The change DC should make to Shazam immediately

[MajorHoy]

It's BOB!

Yeah, I like that...

Bob® from Accountemps?

[Ascended]

Voted "Shazam is fine."

I like Captain Thunder. That's the best alternative name I can imagine, and when Johns used it in Flashpoint I had hoped it was indicating a name change. But somebody owns the name, or some such, and I guess it wasn't possible.

So Shazam is fine. Time to stop fighting the inevitable. Can't have a name you can't use in the marketing, especially when that name is controlled by the competition beating the snot of you at the box office, so no Captain Marvel. The next best alternative, Thunder, isn't available either. Accept our fate, ladies and gentlemen. Shazam is what the branding has used for decades, half the rubes out there thought it was his name even before the movie, and while it's a ridiculous situation and name, it's at least....distinctive.

Hell this war is already lost folks. Marvel made a billion dollars on that name. DC's marketing on Shazam was surprisingly good, for them, and seems to have left an impression the sequel will only build on. Billy Batson is Shazam, and nothing's gonna change that for the foreseeable future.

[Timber Wolf-By-Night]

Voted "Shazam is fine."

I like Captain Thunder. That's the best alternative name I can imagine, and when Johns used it in Flashpoint I had hoped it was indicating a name change. But somebody owns the name, or some such, and I guess it wasn't possible.

So Shazam is fine. Time to stop fighting the inevitable. Can't have a name you can't use in the marketing, especially when that name is controlled by the competition beating the snot of you at the box office, so no Captain Marvel. The next best alternative, Thunder, isn't available either. Accept our fate, ladies and gentlemen. Shazam is what the branding has used for decades, half the rubes out there thought it was his name even before the movie, and while it's a ridiculous situation and name, it's at least....distinctive.

Hell this war is already lost folks. Marvel made a billion dollars on that name. DC's marketing on Shazam was surprisingly good, for them, and seems to have left an impression the sequel will only build on. Billy Batson is Shazam, and nothing's gonna change that for the foreseeable future.

Sadly, fandom wouldn't be fandom if it wasn't forever trying to solve problems that either it can't come up with satisfactory solutions for, or that literally nobody else on planet Earth thinks are problems in the first place.

[Factor]

I agree that at this point it’s just not a good decision to change the name again. He’ll be Shazam from now on, since using the competition’s name is dumb and Captain Thunder is already taken. I see no point in coming up with a fourth option.
As for Mary, I don’t think “Sargent” fits her. To me, the best name for her would be Mary Might. It’s similar enough to the old one and keeps the charm and alliteration.

[Jim Kelly]

In the movie SHAZAM!, I don't believe they ever call Billy by that name. They have fun with different names and I think that's what I prefer. Sometimes heroes never actually go by the name in the title. The Doctor almost never calls himself Doctor Who. The Greatest American Hero never called himself that. In a lot of super-hero movies, almost no one ever uses the actual super-hero name most of the time.

I think they could keep this joke up forever--in the universe of the character. It's only for matters of marketing where having a trademark name for the character seems to matter. Hopefully, Warner Bros. have secured the trademark on "Captain Sparklefingers."

[Digifiend]

In the movie SHAZAM!, I don't believe they ever call Billy by that name. They have fun with different names and I think that's what I prefer. Sometimes heroes never actually go by the name in the title. The Doctor almost never calls himself Doctor Who. The Greatest American Hero never called himself that. In a lot of super-hero movies, almost no one ever uses the actual super-hero name most of the time.

I think they could keep this joke up forever--in the universe of the character. It's only for matters of marketing where having a trademark name for the character seems to matter. Hopefully, Warner Bros. have secured the trademark on "Captain Sparklefingers."

