While Mario's mustache, red shirt and blue overalls were described by Miyamoto as the result of technical limitations, there's a possibility that they were also inspired by an issue of the Japanese men's fashion magazine Popeye, named after the fictional character that Mario was already partly inspired by. The March 1980 issue of Popeye magazine features cover art of a man with a mustache wearing a red shirt with blue overalls.

According to court documents related to the 1983 legal case Universal City Studios, Inc v. Nintendo Co., Ltd., 19 alternate names considered for Donkey Kong included:

• Funny Kong
• Kong the Kong
• Jack Kong
• Funky Kong
• Bill Kong
• Steel Kong
• Giant Kong
• Big Kong
• Kong Down
• Kong Dong
• Mr. Kong
• Custom Kong
• Kong Chase
• Kong Boy
• Kong Man
• Kong Fighter
• Wild Kong
• Rookie Kong
• Kong Holiday

The name "Funky Kong" would coincidentally re-emerge as a character in Donkey Kong Country.

Before Universal Pictures was alerted to Nintendo's Donkey Kong, leading to the very well-known lawsuit that Nintendo won, Universal licensed out the rights to the 1933 film King Kong to Tiger Electronics for a handheld LCD game, with Tiger's higher-ups being under the assumption that Donkey Kong was a licensed spin-off and not a derivative work. When the lawsuit began, Universal reworked their license with Tiger to be non-exclusive, demanded changes to Tiger's King Kong game to work less like Donkey Kong, and began releasing King Kong games on other platforms such as the Atari 2600. This was not done for monetary gain, but to try and prove that Donkey Kong's use of similar concepts was damaging their products. When Universal lost the suit, Nintendo opted to claim the royalties that Universal felt it was owed instead of claiming damages from Tiger, a move which could have been potentially lethal for Tiger.

According to director Shigeru Miyamoto in 1994, Donkey Kong never had a romantic interest in Pauline, and Mario and Donkey Kong are not enemies in the game. Donkey Kong was kept as a pet by Mario, and he decided to annoy Mario for the sake of it by kidnapping Pauline. Miyamoto intended for the game's ending (where Donkey Kong falls and bonks his head) to appear non-violent, more akin to "outwitting a prankster" rather than killing him. Meanwhile, Pauline is described by programmer Masayuki Kameyama as Mario's "ex", saying "after Mario became famous, he probably gave Pauline the flick" in favor of Princess Peach.