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Adaptation Name Change / The DCU

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The DCU

Adaptation Name Change in this series.
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    Comic Books 

Comic Books

  • A Retraux issue of Wonder Woman set on Earth-Two had her battle a Golden Age version of the modern Corrupt Corporate Executive Veronica Cale, given the Meaningful Name of Veronica Callow.
  • DC Rebirth:
    • The Atom: Ryan Choi's birth name is revealed to be Lun in this continuity with Ryan as his naturalized name.
    • When Starfire's pet Silkie was transplated over to the comics in the DC You Starfire (2015) series, the spelling was changed to "Syl'Khee" to reflect his Adaptation Species Change into an alien creature.
    • In The Terrifics Tinya Wazzo/Phantom Girl's modern-day ancestor is named Linnya Wazzo and uses the Phantom Girl code name while in previous iterations she was named Enya Wazzo and went by Phase.
    • In Gotham Academy, Hardwick of the Terrible Trio is now known as the Raven rather than the Vulture, presumably to avoid confusion with the Spider-Man villain of the same name.
    • Wonder Woman (Rebirth):
      • When bringing the Star Riders character Star Lily into the mainstream comics her superhero name was given a tweak to Star Blossom.
      • The Wonder Woman villain Doctor Cyber was named Cylvia Cyber in the previous continuties. In Wonder Woman (Rebirth), she's renamed Adrianna Anderson as she was created using a digital map of Anderson's mind created when Anderson was killed in a lab accident.
  • The New 52:
    • Philip Wayne, Thomas Wayne's brother who helped raise Bruce in pre-Crisis continuity, was reintroduced in New 52 continuity as Martha's brother Philip Kane.
    • In the New 52 relaunch of The Flash, Weather Wizard and his brother are now called Marco and Claudio instead of Mark and Clyde. The Folding man is also called Xolani instead of Edwin Gauss.
    • In the New 52 Tim Drake's backstory was jettisoned and his name was said to be an alias. The name change was not used by all writers and didn't stick, and in DC Rebirth his name and history were restored.
    • Aquaman's evil Mirror Universe counterpart from Earth-3 is now called Sea King rather than Barracuda.
    • In Wonder Woman (2011) all of the gods from classical mythology are given new common names/titles with some of their traditional names never making an appearance; Apollo gets called Sun, Artemis is called Moon, Ares is called War, Dionysus is called Dio, Hermes is called Messenger and Hades is called Hell.
  • Post-Crisis:
    • In DC Comics' Shazam! stories set in the original Fawcett continuity (Earth-S), Billy and Mary's parents were named as Merrill and Jocelyn Batson. In the post-Crisis Power of Shazam stories they're Clarence Charles "CC" and Marilyn Batson — CC named as a Shout-Out to Shazam creator CC Beck, and Marilyn possibly as a composite of the two pre-Crisis names.
    • When the Earth-Two JSA villain Joe Mimic shows up in the New Earth continuity in JSA Classified he's renamed Johnny Mimic, and given the personal name Jonathan Waddill.
    • Artemis's introduction, appearance, motivation and character arc marks her as an updated version of Orana from the Silver Age Earth-One Wonder Woman.
    • As Wonder Woman (1987)'s version of Giganta is a composite character of the original and her creator Dr. Zool her new name is Doris Zeul.
    • In regards to Lex Luthor's name, "Lex" in both the Post-Crisis and New 52 universes is short for "Alexander". Pre-Crisis, depending on the universe, it was short for either "Alexis" (Earth-One) or "Alexei" (Earth-Two)
  • Earth One:
  • Earth 2:
    • Being a Composite Character, Fury's real name is Donna instead of Hippolyta "Lyta" Trevor.
