Donkey Dong: The Hilarious List of Alternative Names Nintendo Considered for Its Great Ape

When Donkey Kong arrived in arcades in 1981, he was far from the household name he is today. In fact, his iconic moniker was almost very different, with court documents revealing a long list of rejected names – including the amusing ‘Kong Dong’.

The name Donkey Kong was chosen to evoke both a gorilla and the stubbornness of a mule, but it almost didn’t happen, as Universal Studios attempted to sue Nintendo for using the word ‘Kong’, which they claimed was infringing on their King Kong movies.

However, as part of the court battle, Nintendo discovered that Universal had themselves previously proven that the name King Kong was in the public domain, which led to Nintendo winning the case and establishing themselves as a major media company in the process. (Ironically, they’re now close partners with Universal, for both their theme parks and movie adaptations.)

The full list of potential names is as follows: Funny Kong, Kong the Kong, Jack Kong, Funky Kong (which Rare were probably unaware of when they actually did name a character that), Bill Kong, Steel Kong, Giant Kong, Big Kong, Kong Down, Kong Dong, Mr. Kong, Custom Kong, Kong Chase, Kong Boy, Kong Fighter, Wild Kong, Rookie Kong, and Kong Holiday.

All of the information was originally discovered in 2020 by Norman Caruso, aka the Gaming Historian, but highlighted this week in a tweet by Super Mario Broth.

Before settling on the name “Donkey Kong,” Nintendo considered a ton of other ideas.….not sure who suggested “Kong Dong” 😳 pic.twitter.com/cqSsi5ASM0

The future of Donkey Kong has been the subject of much speculation in recent years, as Nintendo completely ignored his 40th anniversary in 2021, no doubt because of Covid.

At that time, there had already been rumours of a new 3D game but more recently these have coalesced into the suggestion that the main launch title for the Switch 2 console will be a Donkey Kong game, or at least a 3D Mario in which Donkey Kong plays a large role.

The only circumstantial evidence for this is two otherwise random seeming remasters of Mario Vs. Donkey Kong and, in January, Donkey Kong Country Returns. The Mario theme parks have also had new Donkey Kong themed areas added to them.

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There’s even been talk of a possible movie spin-off, which only seems to make a new game appear even more inevitable.

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