If the Doctor is called Doctor Who, then it's an error - it's not his name (except in the 60s Dalek movies). Happened a lot in the past, in the comics, and in the credits of the show (Peter Davison and David Tennant each had that corrected when they took the role - Hartnell, Troughton, Pertwee, Tom Baker, and Eccleston were credited as playing Doctor Who, Davison, Colin Baker, McCoy, McGann, Tennant, Smith, Capaldi and Whittaker as The Doctor). Only once has he been called Doctor Who in dialogue on the show though - in a 60s episode where I think it was WOTAN, a sentient computer, who said "Doctor Who Is Required"? The show's title refers to the mystery of just who the Doctor is - it took six years before we found out he was a Time Lord (that's why the Doctor from the 60s movies is just a normal human scientist, even regeneration wasn't a thing yet - it was invented to explain recasting the Doctor - so there was no evidence the Doctor wasn't human), another few years before we learned his homeworld was Gallifrey. It's kind of an artifact title nowadays.

[Digifiend]

Fawcett comics called Mary the Marvel Girl. When she was revived in the 1970s, National Periodicals called her the Shazam Girl.

But before she was Phoenix, Jean Grey was Marvel Girl. There is also a Marvel Boy, who first appeared in his own title in 1950 and then also in the re-titled ASTONISHING, from Timely/Atlas/Marvel--and he's been revived since then.

I've been wrestling with this naming problem since the 1970s and I've yet to come up with a good solution. It's easier for me to say what I don't want than what I do want. I don't want Billy, Mary or Freddy to be called Shazam--that's the name of the Old Wizard. And I don't want to lose "SHAZAM!" as the magic word that Billy and Mary must say.

There's been five Marvel Boys. The two shortlived 40s ones, the 1950s one who's now called the Uranian, a 1980s one (who was called that because he had the same powers as Jean Grey started with, telekinesis) who became Justice in the 90s, and the current one, Noh-Varr, who unlike his predecessors has an actual link to Captain Marvel as he's a Kree like Mar-Vell.

Also, Jean is calling herself Marvel Girl again nowadays. Her daughter Rachel has also used the name, but is now going by Prestige.

[BlackClaw]

Voted yes, but let’s be real Billy is gonna go by Shazam for likely the rest of eternity now that he’s had a whole movie with that name.

[Ascended]

I agree that at this point it’s just not a good decision to change the name again. He’ll be Shazam from now on, since using the competition’s name is dumb and Captain Thunder is already taken. I see no point in coming up with a fourth option.
As for Mary, I don’t think “Sargent” fits her. To me, the best name for her would be Mary Might. It’s similar enough to the old one and keeps the charm and alliteration.

Yeah, the other kids are the biggest issue with the naming convention I think.

Freddy could be "Shazam Junior" I suppose. His name was always pretty bad so it kinda works, within that context. Mary's an issue as "Mary Shazam" just doesn't roll off the tongue like Mary Marvel did.

And the other kids Johns introduced don't have anything to base a name on at all, unless you count the Lieutenants Marvel from the old days, but that doesn't really help.

I think DC can screw around with all the kids not settling on an official codename for a while, much as the movie did. Just have them come up with new ones all the time. It's a fun joke with a dash of metacommentary while still being fitting; of course a group of kids can't settle on what to call themselves. But when the day comes that they need "official" code names I'm assuming they'll all just go by Shazam.

[Jim Kelly]

Maybe if they couldn't say "Shazam" without accidentally changing, that would push them to give each other nicknames--just like in the old comics Billy and Mary always called Shazam the Old Wizard.

[Timothy Hunter]

Call him Shazam on the cover, call him Captain Marvel inside the comic, as they did from the 70s to the 00s.

Everywhere else (i.e. video games, movies, TV shows) just call Billy Shazam.

[Robotman]

With Black Adam coming into his own, it is going to be weird having him shout Billy’s name to change.

And it was also a fun twist that Captain Marvel had to be careful about how/when he said the magic word. That was basically his kryptonite.

[Jim Kelly]

The Old Wizard's name used to be Shazamo. When he was the Champion of Canaan, his magic word was "VLAREM!"

[Agent Z]

Shazam isn't any worse a name than Captain Marvel or Captain Thunder.

[captchuck]

Actually, you're aware of where that originally came from?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fawcett_Publications

Yes. I am a Fawcett fan. I think it was great that Fawcett kept Whiz and Billy (Batson) in their publishing.