    • Wing's real name is James Wing instead of Wing How.
  • In pre-crisis DC Comics continuity the pastiche of The Avengers was called The Champions of Angor, in post-crisis continuity they were retconned to be called The Justifiers. In post-Infinite Crisis/pre-New 52 continuity they were re-imagined as the Meta-Milita of Earth-8. Then in post-New 52 continuity they were re-imagined again in The Multiversity as The Retaliators of Earth-8. This has also applied to some of their individual members.
    • An Expy of Hawkeye called The Bowman pre-New 52, became Deadeye in The Multiversity.
    • An Expy of Iron Man called Tin Man pre-New 52, became Machinehead in The Multiversity.
    • An Expy of The Wasp called T.A. pre-New 52, became Kite in The Multiversity.
    • An Expy of The Mighty Thor called Wundjina pre-New 52 became Wundajin or Thunderer in The Multiversity.
    • An Expy of Captain America called Americommando pre-New 52 became American Crusader or Crusader in The Multiversity.
    • The last two are also a sort of In-Universe example. In The Multiversity, the heroes of Earth-8, whose adventures are published throughout The Multiverse as Major Comics, also have their own Ultimate Universe comics published entitled Essential Comics, whose characters are also revealed to be their actual alternate universe counterparts residing on Earth-7. The Captain America and Thor expies of Major Comics are American Crusader and Wundajin, but their Essential Major Comics versions are called Crusader and Thunderer.
  • The SW6/post-Zero Hour Legion Of Superheroes did this with several members:
    • Lightning Lad became Live Wire.
    • Lightning Lass became Spark (the SW6 Light Lass became Gossamer).
    • SW6 Sun Boy became Inferno (the post-Zero Hour Dirk Morgna didn't have a superhero identity).
    • SW6 Element Lad became Alchemist (the post-Zero Hour version went back to Element Lad).
    • Colossal Lad became Leviathan.
    • Chameleon Boy became Chameleon.
    • Shadow Lass became Umbra.
    • Ferro Lad became Ferro.
    • Triplicate Girl became Triad.
    • Phantom Girl became Apparition.
    • Dream Girl became Dreamer.
    • Mon-El became M'Onel (the SW6 version used his 20th century identity of Valor).
    • Princess Projectra in multiple ways. Originally she didn't have a codename (although she briefly used Sensor Girl); she really was a princess named Projectra ("Jeckie" for short). Post Crisis she was Sensor, aka Princess Jeka Wynzzor. Oh, and she was a giant snake. Threeboot she was Princess Wilimena Morgana Daergina Annaxandra Projectra Velorya Vauxhall. And retroboot she went back to Projectra as her real name, but Sensor Girl as her codename.
  • DC Ink:
    • In Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass, the Poison Ivy analogue is named Ivy Du-Barry (a play on "dewberry") rather than Pamela Isley.
    • Wonder Woman: Tempest Tossed: Etta Candy is renamed Henke Cukierek, a Polish name whose parts translate to roughly the same meaning as her traditional name.
    • In the Elseworlds tale Wonder Woman: Warbringer Philippus is renamed Tekmassa, or Tek for short. While she is in appearance, title, and relationship to Hippolyta unchanged she is more antagonistic towards Diana rather than acting like her second mother/other parent like she does in the regular continuity.
  • In Ame-Comi Girls, Jade's real name is Jade Yifei instead of Jennifer-Lynn Hayden.
  • Batman '66:
    • The Clock King is named Morris Tetch rather than William Tockman or Temple Fugate. This is because in this continuity, he's the brother of Jervis Tetch, the Mad Hatter.
    • This continuity's take on Harley Quinn has her real name as Holly Quinn rather than Harleen Quinzel.
    • For an example with a location rather than a character, this continuity consistently refers to Arkham Asylum as Arkham Institute and doesn't refer to it as Arkham Asylum until the Wonder Woman '77 crossover.
