Nintendo court documents state that Donkey Kong once had a heap of other proposed names – including, unfortunately, “Kong Dong”.
The revelation is included in 1983 court documents from a lawsuit between Universal and Nintendo (ironically now best buddies in the theme park business with actual Donkey Kong lands you can visit).
Said documents were originally scanned and placed online by gaming historian Norman Caruso in 2020, and were recently resurfaced again by Supper Mario Broth.
Back in the 80s, Universal and Nintendo went to court when the Mario maker stood accused of basing the Donkey Kong name on King Kong, which Universal held the rights to. (Spoilers: Universal lost the case, and Donkey Kong remains Nintendo’s property to this day.)