todd Tolensky
    • Avalanche's was changed from Dominic Petros to Lance Alvers.
    • Due to being depicted as a little kid, Jamie Maddox's codename is modified from "Multiple Man" to just "Multiple".
  • X-Men: The Animated Series:
    • When the show decided to reveal that Sabretooth was Graydon Creed's father, they did this by revealing that Graydon was named after him, hence Sabretooth being "Graydon Creed, Sr." rather than having his first name be "Victor". By extension, this makes Graydon Creed "Gradyon Creed, Jr."
    • Solarr's real name is Bill Braddock rather than Silas King.
    • Morph's original codename in the comics was "Changeling". However, DC Comics had trademarked it as Beast Boy was using it at the time, hence the name change. It's since stuck as Age of Apocalypse and Exiles incarnations of the character have used it.
  • Young Justice:
    • The Secret Society of Super Villains were called "the Light". In "Revelation," Batman refers to it as "a secret society of supervillains" when he deduces the group's existence but doesn't know what it's called.
    • Paula Crock is given a Race Lift and as Cheshire is Related in the Adaptation (and pulling a Nom de Mom, according to Word of God), her maiden name is changed from "Brooks" to "Nguyen."
    • A minor one: Lian Harper becomes Lian Nguyen-Harper, using both parents' surnames.
    • Mary Marvel is renamed Sergeant Marvel, though due to DC having officially changed Captain Marvel's name to Shazam! in the years between the show's cancellation and revival, her superheroic alter ego is only ever called "Sergeant" both onscreen and in the credits. Word of God has stated that Captain Marvel Jr. also would've been renamed Lieutenant Marvel had his cameo not been cut, though it's unknown what he'll be called if he ever does appear in future seasons thanks to the aforementioned decision to stop using the word "Marvel." This effectively sidesteps the issues of Mary Marvel using her real first name and Captain Marvel Jr. being unable to actually say his codenamenote . Sergeant Marvel is later rechristened Black Mary in the final scene of Season 4 after falling under the sway of Granny Goodness.
    • Though the other three Canon Foreigner heroes from Super Friends never had their identities revealed, Samurai's name was given as Toshio Eto. Samurai's analogue in Young Justice is a young girl named Asami "Sam" Koizumi.
    • In the Outsiders comics, Halo was originally known as Violet Harper, while "Gabrielle Doe" is an alias. Here it's basically reversed: she's a Quraci with the birth name Gabrielle Daou but renames herself "Violet Harper" after deciding that That Woman Is Dead.
    • Traci Thirteen's name is changed to Traci Thurston, while Thirteen is merely her superhero codename.
    • The son of Aquaman and Mera has his name changed from Arthur, Jr. to Artur.
    • Dolphin is called Delphis, though this is explained to be the Atlantean word for her traditional comic name.
    • Mist's real name is Andy rather than Nash.
    • Orphan's real name is changed from Cassandra Cain to Cassandra Wu-San, as she was raised by Lady Shiva instead of David Cain in this continuity.
    • Khalid Nassour's mother is called Jane instead of Elizabeth.
  • W.I.T.C.H. (2004)
    • Elyon's (adoptive) name is Elyon Portrait in the comics, Elyon Brown in the show.
    • Matt's band is called Cobalt Blue in the comics, Wreck-55 in the show.
    • Will's full first name (which she hates either way) is Wilhelmina in the comics, Wilma in the show.
    • In the comics, the world that Caleb, Elyon, Phobos, Cedric etc. come from is called Metamoor, or the Metaworld, and Meridian is the name of its capital city. Here, Meridian is the name of the world.
  • Zorro's grandmother, the shaman Tainah in Zorro: The Chronicles is based on Zorro's grandmother, the shaman White Owl in the novel Zorro by Isabel Allende. (And the shaman Gray Owl, who is not stated to be Zorro's grandmother, in The New Adventures of Zorro.)

Alternative Title(s): Adaptational Name Change

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