  • In the Batman: Thrillkiller Elseworlds comic, Harley Quinn's real name is Hayley Fitzpatrick rather than Harleen Quinzel.
  • All over the place in DC Comics Bombshells:
    • Supergirl and Stargirl now hail from Russia, with their real names changed from Kara Zor-El/Linda Lee Danvers and Courtney Whitmore to Kara Starikov and Kortni Duginovna. (And Courtney's stepfather Patrick Dugan is now Ipati Dugin, while her mother's name is Varvara Dugina rather than Barbara Whitmore. Her biological father has gone from Sam Kurtis to Samuel Whitmore, presumably indicating that Vavara's maiden name isn't even a Russian version of Whitmore.)
    • The American Selina Kyle is now the Italian Selina Digatti.note 
    • Brother Night is now German, with his name going from Eldon Peck to Eldon Natcht.
    • Lois Lane and her little sister Lucy are now half-Cuban, with their names changed to Eloisa and Lucia.
    • Mary Batson/Mary Marvel is now a young Jewish girl named Miriam "Miri" Bätzel, with her codename changed to Miri Marvel.
  • Superman & Batman: Generations:
  • In Wonder Woman and the Star Riders Dolphin's name is given a slight tweak to Dolphine.
  • The Legend of Wonder Woman:
    • Philippus is given a name change to Alcippe, but later issues reveal her original name was Philippus even in this Elseworld tale and Alcippe is her chosen name as an Amazon and Champion.
    • The Heyday triplets have been reduced to twins and their original names of Millie and Tillie are given a spelling tweak to Milly and Tilly.
  • In pre-Crisis Batman comics, Jim Gordon's son was named Tony. Batman: Year One introduced James Gordon Jr., who later writers would take in a very different direction from Tony.
  • Legion of Super-Heroes (2020):
    • Mon-El has Mon-El as his real name, rather than Lar Gand.
    • White Witch's real name is Xola Aq rather than Mysa Nal.
  • Crime Syndicate (2021)
    • Traditionally, the Crime Syndicate's Green Lantern analogue was called Power Ring. Here, the post-Death Metal version of the character is instead called Emerald Knight. Additionally, the original Power Ring's real name was Joseph Harrolds, while Emerald Knight's predecessor (as the current holder of the identity is Earth-3's John Stewart) was called Harold Jordan.
    • The heroic Legion of Doom analogue is called the Legion of Justice instead of Justice Underground.
  • The Batman of Arkham changed the first name of Bruce Wayne's father from Thomas to James.
  • Batman: Castle of the Bat: In addition to most of the characters being esentially Frankenstein characters with the names of Batman characters, the killer of Bruce Wayne's parents is named Mr. Van Klooster instead of Joe Chill.
  • Batman: Dark Allegiances:
    • This continuity's versions of the Penguin and Two-Face are named Milton Biggsley and Caldecott Pewtie rather than Oswald Cobblepot and Harvey Dent. The Joker is instead referred to as Reverend Jones.
    • Downplayed with Catwoman, whose real name is given as Kitty Grimalkin, but is established to have used Selina Kyle as a stage name in her days as a pornographic actress.
  • Batman Beyond 2.0: The "Bat Men" arc establishes that Kirk and Francine Langstrom had a son and a daughter like their mainstream counterparts, but their children's given names are Max and Michelle respectively rather than Aaron and Rebecca.
  • A small example in the DC vs. Vampires series. In main continuity, Kryptonian women use their father's full name as their surname while men only use the family name, thus Supergirl is named Kara Zor-El while Superman is just Kal-El (El being their family name, with their respective fathers being called Zor-El and Jor-El). In this version, it seems that women use their family name only as well, thus she's just called Kara-El.

