Hi, I see this is an older post and I’m sorry to necromancy it, but it has a few different answers outside of Mufasa (2025) so I figured I would offer what I know as an addition. The Lion King is one of my favorite series
In terms of the two main series animated films: Scar has never been mentioned to have another name, and if I recall off the top of my head, it’s never mentioned that he had a name before that.
In the Disney Junior series “The Lion Guard”, it’s stated in… I believe late in season 2, that Scar did have a previous name, though it is not stated what that name was. He changed his name after receiving his scar from a venomous snake bite that caused his anger and ambition to spiral out of control, and directly after Mufasa teased him about it. The scene is easily found on
YouTube.
In the “live action (still animated) Mufasa (2025), Scar’s previous name is known as Taka, and he takes on the moniker Scar at the end of the film.
There are also picture books that were published by Disney many years ago that are not considered to be “canon” to the films. However, some online communities will integrate the content in these books into their own retellings, comics, etc. so it can be hard to sift through what is and isn’t official. In this series, Scar is known again as Taka, and takes on the name Scar after attempting to murder Mufasa via water buffalo attack which backfires.
As an additional fun fact, practically all of the character names in The Lion King series are direct word translations from the Swahili and Zulu languages (Mufasa being an exception). Simba is Lion, Sarabi is Mirage, Nala is Gift, and so on. Taka in Swahili means Waste or Trash, but can also be added to the end of a name to indicate desire or to want something.
