When Donkey Kong became popular, Nintendo was sued by Universal. Universal claimed Donkey Kong was a rip-off of King Kong. Lawyer John Kirby proved that Universal didn't even have trademark rights to "King Kong", and so they lost the case. Nintendo gave Kirby a boat named Donkey Kong and exclusive rights to the name Donkey Kong for sail-boats as a strange way of thanking him.

in a 2011 interview with Game Informer, Shigeru Miyamoto stated that "Kirby" was one of many candidates on a list of names that were proposed for the characters, and upon seeing it, he recalled John Kirby and felt that a connection between the two would be amusing. However, the name was picked not as a tribute to the lawyer, but rather because the harsh-sounding nature of the name was a comedic contrast to the character's soft, cute design.