    Films 

Animated Films

Live Action Films

  • Batman & Robin:
    • Barbara Gordon receives a name change to Barbara Wilson as she is now Alfred's niece instead of Jim Gordon's daughter.
    • Retroactively for Bane. The film gives him the name "Antonio Diego", which was Named by the Adaptation at the time, though the comics would later that King Snake, real name Edmund Dorrance, is his father.
  • DC Extended Universe:
    • Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice has Lex Luthor named after his father, whereas prior depictions of his dad had him named "Jules" or, after Smallville, "Lionel". By extension, this appears to Luthor himself as while the Post-Crisis and New 52 incarnations were named "Alexander" (pre-Crisis Earth-1's Lex was short for "Alexis" and Earth-2's was short for "Alexei"), they weren't named after their dads and thus weren't "Lex Luthor Jr."
    • Wonder Woman (2017): As part of her Race Lift, Dr. Poison's name is changed from Princess Maru in the comics to Isabel Maru in the film.
    • In Aquaman (2018), Black Manta is named David Kane rather than David Hyde. This is an unusual example — in the comics, he was long only known by his first name. The movie made up a surname, only for the comics to come up with a different answer while it was in production.
    • In the Harley Quinn comics, Harley has a pair of pet hyenas named Bud and Lou. In the Birds of Prey (2020) movie, however, she has a single hyena named Bruce.
    • The Suicide Squad:
      • Arm-Fall-Off Boy has his moniker changed to the slightly less immediately ridiculous "The Detachable Kid" (TDK for short). It's still bad enough that Rick Flag and Harley Quinn immediately mock it. His real name was also changed from "Floyd Belkin" to "Cory Pitzner". These were likely done due to a combination of the character being an adult member of the Suicide Squad instead of a teen member of the Legion of Super-Heroes and the fact his creator, Gerard Jones, plead guilty to owning child porn.
      • Implied with the original Ratcatcher. His real name is Otis Flannegan in the comics. While we never find out his name, his daughter's last name is Cazo suggesting it is his as well.
    • In the original comics, Al Pratt's superheroic identity was The Atom. Black Adam (2022) instead establishes that he was the original Atom Smasher, with the codename later passing to his nephew in the present day.
  • In Superman: The Movie and Superman II, the character Faora from the comic books is renamed to Ursa. In Man of Steel, the character's name is changed back to Faora. To add to the confusion, "Faora" and "Ursa" have become two separate characters in the comics.
  • In V for Vendetta, Adam Susan becomes Adam Sutler.
  • Watchmen
    • The second team of superheroes had its name changed from the Crime Busters to the Watchmen. Amusingly, it's a longstanding misconception that the team actually was called the Watchmen in the comic, so the movie may have just made a bigger headache for readers in its attempt to streamline things.
    • Dr. Malcolm Long, the prison psychiatrist who analyzes Rorschach after his arrest, has his forename changed to William according to the Under the Hood featurette.

    Live-Action TV 

Live-Action TV

The following have their own pages:

