Rumours circulated that ToeJam & Earl were originally named FlowJam and Whirl. The story goes that when designer Greg Johnson told programmer Mark Voorsanger their names, Mark misunderstood what Greg was saying and coded them in the game as Toejam and Earl. It wasn't until they showed the game to SEGA that Greg realized the named were incorrect, but since SEGA actually like the name, they decided to keep them.

This rumour was confirmed as being false by Greg Johnson, who frequently joked with games press, giving them intentionally incorrect information, and was reaffirmed by the official ToeJam & Earl Twitter account in 2020.