  • Batman (1966): Mr Zero's name is changed to Mr Freeze, and the new name was so popular, it was brought over into the comics as well.
  • Birds of Prey (2002):
    • Helena Wayne (from Huntress) goes by "Helena Kyle" because she's pissed off at her father for leaving.
    • Dinah Drake Lance (from Black Canary) is renamed "Carolyn". Likewise, Dinah Laurel Lance (from same) goes by her adopted last name and is "Dinah Redmond" (no middle name given).
  • Doom Patrol (2019):
    • Elasti-Girl is renamed "Elasti-Woman" to avoid confusion with The Incredibles character, Elastigirl. Also, flashbacks later reveal that "Rita Farr" is just a Stage Name, with her real name being Gertrude Cramp.
    • Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man's real name is changed from Sven Larsen to Steven Larson.
    • The Men from N.O.W.H.E.R.E are renamed the Bureau of Normalcy.
    • The Nazi scientist who turned Morden into Mr. Nobody is named Heinrich Von Fuchs instead of Dr. Bruckner.
    • Morris Wilson/Maura Lee Karupt is loosely based on Sergeant Washington, a minor character in Grant Morrison's run who appears in the Men from N.O.W.H.E.R.E. arc as a government agent before embracing a new life as a drag performer at Danny the Street's cabaret club Peeping Tom's under the name Lovely Louisa Washington at the arc's conclusion.
    • Casey Brinke's father Richard Brinke has his surname changed to Frank.
    • This continuity's version of Mr. 104 has Rama as his real name instead of John Dubrovny.
  • The Flash (1990): The TV show gave Captain Cold's real name as Leonard Wynters, a Meaningful Name. The comics use Leonard Snart, instead.
  • Gotham:
    • Poison Ivy's real name is changed from "Pamela Isley" to "Ivy Pepper."
    • The Dollmaker's real name is now Francis Dulmacher, rather than Anton Schott or Barton Mathis.
    • It was initally thought that Amygdala underwent this as a character in Season 1 with a similar background named "Aaron Danzing" appeared. Ultimately however, this was subverted as Season 2 saw the actual Aaron Helzinger appear.
    • Tigress goes from "Paula Brooks" (or "Artemis Crock") to "Tabitha Galavan."
    • Firefly is given a Race Lift and Gender Flip, and as such, goes from being a white guy named Garfield Lynns to a Latina woman named Bridget Pike.
    • The Ogre is named "Jason Lennon" (born "Jason Skolimski") instead of "Michael Adams"
    • Of course, in the cases of the Dollmaker, Tabitha, Firefly and the Ogre they are more or less different characters than the ones from the comics. In the Dollmaker's and the Tigress's case there were even a few different people in the comics under this mantle.
  • Justice League of America: Ice's name is changed from Tora Olafsdotter in the comics to the more American-sounding Tori Olafsdotter for the Pilot Movie.
  • Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman:
    • In the comics, Vinnie and Morgan Edge are a father-son duo and leaders of Intergang. In the television show, however, they become Bill Church Sr, introduced in "Church of Metropolis", and he was subsequently replaced by his son Bill Church Jr, whose front organisation was a media empire called Multiworld Communications, with Multiworld standing in for Galaxy Broadcasting.
    • Doctor Light's real name is changed from Arthur Light to Harold Leit.
    • In the "New Krypton" arc, Lord Nor is General Zod in all but name.
  • Peacemaker (2022) changes the name of the title character's father from Wolfgang Schmidt to August "Auggie" Smith.
  • Smallville:
    • Lex Luthor's father, who had been named Jules Luthor in pre-Crisis continuity, became Lionel Luthor. Since Lex's father had not previously been given a name in post-Crisis continuity, this was quickly Ret Canoned.
    • Tess "Mercy" Mercer/Lutessa Lena Luthor is a Composite Character of three characters from other Superman media (Ms Tessmacher, Mercy Graves and Lena Luthor) and doesn't quite share a name with any of them.
    • In the episode "Vengeance", Andrea Rojas uses the vigilante identity Angel of Vengeance rather than Acrata.
  • Stargirl (2020):
    • Icicle's real name is changed from Joar Mahkent to Jordan Mahkent.
    • The Wizard's real name is William Zarick rather than William Zard.
    • Hourman II was adopted by his maternal uncle as a child, so his legal name is Rick Harris rather Rick Tyler, though Tyler was still his surname at birth.
  • Swamp Thing (2019):
    • Avery Sunderland's wife is named Maria rather than Bubbles.
    • Likewise, Sunderland's daughter is named Shawna instead of Constance.
  • Titans (2018):
    • Raven's mother is named Angela Azarath instead of Angela Roth.
    • Jericho's real name is Jericho Wilson rather than Joseph Wilson.
    • Ravager's mother is named Mei instead of Lillian "Sweet Lili" Worth.
    • Downplayed with Superboy. He's only referred to as Conner so far; names like Conner Kent and Kon-El have yet to be established here.
    • Brother Blood's real name is Sebastian Sanger instead of Sebastian Blood.
    • Elasti-Woman (Rita Farr) was named Elasti-Girl in the comics. It was probably changed to avoid confusion with Elastigirl in Disney / Pixar's The Incredibles franchise, which use the name with DC's permission. Her real name is also Gertrude Camp with Rita Farr being just her Stage Name.
    • The Bureau of Normalcy are known as N.O.W.H.E.R.E. in the comics, with the change being likely to avert having the members talking only in phrases that form the acronym.
  • Granted, it was only in-universe speculation in the original comic, but Watchmen (2019) sees Hooded Justice's real name be revealed to be Will Reeves, not Rolf Müller -- though that's not the only change.
  • Wonder Woman (1975):
    • In the comics, Steve Trevor's superior officer is named Phillip Darnell, here he's named Philip Blankenship.
    • Carolyn Hamilton turns out to be Nubia, whose name is simply Nubia in the source material but who adopted that as her Amazon name in the series.

    Web Comics 
  • 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.

    Western Animation 

Western Animation

The following have their own pages:

  • 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. 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.
  • DC Super Hero Girls (2019):
    • 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.
  • While Harley Quinn (2019) still sees Poison Ivy named "Pamela Isley", her middle name in the series is "Candace", not "Lilian".
  • 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".
  • Teen Titans (2003):
    • 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.
    • Joto has his codename changed to Hot Spot due to the discovery that while his original codename was Swahili for "heat", it was also a homophobic slur in Latin American Spanish. The comics have since had him use Hot Spot as his codename there as well.

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